The Georgetown Metropolitan

As I begin another term on the ANC, I would like to focus the Commission’s attention on a problem that has been getting worse and worse in recent years: the overuse and abuse of “Emergency No Parking” signs.

We’ve all seen these signs pop up out of nowhere with ridiculously long terms, often with unreasonably restrictive hours. I would like the city to bring a lot more rationality and parsimoniousness to how it hands these out. I’ll speak more about this soon, but today I want to talk about one of the central fictions that has, in my opinion, had one of the largest roles in the abuse of these signs: Construction Staging.

When a contractor wants to use some lanes on a street to assist in the construction work, they have just a couple options to give as a reason for the permit. The main two are Roll-Off Container and Construction Staging Area. The first of these is fairly self-explanatory. It’s for when they install a large dumpster. (There are complications with this, though, that I’ll get to later). The second main use is a bit more vague. What does Construction Staging Area even mean?

I’ll get to how it’s defined in a second, but how it’s actually used is pretty clear: contractor parking. The builder doesn’t want to have to search for parking, so they go to the city and get 3-4 (or more) reserved spots that they can use all they want. Often the no parking signs apply 24-7, so even when the contractors don’r “need” the parking, you can’t park there.

This is, of course, very frustrating for neighbors. But it’s also illegal.

Construction Staging does not mean parking for contractors that can’t be bothered. Construction Staging means the temporary use of the street to load and unload materials or if you have some sort of a machine that is actively being used in the construction work. The definition is in the DC Municipal Regulations. It states that “Persons engaged in the erection, alteration, demolition, or repair of any building may occupy the public space with building materials and appliances if a permit is secured from the Director of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.”

That may be a little unclear, but another section of the DCMR makes it certain: “However, nothing in this section grants authority for permit holders to park in areas with posted parking restrictions that prohibit parking or to park in areas from 12 midnight to 5 a.m.” In other words: Emergency No Parking means No Parking. Not, parking for me but not for thee, as these signs are frequently used.

The problem is that the city does nothing to enforce this limitation. And as a result, contractors know that DDOT will rubber stamp the application and reward them with reserved parking for however long the homeowner feels like paying for it.

That is another aspect of this problem. There’s little disincentive for contractors to just keep renewing these no parking signs for months and, in some cases, years. The fee they are supposed to pay can begin to reach over $10,000 a month, but I’m not especially confident those fees are actually being charged. And even if they are, our deep pocketed neighbors who are imposing on us don’t mind paying for it on top of the steep bills they’re already paying.

I would like the city to impose a strict cap on time period for these permits. First thirty days, fine. Second thirty days, you need approval from the ANC. Third thirty days, tough luck. Your time’s up. Obviously large scale construction jobs take longer than that, but even large scale construction jobs don’t actually have a legitimate need for genuine construction staging for that long. They just want easy parking for the contractors. That’s not a legitimate need in my opinion. If the city actually enforced the no contractor parking rule, we’d probably see these interminable permits start to decrease.

As I mentioned above, roll off containers are another loophole the contractors often abuse. What they’ll do is to reserve more spaces than the dumpster actually needs. Theoretically this makes a little sense. Dumpsters need to be backed into place, which requires some clearance in front of it. But that need only exists when the dumpster is actually being delivered or taken away. All the rest of the time it doesn’t “need” that extra space. But contractors use that buffer to park. I’ve got one dumpster on my block that is not really being used as a dumpster anymore. But it’s still there and just had its permit renewed for about the 5th time because contractors rope off about three parking spots next to the dumpster. They even downsized the dumpster at one point, presumably to give them more parking (and lower the rental fee, I suppose). This is all infuriating for neighbors. And, again, it’s illegal.

There are other features of this program that are maddening, such as how utilities misuse these signs, that I’ll be discussing more in the future. But today, just take away this simple fact: If you see a contractor parked in a space that you wouldn’t be allowed to park in, they aren’t allowed to either. I hope to get DDOT to clarify this restriction and commit to enforcing it.

