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September ANC 1A Meeting Wrap Up

September 13, 2013
The Coupe, located at 3415 11th Street, NW.

The Coupe, located at 3415 11th Street, NW.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a summary of an ANC 1A meeting. Since several of the items will be of interest to the community, I thought I would touch upon some of the more significant ones.

To start with, the ANC voted to support a stipulated liquor license application for The Coupe’s outdoor cafe. The restaurant recently received its public space permit and has an application in to ABRA for the alcohol portion of it.  One overarching concern voiced at the meeting concerned the hours of operation. According to the application notice, the hours of operation and service applied for are:

HOURS OF OPERATIONS
Sunday 8 am – 11 pm Monday through Thursday 7 am – 11 pm Friday 7 am – 1 am and Saturday 8 am – 1 am

SALES /SERVICE AND CONSUMPTION FOR THE SIDEWALK CAFÉ
Sunday through Thursday 10 am – 11 pm Friday and Saturday 10 am -1 am

As owner Constantine Stavropoulos stated at the meeting, he applied for the hours he did so that he could be flexible depending upon when the business is. He doubts that the full outdoor cafe will be used other than peak hours, and noted that other establishments — like Meridian Pint which has no restrictions on hours — shut down their sidewalk service earlier than his applied for hours due to a lessening of business in the evening.

The ABRA application for the coming T.G.I. Fridays at 14th and Monroe Street didn’t fair as well. Several residents from the Samuel Kelsey Apartments (senior housing above the restaurant space) and from Monroe Street attended to oppose the application and the ANC voted to protest the hearing. The protest will preserve the ANC’s standing with ABRA until a Settlement Agreement can be negotiated.

The former Blue Banana space at 3632 Georgia Ave., NW.

The former Blue Banana space at 3632 Georgia Ave., NW.

Closer to home, the Commission approved an amendment to Looking Glass Lounge’s Settlement Agreement which extends their hours of operation to include lunch service. It also passed a letter of support for the former Blue Banana (3632 Georgia) to expand the summer garden in the rear to include the space behind 3630 Georgia — something that has the support of the property owner.

Lastly, the Commission voted to nominate the former Bruce School building as a historic landmark (770 Kenyon). The building is currently home to the Cesar Chavez PCS and in the midst of adding a gymnasium  to the structure. The landmark nomination will not interfere with the construction project.

Kenyon Street Elevation from original drawings by architect William M. Poindexter, dated March 14, 1898.

Kenyon Street Elevation from original drawings by architect William M. Poindexter, dated March 14, 1898.

Categories: ABRA, Historic Preservation Office., Restaurants, Taverns
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Highlights from January 2013 ANC1A Meeting

January 10, 2013

ANC1A logoAs there was no December ANC 1A meeting and since the official minutes from last night’s meeting won’t officially be distributed until next month, I wanted to write this brief post on the major points from last night’s meeting.

The new officers for 2013 are:

  • Thomas Boisver, Chair;
  • Laina Aquiline, Vice Chair;
  • Kent Boese, Secretary; and,
  • Patrick Flynn, Treasurer

There was a presentation on the proposed DC USA parking garage pilot program. Under the current proposal religious organizations, non-profits, and community based organizations will be allowed to park at DC USA on Sundays at a reduced rate of $3.00 for 4 hours between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The normal rate is $5.00 for 4 hours. This pilot project is still under review with no set start date — but the presenter indicated that it could begin in as little time as a month. I’ll provide more information on this as it becomes avaialble.

There were four items under official business — all of them BZA applications. The were:

  • BZA Application #18489 — The V at Georgia Avenue (back ground of the project here). The application was supported with a unanimous vote.
  • BZA Application #18490 — Petco at the DC USA (more about this here). This also received a unanimous vote of support.
  • BZA Application #18500 — 2914 Sherman Avenue (see facade drawing below). This project plans to add a floor to the building in a very similar manner to the one that was added to 2922 Sherman Avenue. There was concern among some Commissioners about the affordability of the condos planned for the building (which are to be market rate). This application received approval of the ANC with 6 votes in support, 3 votes in opposition, and 1 abstention.
  • BZA Application #18511 — 1018 Irving Street. This project is the alley project between Sherman, Irving, 11th, and Columbia Rd. This project also was supported with 8 votes in support and 2 abstentions.

