Tag Archives: CAG

May 19, 2011 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Businesses and Residents Don’t Support Evans’ Meter Proposal

Today, GM turns over the reins of the Georgetown Metropolitan for a day to his friend and fellow Georgetowner Ken Archer to discuss Jack Evans recent parking proposals:

Councilmember Jack Evans’ proposal to roll back parking meter rates and hours of enforcement in commercial corridors is based, according to Evans, on the complaints and requests of businesses and residents in his ward. However, a survey of organizations representing residents and businesses in Georgetown fails to find anyone asking Evans for his proposal.

His proposal passed out of his committee by a 3-2 vote and Evans frequently points to these complaints in defending the $5.2 million measure.

Evans told the Washington Examiner, “I get consistent complaints about the parking meters everywhere I go in my ward from residents. I can’t go into a restaurant without the owner coming out to complain about the cost of the parking meters.”

Despite this, neither the Georgetown BID nor the largest owner of Georgetown restaurants support the proposal.

The Georgetown ANC and Citizens Association have passed no resolutions and sent no letters to Evans requesting reductions in either meter rates or enforcement hours. In fact, the ANC has been working with DDOT for a couple years to put in place a performance parking pilot that would increase parking turnover and availability by charging market rates at meters. Continue reading →

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March 21, 2011 · 10:00 am

Learn the Secrets of Georgetown Chefs Tonight

Tonight, CAG is holding its March meeting at Boffi in Cady’s Alley. There will be presentations and tastings by Al Nappo (Farmers and Fishers), Tom Crenshaw (Paolo’s), Mike Cherner (Mei N Yu), Chef Kahn (Mate), and Sal Ferro (Clyde’s). It should be one of the better CAG meetings of the year.

The event starts at 7:00 and the address is 3320 M St.

GM’s only wish is that Nappo brings along his bartender. They make some absolutely fantastic (and fantastically inebriating) cocktails.

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March 18, 2011 · 10:00 am

Help GM Catalog the Worst Signs in the Neighborhood

Right now, GM is working on an effort in behalf of CAG to address some of the poor signage in the neighborhood. You may not realize it, but every single sign in Georgetown needs a permit. Depending on how long that sign is up, that permit needs to be approved by either the D.C. Historic Preservation Office (for signs up 30 days or less) or the Old Georgetown Board (for signs up 30 days or more).

In practice, this is a rule observed mostly in the breach. While most significant store signs do go through the proper approval process, most of the cheap and (frankly) ugly signs like the ones above don’t. So to address the proliferation of non-permitted signs, CAG is working with the BID and other to educate the storekeepers about the rules (see this circular) and to catalog the worst offenders for reporting to the Historical Preservation Office. Continue reading →

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December 28, 2010 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by Brownpau.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • GM was snowed-in in a Connecticut house without power yesterday, so normal updates will probably be delayed another day or so.
  • Couple behind hot Georgetown salon break up.
  • CAG lays out its 10 Year Campus Plan objections.

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December 9, 2010 · 10:00 am

Support CAG’s Public Safety Program

For several years, the Citizens Association of Georgetown has run a public safety program that supplements MPD’s normal coverage. It does this by hiring Securitas to patrol the neighborhood and by paying for a reimbursable detail from MPD (where normal MPD officers are paid overtime to work extra hours).

This doesn’t come cheap though. To maintain this program, CAG needs to solicit donations every year. Right now they’re in the middle of one of their fundraisers. So give what you can to support this worthwhile program.

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November 23, 2010 · 10:00 am

The Fight That Wasn’t

Last night, the Citizens Association of Georgetown hosted a debate between the Office of Planning’s Travis Parker and the Committee of 100’s Nancy MacWood over the proposed zoning code rewrite. While GM billed the affair as a potential fight between two rival ideologies, what actually took place was a very respectful, high-minded, and detailed discussion. The event performed a great service for the neighborhood, even if it didn’t provide the fireworks that GM was expecting.

Up first for the evening was Travis Parker. He had the task of explaining what this was all about in the first place and what his office was setting out to do:

What is Zoning?

As explained by Parker, zoning represents the rules and regulations that govern building form and building use. They concern, for instance, what the height of a building is or how large its massing can be. They also determine what you can do with the building, such as open a shop or build a home. They don’t, however, govern design review, construction standards, or specific commercial guidelines (like whether you can have a take-out restaurant or just a sit-down one).

Why the Change?

DC’s zoning code was last rewritten in 1958. Since then, a host of exceptions, overlays, and planned-unit developments have turned the code inside-out. The code is now complex and unreadable by anyone but a land-use lawyer. So the first objective for the change, according to Parker, is to make the code simpler and easier to understand. Continue reading →

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November 22, 2010 · 10:00 am

Don’t Forget: CAG Meeting Tonight on Zoning

As mentioned here last week, tonight the Citizens Association of Georgetown is hosting a meeting to discuss the ongoing zoning rewrite. The meeting will be structured like a debate, with the Office of Planning’s Travis Parker presenting the case for the changes, and Nancy MacWood will present the case against the changes, or at least some of the more controversial topics.

The tenor of the debate could be affected somewhat by the recent hubbub over whether or not Mayor-elect Vincent Gray should keep on the Director of the Office of Planning, Harriet Tregoning. What initiated this recent scuffle is that the Committee of 100 wrote a letter to Gray asking that he not keep Tregoning or DDOT director Gabe Klein. Continue reading →

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November 16, 2010 · 10:00 am

The Coming Zoning Fight

Next Monday, CAG will hold its November meeting and the topic of the night will be zoning. While this topic sounds a bit dry at first, it is an incredibly important topic for the future of Georgetown and the city at large.

Right now the Office of Planning is engaged in a multi-year project to completely revamp the District’s zoning code. Many changes are needed to modernize the code and bring it in line with modern expectations.

The Office of Planning is also using this process to set out a direction for how the city will grow over the next fifty years or so. Central to that vision is the need to add many more residents without adding many more cars. To achieve that goal, among other things, the revised zoning code will encourage higher density of residential units and facilitate more mixed use of residential buildings.

How Georgetown fits into that vision is where the fight will be. The Office of Planning is expected to proposed regulations that apply to all corners of the city immediately upon adoption. An eventual carve out from the general rules for Georgetown is expected though. So what should that carve out look like? What happens in the meantime? Can or should Georgetown turn its back on future of the city’s zoning plan? These questions and many more will have to be answered. Continue reading →

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March 9, 2010 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Dog Sniffing some Georgetown Cupcakes by @heylovedc.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

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December 11, 2009 · 10:00 am

Support CAG’s Public Safety Program

For several years, the Citizens Association of Georgetown has run a public safety program that supplements MPD’s normal coverage. It does this by hiring Securitas to patrol the neighborhood and by paying for a reimbursable detail from MPD (where normal MPD officers are paid overtime to work extra hours).

This doesn’t come cheap though. To maintain this program, CAG needs to solicit donations every year. Right now they’re in the middle of one of their fundraisers. So give what you can to support this worthwhile program.

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