Tonight, the ANC meets for its May session. It looks like a relatively uneventful agenda, but that’s never stopped the ANC from going long before!
EastBanc
EastBanc returns again tonight to discuss one of their proposed large scale projects. This time its the Verizon building project on Wisconsin just south of the canal. The project has gone through several revisions. The first major change was to shift away from an all-stone project to a mixture of brick on the Wisconsin Ave. side and stone facing the canal. Last month, however, the Old Georgetown Board still objected to the design. The objections focused on the imposing nature of the stone wall facing the canal, and the confusing facade facing Wisconsin (GM’s seen it, and it is a bit jumbled).
We’ll see tonight how they respond.
Capital Bikeshare
Despite efforts to identify locations in the neighborhood for new Capital Bikeshare stations, DDOT proposed two other locations, neither of which make a ton of sense (one is at the east end of Rose Park, the other is in the Long and Foster parking lot on Wisconsin Ave.)
Tonight the ANC is taking the first steps to politely request that DDOT consider the locations that the ANC first identified. There is a bit of a fear that if the ANC complains too much about the proposed stations, DDOT will simply take them away. The ANC has to strike the right tone by saying that Georgetown definitely wants these two stations, they just need to be relocated to more desirable spots.
One spot that was not previously considered, but which might make a ton of sense, is at that triangle park between Pennsylvania Ave. and M St. next to the gas station. The park itself is owned by the federal government, and DDOT hasn’t worked out an arrangement with the feds yet to locate stations on federal land. But the sidewalk next to the park is city owned. And with the park next to the sidewalk, a station could go on the city-owned sidewalk without blocking the way (pedestrians would just walk around the station onto the federally owned part). While this still wouldn’t get a station into the residential blocks, it would provide a better option for lower East Village residents than currently exists.
Another great option that still needs to be explored is the parking lot of the Marvelous Market. It would require their assent, but DDOT apparently worked something out with Long and Foster, so it seems like that’s not an insurmountable problem.
Odds and Ends
There are a few other items that might be of some interest on the agenda:
- Dale Overmyer Architects is taking over the old Proper Topper space on P St.
- The agenda confirms that Ice Berry is indeed moving into the old Originals space.
- The owner of 3254 O St. is trying to subdivide her property again, an attempt that has been prevented multiple times in the past.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Call me crazy but I actually like where DDOT has proposed the bikestations – especially the Rose Park location – but as you have stated perhaps the most important thing is that we get stations anywhere!
Don’t screw it up ANC!
@Dave, I also like the proposed stations, but my opinion is very self-interested, as I’m a block and a half from the Wisconsin and Reservoir location. This past weekend’s French Market would have seen massive usage of a station there.
Overall, I think it’s important to hit all the corners of Georgetown (including something close to the Key Bridge for to-and-from Rosslyn traffic), but see incredible tradeoffs in having to pick 1 or 2 stations at a time.
Maybe EastBanc can pay for a station or two near one of their proposed properties, and we can get 3-4 new Georgetown stations in the summer wave of CaBi expansion? (Wishful thinking, I know).