On the heels of yesterday's posting that outlined the streetscape plans for K Street the natural questions are when will this happen and how will it be paid for?The timeline is linked to the financing. The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVT CID) has been lobbying heavily for this project over the last year with the Mayor's office and the DC Council to secure funding. Within the past two weeks the CID engaged new DDOT director Gabe Klein in discussions on this project.
The best opportunity to jumpstart these improvements is via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as stimulus money. The District has been allocated roughly ~$120 million dollars in FHWA ARRA money for roads and highways. Mayor Fenty recently signed and submitted an act to request the funds for Phase I spending of this money ($57.7MM). Blogger TSARCHITECT has a comprehensive recap regarding which projects were included in this first phase of spending.
Of note is that the shovel ready Fourth Street improvements applied for funding but were not included. I believe DDOT had funds for Fourth Street in the 2009 budget and the upgrades will proceed this summer without the ARRA money. K Street however does not yet have a budget and ARRA funding could truly accelerate the time table (2010?) for these transformations to our community's commercial corridor.
Let's show our support for K Street Streetscape improvements to Deputy Mayor Neil Albert when he speaks at the DNA meeting on April 14th.