Category Archives: ANC

February 25, 2011 · 10:00 am

The ANC’s Anti-Ten Year Plan Resolution: The Enrollment Section

As mentioned yesterday, the ANC has issued a draft resolution regarding Georgetown University’s proposed ten year campus plan. As GM predicted, the resolution is critical of the plan, although it went into a lot more detail than he expected. So as promised, now that GM is back from his vacation he’s ready to dive into the resolution step by step and try to give you a little context and his own take. Today he’ll address the enrollment numbers section.

Background:

The resolution begins by discussing some of the historical context of the proposed ten year plan. Specifically it focuses in on the enrollment numbers that GU agreed to under its 2000 campus plan. According to the resolution, G.U. “agreed to house more students on campus and stated that by building the Southwest Quad dormitory, the number of undergraduate students living off-campus in the neighborhood by 2010 would be greatly reduced.”

That’s mostly true, although it glosses over some of the more complicated parts of the history of the 2000 plan. While GM won’t go too far into the weeds, the basic facts are these: in 2000 G.U. proposed to maintain the undergraduate cap from 1990 of 5,627 until they completed the Southwest Quad, at which point the undergraduate cap would rise to 6,016. Enrollment was to be determined by averaging the fall and spring semester’s enrollment numbers (G.U.’s fall enrollment is normally around 10% larger than the spring enrollment due mostly to students studying abroad).

The Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) initially rejected this stepped increase and G.U. sued. This led to seven years of litigation, that ultimately resulted in Georgetown getting to raise its undergraduate cap to 6,016.

One of the reasons G.U. won the litigation was that it agreed to move 84% of its undergraduates on to campus. This promise, along with the plans for the Southwest Quad, swayed the ANC. The body voted to support the plan conditioned on those two factors. This left CAG to fight the plan alone, which it was not well prepared to do.

Either way, as promised G.U. does now house roughly 84% of its undergrads on campus, up from 79% in 2000. But it’s not really accurate to say that they moved five percent of the undergrads back to campus because they added an averaged number of 389 students to the total (and some semesters the total undergrad number has been as high as 6,212). Thus if there is a difference between the real number of traditional undergrad students living off campus now compared with ten years ago, its pretty negligible.

But this numbers game was right there in the 2000 campus plan. So it’s not quite right to say that G.U. promised in 2000 to greatly reduce the number of off campus undergrads. The ANC probably should have seen this, but they apparently didn’t. Continue reading →

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February 24, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Releases Draft Objection to GU Campus Plan

GM spent yesterday morning sunbathing in San Juan, and last night clearing the snow off his car at BWI, so he’s still suffering from a bit of whiplash. Unfortunately he got in too late last night to fully digest the ANC’s draft findings and recommendations regarding GU’s campus plan. But that shouldn’t stop you from taking a look.

From a quick glance, it looks pretty comprehensive. It identifies 15 different findings along with relevant recommendations. They range from student caps to parking. And they didn’t object to every element of the plan, such as the roof enclosure for Keough Field.

Anyway, have a look yourself. Once GM gets settled, he’ll have some more to say on it.

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February 23, 2011 · 10:00 am

Ten Year Plan on Next Week’s ANC Agenda

GM writes this from a hotel in San Juan with the ocean waves crashing below, so he’s going to be brief: next week is the showdown at the ANC meeting over the ten year plan. The ANC already had a special meeting a little while back to hear out each side and the public. It was a nice civics display, but the fact is that there was never really any question where they are going to end up. They will object to the plan.

GM won’t go into it now since his drink is getting warm, but suffice it to say that for several reasons, the neighbors and the ANC are much better positioned to win the fight against GU unlike they ultimately did ten years ago. Either way, it’ll be a close fight.

There are other items on the menu for next week too, including the Post Office project and the Hurt Home. When GM gets back to town, he’ll go into those a bit more.

Adios.

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February 1, 2011 · 8:00 am

ANC Roundup: Keep It Down Edition

Photo by Ian Quantis.

Last night, the ANC met for its February session. All in all it was quite a snooze-fest. However, one item was of particular interest to the crowd: noise.

Don’t Bring the Noise

At the top of the meeting, MPD Lieutenant Hedgecock gave his ordinary monthly public safety session. He was quick to trumpet that there was not one mugging in Georgetown in all of January. Which is great, but he probably jinxed the perfect month by mentioning it. Either way, the meat of his presentation was on a new law that came into effect today. It reworks the city’s disturbing the peace laws to state that it is an arrestable offense to create a noise “likely to annoy or disturb” between 10:00 pm and 7:00 am. It is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or $500.

This obviously piqued the interest of the ANC and the crowd. They were quick to see it as a panacea to all the neighborhood’s noise problems. This is because it is enormously arbitrary. All the police officer needs to do is to determine that a noise is “likely to annoy or disturb.” He doesn’t even need to have a complaining witness.

