A proposal for a hiking and biking trail that would connect the new $4 billion National Harbor development with Fort Foote National Park has managed to upset both bikers and preservationists, who are giving the Prince George’s County Council an earful.
Prince George’s officials have longed hoped to connect the banks of the Potomac to the Potomac Heritage Trail, which recently opened along the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, allowing commuters to bike or walk to and from the District and Virginia. But county officials bowed to pressure from landowners along the Potomac, who convinced lawmakers to rescind decades-old land easements in the county’s newly revealed master plan. The easements are needed to extend the trail. On the other side are trail enthusiasts, who are not only lobbying to keep the easements, but also are calling for the trail to be expanded through the Broad Creek Historic District. “Eventually, people are going to see that a trail along the Potomac … is something that would benefit the whole community,” said Jim Hudnall, a retired Navy Reserve electrical engineer and activist in the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club. Anti-trail opponents “have fears about crime, litter and pollution,” Hudnall said. “I think their fears are really unfounded based on the experience of other trails.” Preservationists say the proposed trail is a historic and environmental threat to one of the region’s oldest settlements. “There’s been too much carelessness in the types of concern for … environmental and historic preservation,” said David Turner, a Fort Washington resident and chairman of the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission. “A one-size-fits-all suburban bike trail is probably the wrong tack to take.” The most contentious part of the plan is likely to focus on Livingston Road in Fort Washington, a narrow strip of rural route that preservationists say can’t be widened. Hudnall and his friends want the trees and shrubs cut back and the lane expanded for a bike trail. Among those speaking out against that plan are Carroll Savage, a semiretired litigator whose Fort Washington home dates to 1750. Savage said his opponents wanted the trail for “hard-core commuting.” “That’s fine,” he said. “But you can’t do that on Livingston Road without changing the character of the historic community.”