2914 Sherman Avenue(Rendering of facade for renovated 2914 Sherman Avenue)

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UIP Interested in Restoring 770 Park Road

April 15, 2011

770 Park Road is attracting interest from developers

Back in September 2010 I noted that the property at 770 Park Road was on the market and gave some brief details about its history. Since that time I’ve been worried that the property would be attractive to a developer interested in the site and want to raze the building for a larger development.

At the April 13, 2011, ANC 1A meeting the community learned that Urban Investment Partners (UIP) is actually interested in the property but wanted to gauge the level of support from the ANC  for a zoning use variance prior to moving forward with the project. Apparently the property is zoned R4 (residential) and UIP would like to change it to a mixed-use office/retail space.

If UIP is successful in obtaining the zoning variance, they would like to renovate the building and move their office into the upper two floors. Some of the types of retail they mentioned as desirable for the ground floor were a coffee shop, cafe, or other food oriented business.

During their presentation they mentioned that they thought the building once housed a business and that the building was well suited for it. During the comment period I shared the history of the building with UIP and expressed excitement that they desired to restore the building and return it to its original use.

While digging into the building’s history a bit deeper I also learned that its original address was 3423 Sherman Avenue and that after it was the Manor Market it served as a Piggly Wiggly in the early 1920s.

Interior of a Piggly Wiggly from 1918. This interior gives a fair impression of how 770 Park Road would have looked in 1920

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Notes From the ANC 1A Meeting (4/14/10)

April 15, 2010

Morgan's Seafood, located at 3200 Georgia Avenue

Last night’s ANC 1A meeting was livelier than an ANC meeting has been for quite some time. While there were several issues of note for Park View, the issue that will stick in the minds of most attendees of the meeting was that of Romeo Morgan of Morgan’s Seafood.

Morgan arrived at the meeting during the Community Comments portion of the agenda and proceeded to the front of the room where he addressed Commissioner LaKeisha Thomas and Chair Cliff Valenti stating that they had been served with papers and therefore had to remove themselves from the Commission. Both stated that they had not been served with any papers, pointed out that Morgan was on the agenda, and requested Morgan wait his turn — which he did begrudgingly.

When Morgan’s agenda item came before the Commission, he began by speaking calmly. He stated that he had been attempting to come before the Commissioners for some time with no success. Morgan also indicating that he was not able to do so because his Commissioner (Thomas) would not put him on the agenda or return his calls. Morgan’s business before the Commissioners was to seek a liquor license so that he could serve beer for those customers that decided to eat at his establishment. He explained that he wanted to pursue a stipulated license which would allow him to serve alcohol immediately and allow the neighborhood to evaluate how it impacted the neighborhood prior to him applying for an actual license, and pointed out that Morgan’s Seafood has been in business for over 80 years and had had a liquor license previously from 1972-1978.

The sticking point on the issue was the pursuit of the stipulated license. By doing so, Morgan stated that ABRA required for him to include a letter of support from the ANC with his application for the stipulated license. The ANC stated that they did not have enough information to do so and that it has been their practice to take up the issue of a stipulated license in situations where a formal liquor license application was already pending which included details on they type of license sought, size of restaurant, hours of intended operation, etc. Morgan stated he did not want to follow this process.

The conversation quickly disintegrated. Commissioner Thomas was able to ask Morgan a few questions confirming that they had previously spoken, that she had returned phone calls, and that she requested Morgan to follow a process that he has chosen not to follow. Tempers quickly flared. Valenti attempted to maintain order with difficulty. Commissioner Calvin Woodland intervened at one point stating that while a long time supporter of Morgan and his restaurant, Morgan was not helping himself or his cause. Woodland furthered that liquor licenses were privileges, not rights, and that the ANC took applications for them quite seriously and didn’t just hand them out.

