Evening star., 1955-02-09
Recreation Board
Presses Parking Site
Fieht on 7 Fronts

| COuay Is IuOVlIlS OL tWO tIUIltS
in an effort to keep fringe park
ers off the Industrial Home
School site at Wisconsin avenue
and Calvert street NV.
| At meeting yesterday it was
revealed that board members. in
a telephone poll, had asked the
commissioners to have the cor
poration counsel determine if
parking there would be legal.
The board then voted to ask
the National Capital Planning
Commission to designate the site
as a temporary "neighborhood
center" to serve the Georgetown
and Cleveland Park areas until
permanent centers can be built.
Centers in those areas have been
planned since 1880, but land for
them has never been acquired.
Restricted Uses Cited.
Recreation Supt. Milo F.
Christensen said there is Ian
guage in the law under which
the District acquired the land
that could make it available
only for park, playground.
school or street purposes. The
Motor Vehicle Parking Agency,
which is asking the Commis-
sioners for part Of the plot for
fringe parking. bases its legal
case on its own enabling legis-
lation, Mr.. Christensen said.
Mr.. Christensen told yester-
days meeting that c.. M. Thor
nett, secretary to the Board of
! Commissioners, had informed
him that Corporation Counsel
Vernon West is studying the mat
ter.
The request to the planning
commission was criticized by
Budget Officer Walter Fowler,
a member of the Recreation
Board, because sit might be an
attempt to get the planning COM
missions signature on this before
the (District) commissioners can
make their presentation"
| Must Ask Planners.
The use of the site is up to the
Commissioners, Mr.. Christensen
said, but they must ask the ad-
wise of the planning commission.
Ray M. Schenk. chief of prof.
ects and design of the commits
sion, who regularly attends Rec
reation Board meetings, said that
the commission almost took up
the matter at its last meeting
but decided to withhold action
until the Recreation Board stated
its case.
The motion to request plan
ming commission action passed
unanimously, except that Mr..
Fowler abstained.
Mr.. Schenk also revealed that
engineering plans for the pro-
posed Southwest Freeway may be
changed to lop off a part of the
proposed Randall Recreation
Center at South Capitol and F
streets S.W.
The land might be needed for
connections of the freeway and
South Capitol street is part of
a privately owned tract the Rec
reation Department is trying to
get by giving the owner a tract
at the other end of the present
Randall playground.
Complications Possible.
If the District made the swap,
Mr.. Schenck said, saying it was
to use the land for recreation,
and then built a road on it,
legal difficulties might crop up.
The board recommended to
National Capital Parks the ac-
ceptance of a $15,985 bid by
Corson and Gruman, Thirty
third and K streets NV, for
paving the Ridge playground.
Officials had estimated the job
would cost $4,000.
Supt. christensen announced
that there will be meeting of
all department staff members at
1890 pm. tomorrow in the Ban
neker Community Club. He also
said he will serve on the District
Council on Education, which will
prepare for the White House
Conference on Education, to be
held In November.