There was quite a dichotomy of election experiences on Tuesday here in DC. While the national vote was quite dramatic and consequential, in the District hardly anything was in doubt. Janeese Lewis-George has been mayor-in-waiting since last spring, Robert White has been assured his delegate seat, and even the vote over whether to ban foie-gras seemed fairly pre-ordained.

So there wasn’t really much to vote on in Georgetown. Even the ANC seats were all basically uncontested. But it’s still possible to judge Georgetown’s voting sentiment by comparing the final tallies to the city-wide vote.

For instance, on mayor the city-wide vote was 84.3% for JLG. In Georgetown, however, it was quite a bit less at 64.7%. The bulk of the non-JLG votes went to independent Rhonda Hamilton, who got 21.7% in Georgetown. She got 10% city-wide. I don’t know that Georgetowners necessarily were drawn more to her for her positions. But I imagine Republican Georgetowners just wanted to vote for someone other than the socialist JLG, and there wasn’t any Republican on the ballot.

That theory would be at least somewhat consistent with the Congressional Delegate race, where there was a Republican running. She got 17.6% in Georgetown, roughly in the same neighborhood as Hamilton. The winner, Robert White, got 87.6% city-wide and 76.5% in Georgetown. It would appear that even though he holds positions fairly in-line with JLG, he didn’t lose as many votes in Georgetown as she did. I would imagine it has to do with the fact that he’s not a member of DSA and she is.

Ok, what about foie gras? Surely the decadently rich Georgetowners voted against banning foie gras? Actually, they did. A total of 66% of Georgetowners voted in favor of the foie gras ban. That’s less than the city-wide total, though, which was 73%.

As for the ANC, here are those results: Mimsy Lindner, Paul Maysak and myself ran for re-election. Either we’re doing a great job or we’re the only idiots willing to do the job at all, because none of us had opponents. We will be joined by four new faces next January: Natalee Snyder will represent 2e07 (northeast Georgetown), Stefanie Scott will represent 2e06 (east Georgetown), and Eric Langenbacher will represent 2e01 (Burlieth). I understand that two GU students ran write-in campaigns for the two remaining seats (2e04 and 2e08). Once they have been certified and announced, I’ll pass that along.

Hello and welcome to your November Northwest Georgetown ANC update! Daylight savings time is finally over for the year, so if you’re another early-riser like me you will join me in welcoming the brighter mornings. Now on to the updates!:

Leaves

We are entering the fall leaf collection season again. After years of truly unmitigated disasters, I think last year was perhaps a slight improvement. A mitigated disaster perhaps?

The big issue going into last year was whether the city would take bagged leafs. From my observations they appear to have taken them last year. So residents should go ahead and use them again this year.

In terms of timing, Georgetown is unfortunately once again in the back half of the city’s collection schedule. East Georgetown is in the third round and west Georgetown is in the fourth (of four) rounds. The city is only starting round one this week, so don’t expect them to come to Georgetown until late November, at the earliest.

One thing going for the city is the weather. It’s been so gorgeous and dry for weeks, and if that continues they may actually move from mitigated disaster to mitigated success. We’ll see!

In the meantime, I would bag leafs and call 311 for collection. Either they’ll collect them pursuant to your request, or they’ll get picked up later. Belts and suspenders.

Cannabis Store on 33rd St.

As I described in more detail several months ago, a retail cannabis shop is attempting to open at 1658 33rd St. (next to the Lobby Bar). The ANC’s approach generally with these shops has been to welcome the introduction of legally registered and regulated shops as a means to get rid of all the illegal shops that used to dot the neighborhood. We usually negotiate a settlement agreement that establishes acceptable rules for the road and so far the ones that have opened have not caused any significant problems.