With no resolution on the table, Valenti closed the issue. Commissioner William Jordan offered to work with Morgan to assist him with the process. Morgan left the room as calmly as possible but was clearly in an agitated state and could be heard even after his departure.

The following issues were also among those of note:

  • The ANC voted to suspend all grant activity until all paperwork for previous grants had been filed and the ANC was back in compliance with the auditor. Some of the filed quarterly reports still have missing items and paperwork.
  • Life Care, which wants to operate out of 3503 Georgia Avenue, requested and received a letter of support for their application for a certificate of need. Life Care is a hospice organization which provides end of life health care in the home. Only their offices would be at the 3503 location.
  • COINS requested and receive a grant to pay for phone, fax, and internet services from Verizon. Operating out of a basement space at Park Morton, COINS assists the community with GED and Job training support.
  • LAYC presented their concept for the new mural at the Park View Rec Center. After a brief discussion and community comment, the Commissioners voted to support it.

    Approved design for new Rec Center mural

  • Lastly, the Commissioners voted to support Graham’s parking bill that is currently in legislative committee. The bill would 1) reserve 50% of available parking for residents; 2) give every household with a registered vehicle a visitor pass; and 3) allow all households to get a Zone 1 sticker for their cars even if they lived on a street that did not have zoned parking.

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A Few Notes From the ANC 1A Meeting, 3/10/10

March 11, 2010

Of the items on the ANC 1A agenda for 3/10/10, the following were the most relevant to Park View residents.

  • This empty apartment house on Newton, just west of Georgia Avenue, would be razed for phase I of the Park Morton redevelopment

    The first presentation was by the Warrenton Group on the future Park Morton project. As previously stated at an earlier 1A meeting, the first phase of the development will be the former Central Union Mission property on the southwest corner of Newton Place and Georgia Avenue. The proposed building would be 7 stories, contain approx. 2,315 sq. ft. of retail space on Georgia Ave., and contain 83 rentable units. Of these, the current plan calls for 65 1-Bedroom and 18 2-Bedroom units. While all units would be identical, they would be rented on the third/third/third model. It is hoped that phase I will begin around September or October of 2010 and have a move-in ready date of December 2011. There were four variances that the developers will need to obtain to move forward with the plan as presented which centered on the number of parking spaces, height of the retail space, height of the building, and how the roof terrace was configured, but these appear to be minor variances.

  • CHIME requested a grant to assist with their music programming with children. The grant would allow them to give an honorarium to music educators in their programs. They are currently working with the students at the Bruce-Monroe @ Park View location and the first of three programs they are currently working on is to teach students Latin-American percussion. The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the grant request.
  • Lastly, Greater DC Cares requested a letter of support from the commissioners for the work they are doing at the Park View Recreation Center. Their focus at Park View is a result of their development of a neighborhood program. Already at Park View Rec Center they have established a reading circle and a Saturday Activity Group that hosts 30-50 children a week. The request for a support letter was approved unanimously.

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Some Notes ANC 1A Meeting, Jan. 13, 2010

January 14, 2010

Being January, the first order of business for the ANC is generally the election of the executive committee. Before that could occur this year, however, there was the swearing-in of William Brown who filled the empty ANC 1A06 seat. Jim Graham arrived to perform the swearing-in, and with that the election of the 2010 executive committee could proceed. The results of the election were:

  • Cliff Valenti, Chair
  • William Brown, Vice-Chair
  • William Jordan, Secretary
  • LaKeisha Thomas, Treasurer

Next on the agenda was an introduction to acting PSA 302 Inspector Angel Medena. Medena spoke of his background and answered questions posed by the committee and assembly.

Other items that were taken up by the commissioners was a modification to the Voluntary Agreement for the Heights (which wants to open one hour earlier on Saturday and Sunday, the time currently being 10 a.m.); letters of support for a “Friends of the Park” and “Higher Hopes to the Outcomes, Inc.”‘ and the passing of the 2010 meeting schedule.

