ANC Preview: New Faces Edition

Next Monday, the ANC will meet for the first time in 2011. This will be the first meeting for the two new members of the ANC: Jake Sticka and Jeff Jones. They’ll get to jump right into since this is decently meaty and potentially dramatic meeting.

DC Tri-it-again-thlon

You may recall that last month things got pretty awkward at the meeting with the ANC challenged the owner of the DC Triathlon, Charles Brodsky, to disclose just how charitable his triathlons are. He refused to even give a rough estimate. The ANC was dubious and told him to come back next month (i.e. now) with some more meat on the bone in terms of just how charitable the race is (the reason the charitable level is even an issue is that the ANC is trying to make it a standard by which they will approve or oppose special events that shut down Georgetown streets).

Adding to the tension is the fact that Brodsky is on the ABC board. The fact he stuck around after the discussion of his event to hear ABC matters discussed drew even more controversy.

So according to the agenda, the DC Triathlon will be discussed (GM’s not sure why the other triathlon run by Brodsky, the Nation’s Triathlon, is not on the agenda). Will the ANC grill Brodsky again? Will he come prepared to actually answer questions that he really ought to be able to answer? We’ll see.

Capital Bikeshare

Another topic carrying over from last month, the possible location of new Capital Bikeshare locations will be discussed. Last month the topic was raised simply to get the public discussion going. GM is happy to report that the response at the meeting was uniformly positive.

GM understands that the ANC has focused in on three possible locations: The Jackson School (across from Montrose Park), the Library, and Hyde-Addison. The respective stake-holders of the possible locations all appear to be in support of placing a station there. So it seems likely that the ANC will adopt a resolution officially requesting that DDOT consider placing stations at these three locations.

Of course, DDOT is under no obligation to actually listen. While they have recently announced plans to roll out 20 new stations this spring, they haven’t announced where those would be. The hope with having an ANC resolution is that DDOT will be more inclined to put stations where people have voiced support and any possible conflict has already been sorted out.

Hurt Home

The Argos Group will come back to the ANC to discuss their plans for the Hurt Home. It’s been a long time since they’ve come to the ANC and their plans have changed significantly since then. When they last presented, they were discussing 46 condos and a large rear addition. After the neighbors (full disclosure: GM is one of them) freaked out over those plans, Argos worked with the city to scale back the project significantly (they had to work with the city over it since to reduce the number of market rate units required the purchase price to drop).  Now the plan is for 15 units, all within the historic building. No additions will be made.

At this point the only possible hang-ups appear to revolve around the alley. To access the parking lot in the back of the building, the tenants will use the existing alleyway (which already services the existing parking lot). The alleyway is probably too narrow to handle much more usage, so it Argos is proposing to widen it slightly. Either way, it’s not clear that the alley issue will even be part of the OGB review. All the parking and alley issues will be part of the zoning waiver process that will occur later (a variance is needed since the building is already non-conforming).

For the record, GM still thinks two off-street parking spots per apartment is way too much. But he admits that he’s a lonely voice on that measure. Either way, placing a Zip-car or two in that lot is a no-brainer.