Transportation & the Environment Public Hearing

COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004 COUNCILMEMBER CHARLES ALLEN, CHAIRPERSON COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT ANNOUNCES A PUBLIC HEARING ON B25-0577, the “Public Life and Activity Zones Amendment (“PLAZA”) Act of 2023” B25-0578, the “Game On: Providing Leisure Activities for Youth Amendment Act of 2023” B25-0424, the “DC Water Critical Infrastructure Freedom of Information Clarification Amendment Act of 2023” and B25-0693, the “Transportation Improvements Amendment Act of 2024” Monday, March 4, 2024, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Virtual Hearing via Zoom To Watch Live: https://dccouncil.us/council-videos/ http://video.oct.dc.gov/DCC/jw.html https://www.facebook.com/CMcharlesallen On Monday, March 4, 2024, Councilmember Charles Allen, Chairperson of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, will convene a public hearing to consider four bills: B25- 0577, the “Public Life and Activity Zones Amendment (“PLAZA”) Act of 2023;” B25-0578, the “Game On: Providing Leisure Activities for Youth Amendment Act of 2023”; B25-0424, the “DC Water Critical Infrastructure Freedom of Information Clarification Amendment Act of 2023”; and B25-0693, the “Transportation Improvements Amendment Act of 2024”. This is a hybrid format hearing, with public witnesses appearing virtually via the Zoom platform and government witnesses testifying in-person from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 1 The stated purpose of B25-0577 is to establish a Public Life and Activity Zone Program within the District Department of Transportation (“DDOT”) that would select corridors to be closed to personal vehicle traffic for at least 24 daytime hours per week and issue grants to support those efforts. Specifically, the bill requires that DDOT identify three possible streets to be closed to personal vehicle traffic and gather feedback from residents, business owners, and other community groups that could be impacted by the closure. The bill then requires that DDOT issue a report describing the three potential corridors, challenges associated with closing each street, and recommendations for addressing these challenges. After publishing the report, DDOT would gather community feedback and convene public meetings about each potential corridor before announcing the first corridor to be closed. DDOT may issue up to $2.5 million in grants to residents, businesses, BIDS, and other organizations to support the closure and enhance the pedestrianized zone, and $2.5 million within the Capital Improvement Plan would be set aside to fund infrastructure improvements within the selected corridor. After a one-year pilot program of the first selected corridor, plans to close the remaining two corridors to personal vehicle traffic must be included in any updates to MoveDC, the District’s Long-Range Transportation Plan beginning in 2027. The stated purpose of B25-0578 is to require that DDOT establish a process for issuing street play permits, which allow for sports or other recreational activities to take place in a public street that has been closed to traffic. The bill would further allow DDOT to preauthorize certain blocks street play permits, expediting the review process for permits related to these blocks. The stated purpose of B25-0424 is to exempt from disclosure any information, or plans that contain any information, related to the critical infrastructure of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (“DC Water”). The stated purpose of B25-0693 is to provide the DDOT Director with the authority to construct, maintain, and control DDOT infrastructure on land transferred from the federal government for recreational purposes under certain conditions, and to clarify that the District has an adequate interest sufficient to meet federal highway funding requirements in federal parkland where transportation infrastructure projects are located. The Committee invites the public to provide live and written testimony. Public witnesses seeking to provide live testimony at the Committee’s hearing must thoroughly review the following instructions: • If you would like to provide live testimony during the hearing or submit written testimony for the record, please use the Council’s Hearing Management System at https://lims.dccouncil.gov/hearings/. HMS is a universal, centralized way to find out about upcoming hearings, sign up to testify, submit testimony, download testimony, and see who else is testifying. The deadline to register to provide testimony through HMS is Thursday, February 29, 2024, at 5:00pm. The hearing record closes on March 18, 2024, after which you will be unable to submit written testimony. • Once you have identified the hearing you want to testify at, read the Hearing Notice at the bottom of the page for additional details on the hearing. The hearing page shows how many witnesses have already signed up under the “Witnesses” heading. 2 • Click the “Register to Testify” button at the upper right of the page to register to testify at the hearing. If the deadline to sign up for a hearing has already passed, or if there are no public witnesses, the button will not be available. • If there are multiple topics to be considered at a hearing, select which one you would like to testify on by placing a checkmark next to the relevant topic or legislation. If testifying on behalf of an organization, select “Organization” and include your title and the organization’s name. If you are testifying on your own behalf, select “Individual.” There may be additional fields included by a committee to gather additional details. • Click the “Submit Testimony” button in the upper right on the hearing page. If the deadline to submit testimony for a hearing has already passed, the Submit Testimony button will not be available. • Select “Live Testimony” or “Record Testimony.” Select “Live Testimony” if you previously registered to testify at the hearing. If your testimony is only for the written record, choose “Record Testimony.” Please use the same name, organization information, and email address that you used if you registered to testify. • You can upload testimony in either Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or a plain text file by clicking “Upload my Testimony.” You can also type your testimony from this page with some formatting capability by selecting “I will type my testimony here.” • After completing the web form, you should receive a confirmation email from noreply@dccouncil.gov. Prior to the hearing, you will receive an email from noreply@dccouncil.gov from the Committee with additional details on testifying. • The Committees will approve witnesses’ registrations based on the total time allotted for public testimony. The Committees will also determine the order of witnesses’ testimony. • Representatives of organizations will be allowed a maximum of five minutes for oral testimony, and individuals (and any subsequent representatives of the same organizations) will be allowed a maximum of three minutes. To accommodate additional public witnesses, the Committees may reduce witnesses’ allotted time for testimony but will inform witnesses if they plan to do so. • Witnesses are not permitted to yield their time to or substitute their testimony for the testimony of another individual or organization. • Witnesses who anticipate needing language interpretation, including ASL interpretation, are requested to inform the Committee on Transportation and the Environment as soon as possible but no later than five business days before the hearing. The Committees will make every effort to fulfill timely requests; however, requests received fewer than five business days before the hearing may not be fulfilled, and alternatives may be offered. 3