Updated 9:20 a.m. Friday — A key federal agency on Thursday rejected NIH’s plan for an additional 1,000 parking spaces on its Bethesda campus over the next 20 years.
The National Capital Planning Commission, the planning authority for federal land in the D.C. area, did not approve the section of NIH’s master plan that calls for the extra parking to accommodate an expected 3,000 additional employees.
The executive director’s report repeatedly referenced the 1-to-3 parking space-to-employee standard:
. Current employee parking exceeds the applicable 1:3 parking ratio goal by 2,129 spaces, and the Master Plan will increase employee parking by 1,000 more spaces, resulting in a long-term parking ratio of 1:2.4, which is inconsistent with the 2004 Comprehensive Plan;
. NIH has had the opportunity to plan for the 1:3 ratio since NCPC’s adoption of the current 2004 Comprehensive Plan; and
. NIH has not successfully demonstrated that the campus is unable to comply with the 1:3 long-term goal based on the submitted Transportation Management Plan materials.
The Commission’s rejection of the parking plan is advisory but it could mean it won’t approve “any future roadway, entrance, or parking projects until the NIH Campus fully complies.”
The decision comes after a group of elected officials, including Rep. Chris Van Hollen, told NIH it was disappointed in the master plan decision to add more parking instead of reducing it. The availability of parking spaces is seen as a motivation for car commuters, which adds to the area’s traffic woes.
NIH told the Commission that it has employees throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metro area spread across 635 zip codes and that there’s a lack of east-to-west transit options.
But Commission staff said the NIH’s master planning didn’t appear to factor in gradual employee turnover from older to younger workers who might be more willing to ditch their cars for public transit. Staff also said NIH didn’t factor in residential development planned around Metro stations in White Flint and Twinbrook.
Van Hollen, County Councilmember Roger Berliner, State Sen. Susan Lee and Delegates Bill Frick, Ariana Kelly and Marc Korman released a statement calling the decision a victory for the community:
As elected officials who represent NIH at every level, we asked in a letter on March 12 that they adopt a campuswide 1:3 parking-to-employee ratio as part of their twenty-year Campus Master Plan. We are gratified by the decision today of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) to agree with our position and reject the NIH Campus Master Plan because it fails to achieve this goal. We hope that NIH and HHS will take seriously the recommendation of NCPC that they do more to reduce parking and reduce congestion at the NIH site. A 1:3 parking-to-employee ratio could take up to 3,300 cars off of our congested roads. This decision by NCPC is a real victory for local residents and the entire Bethesda community.
An NIH spokesperson said the agency has no comment.
