To: Montgomery County Planning Board and Isaiah Leggett, County Executive
NO CUT-THROUGH TRAFFIC in the Seven Oaks-Evanswood neighborhood
We ask the Montgomery County Planning Board and County Executive Isaiah Leggett to disapprove the proposed street through the Chelsea Court development and to encourage the developer to use a cul-de-sac from Ellsworth Drive as the single point of access to the development.
Why is this important?
The Chelsea School, located in the Seven Oaks/Evanswood neighborhood of Silver Spring, MD, is selling its land, with the historic pre-Civil War Riggs-Thompson house, to the developer EYA. The site plan includes a new street that will circumvent the traffic protections designed to prevent cut-through traffic to and from the Central Business District. These protections were implemented after overwhelming approval by neighborhood referendum.
This street would allow cars to bypass the one-way section of Ellsworth Drive near the library. For instance, drivers coming from downtown could enter Ellsworth going north, go through the Chelsea development, and take Pershing Drive to get to Dale Drive and the Beltway – just the kind of cut-through traffic that our traffic plan was designed to prevent. Cut-through traffic to Dale Drive will increase traffic on that artery and throughout the neighborhood.
EYA claims that signs restricting access will prevent cut-through traffic. However, enforcement will be difficult – how will police know which cars are driven by visitors or residents? – and it is unlikely that the police will make it a sustained priority.
SOECA and the Chelsea Task Force ask that the County and EYA use a cul-de-sac with entry and exit onto Ellsworth, which would preserve the traffic control plan. The County confirms that this cul-de-sac would satisfy Police and Fire Department requirements for access, even with the large number of townhouses in EYA’s plan.
This street would allow cars to bypass the one-way section of Ellsworth Drive near the library. For instance, drivers coming from downtown could enter Ellsworth going north, go through the Chelsea development, and take Pershing Drive to get to Dale Drive and the Beltway – just the kind of cut-through traffic that our traffic plan was designed to prevent. Cut-through traffic to Dale Drive will increase traffic on that artery and throughout the neighborhood.
EYA claims that signs restricting access will prevent cut-through traffic. However, enforcement will be difficult – how will police know which cars are driven by visitors or residents? – and it is unlikely that the police will make it a sustained priority.
SOECA and the Chelsea Task Force ask that the County and EYA use a cul-de-sac with entry and exit onto Ellsworth, which would preserve the traffic control plan. The County confirms that this cul-de-sac would satisfy Police and Fire Department requirements for access, even with the large number of townhouses in EYA’s plan.