Community Liaison Council Meeting Minutes — January 17, 2013

January 17, 2013; 4:00 to 5:30 PM
Natcher Building, Visitor's Center Little Theater
National Institutes of Health

Opening Remarks

Ms. Michaels provided a handout of BRAC transportation projects for 2011-2016. The document highlights completed projects as well as tasks that remain in the pipeline. Financing is available for everything but the phase four intersection improvement at the corner of Rockville Pike and Cedar Line.

Presentation: NIH Bethesda Campus Master Plan — Ricardo Herring, Director, Division of Facilities Planning, Office of Research Facilities

Using an animated slide show and a Powerpoint presentation, Mr. Herring gave an update on the NIH master plan that will guide the development of the Bethesda campus during the next 20 years. The CLC saw a draft of the plan in May 2012.

The Facilities Working Group approved the plan last week, and a public hearing on the draft version of the Environmental Impact Study occur soon. After completing a final EIS, NIH will go to the National Capital Planning Commission.

The master plan hasn’t changed much from the draft plan presented earlier, said Mr. Herring. The planning team has refined some of the buildings and added more graphics, but the plan’s goals and assumptions remain the same. Using the master plan, NIH seeks to

• foster innovative research to improve the nation’s health
• support the evolving requirements for biomedical research and education
• provide a secure, supportive environment for the people involved in NIH activities
• respect the stability and integrity of the surrounding residential community
• protect the environment of the NIH campus and region
• foster communication about NIH goals and policies, and
• meet the Federal Real Property Council’s performance measures

NIH expects the campus population to grow by about 3,000 during the next 20 years due to the relocation of existing NIH personnel from other facilities. According to the 2011 census, the current campus population is 20,594, which includes federal and auxiliary employees as well as fellows and contractors. The campus doesn’t include visitors in that number.

Among other things, consolidating staff would promote teamwork between basic, animal and clinical research while helping the campus avoid costly investments in leased labs. The campus also can take advantage of space in the Clinical Center complex as well as the FDA’s departure from 29 Complex. FDA will leave NIH in 2014, said Mr. Herring.

NIH officials will retain the campus’s landscaped character and respect the existing grid as they organize services into a series of research, administrative, biomedical education and other types of community clusters. NIH will construct new laboratories and administrative space, taking care to put new buildings near Metro to encourage transit system use. Buildings such as research education, which includes the library of medicine, will face Rockville Pike so the public can use those facilities without coming all the way through the campus.

As part of this plan, NIH will provide a well-defined campus road system and create pedestrian pathways and bike paths that lead to the Metro stop. NIH also will focus on employee parking that favors multi-occupant vehicles and mobility impaired drivers. Further, the campus will move out of surface parking and begin using more multi-level parking structures. NIH would turn the surface lots into buildings or green space. The perimeter of the campus also will serve as informal green open space.

Mr. Schofer asked about concentrated air pollutants in the parking structures. Mr. Herring noted the benefits of using this type of parking strategy, such as soil improvements and more green space. In response to a question from Ms. Miller, Mr. Herring said there would be no new parking or buildings in the buffer zone.

Two parking structures will be on the south side of the campus near Building 41. Those structures, which will be six stories high, will hold 1,428 cars each. Drivers currently park most of these cars on the south parking lot, in the center of campus and near Building 1. The campus will build the parking structures within the next 5 to 10 years. A bridge will help pedestrians travel from the parking garages to the north laboratory.

Phase one of the master plan focuses on such infrastructure projects as a data center and an addition to Building 40. The plan also includes a 5 million gallon underground chilled water storage tank. During phase two, NIH will demolish and construct several buildings, including a new Building 24, which will be a large animal facility, and a new Building 21, which will serve as headquarters for the institutes and centers. NIH also will build a lab and a police station.

By the end of phase three, the campus will have a new road, new laboratories and another new parking garage. The space on campus will grow from nearly 13 million square feet to about 15 million square feet by the end of the project. NIH will complete the work detailed in the master plan between 2023 and 2028. Any potential issues with noise levels during construction will show up during the Environmental Impact Study, said Mr. Herring.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. NIH staff will announce the date of the next meeting.

Participants

CLC Members
Margaret Dittemore, Huntington Terrace
Marilyn Mazuzan, Oakmont
Deborah Michaels
Ginny Miller, Wyngate
Lucy Ozarin, MD, Whitehall
Ralph Schofer, Maplewood
Jennette Wade, Whitehall

NIH Staff
Ricardo Herring, ORF
Brad Moss, ORS,ORF
Phillip Neuberg, ORF
Tara Mowery, OCPL
Sharon Robinson, OCL, OCPL

Liaison Represntative
Michael Weil, NCPC

Recorder
Laura Jackson, Audio Associates