National Politics Likely to Gum Up Local Projects

Several aspects of our supremely screwed up national politics are likely to result in some gummed up construction projects around Georgetown in the near future. Some delays have already taken hold, and more are possible depending on how things move in the near future.

Here’s why:

Every construction project in Georgetown is required to be sent to the Old Georgetown Board for review and approval prior to the permit being issued. The Old Georgetown Board is a federal body and is currently out of action due to the ongoing federal shutdown. Under normal times, the OGB would meet tomorrow for its monthly session to consider the dozens of applications that came in since the October session.

But they didn’t have an October session due to the shutdown. And they won’t have one tomorrow either, barring some unforeseen breakthrough. That means we will have at least two months worth of projects delayed waiting for review by the time it does come back.

One month delay is not unusual. It happens twice a year because the OGB doesn’t meet in January or August. But two months is not normal. And any more months would be even less so.

But that’s not the end of the possible complications.

Last week, Trump fired the entire Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). This is the parent body of the OGB and appoints all its members. As far as I can tell, the OGB members are still in place. But they too could be replaced by the new CFA. But the new CFA has to be actually appointed, which they have not been yet. (They do not, however, need to be confirmed by the Senate, which would likely add yet another delay.)

And here’s another possible wrinkle: I said above that all projects in Georgetown need to be approved by the OGB, but that’s not quite right. They need to be approved by the CFA. For the vast majority of cases in Georgetown, projects approved by the OGB are rubber stamped by the CFA two weeks later via a summary calendar. But they don’t always work that way. For instance, the West Heating Plant project was rejected by the OGB but approved by the CFA.

So we will need a CFA actually appointed to get the approvals Georgetown projects needs. And any major changes the new board introduce could trickle down to Georgetown projects as well.

In summary: at the very least, we will be looking at projects getting delayed. And I would not rule out a brand new Trumpified CFA dramatically changing how things are reviewed and approved in the neighborhood going forward.