An NIH official says the agency’s Bethesda campus should be allowed to add more parking above federal guidelines because employees are “a bunch of high-ranking scientists,” and “not your regular people.”
The comments were made by Ricardo Herring, director of the NIH Division of Facilities Planning, on Thursday as he tried to defend the agency’s master plan parking increase before the National Capital Planning Commission.
After more than an hour of discussion with Herring, the Commission voted to reject NIH’s master plan, saying NIH did not provide an adequate explanation of why it did not comply with the 1-to-3 parking space-to-employee standard for federal agencies in the D.C. area.
Current employee parking on the campus exceeds the ratio, meant to encourage the use of public transit, by 2,129 spaces. The Master Plan will increase employee parking by 1,000 more spaces over the next 20 years, resulting in a long-term parking ratio of 1 parking space for every 2.4 employees.
“You can’t figure out how to get from 1:2 to 1:3?” Commission Chair L. Preston Bryant asked on video of the session published Monday.
Herring said, “it’s just not possible,” citing NIH workers who come from more than 650 zip codes and 192 who commute every day from as far as Pennsylvania. He also said 52 percent of NIH employees don’t have easy access to transit.
“People are moving out of Bethesda into West Virginia, because they want a farm and things like that,” Herring said.
Elected officials, including Rep. Chris Van Hollen, District 16 state lawmakers and Councilmember Roger Berliner, praised the NCPC decision as a “real victory for local residents and the entire Bethesda community.”
The group wrote a letter to NIH in March asking it to be “to be an even better neighbor” by abiding by the 1:3 parking ratio.
“Traffic congestion is more than a simple matter of driver inconvenience, it is actually a serious quality of life issue, an environmental issue, and an economic competitiveness issue,” the group wrote. “For example, some businesses have told us they are often unable to attract new businesses to Bethesda because of traffic concerns.”
Berliner staff member Drew Morrison offered those concerns in front of the NCPC at the hearing.
Herring said the congestion on Rockville Pike and Old Georgetown Road wasn’t coming from NIH employees, but rather from the 35,000 jobs in the Bethesda Central Business District and the projected 5,000 additional ones that would be added by 2030.
Despite Naval Support Activity-Bethesda going to a 1:3 parking ratio just across Rockville Pike from NIH, Herring said “parking to us is a mission-dependent facility.”
Mina Wright, a Commission member representing the General Services Administration, then asked Herring why NIH doesn’t charge for parking as a potential way to encourage people to use other forms of transportation.
It led to the following exchange, which you can see in the video above:
HERRING: Let me say it this way. Upper management is very much aware of this.
WRIGHT: Aware of what?
HERRING: Aware of the fact about the 1-to-3 parking ratio, they are much aware of this. Secondly, in response to you, we have in the 60’s I think when Carter was president, he instituted paid parking. It was a major major rebellion. When we even mention the possibility — when we’re putting the TMP together — when we mention the possibility of paid parking, oh my god.
We actually got people’s tickets. The first TMP, I was responsible for putting that together when I first came to NIH. I got people’s tickets for parking. So that is something that management do not want to go to.
WRIGHT: Well, OK. I can’t say that I was jumping up and down with joy when I was told that, that I had to pay for parking but, I mean, with all due respect what makes NIH employees immune to the vagaries of federal employment that the rest of us experience?
HERRING: I am only the messenger.
WRIGHT: I understand but I’m asking you to think about it because upper management apparently has tools in its toolbox which it hasn’t yet explored. I’m just making a point because it’s…
HERRING: Let me give you an example if I can about upper management’s attitude. When we first proposed this master plan to NIH, to upper management, to the deputy director, the first thing she focused on was the parking garages. She was delighted that we’re building more parking. So that tells you something.
WRIGHT: OK, but I work for GSA and needless to say, we are sometimes unpopular and do unpopular things and employee resistance is probably not, I mean that’s not the final word on the subject. I’m just suggesting a possibility. And upper management, I understand because I’m just the messenger too. We’re telling people they can’t have private offices anymore…
HERRING: We’re saying the same thing. We’re saying the same thing. But I think you need to understand the culture. We’re talking about a bunch of high-ranking scientists. This is not your regular people.
WRIGHT: I know, but nobody thinks they’re regular people.
HERRING: I agree with that. I agree with that to a point, but all I can say is…
WRIGHT: It would be a, it would make — I don’t know how everyone else is feeling about this but it would make me feel better if there was some signal from you that you’re willing to consider other possibilities. But every suggestion that’s coming at you is being met with no, no, no and then we have 10 years of this and a TMP that’s how many years old, 25-years-old.
Wright then ended her line of questioning on the parking issue with “Nevermind, I give up,” and the Commission voted to reject the full master plan.
The rejection won’t necessarily stop NIH from moving forward with its plan, but it could lead to other rejections of NIH road and building projects.
Bryant commented that it’s “highly unusual for an agency to all-out thumb their nose at this commission.”