GM sees a couple potential problems with this law. First of all, it requires a cop to actually arrest someone to enforce it. That’s a dramatic step that a lot of police officers might not want to take when simply dealing with some rowdy partiers. Second, while a police officer doesn’t need a complaining witness, he does need to witness the noise himself. So he needs to actually see the pack of noisy revelers walk by, you can’t phone it in.

Finally, it’s an awfully vague law. Disturbing the peace laws have frequently been used for undesirable or unjust ends. For instance, it was for disturbing the peace that Henry L. Gates was arrested in the wake of “breaking into” his own home. GM doesn’t necessarily think this law will result in such an outcome, but the arbitrariness of the law makes him a little queasy.

Maybe if GM could read the law he’d feel more comfortable, but he couldn’t find it when he looked. Update: Here it is.

Transportation Block

The ANC considered a block of transportation matters. First it considered the possibility of adding a leading left arrow to the south Safeway exit. Right now the exit displays a red light while pedestrians cross Wisconsin. Since there is no crosswalk to the south of the exit, it is reasoned that a left turn ought to be allowed. Makes sense to GM, although the ANC also complained about the shortness of the cycle allowing pedestrians to cross the exit itself. Right now while the cars are sitting waiting to exit while pedestrians cross Wisconsin, no pedestrians are allowed to cross in front of the cars. Arguably, rather than allowing a leading left turn, it would be better to simply allow pedestrians to cross the exit while they also can cross Wisconsin. The ANC, however, didn’t see it this way and passed a resolution asking DDOT to consider the leading left turn and whether the pedestrian phase to cross the exit couldn’t be lengthened.

Second, the ANC considered whether the very bottom of Thomas Jefferson St. couldn’t be made two way. The idea is that there is a Colonial garage about halfway up the block from K St. When cars exit that garage they have no choice but to head up to M and contribute to the traffic problem. Having seen that block of TJ St. work as a two way street during the bridge construction, the ANC would like to make enough of the street two way to allow cars to leave the garage and head down to K St. Continue reading →

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January 26, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: Resolution Edition

It seems like it was just last week when the ANC last met. Of course, it was. But that one wasn’t a normal meeting, and it doesn’t get us out of having the normal February one. Oh well.

The biggest item on the agenda, of course, is to pass a resolution on GU’s Ten Year Plan. GM doesn’t have any inside information on this, but it doesn’t take Deep Throat to know that the ANC is going to pass a resolution against the plan. GM should say, however, that as of today the item doesn’t actual appear on the agenda. But the ANC has stated previously that they intend to adopt a resolution on the issue next week.

Two interesting items actually on the agenda include the Georgetown Post Office project and some possible traffic changes to Thomas Jefferson St. Continue reading →

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January 13, 2011 · 10:00 am

Special ANC Meeting Next Thursday to Discuss GU Ten Year Plan

Next Thursday (January 20th), the ANC (or rather the Committee of the Whole of the ANC) will meet to discuss Georgetown University’s Ten Year Plan. The meeting is going to be held at the Duke Ellington School at 6:30 pm.

At the meeting, the ANC will hear from Georgetown University and various community groups, such as CAG and the Burleith Citizens Association. It’s not clear yet to GM whether the public will be invited to chime in, but it seems unlikely that at least some public testimony won’t be allowed.

Any ANC resolution on the matter won’t be adopted until the normal January 31st ANC meeting. But GM will let you in on a little not-at-all-secret secret: the ANC is going to object to the campus plan. Continue reading →

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January 4, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Round Up: Good PR Edition

DC Triathlon by Arjubx.

Once more unto the triathabreach!

Last night the ANC met for its first session for the futuristically sounding year 2011. And pretty much right at the top of the agenda was a resumption of the dispute over triathlons in Georgetown.

For those of you who missed it last month, the ANC demanded to know how much the for-profit enterprise that runs the DC Triathlon (and the Nations Triathlon) donates to charity. In particular they wanted to know roughly what percentage of the event’s revenues went to charity. The owner of the company, Charles Brodsky, refused to answer the question, so the ANC told him to come back when he could.

Skip to last night. Representatives of the triathlon, Molly Quinn and Jill Hansen (Brodsky wasn’t there), talked up the merits of the organization that benefits from the charity (which they also run) called Achieve Kids Tri. As part of the presentation, Quinn asked a little girl named Eliza Bowling to come up and give a speech about her experiences with Achieve and how it helped her fight her own childhood obesity.

It was a move of brilliant audience misdirection. Why? Because Bowling had the crowd in her hand talking about how she has already run several triathlons and dropped her BMI significantly. She was great and GM congratulates her on her achievements and her skillful public speaking. But it was almost completely irrelevant. Nobody doubted the merit of the recipient of the charity. That wasn’t the question. The question was whether that recipient was getting enough of the money flowing through the event to justify turning over a public good to a private enterprise. Continue reading →

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November 30, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Round Up: Awkward Edition

DC Triathlon by arjubx.

