Neighborhood conditions

NEIGHBORHOOD CONDITIONS
The Leeway area was largely built as single-family homes for families coming to the Washington area around World War II, and it retains that core housing stock to this day. While the Lee Highway corridor has both commercial and townhouse developments, the remainder of the community is primarily single-family, owner-occupied homes, on well-tended lots, which provide Leeway a traditional neighborhood character that most civic association residents seek to preserve.
The Leeway area varies widely in the amount of curb, gutter and sidewalk on each street. The quality of street lighting also differs from one street to another. As part of its Neighborhood Conservation Plan, community residents surveyed these features within the Leeway area to identify locations where capital improvements are particularly needed.

Curb, Gutter and Sidewalk
Map #X shows the existing curb, gutter and sidewalk in the Leeway Neighborhood Conservation Area.
The majority of residents living in the Leeway Conservation Area believe sidewalks are needed on all streets to improve pedestrian and traffic safety. However, some residents are concerned that such improvements may diminish the rural feel of their streets and destroy established trees and shrubbery. Most of the improvements recommended below have been chosen based upon safety concerns. Additional projects identified and qualified on a block-by-block basis shall be automatically incorporated into this Neighborhood Conservation Plan. It is anticipated that none of the recommended capital improvements will occur until the necessary majority of the affected property owners agrees to them.
A periodic concern of the community is the need for repair to existing curbs, gutters and sidewalks. The County’s program for surveying and repairing existing concrete work should be aggressively pursued so that these items do not become unsafe or eyesores long before scheduled repairs.
The following improvements to the network of curbs, gutters and sidewalks are recommended by area residents:
Recommendations:

1. 
   North Nottingham Street – install curb, gutter and sidewalk on the west side between Lee Highway and 22^nd Street North.
   
2. 
   North Illinois Street – install curb, gutter and sidewalks to ensure continuous sidewalk exists between 22^nd Street North and Lee Highway.
   
3. 
   24^th Street North – install curb, gutter and sidewalk between North Illinois Street and North Kensington Street.
   
4. 
   22^nd Road North – install curb, gutter and sidewalk between North Illinois Street and North Harrison Street.
   
5. 
   23^rd Street North – install curb, gutter and sidewalk between North Illinois Street and North Kensington Street.
   
6. 
   23^rd Street North – install curb, gutter and sidewalk between North Lexington Street and North Nottingham Street.
   
7. 
   North John Marshall Drive – install curb, gutter and sidewalk on the east side between 25^th Road North and 25^th Street North, and just north of 26^th Street North. This will complete the sidewalk on this artery to Lee Highway.
   
8. 
   North John Marshall Drive – install curb, gutter and possibly sidewalk on the east side between 23^rd Street North and 22^nd Road North.
   
9. 
   North Madison Street – install curb, gutter and sidewalk between Lee Highway and 22^nd Street North.
   
10. 
    Install other curb, gutter and/or sidewalk where missing as qualified by property owners through the County’s petition process and the Missing Links Program. See Map #X and the Neighborhood Project List in Appendix A for listing of streets without or with intermittent sidewalks.
    

In all of these, we recommend that infrastructure be installed in such a manner as to maximize the greenery along the street, both by preserving existing trees and shrubbery where possible, and by planting new trees and shrubs to replace those lost and to add to the future neighborhood canopy and greenspace. Studies show that urban and suburban streets with high levels of greenery are both safer and more valued as neighborhoods.¹

Street Lighting and Utility Wiring
Map #Y shows the existing street lighting within the Leeway Neighborhood Conservation Area.
The Leeway area exhibits several types of street lighting. The street lighting most common in the neighborhood is covered cobra-style lights. These are installed on existing utility poles. Coach-style lights were installed in the 1970s and 1980s as more pedestrian friendly lights. Coach lighting has been installed on portions of North Kenilworth, North Illinois, North Jefferson, and North Madison Streets and along the John Marshall greenway between 22^nd Road North and 22^nd Street North. For the past decade the County has primarily installed Carlyle-style pole lights in street improvement projects. These lights have replaced cobra-style lights on the affected neighborhood streets. Carlyle lights were installed on N. John Marshall Drive adjacent to the Overlee Community Association and along the south side of 22^nd Street North between the greenway and North Quantico Street.
There are several deficiencies in the lighting network. The following improvements to this network are recommended by area residents.
Recommendations:

