Chick-fil-A will apparently have a grand opening at 220 Riggs Road NE tomorrow March 31 (I believe a ribbon cutting will be held in the morning). At the February 2022 meeting of the Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association (LRCA), Ward 4 MOCR Anthony Mitchell gave a brief update about DDOT’s plan for the South Dakota Avenue/Riggs Road NE intersection regarding the opening of what is generally considered a popular restaurant with a drive-thru. As we all know, that intersection is already challenging, especially during rush hour. Mayor Bowser had a meeting with DDOT, ANC Commissioner Alison Brooks (4B08), and LRCA president Barbara Rogers back in February to discuss the issue. I reached out to Mr. Mitchell for confirmation of a plan for ensuring safety for road users, particularly pedestrians. He provided the information below.
District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Plan:
- DDOT will deploy Traffic Control Officers (TCOs) at the following locations:
- First and Riggs
- Riggs and South Dakota
- Riggs and Chillum
- 3rd St NE near the entrance
- DDOT will place two variable message board signs that say “Congestion Ahead”
- Riggs and Chillum
- Riggs and South Dakota
- DDOT will monitor signal operations in the immediate area and adjust signal timing as appropriate to alleviate immediate impacts.
Chick-fil-A (CfA) Plan:
· Operating hours:
- 6:30am – 10:00pm Monday – Saturday
- Closed on Sunday
· Projected Surge Times:
- Breakfast 8:00am – 9:30am
- Lunch 11:30am – 2:00pm
- Dinner 5:00pm – 8:00pm
· Staffing plan for operations:
- CfA surge plan: We will have 8-9 people working the drive through outside, with 3 of them dedicated to directing traffic on the lot. The full complement of staff during that time will be 30+ people.
- CfA Communications plan: We will have hand radios onsite to communicate with each other
Mr. Mitchell also said he is also in touch with DDOT “to investigate extending the median as well as removing parking spaces that are immediately adjacent to the 3rd Street NE Walmart entrance/exit.”
I am not sure why it is taking so long to block parking near Walmart’s driveway. That should have been done years ago. It is obvious that the parking dangerously obstructs sightlines. Also, when Fort Totten Square was built in 2015, there were indications that only right turns would be permitted out of the 3rd Street Walmart exit, but of course that never happened. These are just a couple of basic things on a long list of outstanding items long pre-dating Chick-fil-A’s arrival in the neighborhood that need to be done along the corridor. Drivers repeatedly park like this, run the red light at South Dakota Avenue to turn westbound onto Riggs, block the box, make sudden U-turns in the middle of the street that end up turning into three-point turns in traffic, and basically do all manner of ridiculous things. Alas, things move slowly around here for some reason.
Anyways, that’s the plan so far.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 
Could not agree with you more! That corner is already a nightmare and it’s only going to get worse as the traffic to Chick Fil-A increases.
Sadly the real issue is that the city spent millions of dollars poorly reconfiguring that intersection in 2011 and maybe just decided to give a “shrug, sunk costs” instead of taking steps to redesign it. It’s really weird though we have to basically become professional nags to get them to even address the low-hanging fruit that will mitigate, a bit, some of the problems along that corridor, like striping, signage, a bumpout here or there, all way stops, etc. And when residents raised concerns about that 3rd Street exit when FTSQ was being built, the developer did a “don’t you all worry, our engineers are the best and know what they’re doing.” Plainly obvious then that this was a problem. But it was a by-right project that only had to go through large-tract review, a process that should have addressed these issues. It’s become quite clear to me that that review process is lacking for lots of reasons.
Can we also talk about the fact that coming out of the Walmart garage on 3 st NE and making a left is going to be a nightmare now? Back when the KFC/Taco Bell was there there was overflow going down the street and the cars coming out the drive thru would be boxed in by the soundbound traffic on 3rd. Can you imaging what it’s going to be like coming out of the garage now that a Christian Chixin is there??
Additionally, if you use the other garage you can’t go eastbound without first going westbound and busting a U. It’s like they want accidents to occur.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I find your newsletter very informative. Thanks.