Councilmember Roger Berliner asked the county’s transportation department to send him a list of each waiver it granted to developers to close a sidewalk for more than two weeks in the past three years and the reasons why the department granted each waiver, according to a letter he sent to the department’s director Thursday.
Berliner, who represents Bethesda and Chevy Chase, is requesting the information after receiving “numerous calls regarding this issue every week, especially in the Bethesda area, where increased development has resulted in a number of long-term sidewalk closures.”
“These closures can last for weeks or even months and have negative impacts on both pedestrian safety and driver awareness,” wrote Berliner. “This creates inconveniences and, in some cases, hardships for businesses, pedestrians, and bicyclists.”
Berliner wrote in the letter that in 2007 he introduced an amendment to the County Code, which was later passed by the council, that says that sidewalks should only be closed to rebuild or repair a sidewalk, for work on abutting structures or by utility companies. That amendment allows the sidewalk on the other side of the street to be used for closures of less than two weeks, but, as Berliner writes in his letter, “For closures longer than two weeks, accommodations are required on the same side of the street.”
In downtown Bethesda alone, there are currently several long-term development projects that have closed sidewalks without clear accommodations, including apartment projects on Woodmont Avenue, Fairmont Avenue and Old Georgetown Road. Those projects were permitted to do so by either the county or the State Highway Administration, according to local officials.
Berliner wrote in his letter that Montgomery County’s Department of Transportation and Department of Permitting Services are responsible for granting the waivers and also enforcing provisions in them. “However, it appears that those provisions are not always enforced or monitored to the fullest extent,” wrote Berliner.
Berliner is asking for detailed information about the waivers granted for sidewalk closures exceeding two weeks.
“As Chair of the [County Council’s] Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy & Environment Committee, it is important for me to understand the complexities of your process and how so many pedestrian safety corridors have been closed at the same time,” wrote Berliner.
In July, after Bethesda Beat detailed several sidewalk closures, Berliner said the closures concerned him and that he would ask his staff to look into it.
Berliner said he put the amendment into the County Code based on his experience in other metropolitan areas, such as New York City, where developers construct large buildings without closing sidewalks.
Picture above: A sidewalk closed at the corner of Norfolk and Fairmont Avenues in downtown Bethesda. Credit: Kat Ignatova
Councilmember Roger Berliner Sidewalk Letter