Hello and welcome to your September Northwest Georgetown ANC update! I hope you had a great summer. Or I should say I hope you are having a great summer, since it will be in the high 90s this week!
ANC Meeting
We are holding our September ANC meeting tomorrow night (Monday). It will be at the usual time and place (6:30 PM at Visitation, with a Zoom option).
One item of note that is on the agenda concerns the Georgetown University campus plan. The school is seeking a modification to the plan as it pertains to certain student enrollment caps. In short, the changes are reasonable and I support them.
Specifically, the school is seeking changes to two student enrollment caps and is proposing a new condition that will help prevent the changes in the enrollment cap impacting residents. The first cap change is to the undergraduate limit. Right now the school is limited to 6,675 undergraduate students attending GU “on the hilltop” (i.e. on the main campus here in Georgetown). The school is asking to lift that by 100 students (or a mere 1.5%). The change is needed to help the school address the substantial financial blow that the actions of the federal government has taken since last year, particularly with regards to international students.
As part of the change, the school will take several concrete steps to ensure that the increase in students on campus won’t actually result in an increase in students living in the neighborhoods off-campus. This includes several “carrots” designed to incentivize students to remain on campus both Junior and Senior years. Most notable is that students who agree to live on campus both years will get substantial priorities in housing selection, as well as certain fees being waived.
But if the carrots fail, the proposed zoning change has a substantial stick too. If the number of students living off-campus exceeds 970 (a number agreed upon by the Georgetown Community Partnership, or GCP) the expanded undergraduate cap will be reduced commensurately until the number of off-campus students drops down below the 970 threshold again.
Moreover, the school is agreeing to take concrete steps to better ensure that undergraduate students don’t bring cars to Georgetown. The student code of conduct prohibits this already, but enforcement has been difficult. Going forward, the school will require students to consent to a DMV-check to identify any cars attached to them. Then the school will use automated license plate readers attached to university cars to drive through the neighborhood and identify students who have violated this rule. Those students will be ordered to get rid of the car and may be punished further if they fail to comply.
The change will also include an expansion of the Medical School enrollment cap by 80 students, increasing by 20 each of the next four years. To address the possible impact from these students driving and parking in the neighborhood, the school will make on-campus parking available to any medical school student who needs it.
These changes were approved by the GCP this summer. If you’re not familiar with the GCP, it’s an organization made up of university and hospital reps along with an active group of community volunteers, including members of CAG, the Burleith Citizens Association and others. It was established in 2012 to radically improve town-gown relationships here in Georgetown. And it has been immensely successful at that. The amount of trust and good will that has been fostered between the school and the community is a credit to the work of the GCP and the many volunteers who have given countless hours towards its success.
The very fact that Georgetown can propose an increase in the student enrollment and get support from groups that 20 years ago would have (and did) sue the university over similar requests is truly remarkable.
Volta Park
The field has been open sometime now, and a couple problems have already emerged, which I am trying to get addressed. The first is that the part of the field north of the new fence appears to be overlooked by DPR mowing crews. The last time I checked, the grass was about a foot high. I’ve reached out to DPR to ensure it be addressed promptly and regularly, going forward.
Secondly, some (including myself) have noticed that the outfield grass sometimes has been a bit soggy, even without a recent rain shower. I notified the DPR rep in charge of the construction and he responded that it is likely due to the sprinklers needing to be calibrated to the slightly cooler temps we were having. In other words, through the heat of the summer the irrigation fed the field a lot of water, but as it cools off, that water doesn’t evaporate quite as fast and as a result we have some soggy spots. He promised that the sprinklers would get re-calibrated. If the problem persists, let me know.
Finally, members of the Friends of Volta Park have been working with the city on the installation of new rat-proof trash cans. As part of that, the city also wants to install a food waste bin. This would enable participants in the food compost program to deposit their food scraps in the bin without waiting for the curbside pick-up. Moreover, the curb-side pick-up program is restricted to a limited number of houses. But anyone can use the food waste bin, once it is installed. This includes people who want to compost their home food, but it also includes people who are eating in the park. For instance, used pizza boxes are perfect for the food waste bins. This will keep them from taking up space in the trash bins and keep them from the rats, to boot.
Both the rat-proof trash bin and the similarly rat-proof food waste bin will be located in the northwest corner of the park.
Two More Years!
I’ve decided to run again for the ANC to keep serving the beautiful people of ANC 2E02! I’ll be on the ballot unopposed (phew). I’ve continued to enjoy serving in this roll and I look forward to another two years of progress for the neighborhood!
The Georgetown Metropolitan 