Last night the ANC met for the first time in 2012. As predicted by GM, the issue of the West Heating Plant dominated the early discussion. But, the rest of the meeting was actually quite interesting too. So let’s to it:

GSA Don’t Care

The ANC invited Tim Sheckler of the General Services Administration to discuss the disposition process of the West Heating Plant. Sheckler started by giving a bit of a history of the building: It was built in the 1940′s to provide steam heat for the federal buildings on the western edge of downtown. It ceased operations about ten years ago and has sat unused since then. Now the federal government wants to get rid of it.

The long and the short of Sheckler’s presentation is that the GSA doesn’t care how this property gets used after it sells it. This is not a typical RFP process you may be familiar with, where the solicitor evaluates the merits of the bids. Once GSA moves to finally sell the property, it is simply a question of who the highest bidder is. The bidding even will be online, like Ebay. Sheckler estimated that this will take place in the late summer into the fall.

The ANC and the community was not particularly pleased with this news. The only real input the public has into the GSA-disposition process is to argue whether or not the GSA should sell the property at all.

The thing is, there is no DC Office of Planning plan for this lot that would detail how it should be used. This lot isn’t even zoned in the first place. So ultimately the public will have some input on how it is used (via OP) and how it looks (via the Old Georgetown Board). But that won’t occur until after a developer has already bought the property, and has a whole lot of money already laid out towards however they want the property to be used and how it will look.

The ANC and the community urged GSA to delay the process until OP could develop a plan and zoning for the property. The idea being that a publicly vetted plan will mean that whatever developer purchases the property will already know what constraints they’ll be operating under.

Sheckler was non-committal. One point GM suggested was that as the process would currently stand, the developers are taking a risk that whatever plans they have don’t get approved by OP or OGB. But if GSA waits for OP’s plan, GSA faces the risk that the plan results in a lower bidding price, particularly if OP zones half the property as parkland. GSA doesn’t really have an incentive to take that risk. They just want to sell the property and be done with it.

Stay tuned.

The Great Macaroon Battle of 2012

As GM detailed last month, a young couple is planning on opening a new macaroon shop called Macaron Bee on Book Hill. This is what GM had to say last month:

The ANC commissioners expressed some reservations about the idea of selling food out of the front window. They feared the shop eventually turning into a pizza slice restaurant. In the end, the ANC decided to support the request with a (probably unenforceable) condition that the window not be used for any other type of food product.

GM’s prediction is that these sort of windows never work out. People would rather just come in to the store. GM hopes the store thrives and drives more foot traffic to upper Book Hill, but it’ll be because people like the food, not the convenience of sidewalk service.

Not much changed since then except that the two store owners next to the proposed location came out strongly against the plan. Specifically, Maureen Littleton of Littleton Gallery is particularly incensed at the idea of macaroons (or, really, any food) being sold on the street next door. She basically threw every argument she could against it, and GM can’t help but conclude that what she really wants is nothing at all.

Here’s the thing: All the ANC is really being asked to approve is an openable window. It just happens to be that they know how the shop owner plans to use that window. They can ask the OGB to condition its approval of the window on the understanding that it will only be used to sell macaroons, but there’s no way for OGB to enforce that. And guess what? There are openable windows all over Georgetown. If the threat of allowing this openable window is so grave, then what about all those other windows? How can the ANC try to pervert the OGB review process (which is ostensibly about architecture, not use) to squash a new small business while allowing such grave threats of openable windows up and down Wisconsin Ave. to remain?

In the end they didn’t do that. After some haggling and some 2-2 splits, Tom Birch basically split the baby (which by all patrilineal rights really should be Ed Solomon’s job) and proposed a resolution that didn’t really oppose the new window, but strongly urged the shop owners to move the operations completely indoors.

Speaking of Ed Solomon: he pleaded with the media not to describe how long the ANC spent talking about goddamn macaroons. Prior restraint!

Trying To Appease The Unappeasable

Outside of the south exit of Safeway there is a crosswalk on the north side across Wisconsin. After the new store opened, the ANC noticed that there was a period during the light phase where pedestrians were allowed to cross Wisconsin, but no traffic was allowed outside of Safeway. Allowing right turns out of Safeway would be unsafe due to the pedestrians, but the ANC convinced DDOT to install a left turn arrow to be activated while the pedestrian light was on.

