Hello and welcome to your October northwest Georgetown ANC update! If there’s a theme to this month’s report, it’s progress!
Volta Park
The first quantum of progress we accomplished recently is with Volta Park. This past month the city finally installed a whole bunch of new “big belly” trash cans in the park:
This came primarily from the diligent efforts of (and financial contributions from) the Friends of Volta Park. The group has been asking for these rat-proof cans for years and it’s great to see those efforts pay off.
The city also added a new food waste bin that can collect both leftovers from picnics in the park (within certain limits) and residents who don’t use the pick-up service (or those that do and don’t want to wait):
Here is a video on how the food waste bins work:
All good progress for humans! (I like to imagine that a rat ANC commissioner is right now drafting his own constituent report complaining about this terrible development.)
The Lobby
Opening a little over a year ago, the Lobby bar at 1660 33rd St. became a nuisance to the immediate area almost immediately. When it was first proposed the year prior, the neighbors, the Citizens Association and I all were nervous about the impact the rear patio would have on the nearby residences. But rather than fight the license all the way to a hearing (a hearing we could lose), we negotiated a comprehensive settlement agreement that limited the hours that the bar could use the patio and put other restrictions on things like speakers and televisions.
But when the bar opened, it was as if that agreement didn’t exist. The patio would regularly remain open hours past the required closing time. The bar would sometimes use loud speakers that could at times be heard a block away. And it installed a large screen television in the patio to broadcast sports.
Let me linger for a second on that last part. The agreement was crystal clear that no screen of any sort was allowed on the patio. Despite this, the bar erected the TV shortly after opening. During the protest hearing described below, the owner, Rassam Rad, claimed that the TV was just there to show the bar’s logo and didn’t even have a connection to allow sports to be shown.
This was clearly not true, as shown by a photo taken by a neighbor1:
Despite repeated complaints to both the bar and the city, the behavior continued unabated.
Then soon after these problems arose, the bar’s license came up for renewal. (It came up for renewal so quickly because all tavern licenses get renewed at the same time). The neighbors, CAG and the ANC decided to protest the renewal given the record of noncompliance.
Long story already not short: We eventually participated in a hearing in the spring describing all the bad behavior of the bar and asked the ABC board to cancel the patio from the license entirely. (I’ve had basically zero complaints about the interior operation of the bar, other than how they manage trash, and have no issue with it continuing). After months of delay, the board finally issued an opinion last month somewhat in our favor.
The board did not eliminate the patio entirely, unfortunately. But it did reduce the hours by one for each day. So under the original license, the patio was supposed to close 10 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11 pm Friday and Saturday. Now it will have to close at 9 pm Sunday through Thursday and 10 pm on Friday and Saturday. They also will have to actually have the trash collected every day from the front of the bar, as it originally agreed to, and stop using the alleyway to store trash.
Of course this only matters if they actually live by it, or the city holds them to it. So maintaining diligence is essential. But a marker has been put down. Any further bad behavior could mean the license is revoked entirely. Let’s hope the bar takes the message to heart.
Cannabis Store
Speaking of that block, another ABCA issue is now brewing there. Next door to the Lobby someone is seeking a license to open a retail cannabis shop. The ANC has generally been amenable to these applications as they undercut and mostly destroyed the unlicensed pot shop market. Like with liquor licenses, we seek a comprehensive settlement agreement that establishes clear responsibilities for the licensee and has so far resulted in few problems.
The issue with this particular location is that it is too close to another licensed cannabis retailer at 1641 Wisconsin Ave. Under the law, no cannabis retailer can open within 400 feet (as a crow flies) of another one. These locations are about 375 feet apart, as the city’s own mapping software shows:
I pointed this out to ABCA when the establishment was first “placarded” (i.e. they published their intent to get a license). The ABC board agreed with me and the application was revoked.2
But then the applicant appears to have hired an architect (but not a surveyor) to submit a report that refutes both a basic Google Maps measurement and the city’s own geographic data. This new report concluded, conveniently, that the two buildings were actually 400.4 feet apart. This was submitted to the ABC board, which decided to defer any ultimate geographic assessment to a protest hearing and re-authorized the application.
I am certain this architect’s report is flawed. I am also confident that it constitutes a violation of DC law, since only licensed surveyors can do surveys, particularly surveys that are intended to be submitted to the DC government.
So in consultation with my ANC colleagues I’ve decided to hire our own (actually licensed) surveyor to prove once again that these two properties are too close to allow two cannabis retailers.
It’s important to stay firm on this. We need to send a message to individuals seeking to open here that this sort of BS won’t be tolerated. It’s unfortunate that the ABC board has already fallen for it. So it’s up to us to actually enforce that law as written.
Reservoir Road
And last in the list of progress is the paving of the 3300 block of Reservoir Rd. Until this last week, as far as I can tell it hasn’t been paved in at least 17 years. After incredible advocacy and diligence from its residents, the block was finally paved!
This will be more than a small improvement. Residents on this block have long complained that large trucks using the street create huge banging noises when they go over the many potholes. Residents were even worried about their foundations, the shaking was so bad.
And this week the city is planning on repaving the 3400 block of Reservoir Rd., which was also in rough shape.
So now it will be like riding on a silk carpet from Wisconsin to 35th St. Progress!
I attempted to have this photo entered as evidence during the hearing. The board refused. Their reasoning was that at that point Rad had conceded that there was a TV there and had agreed to remove it. I tried to argue that aside from that, the photo demonstrated that Rad had been lying earlier in the hearing when he said it wasn’t even able to broadcast sports. The Board didn’t see it my way and kept it out of evidence. But you can see for yourself.
How it got that far you ask? ABCA sent out an inspector with a measuring wheel. Since the direct line goes through the African Embassy and runs diagonally across Wisconsin Ave., the line he measured wasn’t as straight as it should have been.
