Federal officials gave the go ahead Thursday on the design plan for a spy campus in Bethesda despite residents’ concerns about a proposed parking garage that could block their view of the Potomac River and the historic C&O Canal. The six-story garage, just one facet of a 3,000-employee “Intelligence Community Campus” that will replace the former headquarters of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency on the Potomac, is expected to eliminate almost an acre of existing woodland in the exclusive Palisades community nearby. Residents also argue the structure will block their view of the river.
“We’ve seen many times in this community not just with the government but with the private sector that people come in and say we have to take these trees out,” said Jesse Goodman, the Food and Drug Administration’s chief scientist and one of the facility’s nearest neighbors on MacArthur Boulevard. “But if you really push, the construction can be done in a way not to disturb the trees, and that’s what we’re asking.”
The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $40 million contract to build the complex in 2010, but has revised its plans three times in response to pressure from the Bethesda residents. The agency originally designed the garage to hold more than 2,000 cars, which would have cleared three acres of land, but reduced it to 1,800 parking spots and three-quarters of an acre.
The Corps also plans to build “green screens” on the north and east sides of the garage to prevent light pollution in the nearby neighborhoods, as well as berms along the surrounding slopes to make up for the lost trees.
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The National Capital Planning Commission, the planning agency for the federal government, said it will approve the final design in March only if the Corps can build the garage and cut down less than a quarter of an acre of the tree canopy.
“It’s a goal, it’s a target,” said Harold Pfohl, president of the Glen Echo Heights Association. “Whether or not we’ll get there, we don’t know. We hope so.”
Jared Olsen, a program manager with the Army Corps, said he didn’t know if the goal was feasible but that the agency would try.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” he said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of engagement.”