But this one was problematic because it was seeking to open within 400 feet of another licensed cannabis shop on Wisconsin Ave. The law is clear that no retail cannabis shop can open within 400 feet of another. After we pointed this out to the city (via ABCA, the regulatory body) the permit application was pulled. But then it was later put back into effect after the applicant submitted a questionable report that claimed to show that the two buildings were actually 400.4 feet apart.

The report was questionable on several grounds. The first was that it was so wildly off from measures using Google Maps or the city’s own geographic software, both of which showed the distance to be about 375 feet. That’s a 7% difference. To put that in a context that many should be able to grasp: that’s like a 5’8” man claiming to be 6’1” on his dating profile.

Additionally, the report—a report, which by the way, alleged that the two buildings were exactly the distance apart that the applicant needed them to be—was created not by a licensed surveyor but rather an architect. It appears to be against the law1 for people who are not licensed surveyors to perform surveying work in the District, particularly when said survey is intended to be used for a government filing.

Frustratingly, the ABC Board allowed the application to go forward despite its obvious flaws. So in order to prove that 400 feet really means 400 feet, the ANC spent its own funds to hire an actually licensed surveyor to establish once and for all how far apart these two buildings are. Unsurprisingly, they found that they’re 376 feet apart, just like the initial maps showed.

We submitted this new survey directly to the ABC Board for reconsideration. We hope to get a decision from it within weeks. Ideally it would revoke the application once more. If, instead, it decides to still defer the decision to the full protest hearing in January, we will be prepared to present then that this application is clearly prohibited by law.

As I said before, the ANC is not against the introduction of licensed cannabis stores, and in fact it has welcomed well-run establishments. But what we do object to are applicants who attempt to skirt the regulations. Any store that would submit a facially flawed report like this to open is one that is unlikely to live up the rules of any settlement agreement or basic DC law. Those types of stores we do not welcome.

BID Modernization Bill

Over the past couple weeks there has been a bit of an uproar in Georgetown about the introduction of the BID Modernization Act of 2026 bill by Councilmember Wendell Felder. The concern is certainly understandable given the limited information initially available about the scope and intent of the proposed law. But having digested the bill and reviewed the hearing transcript, I’m here to clear up some of the confusion and alarm.

Read on for a longer discussion, but if you want just the highlights of the bill, here they are:

• The vast, vast majority of Georgetown homeowners would continue to not be subject to the BID tax
• If you happen to own a home in the BID zone, you may become subject to a $120 annual tax, but only if you willingly decide to join the BID. Nobody would be forced to join.

First of all, the main alarm about the initial reports over the bill stemmed from the belief that the bill would enable BIDs (including Georgetown’s BID) to tax all the residents. Let me be clear: that is not in the bill and it is not going to happen.

It would be probably helpful to briefly describe how the Georgetown BID gets its funding in the first place. It gets its funding by way of a supplemental tax that the city levies on commercial properties located in the BID zone. Roughly that includes all the commercial buildings along M and Wisconsin, and most of the commercial buildings south of M. Here is a map:

Commercial buildings located in the blue shape above get taxed an additional 0.1622% on their assessed value every year. (That’s on top of the approximately 1.7% they pay for normal real estate taxes). This generated about $5 million for the BID’s operations last year.

So to be crystal clear on this: if you don’t live in the blue shape above, you will not pay a BID tax under any circumstance. There is no plan or proposal to increase the BID zone.

But what if you do live in a building inside the blue zone? If it has a commercial presence (i.e. a store on the first floor) you probably already pay a BID tax (or your landlord does). If, however, you live in a purely residential building in the zone, you probably don’t pay the tax.

Occasionally an ostensibly residential building in the zone has been levied the BID tax over the years. For example, over the past eight years, 19 properties in the BID zone that are labeled “residential” were at least temporarily levied the BID tax. In most, if not all, of those cases it was in situations where the property did in fact have some commercial presence or, alternatively, were vacant. Let me put it this way: if you own a building in the BID zone, you probably already know if you’ve paid the BID tax or not.

