The Georgetown Metropolitan

As previewed here yesterday, significant changes were announced to the proposed Hurt Home development at a community meeting last night. While some reservations over the details remain, all in all the community appears to now support the project.

Unlike the disastrous meeting at Jellef last month, this meeting was much better planned.  Attendees included Jack Evans, and representatives from the Argos Group, the ANC, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development. The meeting began with some introductory remarks from Jack Evans, Ron Lewis, and Freddie Peaco (who has a personal history with the Hurt home for the Blind and gave an emotional speech in favor of increasing the number of units set aside for blind residents). The point that Evans tried to get across was essentially that he got the message from the community and that he won’t let this project move forward until the neighbors are more comfortable with it. Continue reading →

Two big events are on tap today relating to the Hurt Home property at 3050 R St. First, the DC Council Committee on Economic Development and Government and the Environment will continue its round-table discussion on the surplussing of the property (along with six other properties). According to statement made by Jack Evans at the ANC meeting this week, the main purpose of this meeting is for the government to present its case for why the property should be surplussed.

This has been a contentious point for the neighborhood. On June 9th, there was a public meeting held to solicit the public’s ideas for the property. It turned into a bit of a farce since the representatives of the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planing and Economic Development didn’t actually give a formal presentation as to why they thought the property should be surplused (even though they had already accepted an offer from the developer). Thus the public had to respond to an argument they knew nothing about.

So today’s round-table is mostly about the horse catching up to the cart. Continue reading →