Food & Friends is requesting a curb cut on South Dakota Avenue just north of Kennedy Street NE. The so-called conceptual curb cut request will be the subject of a DC Public Space Committee meeting on August 22, 2024 (application #445416).

Public Space Committee August 2024 Hearing Notice

Individuals may submit written testimony and send requests to testify by emailing public.spacecommittee@dc.gov by 9 am on August 20, 2024.

Food & Friends ANC 5A presentation (May 2024)
Food & Friends Curb Cut Project Fact Sheet (June 2024)

Food & Friends is looking to expand its building on the corner of South Dakota Avenue & Riggs Road NE in order to serve more clients. Because the land to the north of the property is District-owned land slated for park space, Food & Friends is looking to expand east towards South Dakota. Food & Friends reps have been to a few meetings, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. They are calling this a conceptual curb cut project because they contend that their expansion is years away. So apparently the Public Space Committee is going to decide on whether the organization can get a curb cut on South Dakota Avenue in the absence of any information about their building expansion plan.

Curb Cut Design

Residents do not have access to public space applications in the city’s online permitting system, which is known as TOPS. What we do know is that they are requesting a pretty sizeable curb cut (leading to a driveway) that looks to be about 33 feet wide on a block that currently has none. In an email to me, they said, “The design includes a 6-foot-wide pedestrian safety island, increased turn radii to alleviate off-tracking, and right-in/right-out movement.” We also know that curb cut access will likely require some amount of public space beyond just sidewalk access because of the way the property lines are drawn. But it is not clear to me based on the one diagram we have exactly how much public space they are requesting.

They say they are requesting this curb cut because they are thinking about building an expanded kitchen facility closer to South Dakota Avenue. So, they will want to reroute food delivery (via 18-wheeler trucks) to the South Dakota side in the future. My understanding is that DDOT is requesting that they close one of their two curb cuts on Riggs Road if they want a curb cut on South Dakota. My understanding is that staff and volunteers would continue to use Riggs to access the parking lot. But it’s a pretty large parking lot, so who knows if that space would be reconfigured as well as part of an expansion plan.

In an email to me, Food & Friends said:

Sixty-five staff, 80 kitchen volunteers, 10 Food & Friends delivery vans, 30 volunteer delivery cars and several vendor delivery trucks (including semi-sized) currently travel to our location daily to prepare and home-deliver 6,000 meals a day to the region’s most vulnerable neighbors.  We encourage use of Metro and cycling (we had a cycling team in the 2000s!) and routinely shuttle our staff and volunteers to the Metro station to encourage less vehicles.

Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker submitted a letter in support of the conceptual curb cut to the Public Space Committee.

My thoughts

I do not think anyone has done a really good job of explaining what is really happening here and we’re being asked to comment on something on which we lack full information, specifically impacts to public space. Obviously, Food & Friends plans to build on their property and may even want more public space than what is being publicly discussed. Residents do not have access to applications in TOPS and the ANC is not doing anything regarding this matter. I’m sure most support Food & Friends in their goal to serve more clients around the region.

(Fun fact about me: I served in Americorps in DC before continuing my education. One team member was placed at Food & Friends, and we would have team service days at Food & Friends at their old location in Southeast DC. I’m a big fan and supporter of Food & Friends).

We already know that curb cuts introduce vehicle/pedestrian conflicts. I think a really useful conversation would be how to maximize the amount of public space available to the community, how to minimize harm introduced by installing a new curb cut on the block, and how to safely and most efficiently accommodate the multiple uses that the property owners in the immediate area wish to put in that one little area.

I think it would be super useful for the property owners in the area to talk to one another, particularly the Cafritz Foundation (and their tenants) and Food & Friends. This conversation could also include Metro, National Park Service, and Impact DMV Church. I get the impression they don’t really communicate about their plans and how they are connected to an actual neighborhood, and I think that lack of communication at an institutional level makes it way more difficult than it needs to be to get things done.

Anyways, submit comments to the Public Space Committee at public.spacecommittee@dc.gov by August 20 and send a copy of your comments to CM Parker.