Not surprisingly, the issue of Sweet Mango’s liquor licence was a topic as it had been at the ANC 4C meeting the night before. While not giving the issue as much debate time as the 4C meeting had, after hearing from residents and Sweet Mango owner, Reginald James, the commissioners voted to write a letter supporting a suspension of six months be maintained. The vote on the issue was 5 in support, 2 against, and 2 abstaining.

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Notes from the ANC 1A Meeting (11/11/09)

November 12, 2009

There were several items at last night’s ANC 1A meeting that are of particular interest to Park View.

Chief among them was a presentation by the Warrington Group, developer for Park Morton. A key item that came out of the presentation was that the developers have, in fact, secured the former Central Union Mission property at the southwest corner of Newton and Georgia Ave.

The property on Newton would be the first of four phases in the eventual replacement of Park Morton. It will also require a zoning review for the height of the proposed building, as the height limit is currently for a 50 foot building and the developers are currently interested in constructing an 8 story, 65 foot high structure. The building will also contain about 3,000 sq/ft of commercial space.

Park Morton currently has 174 public housing units. The new development estimates it will have about 510-520 housing units, with 174 dedicated for public housing and the rest for work force and market rate housing allocated on the third/third/third split.

The estimated start date for phase one is currently set for late 2010. The Newton site, once begun, will take about 14 months to complete. There was little to no information on what the City’s commitment to the redevelopment is at this time. Once that commitment is worked out, the developers hope the City will commit in the neighborhood of $30-$40 million.

Other items at the meeting included:

  • Cecilia Jones, President of the Northwest Columbia Heights Community Association,  spoke about the Community Criminal Justice Accountability Initiative (CCJAI) and the importance of community impact statements in sentencing repeat offenders in our neighborhoods;
  • The public hearings on Pepco’s Rate Increase Bid was brought up, and citizens were encouraged to attend the hearings and speak to hardships the rate increase would cause;
  • ANC 1A voted unanimously to send a letter of opposition to the current CapitalSpace Draft Plan that doesn’t identify any significant green space in Columbia Heights or Park View, doesn’t include access from 14th Street to Rock Creek Park, and doesn’t identify the AFRH as a potential of publicly accessible green space; and,
  • The voluntary agreement with the Rock Creek Market was unanimously approved by the commissioners. It includes language addressing the Market’s desire to sell alcohol — but not singles — and outlines their responsibility should they get a deli license, which they are pursuing.

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Notes from the ANC 1A Meeting (10/14/09)

October 15, 2009

I had hoped that the highlight of last night’s ANC 1A meeting would be a presentation by Warren Williams of the Warrington Group focusing on the Park Morton Development. It wasn’t. More than an hour into the meeting there was still no representative present to discuss the project. With the majority of the agenda completed, and tired of sitting in a cold room, I decided to leave. If a presentation was made, I’d appreciate any news from anyone that was there to see it.

Other items on the agenda were presentations from Greater DC Cares — which indicated that they could use volunteers for their reading circles at the Park View Rec Center; the DC Youth Power Network; Andrew Touchett of the Chavez Prep School; and DDOT Smart Bikes.

By and large the lion’s share of the meeting was devoted to DC Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who spoke at length about the DC budget. The most critical aspect of the DC budget, and why it is so important that it balance, is that if it doesn’t it automatically triggers Congress to bring back the Control Board.

Gray stated that DC’s budget woes began to be realized around September 2008, when the DC Council was  made aware that the City was likely entering into a recession and the budget figures from June 2008 were no longer valid. At that time, there was a projected $135 million reduction the Council needed to work with.

The budget shortfall quickly escalated, Gray stated. By November 2008 there was an additional $127 million reduction, followed by a $130 million reduction to the budget by February 2009. By June of 2009 the City had hit the wall with another $190 million reduction for FY 2008/9 (totalling a $582 million reduction for that FY), and a projected $150 million shortfall for FY 2009/10. This shortfall continued to increase.

The good news is that the City has been able to balance the budget through 2010. The bad news is that they are still facing a deficit in 2011. That’s when DC’s Federal stimulus money runs out, which has been used to cover the 2010 shortfall.

