• Almost 300 pages long with appendixes. Extensive data on history, traffic, environment and demographics.
• A preferred option has not been identified by DDOT.
• Estimated cost of Green Space OR Bike Path Alternatives (which both include fixing drainage problems) is $1.1 million, whereas rebuilding Klingle Road to Original Aligment (two-lanes) costs $3.8 million, and even the single-lane option would cost $3.5 million.
• All of the road alternatives are identified as having long-term adverse environmental impacts because they will destroy large trees, add pollutants to runoff into stream, and interfere with the animal and wildlife habitat.
• Both fire and police departments say that they don't need Klingle Road open.

However, as extensive as the report is, there are several glaring missing pieces-

• No mention of how or where within the narrow right of way that appropriate stormwater drainage control systems could be put, or how such a system could be engineered within the right of way.
• None of the alternatives address the National Park Service and National Capital Planning Commission's concerns about having an pervious surfaced maintenance road.

Some of the most enlightening new information came from the  Appendix A: Agency Coordination:

Adrienne Coleman, the Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, objected to rebuilding a paved road in Klingle Valley as “environmentally destructive” to trees and soil on National Park Service land (8/13/01 letter in Appendix A).  Superintendent Coleman’s letter stated that it is not possible to rebuild Klingle Road for cars without causing further environmental harm to Klingle Valley, because any stormwater management facilities built for the road will be inadequate to prevent continuing degradation to the soil and vegetation along Klingle Creek, which she noted is a tributary of Rock Creek.

"The suggestion that Klingle Road could be built with adequate storm water management facilities to protect the valley is not supported by any studies to date. We do not believe that studies could be developed to support that conclusion.  We firmly believe that the construction of the necessary storm water management and sewage systems which would be required by the reconstruction of Klingle Road will exceed the land within the road right-of-way. Use of park land for road or storm water purposes either in the form of direct or indirect use would be environmentally destructive, and therefore, cannot be permitted by the National Park Service."

The National Capital Planning Commission also submitted comments, stating that supports the concerns of the National Park Service about the effects of rebuilding Klingle Road on Rock Creek Park (4/3/00 letter in Appendix A).  The NCPC letter stated that the basic ecosystem of the park is “increasingly stressed and degraded.” 

"The commission staff wishes to support the concerns of the National Park Service relative to potential impacts to the park....All Eastern tributaries of Rock Creek have been paved over in past years. Rock Creek has water quality problems relating to over 200 outfalls in the stream. Uncontrolled runoff and larger volumes of flow, due to reduced infiltration and increased piping of runoff, have scoured Rock Creek instream habitat...the Klingle Road alignment area presents a unique opportunity to offset urbanization impacts that are increasingly affecting the basic ecosystem of the Park... We strongly request that assessment of land area be directed toward limited impervious pavement areas within the alignment and that the most compatible form of access, if necessary, be determined in association with the National Park Service"