Laura for ANC

Drainage for field below level of grass

As a member of the School Improvement Team for Lafayette’s renovation from 2014 to 2016, I worked closely with architects and DGS to meet educational requirements while respecting the historic school and its natural setting. While the project was largely successful, the city failed to fulfill its promise to rehabilitate the park’s upper field, and broke its promise to install drainage and maintain the grass baseball field. I am committed to holding the city accountable to the Memorandum of Understanding, ensuring a well-maintained, environmentally sustainable grass field, and restoring the damage caused by years of neglect to the upper field and Broad Branch section. Trash pickup has been an ongoing concern, and we need our Rec Center available all weekend for birthday parties, and our bathrooms open all weekend. We are the only $4 million Rec Center with a Port-o-potty.

Bathrooms and party rooms closed on Sundays

Having safe streets and sidewalks is critical. Around Lafayette ES, we have many children and families who bike to school, the park, and Broad Branch Market. DDOT’s previous approach to bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue simply diverted out-of-state vehicular traffic through side streets, which would decrease safety and quality of life. Chevy Chase deserves improved— not reduced—WMATA bus services to reliably transport our students to Deal and Jackson-Reed and reduce car dependency. We also have in places uneven sidewalks, which need to be ground down, because they are tripping hazards.

Bridge has uneven planks and broken caps

Streetlights and Bioretention

In 2023, DDOT began installing LED street lights in our neighborhood, but many families found them too bright. Many requests for shielding or dimming were closed out without resolution, and I aim to have these concerns addressed, as excessive light pollution harms both human health and wildlife.

DDOT proposes more bioretention sites, yet many current bioretention sites have been poorly maintained and/or installed in ineffective locations; I will work to ensure existing sites are properly maintained and any new sites are placed where they function properly and have minimal impact on neighborhood parking.

Street lights causing light pollution

The community center and library site is a cherished space in Chevy Chase, hosting events like Chevy Chase Day and elections, while offering pick-up play and a beautiful respite with its volunteer-planted gardens. When affordable housing was first proposed for the site, it was pitched as a few apartments over the existing structures. The current plan now includes much higher buildings, loss of green space, loss of library patron parking, and the transfer of public land to a private developer for an extended period. I believe our community should have the chance to develop its own, bottom-up contribution to affordable housing stock, without surplussing public land, while also addressing the necessary (and long-promised) renovations for the community center and playground.