Some of the measures that have been taken to balance the budget are:

  1. All new programs that weren’t yet funded started were cut;
  2. The City froze police hiring;
  3. The Summer youth program was reduced by half;
  4. Earmarks were completely eliminated from the budget;
  5. DC sales tax was increased to 6%;
  6. Tax on Gas was raised by 5.5 3.5 cents;
  7. Tax on cigarettes was raised by 50 cents; and,
  8. Money was removed from the budget that would have supported summer school, adjustments to school salaries based on inflation, and a realignment of the money needed by DC Public Schools based on enrollment (a reduction of $20.7 million from the budget).

I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about the budget in the not so distant future.

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Central Union Mission Issue Causes Flurry of Emails

September 13, 2009

Central Union Mission property on Georgia Ave.What started out as a simple statement on the listservs that the proposal before ANC 1A regarding the Central Union Mission had been rescheduled to Wednesday, Sept. 16, took an unexpected turn late last week. The need to reschedule the meeting was due to the short period of time that the commissioners had to review the proposal for a special exception that the Central Union Mission needs in order to begin development of their property at the southwest corner of Newton Place and Georgia Avenue. The ANC 1A commissioners needed time to examine the proposal so that they could have an informed vote.

Central Union Mission property on Georgia Ave.From the regular ANC 1A meeting, the Central Union Mission had made it clear that they do not intend to build a shelter at this location. Their stated goal at this time is to build a mixed use facility that contains retail and 100% affordable housing.

The first email sent out by the ANC 1A to announce the special meeting didn’t have all the details yet, indicating that there would be more information to follow since the place of the meeting had not been announced. The Prince of Petworth picked up on this email (from a reader submission), and posted it on his blog. From the comments it was clear that the intent of the ANC 1A communication was not entirely clear (The follow up email from the ANC 1A re: the meeting can be found here).

Due to the nature of the comments to the Prince of Petworth’s post, ANC 1A commissioner Cliff Valenti sent a rather public email to PoP containing a brief history and details about this complicated issue on Friday (9/11) and requesting that he post an update ASAP. You can read commissioner Valenti’s email here>> (The email was later distributed on the Georgia Avenue listserv).

AND … if that wasn’t enough, Valenti’s and subsequent emails caused Council Member Jim Graham to join the fray adding yet another very public email adding even more clarification. Graham’s email can be found here>>

PoP has not posted any follow ups to his initial post but has promised to do so on Monday (9/14) to give the Central Union Mission a chance to respond. To date, there has been no public comment from the Mission, their representatives, or their lawyer.

[Follow up: PoP posts attorney responses on Sunday evening]

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ANC1A Announces Special Meeting to Examine Central Union Mission Proposal

September 11, 2009

At Wednesday’s montly ANC 1A meeting, the special exception requested by the Central Union Mission could not be voted on because the ANC  did not have enough time to examine the proposal. They have scheduled a special meeting next Wednesday, September 16, to continue the discussion, and seek community involvment. The following announcement was posted on the Georgia Avenue Listserv:

ANC1A Special Public Meeting
BZA Application of Central Union Mission
Wednesday, September 16th
7PM
Location: Park View RecreationCenter
Warder St NW & Otis Pl NW
Washington, DC 20010

Agenda

Official Business
Official Business is limited to 5 minutes of presentation (unless extended by the commission) followed by questions from the commission and audience until a motion to close discussion is passed, followed by an official ANC vote.

ANC1A will consider the BZA Application for the Central Union Mission’s(CU) affordable housing project on Georgia Avenue. CU is proposing to build a mixed use project on Georgia Ave. with ground floor retail and apartments on the upper floors. Apartments would be affordable to residents with incomes of 50% – 80% AMI.(about $45 – $80K) with no shelter component. Previously, ANC1A filed a petition with the BZA based on the Georgia Overlay against the CU project when it was to be primarily a men’s shelter and design did not fit the development goals for Georgia Ave. CU is asking ANC1A to withdraw its concerns and support the project given the change in use and design. (more…)

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