So just to summarize: In the original state, all drivers had to wait thirty seconds or so for pedestrians to cross before exiting Safeway. After the change, some additional drivers were able to able to turn left while the pedestrians were crossing. The original car-only phase that followed the pedestrian phase remained. The only thing that happened was even more time for some drivers!

Well as with all changes designed to appease drivers, it is apparently not enough. Sometimes the car at the front of the Safeway exit is trying to turn right when that new bonus left turn light comes on. And this results in the absolute tragedy whereby some drivers wanting to turn left have to wait the exact same amount of time they used to wait before the left turn arrived.

So to address the calamity that is some drivers having to wait upwards of an extra minute(!) the ANC and Safeway are floating the idea of creating a third lane for the curb cut. What’s the problem with that, you might ask? Well having a three lane curb cut is more dangerous for pedestrians. Curb cuts inherently produce conflicts between pedestrians and drivers since where the former sees a sidewalk, the latter sees a driveway. Increasing the number lanes increases the likelihood of an accident.

Pedestrian safety is far more important that trying to prevent drivers from ever having to face the slightest and most inconsequential delay.

Rounding Up The Round Up:

Here’s what else happened:

• MPD reported a 12% decline in violent crime in Georgetown for 2011 but a 12-14% increase in property crime. Tip of the week: did you know you can contact MPD before you go away to have them check on your house while you’re gone? You do now.
• Eno Wine bar looks like it’s a go for the old Lorenzo spot next to Bridge Street Books.
• The final Zoning Commission meeting on the campus plan will be February 9th during which the commission will debate and vote on the plan.

]]> http://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2012/01/04/anc-round-up-process-edition/feed/ 10 GM ANC Round Up: Process Edition http://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2011/07/14/le-matin-metropolitan/ http://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2011/07/14/le-matin-metropolitan/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:00:13 +0000 Topher http://georgetownmetropolitan.com/?p=9231 Continue reading →]]> Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Bonjour Georgetown, et joyeux 14 Juillet! Voici les nouvelles:

• Too late now, but apparently the Safeway hosted a beer tasting yesterday. Hopefully they’ll do that again in the future (and give us a little more heads up).
• Tacklebox will be open in a few months, Hook should take a lot longer.

Yesterday a reader alerted GM to the fact that Einstein’s Bagels closed down. GM was expecting this, but not that soon. The building it occupied is owned by Safeway and they plan to tear it down and build a new own (plus another smaller building on the green space between this building and Safeway).

GM went over the initial plans last year. They were pretty tacky and completely out of place in Georgetown. Safeway changed architects and came back with revised designs. The ANC saw that they were on the right course and left the final call to the OGB. Since GM doesn’t attend OGB meetings (they’re during the work day) he didn’t notice that the plans were approved in February.

The pawn shop moved out (and basically across the street) shortly thereafter and now Einstein’s is gone. GM can’t say Einstein’s was his favorite bagel shop. The bagels were ok, and the coffee decent (and incredibly hot for some reason), but the service was incredibly slow. If there was a line of more than two to three people when you walked in, you expected at least a ten minute delay. Nonetheless, it was a relatively cheap option for take-out breakfast, which there’s not much of in north Georgetown.

To be honest, GM is pretty worried about these buildings. First of all, they’re going to be expensive to rent, so it’s unlikely a neighborhood serving store like Einstein’s or the pawn shop will move in.  Second, CVS has not shown a lot of willingness to entice interesting tenants. They promised that they wouldn’t put a bank in the space below the new supermarket, and they didn’t. But they put in a Petco, a nail salon, and a cell phone store. Not very interesting. GM fears that with at least one building, nothing but a bank will be willing to pay the rent.

And that’s not even getting into the question of whether they’re building too much parking (they are) or creating a hazardous pedestrian environment with their curb cuts (they will). Oh well, we’ll see.

RIP Einstein’s

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Safeway is really green apparently.
• Carol Joynt ramping up the publicity ahead of her book release on May 10th, check it out.
• Rose Park Farmers Market returns today!

This week in celebration of the Georgetown Metropolitan’s second anniversary, GM is counting down the five most popular articles from last year.

Today GM looks at the single most popular article from the last year: By Far the Most Expensive Thing at Safeway.

