A rendering of the proposed car barn at Spingarn High School.

In a second letter sent last week, Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) again urged Mayor Vince Gray to reject a proposed streetcar maintenance and training facility on the grounds of Spingarn High School along Benning Road NE. And though he’s picked up the backing of the Committee of 100 for the Federal City and a pair of Ward 5 ANCs, Gray hasn’t yet seemed inclined to acquiesce to McDuffie’s requests.

In his most recent letter, McDuffie asks Gray not to rush the decision on the 15,000 square-foot car barn and instead consider an alternative site at the Hop Scotch Bridge on H Street NE. “I understand that DDOT is proceeding with the Spingarn Streetcar Barn location in order to meet your 2013 deadline for launching the H Street/Benning Road Streetcar line,” he wrote to Gray. “However, I find no compelling reason why this timeline must be met at the expense of the impacted community.”

In late June Ward 5 community members loudly protested the car barn’s location, saying that it would pose a safety risk to students at the school. McDuffie has pushed for an alternate location for the facility, but the D.C. Department of Transportation has argued that the alternatives are either too expensive or would needlessly delay the completion of the long-awaited streetcar line.

In a letter sent last week, the Committee of 100—which has been skeptical of many elements of the city’s streetcar plans—expressed concern over the design and location of the car barn.

“The intrusion of an industrial complex on the Spingarn campus, a landmark-eligible property, will destroy the integrity of the property and send a message to the students and community that DDOT values expediency above all else. DDOT appears to be ignoring both zoning restrictions on industrial uses and community desires in order to overcome the lack of support facility master planning that has surrounded the development of a promising streetcar system,” wrote Meg Maguire, chair of the organization’s transportation subcommittee.

Gray hasn’t hinted that he’ll relent on the car barn’s location, and the dust-up has driven a wedge between McDuffie and some of his supporters. The city has already given out a $50 million design-and-build contract for the facility, and delays to the construction of the car barn could set back the streetcar’s 2013 launch date altogether.

Follow-up letter to Mayor Gray on proposed car barn on Spingarn Campus