As the Transportation & Environmental Services plan for Russell Road is being appealed to City Council, the Alexandria Traffic and Parking Board rejected additional proposals for parking spaces on Russell Road.
On Monday (Sept. 28), the board considered parking additions that T&ES director Leah Riley had recommended in her Alternative C. The board voted against adding five on-street parking spaces in the 600 block of Russell Road, two loading zone spaces in the 600 block of Russell Road with time restrictions and six on-street parking spaces in the 700 block of Johnston Place.
One of the concerns raised was putting a loading zone in an area where elementary school students are crossing.
“I’m concerned about some of the locations that because we’re rushing, we might be sacrificing or encouraging traffic in areas where students are,” Board Member Dane Lauritzen said.
“This is where we want the children to all converge, go to the one signal on this road and cross when the buses are unloading and the kids are all coming and crossing,” Board Member Rosemarie Spano added. “There’s just a lot of congestion. Adding parked cars and then this drop off and coming in and cutting out, it doesn’t seem like a safe location.”
Vice chair Ashley Mihalik said the loading zone safety concerns also “make it difficult to justify” adding five other spaces on the same block.
“School drop-off is a busy time,” Mihalik said. “There’s a lot going on, and so I think that there are safety concerns that I don’t think are outweighed by the lack of parking in the area.”
Karl Kalbacher, a resident who lives across from the elementary school, has observed the traffic situation with school pick-ups and drop-offs. Kalbacher opposed the T&ES director’s Alternative C proposal and supported city staff’s original Concept 1.
“It’s chaos. You lose your line of sight, which is critical when you have a 3-foot-tall kid that can’t see above the cars,” Kalbacher said. “[It] doesn’t make a lot of sense to be reducing the line of sight during the school time, but even more importantly, when you have parking on Russell Road in the main block where that school is during the off hours is where it is even less safe because the school appropriately has a great playground, and the kids go all day and all night, weekends, holidays to use the school.”
Marta Schantz, who walks and bikes kids to Brooks Elementary, agreed with the loading zone concerns due to the presence of kids. Schantz said the 600 block of Russell Road parking spaces would also pose safety concerns.
“Allowing cars to park on that 600 block of Russell on the side that’s currently proposed, it’s a huge daylighting issue,” Schantz said. “It makes a crowded intersection even more crowded, and it would just make that congesting street and the crossing with it so crunched.”
The city is looking to synch the road changes with the 2027 repaving of Russell Road.
“We want to do all these improvements with that, which means we have to get our designs done in time to get it resurfaced,” Hillary Orr, the T&ES deputy director of transportation and mobility, told the board.
The vote reflects the latest chapter in the battle over parking and pedestrian safety on Russell Road near Naomi L. Brooks Elementary.
In July, the board had endorsed Concept 2 that would remove 20 parking spaces on Russell Road between W. Myrtle and W. Maple Streets.
City staff’s original Concept 1 called for a net loss of two parking spaces, providing painted curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalk markings, improved ADA curb ramps at six Russell Road intersections and a new pedestrian crossing at W. Chapman Street. The board-endorsed parking removals would accommodate those changes as well as median crossing islands.
As parking challenges for Naomi L. Brooks Elementary staff had been one concern identified in written testimony, the board’s vote also directed city staff to return to the board with parking proposals to serve staff at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary.
The following month, the T&ES director said the city will pursue a new option rather than the board-approved concept. That led to several appeals to City Council against the T&ES director’s decision in an attempt to restore the Traffic and Parking Board’s original decision.
The board Concept 2 approval for Russell Road included:
Removal of four on-street parking spaces on the 300 block of Russell Road
Removal of six on-street parking spaces on the 400 block of Russell Road
Removal of six on-street parking spaces on the 500 block of Russell Road
Removal of one on-street parking space from the 700 block of Russell Road
Removal of three on-street parking spaces on the 800 block of Russell Road
The T&ES director’s Alternative C plan included:
- Removal of five on-street parking spaces on the 400 block of Russell Road
- Removal of five on-street parking spaces on the 500 block of Russell Road
- Removal of one on-street parking space on the 700 block of Russell Road
- Removal of two on-street parking spaces on the 800 block of Russell Road
- Addition of five unrestricted on-street parking spaces on the 600 block of Russell Road
- Addition of two loading/unloading spaces on the 600 block of Russell Road, as requested by the school for parents and visitors needing short-term access
- Addition of six on-street parking spaces on Johnston Place
According to the Alexandria Brief, the appeal of the T&ES director’s Russell Road decision is set for the City Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 17.
Russell Road at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary image via Google Maps
