As the 99-year leaseholder of the parking lot on the west side of the Takoma Park-Silver Spring Co-Op, Neighborhood Development Company cares deeply about the safety of our neighbors and friends in the Takoma Park community.
For this reason, the City Manager’s March 10 document detailing the Co-Op’s unsafe delivery operations caused us great concern. Those findings concerned the unsafe operation of 18-wheeler and other delivery trucks, at the direction of the Co-Op. The City Manager determined that the Co-op’s delivery operations pose a significant threat to school-age children, pedestrian, bicyclist and driver safety.
We felt we needed to take action before a needless tragedy occurred. We know every Takoma Park resident wants semi-trailer trucks to operate safely, if they need to be in our community.
We were troubled when the Co-Op, rather than substantively address the public safety issues identified by the City Manager, sent threatening letters to and threatened to sue the City and NDC. NDC has offered to meet with both the City and the Co-op to work out a plan ensuring that operations do not pose a threat to public safety. Rather than take us up on that offer, the Co-Op has now filed suit against the City and NDC, defiantly claiming they will continue their practices no matter the safety concerns raised by public officials or others.
We believe that the best course of action is for NDC and the City to meet to resolve these serious public safety issues and to advance our important Takoma Junction public private partnership.