What appears to have alarmed people is that the new bill contains a provision enabling BID’s to tax residential units inside their respective zones. The levy would be significantly smaller than the normal BID tax. It would be just $120 per unit (i.e. per single family home, or per condo unit, etc.). Critically, the bill would not levy the tax on these homes unless the homeowner or condo board agrees to it. In other words, it would allow homeowners or condo boards to join the BID as members if they wanted to, but not against their wishes.2

Additional terms that seem to have troubled people include a provision that authorizes BID’s to increase the BID levy by 5% a year and an extension of the BID renewal terms from 5 years to 10. On the first, the Georgetown BID already has the authority to increase its levy by 5%, so the bill’s language has no effect here. On the second, it would be a change to extend the BID renewal terms to 10 years.

Personally I can see arguments for and against this change. For instance, following the incredible improvement in town-gown relations with Georgetown University, the parties agreed to allow the school to shift from a 10-year campus plan term to a 20-year plan. Having a longer term enables the school to take a much longer view on things like major construction and enrollment figures. But I can also see how not having a more frequent check-in could cause issues, like those that existed with the school before the creation of the Georgetown Community Partnership.

It’s unclear whether this bill will even become law. The Council period ends in two months, and any bills not adopted by January expire. So there’s a good chance this will have been much ado about nothing in the end.

1

DC Code § 47–2853.111, which states that “For the purposes of this part, the term “practice of land surveying” means providing professional services including consultation, investigation, testimony evaluation, expert technical testimony, planning, mapping, assembling and interpreting reliable scientific measurements and information relative to the location, size, shape or physical features of the earth, improvements on the earth, the space above the earth, or any part of the earth, and utilization and development of these facts and interpretation into an orderly survey map, plan, report, description, or project.” Further, DCMR 17-1519.1 establishes that “A person must be licensed pursuant to this chapter and the Act to practice or offer to practice engineering or land surveying in the District of Columbia”.

2

I guess if you own a condo and the board votes to join against your wishes, then in that case I suppose you’ve been forced into it. But that seems like an issue between you and your condo board.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Mapping Georgetown project now a book.
• La Bonne Vache promises to rebuild.

This has been a dry and hot fall so far, which is not great for fall foliage. But what ever sort of fall display we’ll get is about to arrive. So here is my annual guide on how best to enjoy the fall foliage around Georgetown:

Fall foliage is a little late this year in Georgetown due to the warmer days. But it’s right around the corner. And when it arrives, there are plenty places to take it in right here without hopping off for the country.

In 2013, Casey Trees pulled together some recommended walking routes around the city to take in the brightly changing leaves. In Georgetown it recommended a meandering trail through the heart of the village to enjoy its sugar maples:

Sugar maples are definitely the kings of New England foliage, but around here they can be hit or miss. What species that does knock it out of the park around here are ginkgoes. I am not generally a fan of ginkgoes-their fruit smells awful and the don’t really create much in the way of shade-but I admit their bright yellow fall foliage is pretty spectacular.

It’s actually still a little early for Ginkgoes, but in a couple weeks you could do a nice ginkgo tour through Georgetown. You would start at the south end of Rose Park and walk up 27th st. Then jog over to Cambridge Pl. and walk up Avon to R St. Then make your way down to Potomac St. for the grand finale.

It will be beautiful, although your shoes will smell like dog poop.

But if you have other trees you’re looking for, then look no further than this updated map by Casey Trees that identifies trees by species, highlighting those with good fall color. Here is what it looks like:

You can even filter the map to show just one type of tree. For instance, here is all the maples:

And here are all ginkgoes (they’re the pale yellow dots):

If you’re like me, your strolls probably take you to the same blocks. But this time of year is the best time to get out there and explore different blocks. A stunning tree might be waiting for you!

