To Blaze The Trail, Just Follow The Tunnel

Developers planning a 12-story hotel and residential building in downtown Bethesda have agreed to keep a nearby tunnel for the Capital Crescent Trail open during construction, a move that cyclists and other trail users say was necessary for their safety.

The joint venture of Rockville-based Federal Realty Investment Trust and Chevy Chase-based JBG had planned to close the trail just east of an 800-foot-long tunnel that runs beneath Wisconsin Avenue near the Bethesda Row shopping and restaurant district.

John Tschiderer, Federal Realty's vice president of development, said the developers were trying to protect trail users during the two years of construction. But the proposal met with immediate opposition from residents, cyclists and runners, who said forcing them to cross busy Wisconsin Avenue would be far more dangerous, particularly for children.

The tunnel connects the popular path between Silver Spring, via East Bethesda and Chevy Chase, and the Bethesda Row area before the trail continues toward Georgetown. Although construction on the building would not begin until 2009, county planners found out how important the tunnel connection is when developers proposed closing it while the project is being built.

"We realized we needed to look at that aspect much more closely," said Rose Krasnow, development review chief for Montgomery County's planning agency. She said the agency received hundreds of e-mails protesting any closure.

"It was made abundantly clear that the trail is such a vital part of the bicycle network in the area and so many people use it," Krasnow said.

Tunnel supporters said they welcomed any plan to help them avoid having to get across busy Wisconsin Avenue. Still, some said they wanted to see details of the proposed detour.

Tschiderer said the developers will propose three possible trail detour routes to the Montgomery planning board in November. All the detour plans would allow people to travel through the tunnel but would divert them on its western end to Bethesda, Woodmont or Elm avenues, Tschiderer said. Trail users would be protected near the construction site by an overhead covering and barricades, he said.

Gary Repp of Chevy Chase, a father of three, said he was particularly concerned that, without the tunnel, the trail would become too dangerous for children. He said many use it to ride their bikes to school and to popular teen hangout areas near Bethesda Row shops and restaurants.

"It's the kids' highway," Repp, 53, said of the Capital Crescent Trail. "It's how they get from one side of Bethesda to the other to meet up with their friends."

The new building is being proposed for the northeast corner of Woodmont and Bethesda avenues, across Woodmont from Barnes & Noble bookstore. It is now a grassy two acres between Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema and Thyme Square restaurant. The tunnel's western opening is between the two, just behind where the new building would be built.

Tschiderer said the building, with a 225-room hotel, 250 condominiums or apartments and street-level retail, would be built over the Capital Crescent Trail, which would eventually reach Woodmont by running parallel to the movie theater. It would be separated from a covered plaza, designed to be a new gathering spot about six times larger than the current public area around the Barnes & Noble fountain, Tschiderer said. The building that houses Thyme Square restaurant and Fuzion Lounge & Grill would be demolished, he said.