DC could begin demolition of Barry Farm any day now, in fact they're already a little behind schedule, and once they're done rebuilding it, the new Barry Farm could be the most bike-friendly neighborhood in Ward 8. This is a $400 million project that will
transform the 444-unit public housing complex in Southeast D.C. into a mixed-income community with rentals and townhomes within walking distance of the Anacostia Metro station and other city amenities.
The multiphase project, to be constructed by Baltimore-based A&R Development and the Preservation of Affordable Housing in partnership with the D.C. Housing Authority, is expected to include 1,400 mixed-income homes and about 50,000 square feet of retail space at buildout, with the first units available in 2020.
It will also provide extensive new open space and parks including a larger park at the center; and improved infrastructure including new roads that introduce a new east-west and north-south grid pattern with smaller pedestrian-friendly blocks to improve circulation and pedestrian connections. Those new roads will link the development to the Anacostia Metrorail station and Historic Anacostia through improved pedestrian, bicycle and streetcar route connections, and additional new bus routes through the community.
The project is generally bounded by Sumner Road to the north, Firth Sterling Avenue to the west, the Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital property to the south, and Wade Road to the east.
For cycling there are several items at play. A bike lane will run down the center the parcel on the eloquently named "Road 4" (or sometimes "Road 3") . That bike lane will connect to another new one on two-blocks of Sumner Road and that will connect to a future trail on the Shepherd Branch rail ROW. On the map below bike facilities are green and pedestrian ones are red.
Later a new bike/ped bridge could carry people over Suitland Parkway (probably part of the trail again).
On Sumner the bike lanes will be between parking and a travel lane and on Road 4 it will be between the curb and the travel lane.
The trail will not be part of this project but we get some idea what it could look like.
With such a large ROW, I hope they separate cyclists and pedestrians. And I hope they don't make the trail meander.
What the drawings don't show is that on the other side of Suitland Parkway is the Suitland Parkway Trail, which will someday be improved, and on the other side of 295 is the future South Capitol Street Trail, which would make this a high trail access community. It's disappointing that the bike lane on Sumner doesn't keep going to MLK Ave and to the pedestrian bridge over Suitland Parkway which would help tie cyclists to that trail better. In the future, we can also hope that there will be a bike/ped connection from the south end of Road 4 to the St. Elizabeths campus and maybe this road can be transformed into a trailhead for a 2nd trail on the south side of Suitland Parkway.
That being said, the project is not without controversy.
Though D.C. officials are pushing ahead, the redevelopment is a tension point between city officials who want to revitalize the community and residents who want to preserve their homes and fear displacement from the first African-American homeownership community in D.C. for freed slaves.
I think those new Poplar Point developments will be Ward 8's bike friendliest - A Howard Road cycletrack connecting directly to the new S Cap Bridge/Trails, and the Anacostia Trail
Posted by: darren | April 13, 2018 at 09:54 PM
Where do the people who live there go during the construction? Will they all be coming back? I can see why they are fearful - historically and practically.
Posted by: KW | April 15, 2018 at 04:36 PM