The recommendation is to “Connect missing links in the neighborhood street network”, connecting the dead-end street, Calverton Drive to Dean Drive. The study explains, this “could improve access throughout the City and make it easier for people to take short trips by any mode without traveling on already burdened major roads.” Who needs to drive between Rosemary Terrace and Dean Manor? Direct routes to these neighborhoods are from Toledo Terrace via East-West Highway, and Adelphi Road. You make this connection and you produce a cut-through from west of the mall to just south of the University of Maryland.
Why funnel traffic off of country roads onto secondary and tertiary streets that are not designed for high volume, high speeds; that this impacts quality of life, endangers children? What short trips will be taken? Dean Manor is not in Hyattsville, so how does this improve access within the City? Foot or bicycle traffic could be facilitated with a path; it doesn’t require a street. No other dead end streets in the Rosemary Terrace and University Hills subdivisions are addressed: Rosemary, Gumwood, Stanford, Hitching Post. So, why this one connection, a 317-foot stretch of pavement across private land at a cost of more than $118,000? The Calverton Drive dead-end is not the critical transportation issue facing the neighborhood. Although, we have some. Maintaining traffic flow on Adelphi Road, and pedestrian safety crossing Adelphi - both raised at the first public meeting. Adelphi is county-run, so outside the scope of City control, but, the Consultant did study Adelphi Road intersections. They looked at the Stanford and Campus Drive intersections. Why Stanford? Is Campus Drive in Hyattsville? The intersection of Calverton and Adelphi wasn’t studied, although it would be a major feeder to the proposed road segment. And Wells Boulevard, the main entrance/exit to University Hills, by design with a traffic light. Another issue? student access to and from Northwestern High School. The plan recommends a footpath from the school athletic fields to points south. No mention of the existing ROW between the school campus and Calverton - the path the school fenced off, but the students keep open. How about a foot/bicycle path between Calverton and Dean, as an alternative to a vehicular connection, and other paths that would help students and others safely navigate within the neighborhood and to commercial areas to the south? Foot and bicycle connectivity was raised in the first public meeting, drawn on the maps, provided in the map wiki, and spoke up in the Speak-up Hyattsville app. Adding asphalt to extend Calverton was opposed in all these data collectors - and has been for more than 25 years

The proposal to connect Calverton and Dean Drives to allow vehicular traffic should be reconsidered. Hyattsville has established a goal of creating walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, and this proposal is in complete opposition to that goal. It would funnel traffic from a high-density area into a small residential neighborhood with narrow streets that cannot accommodate additional traffic. Calverton Drive is so narrow that when cars are parked on the street, only one-way traffic is possible. Connecting Calverton to Dean Drive will divert traffic from major roadways into a neighborhood with streets that were not designed to handle it.

I am supportive of a connection that would allow pedestrian and bicycle access. Such a connection would align with Hyattsville's vision and would be of considerable benefit to Northwestern High School students who live in the apartments on Dean Drive and Highview Terrace, since they would have a more direct route to the school.

The project NS-5 Calverton and Dean connection needs additional research. This strategy is in complete opposition to the approved Prince Georges Plaza District Plan (adopted 2016). First, the wooded area between these two streets is identified as a green infrastructure network gap in the Countywide Green Infrastructure Plan (pg. 48 of the PG Plaza District Plan). As such, this area is identified as a critical area targeted for restoration to support overall functioning of the green infrastructure network – not pavement. Second, the District Plan clearly identified this connectivity as part of the area wide off-street bicycle and pedestrian policies and strategies as Strategy TM7.3 (pg. 88 of the PG Plaza District Plan) to implement exclusively non-motorized connections between existing disconnected streets including Dean Drive and Calverton Drive and Highview Terrace and Gumwood Drive. At a minimum, we request to strike NS-5 from the plan in its entirety. If not possible, then rewrite the strategy to align with the County approved plan for non-motorized connectivity.

This would create higher through traffic on a street not designed for this volume.