Like yesterday’s entry, this article came about simply because GM saw something funny and took a photo of it. Which goes to show that there’s no direct connection between the amount of effort it takes to write something and how popular it is.

In this case, the funny thing GM saw was a container of truffles being sold at Safeway. They were being sold at $999.99 per pound. GM concluded that this was the most expensive item in the store.

Some commenters pointed out that in fact they probably aren’t the most expensive item in the store. Jim pointed out that saffron thread is probably around $10 per gram. Since there are 453 grams in a pound, that makes the saffron threads $4,530 per pound, more than four times the truffles.

Fair enough, but GM is doubtful there’s a price tag that big in the store. They could have simply listed the price as $62.50 per ounce, but maybe the point is to catch eyes.

Either way, last time GM checked, they were gone.

Last spring, The two CVSs in Georgetown under went minor interior redesigns that enabled the stores to open up the view into the store from the windows. This improved the streetscape on the stores’ blocks significantly and fixed a problem common with many CVS stores.

Way up on Wisconsin underneath the Safeway, the pet-supply chain Petco is making the same mistake that CVS finally corrected. The store is actually called Unleashed and is the chain’s smaller version. The store opened up last weekend.

As you can see from the shot on the top and the one above, the store covers up two large picture windows with interior walls, which are used to hang goods for sale. This increases the amount of usable space for the store, but it is terrible for sidewalk.

Keep in mind, this was the image presented by Safeway when they got approval for the construction:

Yes, these are simply mock ups, but Safeway presented these plans as providing space for several street level shops. But what did we actually get? A nail salon, a cell phone store, and a chain pet-supply store that takes up space for three stores and covers up the glass for two of them.  This is a real let down.

That’s not a typo. At least GM doesn’t think so. What you see there is a locked case of truffles in the Safeway produce section selling for $999.99 per pound.

GM did a quick run through of the store to see if anything came close to this in terms of price. Only a few bottles of wine and champagne topped the multi-hundred dollar range, but nothing close to this.

Real truffles (unlike their chocolate counterparties) are a type of fungus found in the ground. Traditionally, pigs have been used to find the truffles. Despite this, people seem to like them. Or, at the very least, pay a ton of money for them.

That’s about the extent of GM’s knowledge of truffles. For those with more expensive tastes than he, would you really pay a cool grand a pound for truffles from Safeway?

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A constitutional scholar walks into a Safeway elevator…
• Don’t just spread rat poison around willy nilly, ok?

No, not really. The technology store still seems weeks away, but if you want to get your hands on a “genuine” “Georgetown Apple”, stop by Safeway. They’re currently selling apples branded with the Georgetown moniker.

From the sign, the apples appear to come from Nature’s Partner, a branch of Giumarra companies. There is no such thing as a “Georgetown Apple”, so this is likely just a private label rebrand of another species. From the company’s offerings, it looks a bit like the Eve apple.

From Glover Park condos to drycleaners, things having nothing to do with Georgetown often get the Georgetown name in order to seem fancy. But this is the first time a piece of food has adopted this strategy (ok, maybe the second).

Maybe if they stick around long enough, you can have an extremely meta experience of eating a Georgetown Apple in the Georgetown Apple.

Just hours after taking the above photo of the idyllic southern Massachusetts coastline, GM found himself racing back to Washington in order to attend the June ANC meeting. This fact has no bearing on the meeting itself, but GM just felt you ought to know what sacrifices he makes to keep you informed.

That said, the ANC meeting last night was jam packed and more than justified GM’s sacrifice. Unfortunately, it ran rather long so GM is going to have to keep it short in order to avoid falling asleep at the wheel.

Streetcars

DDOT presented plans for the streetcar and how those plans would affect Georgetown. In DDOT’s ambitious 37 mile plan, the agency calls for a cross-town route to come into Georgetown along K St.

The ANC is generally supportive of the plans but is nervous about how the streetcar could affect traffic, parking, and the viewshed. The overall message from the DDOT representative is that it is way too early to really say what DDOT is going to decide for Georgetown, but he also added that it is likely that there will not be dedicated lanes and that no overhead wire will be used in Georgeown.

On that last point, though, the DDOT representative was a bit ambivalent.  He showed up with an actual cross-sections of the proposed 3/8th inch overhead wire along with several images of what that wire would look like in action. He also discussed the council’s proposal to authorize overhead wires along H St. NE (areas outside of the L’Enfant Plan and Georgetown allow overhead wires already). You could argue that he was trying to soften up Georgetown to accept overhead wires, at least temporarily.

