[RP Town Announce] SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION UPDATE NOTICE – REGARDING THE HIKER BIKER TRAIL

[Jessica Barnes]

SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION UPDATE NOTICE – REGARDING THE HIKER BIKER TRAIL
March 6th, 2018

Hiker Biker Trail Update
By now many residents of the Towns of Riverdale Park, University Park and the City of College Park are aware that we have taken steps to reduce the extent that the Hiker-Biker trail traverses our development at Riverdale Park Station. Several events led to this decision. First, to facilitate unfettered access to the site by cyclists and pedestrians (much of which remains under construction), vandals removed the barricade we had installed on the south side of the alley between 4646 and 4700 Woodberry St. Following an initial repair the vandals returned to remove all the fencing and poles, coiled up the fencing materials and disposed the materials in the WMATA woods.

Second we received a “notice” from a concerned College Park resident advising us of their safety concerns associated with after-dark use of the alley as a part of the temporary Hiker-Biker detour route. The resident asserted that the prescribed route constituted negligence on our part regarding the safety of cyclists and pedestrians using the temporary detour path.

Lastly we were alerted by the Director of Public Works for the City of College Park that there were two instances of vehicular traffic on the trail between Woodberry and Albion. Apparently, those motorists discovered that the trail is sufficiently wide to make for a handy shortcut between the Calvert Hills and Riverdale Park Station.

Because the liability issues associated with these matters impact both Calvert Tract, LLC and the RPS Homeowners Association, our attorneys recommended that certain portions of the trail be closed until the issues described above can be adequately addressed.

In the interim we are working to address the issues which caused us to take the steps we have. First we are planning an alternate detour route that does not include property owned by the Home Owners Association. The attached plan describes the current thinking for the next iteration of the Hiker-Biker detour until the Building 5 garage is substantially complete. The Director of Public Works for the City of College Park advises that the WMATA sidewalk will be open on or about March 23rd.

Second, we will be working with our townhouse development partner and our parking garage contractor to map out the next generation of temporary Hiker-Biker pathway which we hope to open by late Spring, and which we expect to be much less circuitous.

Lastly we will be working with representatives from MNCPPC and City of College Park to address the vehicular access/shortcut issue.
We understand that this has caused some inconvenience and distress amongst the hiker and biker communities, as well as the townhouse residents who use the trail to access the College Park Metro and MARC Stations. For that we are sorry, but hope that they and others understand that we are making a good faith effort to address these unanticipated but serious concerns, and hope that patience and appreciation of the problem will prevail. Nothing will make us happier than to celebrate the grand opening of the trail as designed.

For any construction related concerns, please contact Mark Regulinski of Calvin Cafritz Enterprises at 202-248- 5806 or email at mark at cafritzenterprises.com.


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