As I described in more detail back in September, an application to open a new cannabis retailer shop at 1658 33rd St. appeared to be based on a flawed measurement that purported to show that the proposed location was more than 400 feet away from another existing store. As the law prohibits stores from being opened with 400 feet from another store, this was key to allowing the permit application to proceed.

This measurement was suspicious for several reasons. The first was that a simple measurement by Google Maps or a more exact measurement using the city’s own geographic software indicated that the two locations were about 370 feet apart. The other reason the applicant’s measurement was suspicious was that it was performed by someone who does not appear to be a licensed surveyor in DC.

To put the question fully to bed, the ANC hired its own actually licensed surveyor to conduct a legal field measurement. And the answer came back last week: the two properties are 376.4 feet apart, just like we said they were.

I’ve submitted the report to the ABC Board and requested that the placard be revoked (again). But if they insist on us presenting the evidence at the protest hearing in January, we’ll do that instead. In any event, we have stood up for the law being enforced as written and we expect the board to rule in our favor.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on the Le Bon Vache fire.
• Spooky walking tour.
• Georgetown Ministry Center celebrates my wonderful colleague, Mimsy Lindner.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m dipping back into the DC Historical Society’s archive. This particular shot shows the south side of the M and Thomas Jefferson intersection. It’s from 1959.

Where now stands the Barnes and Noble, once a Ford car dealership once stood. In fact, the whole shape of the building, with its huge open spaces and big windows, reflects that the building was purpose-built to sell cars. It was constructed in 1929 as the location of the first Ford dealership in DC. For many years it was called Parkway Ford.

Later it was Parkway Dodge before closing up in the late 60s. In 1970 it was converted to a three-screen movie theater, the Cerebus (get it?). That remained until 1993. After several years of renovations, Barnes and Noble open in 1995. They remained until closing in 2011. The Nike Store moved in in 2012 and remained for about ten years before Barnes and Noble moved back in in 2024.

So remarkably this large building has housed just four different businesses since the 20s.

Popular French burger bistro, La Bonne Vache, went up in flames Sunday night. As reported elsewhere, the fire was started by a spontaneous explosion in the circuit breaker. Thankfully, despite the large amount of fire damage, no one was hurt. The fire started late in the evening as dinner service was winding down and the restaurant was (presumably) not as packed as it typically is. I shudder to think what the story would be if it happened during their busy rush, with the dozens of people in line outside possibly hampering the emergency exit.

This is a big blow to owners Claire and Ari Wilder, who opened the restaurant to immediate rave reviews and crowds in 2024. And to their credit they immediately started a Go Fund Me for the benefit of the restaurant’s staffers possibly put out of work due to the fire.

Also harmed by this are the two residents who live in the unit above the restaurant, who were evacuated as well. It is unclear from reports when they will be able to return to their homes. I hope it’s soon

And let’s also hope the restaurant comes back soon! Although the recent precedence of a fire at Wingo’s is not great. Long fights with the insurance company kept that spot closed for years. Here’s hoping this case resolves much faster.

Every month (except January and August), the Old Georgetown Board’s agenda and the applicants’ submitted materials offers a window into what retail stores are coming. That’s because the stores need to submit the signs for approval and they generally like to have signs up before they open.

But sadly this month there is just one such store: Guizio. This store is coming to 3061 M St. As I write this, I have no idea what Guizio sells. So I’m going to make a guess then check. Ok, here goes: women’s clothing from an Italian brand.

[checks the Internet]

Ok, not quite on the nose. It’s a NYC based brand from a woman named Danielle Guizio (who is presumably Italian American but not actually an Italian). And while it sells clothing to women, it seems its customers are generally quite young women drawn to its “edgy” style. According to Google, it’s fair to call it the upscale aspirational shop that inspired more teen-oriented brands (that Georgetown is also getting) Garage and Edikted.

Next month I give it another go with new stores to see if I can redeem myself a bit…