1. 
   5700 block of 22^nd Street North, between North Lexington and North Kentucky Streets
   
2. 
   5700 block of 25^th Road North, between North Lexington and North Kensington Streets (2 lights needed)
   
3. 
   2300 block of North Illinois Street, between 23^rd and 24^th Streets North
   
4. 
   2200 block of North Powhattan Street, between 22^nd Road North and Lee Highway
   
5. 
   Install additional lighting on other streets and public walkways as qualified by residents through the County’s street light petition process. See Map #Y and the Neighborhood Project List in Appendix X for additional lighting projects.
   
6. 
   As future County revenues may permit, existing utility wiring in the Neighborhood Conservation Area should be rerouted underground and the existing telephone pole street lights replaced with Carlyle-style lights.
   

Traffic Calming
The Leeway area includes several streets with significant speeds and volume that threaten the safety of pedestrians, particularly when streets lack sidewalks. Per the latest measurements, three streets currently qualify for Traffic Calming per the County standards. Our recommendation is that traffic calming measures be put in place to improve pedestrian safety on these streets and on streets that qualify based on subsequent measurements. Traffic calming should be considered as other street improvement projects are designed and implemented.
The following improvements to this network have been endorsed by area residents.
Recommendations:

1. 
   North Illinois Street – Traffic calming between Lee Highway and 22^nd Street North. This should be implemented as part of sidewalk, curb and gutter project.
   
2. 
   North Kentucky Street – Traffic calming between Lee Highway and 22^nd Street North.
   
3. 
   North Kensington Street – Traffic calming between Lee Highway and 22^nd Street North.
   
4. 
   Evaluate whether streets qualify for traffic calming as part of existing and new curb, gutter and/or sidewalk projects.
   

The specific form of traffic calming installed should reflect community consultation and meet County standards for community support.

Parking
The Leeway Conservation Area covers a large and diverse area, parts of which are closer to commercial facilities and mass transit than others. Neighborhoods adjacent to the Lee Harrison shopping center and those residing near the East Falls Church Metro station experience different parking (and other environmental) conditions than those living further away from the commercial areas. Those who live near commercial areas report a higher level of dissatisfaction with overflow of traffic and commercial parking into their neighborhoods. .
Since the Leeway Conservation Area has mostly single family homes on narrow lots, many with no driveways or garages, the majority of the households in the conservation area park one or more vehicles on the street. On 22^nd Street North between North Quantico and North Powhattan Streets, parking is zoned to limit overflow parking from the East Falls Church Metro. Otherwise, residents park on the streets with no restrictions. Those areas closer to non-residential areas including the metro, apartments, and commercial businesses experience overflow parking causing residents to compete for street parking. At some intersections in the conservation area, cars parked along the street are so close to the curb that line of sight is blocked for crossing motorists. These situations stand to be exacerbated with East Falls Church (EFC) re-development options currently being considered by the EFC planning task force.
The following recommendations have been endorsed by area residents.
Recommendations:

1. 
   Enforce the existing ordinance restricting corner parking to ensure good line of sight for crossing motorists.
   
2. 
   The County should develop new codes (other than zoned parking) that ensure adequate parking for commercial and multi-unit residential properties to minimize overflow parking onto adjoining neighborhood streets.
   

1 See, e.g. (California) Local Government Commission, “Livable Communities and Urban Forests,” 2008 [http://www.lgc.org/freepub/community_design/factsheets/urban_forests.html]; also, Project Evergreen, Lifestyle Benefits of Green Spaces [http://www.projectevergreen.com/why-green-matters/lifestyle-benefits/], and Clackamas County, “Benefits of Trees” [http://www.ccurbangreen.org/Benefits.html].