Council Moves Ahead With Sidewalk Designs

The Vienna Town Council voted Monday night to move forward with the design of five sidewalk segments in neighborhoods around Southwest Vienna — a decision applauded by some residents, members of Safe Routes to School groups and the Transportation Safety Commission chair but opposed by those concerned about landscaping, drainage, their yards and whether the town truly needed two-sided sidewalks.

Over the course of two hours, more than 30 residents spoke to the council offering support or opposition to the design contracts; hundreds more wrote to the council or indicating their position on the project.

The designs, which will be completed by Rinker Design Associates for $412, 362, are fully funded by a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant (CMAQ), which would also cover surveying and building costs should the projects move forward.

The grant can only be used to complete sidewalks on streets within a one-mile radius of the Vienna Metro.
Town staff selected five areas from the town’s sidewalk priority list in that area :

• Cottage Street SW between Kingsley Road and Plum Street ($99,341)
• Marshall Rd SW between Trowbridge Road and Rachel Lane ($48,958)
• Courthouse Rd SW between Nutley Street and Moorefield Road ($54,871)
• Tapawingo Rd SW between Meadow Lane and Plum Street ($132,816)
• Kingsley Rd SW between Frederick and Desale Streets ($76,376)

VDOT wants funds spent within three years, Public Works Director Dennis Johnson said; If the town doesn't use the money, it's not likely it will have another opportunity to secure it again.

‘You’re Talking About A Serious Change in My Front Yard’
Residents opposed to sidewalks, particularly those on Kingsley Street, said they were concerned about costs of ongoing maintenance of the sidewalks, along with how they would impact the mature Oak Trees in their yards and the general feel of their neighborhoods —  one of the segments could require a four-foot retaining wall, which could drastically alter the look of their street, residents said.

They also wondered if crosswalks were a cheaper, less intrusive alternative, or, if sidewalks would be more useful elsewhere: One-sided sidewalks currently in the neighborhoods don’t have heavy use now, they said, and in almost all of the proposed project areas, sidewalks exist on one side of the street.

Johnson said crosswalks are included in the scope of the project.

Drainage issues were a concern, particularly on Kingsley Street, where a large church parking lot already causes flooding issues; sidewalks would only add to the problem.

Councilwoman Laurie Cole said the unanimous vote only authorizes the design of the segments; the council could still stop short of building them if it’s not confident in any of the plans.

"Many assumptions have been made about what these sidewalks will look like and what the consequences will be," Cole said. "I think we actually need to know what would work in these spots before we can make a decision. To move ahead and to react ahead of the possibilities at this point is short sighted ... we need to improve the pedestrian network in town."

There have been projects whose initial opposition faded, resident Mark Mabee said —  including the sidewalks built on Park Street in the mid to late 1990s.
"If you look at Park Street now you've got to say 'What did we lose?' and I think the answer is nothing," Mabee said.

Community Improvement, Safety
Those who supported the project, which would connect sidewalks in the walking areas of three Vienna elementary schools, said the project's benefit to the community as a whole should be enough to motivate council to support the plan. Nearly 200 people signed a petition supporting sidewalks and several more wrote to the council to offer their support.

"I can understand the way those who would be impacted directly by this feel but I don't think that … means that they should have a terribly enhanced vote on this," resident Paul Atelsek said. "This is a sidewalk not just for the people who live on that street but all the people who walk down that street."

More than 2,000 cars travel Kingsley Road each day, Vienna Elementary School Safe Routes to School coordinator Sean McCall said. And trying to navigate roads without a dedicated pedestrian path is not only daunting, but dangerous.

"Children do not perceive traffic the way an adult does. Their peripheral vision has not developed yet, they can't detect the speed of oncoming cars [and] chances are they will take chances" McCall said, who noted the Vienna Police Department does not recommend anyone, regardless of age, cross streets mid-block, which is what pedestrians there must do every day.

Some residents spoke to the danger of those trips: one woman, who uses a wheelchair, said potholes on the non-paved path connecting the sidewalk to Marshall Road Elementary School have thrown her out of her wheelchair more than once.

Another man said he and his dog were hit by a car while in a crosswalk crossing from one sidewalk segment to another; his dog later died from the accident.
Voting to set a standard of complete streets with two sides of sidewalks would be an important departure from the precedent of paths on only one side, developed when many parts of Vienna were built up in the 1950s and 1960s, McCall said.

That’s not a suitable standard any more, he said.

Moving Forward

Johnson said though the standard sidewalk is five feet with a five-foot utility strip and one-foot hinge, but the town can change the design to accommodate special circumstances, a strategy used recently to save a tree on Hillcrest Drive, he said.

Once survey and design is complete, the town will hold neighborhood meetings to work through any issues before final plans come before the council for a vote.