And surprisingly enough, it looks like the ANC may go along with that. They unanimously adopted a resolution that was split into two parts. The first part essentially said that the ANC supports streetcars on K St. so long as there are no dedicated lanes, no parking was removed, and any overhead wires are approved by the Commission of Fine Arts (there was also a request to consider what effect the possible removal of the Whitehurst would have on those plans).

Secondly, the ANC would not object to streetcars on Wisconsin Ave. (or M St., which was added to the resolution after the DDOT rep mentioned that streetcars could end up coming into Georgetown by M St. not k St.) again so long as there are no dedicated lanes and no removal of parking. For Wisconsin and M, however, the ANC put its foot down and said absolutely no overhead wires.

All in all, it was a good resolution for supporters of streetcars in and through Georgetown.

Washington Harbour

Three restaurants in the Washington Harbour complex came before the ANC last night to request a termination of their respective voluntary agreements. They are Cabanas, Nick’s Riverside Grille, and Tony & Joe’s.  Essentially they would like to redraft the agreements from scratch since, they argue, the agreements are overly complicated and cause a form of double jeopardy since they restate the law throughout (thus, when the bars violate the law, they also violate the agreement).

The ANC appears open to redrafting the agreements for the sake of streamlining, but they are likely to oppose some of the additional requests that the restaurants are seeking, most notably their request for amplified music.

How Are Our Hours?

The question of operating hours seemed to wind its way through many items last night. First of all, apparently ABRA will be allowing bars to apply to open up very early to show World Cup games (the games will be early since they’ll be played in South Africa). Specifically, from June 11th till July 11th, bars that apply to ABRA will be able to open at 7AM Monday through Saturday and start serving alcohol at 8 AM (10 AM on Sundays). However, if a bar is subject to a voluntary agreement restricting what hours it may operate, it must get approval from the agreement’s signatories. Unlike how it handled the late inauguration hours, the ANC gave blanket approval for those changes.

Also on the hours topic, three different restaurants requested extensions of hours. All three got the backing of the ANC for those changes. They are:

• Chop Sticks: Monday through Wednesday till 12 AM, Thursday through Saturday till 2 AM, and Sunday till midnight
• Il Canale: Sunday through Thursday till 2 AM, and Friday through Saturday till 3 AM
• Crepe Amour: Sunday through Thursday till 12 AM, and Friday through Saturday till 3 AM. (Earlier they had requested to become a 24 hour operation, but they’ve backed off from that request.)

This Mural Brought to You by Eagle Bank

Eagle Bank brought a proposal to paint a mural on the side of its building at 1044 Wisconsin Ave. They hired local artist Byron Peck to come up with a plan. Peck is well known for painting some of the more memorable murals around town such as the one of Duke Ellington on U St. In GM’s opinion though, this design was not up to his usual standards and would be terribly out of place in Georgetown.

Essentially what they proposed was a giant bald eagle swooping down with a blue sky (and what looked like the moon, oddly enough) behind it. To be perfectly blunt, it looked like something that the Franklin Mint would sell.

The ANC adopted a resolution against it (both because of the design and because it operated like a billboard for the bank), and GM hopes the Old Georgetown Board agrees.

Safeway Development

As discussed here, Safeway is proposing a massive new development just south of its new store on Wisconsin. They didn’t present much more information than what GM already discussed last week. The only really interesting new piece of information is that they intend the car traffic in the new buildings’ parking lot to come from the Safeway driveway and flow one-way back out to Wisconsin.

The ANC objected to this traffic pattern since it would seriously complicate the already messy intersection. They also objected to the design, sort of (they simply asked OGB to require more references in the design to the Georgetown “vernacular”.) We’ll see how this project advances.

The End

Actually, that wasn’t so short after all. Oh well. Here are a few last points:

• Cafe Divan wants some sidewalk tables. It looks, though, that they aren’t likely to get approval for more than a couple of tables on its northernmost corner.
• We’re soon going to lose our Chevy Chase Bank. It’ll finally be renamed Capital One to reflect their merger.
• Violent crime is apparently down, which Commissioner Solomon was quick to attribute to all the reimbursable details Georgetown organizations support