D.C. DMV Mistakenly Installs Car Emissions Test Site in Kenilworth Park with DPR Permission

Junel Jeffrey, president of the Eastland Gardens Civic Association, has a vision for Kenilworth Park, where she walks with her dog every day. That vision includes truly clean soil beneath wide-open green spaces, well-lit walking trails and restored basketball and tennis courts.

It does not include additional cars coming in and out of the park for biannual emissions checks. When the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) installed a new self-service kiosk earlier this year within park boundaries just off Anacostia Avenue NE, Jeffrey knew that it did not fit with the future she wanted for Kenilworth Park or the Ward 7 neighborhoods surrounding it. 

“This is kind of like if you have a beautiful smile, and you just pluck out two of the teeth — just because,” said Jeffrey, a four-year Eastland Gardens resident who has served its civic association for nearly as long as she’s lived there. “I’ve seen the awesome plans that D.C. [Department of Parks and Recreation] has for things coming into this park… This doesn’t belong.”

The emissions test kiosk’s installation may also have broken the law. A statute passed by Congress in 2004 and longstanding agreements between the National Park Service, which owns the land, and D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation requires the area only be used for public recreational purposes.

The DMV received approval from the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation to build the kiosk, according to written comments from National Park Service representative Jasmine Shanti.

“The National Park Service (NPS) was not aware of the emissions test kiosk until it was brought to our attention by members of the community in mid-October 2023,” the federal agency’s emailed response read. “Once we were made aware, we contacted the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) who approved the emissions test kiosk — without NPS approval or issued permit — and notified them they did not have authority or permission to approve the installation.”

A joint statement from the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed that the agencies no longer plan to open the emissions testing kiosk in Kenilworth Park, and are looking for another location. Agency spokespeople said that the city sought to add a testing site east of the Anacostia River after seeing that more than 200 Ward 8 residents used the city’s first self-service kiosk, installed four years ago at Takoma Recreation Center.

“Based on the success of the Ward 4 kiosk and data showing that residents from across the city use it, DC DMV began looking into installing kiosks east of the river,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, the site chosen can only be used for recreation. After consulting with the National Park Service and the community, the kiosk will be moved to another location.”

In Kenilworth Park near 42nd Avenue NE, the completed testing site sits right next to a small parking lot and a public pool, abandoned and replaced by a new one down the street. A little ways away, beyond a wide expanse of open field, is a green and yellow playground. Single family homes face the lot from across Anacostia Avenue NE.

The kiosk remains untouched. Black plastic still covers up two signs that might contain explanations for the brightly-colored emissions testing machine.

The machine installed in Takoma cost $300,000 when it was installed in 2019, according to Washington Post reporting at the time. The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles did not respond to questions about what it cost to install the kiosk and pave and paint the site, or what it may cost to relocate it.

Kiosk Installation Points to Bigger Issues with Community Outreach

The agencies in charge of Kenilworth Park may never have caught the potential illegality of the emissions testing kiosk if citizens had not questioned the construction before the site opened up. Before the installation, D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles did not reach out to any Eastland Gardens residents, despite the site’s location directly across the street from a row of homes. 

Elementary school teacher Cindy Hamilton, an eight-year Eastland Gardens resident and vice president of the civic association, said that was nothing new.

“I think [the city government’s] level of engagement is terrible,” Hamilton said. “Not until we’re angry and writing emails do they do something, and then it’s always an apology, which — I’m frankly tired of receiving apologies. I need you to be proactive, not reactive.”

Hamilton recalled other construction projects that started without any heads-up to residents or appropriate detours put in place. The city has planned multiple bridges across the Anacostia nearby, she said, despite a lack of enthusiasm for the projects from those living in the neighborhood. 

She also described major traffic issues even without extra construction: Highway 295 borders Eastland Gardens, but the neighborhood only has one exit and one entrance.

“Do we need an emissions station east of the river? Yes. But do we need it here specifically? No, because it’s very difficult to get in and out of this neighborhood,” Hamilton said. “And it does not fit in with the whole recreational space. You’re going to have people here idling, adding pollution? We don’t need that… I want this to be a park that’s a peaceful oasis for us, and this isn’t it.”

‘Disjointed’: Interagency Coordination Causes Difficulties in Kenilworth Park 

The northern section of today’s Kenilworth Park — an area used as a landfill until 1970 — has long been held in a sort of shared custody between the National Park Service and the District. D.C. has taken a role in the park’s management since at least 1949, according to a memo reiterating the terms of that agreement in 1972. 

After urging from nearby residents, Jeffrey said D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation identified that memo around two years ago. Upon finding the agreement, she said the city agency quickly began fixing years-old problems pointed out by the community, like potholes and outdated signage.

“For a long time, D.C. didn’t have an understanding that they were responsible for it,” Jeffrey said. “They went back and dug up the document that said ‘Here are the parameters under which we are giving you this land.’ And then they came back, DPR — they apologized to our community.” 

Jeffrey described amazement at how quickly the agency moved to solve immediate issues, repaving problem sections of road within two weeks. In general, she’s found that the Department of Parks and Recreation has been responsive to neighbors’ needs. 

A cleanup project spearheaded by the National Park Service to remediate the contaminated soil from the landfill has also gotten moving in the last two years after decades of delays, and new park development will be able to begin once it’s completed. But Jeffrey said it doesn’t seem like agencies working on Kenilworth Park are working together on “an overall plan.” 

“The emissions site represents a lack of a strategic plan,” Jeffrey said. “They’re disjointed, the D.C. agencies that are actively planning this park — they are in a stovepipe, on their own, doing their own thing.”

Both Jeffrey and Hamilton said the lack of proactive engagement and long-term thinking in Kenilworth Park and the communities around it illustrate persistent equity problems on the government’s part. 

Jeffrey mentioned that each fall when the days start to shorten, she has to contact the city to fix the timing on lights over Kenilworth Park’s track and fields. Often, seniors find themselves walking in the dark in the early morning and evening recreational activities for youth have to be canceled for several days before the lights’ timers are fixed. This year, Jeffrey went over to Watkins Recreation Center one day when Kenilworth’s lights were off; on athletic fields over the river in Ward 6, well-lit games were in full swing. 

“I’ve lived in all four quadrants — last year, I lived in Ward 4, literally down the street from the mayor,” Hamilton said. “And the things that I’ve seen happening over there does not happen here. There was a lot more engagement, there’s a lot more outreach west of the river. There’s a lot more respect for the taxpaying residents.”