Last night the ANC met for its final 2010 session, and one theme dominated the meeting: awkward. As in “awwwk-waard”. On multiple occasions last night, GM winced at the social discomfort on display. But that’s what made it such a great meeting!

Special Events

Early on in the meeting, the commission turned to the question of special events. There has been a growing perception among the commissioners that the number of special events in Georgetown that require street closings has been on the rise. To combat that, the ANC is working to develop certain guiding principles as to whether to approve an event or not. The two main principles are whether the event is mainly charitable in nature and what benefits it has to Georgetown. GM probed a little on the second prong, since it sounded to him a little like extortion, but really what that principle entails is more of a qualitative look at how cooperative the group has been and how much they have done to minimize the impact on the neighborhood.

So with that in mind, the commission turned to two proposed events that are asking to shut down some Georgetown streets: the DC Triathlon on June 19th and the Nation’s Triathlon on September 11th. Both of these events are being planned by Charles Brodsky. While the commission focused somewhat on the proposed impact the races would have on the community (the DC Triathlon would only shut down the Whitehurst; the Nation’s Triathlon would shut down the Whitehurst, M St. west of Key Bridge, and Canal Rd.) the discussion soon narrowed in on whether the races are charitable or not. Brodsky was quick to point out that the Nation’s Triathlon has raised $9 million to help fight Leukemia. The commissioners, however, pointed out that his company is still for-profit and they questioned whether the charitable donations even come out of the fees or are simply raised additionally by the competitors. Brodksy stated that some charitable donations do come out of the race fees.

It was already somewhat heated at this point, but it got worse. The commission wanted to know roughly what percentage of the race revenues go to charity. Brodksy said he didn’t know, and that he couldn’t even guess. The commission found this hard to believe. Eventually they asked that he come back and tell them next month what that percentage is. He basically refused to do so. To this Tom Birch asserted that without more information, the commission had no way to know whether this whole thing is a sham. Brodsky didn’t take very well to that comment. The ANC told Brodsky that they’d be happy to work with him to minimize the impact the races have on the community but that he was going to have to work with them or they’d oppose the race. At one point Brodsky said he’d just as well take their rejection. In a word, it was awkward.

But it got worse. Continue reading →

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November 2, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Round Up: Traffic Alert Edition

Photo by Runwashington.com.

Last night the ANC met for its November session. Thankfully it was a short agenda, but really all that means is that they’ll find a way to stretch out the proceedings (actually in all fairness they finished up relatively early).

Those Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (And Excessive) Street Closings

The ANC has been making some noise for sometime about the ever increasing number of street closings in Georgetown for various marathons, 10ks, funwalks, etc. They have particularly been critical of events that show up at the last minute. These typically have a disproportionate effect on lower Georgetown, although as demonstrated last weekend when three Potomac bridges were out, they can affect all Georgetown residents.

So rather than respond on a case-by-case basis, which doesn’t seem to work, the ANC is going to start to take a more proactive approach with the city, and in particular the Mayor’s Special Event Task Force. It’s not clear, though, how much they’ll be able to convince the city to limit the number of events coming through Georgetown. Tom Birch had the perceptive point that working with other neighborhoods to convince the city would increase Georgetown’s sway (and conveniently make it less of a “whoa is Georgetown”-thing, which doesn’t win many sympathetic ears).

Ron Lewis was particularly concerned that these events be charitable and not a profit-making enterprise. Birch also suggested the city come up with some more locations that don’t affect residents (GM can’t think of many of those that aren’t NPS land).

So after spending a good five minutes railing against the creeping menace of races, the ANC turned to its next item:

Lawyers Have a Heart 10K

After listening to the commissioners complain about races, a representative of the Lawyers Have a Heart 10k race presented their plans for their next race. It will be in June 2011 and will involve shutting down K St., the Whitehurst, and Canal Rd. Continue reading →

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October 27, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: Judge For Yourself Edition

After GM had his say yesterday on the ANC, you can come next ANC meeting next Monday and see the ANC in action for yourself.

So what’s on tap? Unfortunately, not much. Five of the eight Old Georgetown Board items are residential, which can lead to heated discussions, but are rarely newsworthy. A good way to think of them is to view them as learning experiences as either how to or, more often, how not to go about doing home renovations.

As for the commercial matters, one thing jumps out to GM: Billy Reid, a high end clothing store, is moving into the space recently vacated by Riccardi at 3213 M St.

Another item GM noticed is that the new Thunder Grill, which installed a huge and ugly awning without any approvals, is getting reviewed by the Old Georgetown Board, but the ANC put it on the no-review calendar (they do that when they trust the OGB to make the aesthetic call).  Continue reading →

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