Evening star., 1947-07-06
City Meets Opposition
On Arizona Avenue
Road Through Park
BY Rudolph lKouffmonn II

a new 1euQ Is toeVelOplng between
the District Government on one
side and the National Park Service
and National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission on the other, rem
iniscent Of the 1916 fight over the
twin bridges to replace Highway
Bridge.
Center of the controversy is the
expressway the District Highway
Department proposes building
through Glover -Archbold Park. To
be known as the Arizona avenue
expressway, 1t would lead from Canal
road up the valley of Foundry
Branch to a point near the inter-
section of Wisconsin and Nebraska
avenues.
1t would be dual roadway with
out lights or intersections and would
meet the K street skyway now under
construction.
Both the Highway Department
and It's out-of-town. consultants, the
E. j. Greiner Co., of Baltimore, and
the DeLeuw, Gather & Co., of Chi
cago, recommend it so traffic can
bypass the crowded Wisconsin ave-
ue-Georgetown section and keep
off residential streets like FoXhall
road.
Plan Is Opposed.
But Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant III,
chairman of the planning commits
sion, and A. E. Demaray, associate
director of the park service, are op-
posed to using the park for this pur-
pose, it has been learned.
Two main reasons are given for
their opposition:
l. The park, about half of which
was donated to the Government by
Charles c. Glover and Mrs. Anne
Archbold for children's playground
and neighborhood park, is needed,
they claim, to provide recreation for
the highly developed area through
which it runs.
2. The eXpressway, they maintain,
would encourage more District resi-
dents to move to Montgomery Coun-
ty because it would make it easier
for them to get downtown quickly.
This, it is felt, would deprive the
District of additional substantial
taxpayers through the continued
process of decentralization.
Two Drafts Being Made.
Although top officials of the plan
ming commission and the park serv-
ice are opposed to the expressWay.
technicians and staff men under
them tend to favor the District
plan. The latter have drafted sug-
gested route that would mean lower
costs and better curves and grades
than the original right of way for
Arizona avenue would provide.
In fact, planners and park officials
now are drafting two plans, one
showing the park as it might be de-
veloped without the expressway and
the other showing the big road. The
plans are expected to be the center
of argument at the next meeting
of the planning commission July
81 and August l.
On the face of it, 1t would appear
that the District Government had
the upper hand in the dispute, be-
cause if necessary it could construct
the expressway over the right of
way for Arizona avenue it already
controls.
Park Land Blocks Road.
There's joker in this, however
The right of way for Arizona ave-
nue. is broken by a 200-foot strip
of park land just south of Reservoir
road. Here the park service con-
trolls land clear across the park,
making an effective road block it
hopes will come in handy as the
argument over the expressway
develops.
No right Of way was ever pro-
vided through this strip because
when the right of way was dedi-
Gated in 1898 the strip was Federal
property-part of the land con-
trolled by the War Department in
connection with work on the Wash
ington aqueduct.
The rest of the branch valley was
privately owned and it was simple
matter to arrange for 100-foot
dedication through 1t.
In 1882 the small parcel of War
Department land was transferred
to the park service. Now right