ANC 5A held its monthly public meeting on April 28, 2021. All commissioners were present. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton was on the agenda, but she did not attend due to President Biden’s address to Congress. That left a lot of time to cover other items and end the meeting at a decent hour.
ANC Business
There is still a vacancy in single member district (SMD) 5A04, which covers Catholic University. The university told ANC 5A Chair Ronnie Edwards (5A05) that they have identified a suitable candidate, for whenever the Board of Elections officially declares a vacancy and determines that the seat can be filled.
The ANC continues to work with its selected vendor on updating the ANC 5A website. They expect the work to take a couple of months.
The ANC voted to support a resolution from ANC 5D requesting reactivation of the Crummell School in the Ivy City neighborhood for community recreation and learning and for the building to be managed by District government rather than handed over entirely to a private developer.
The ANC voted to approve a resolution by Commissioner Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) regarding heavy truck traffic on residential streets and a request for a truck camera near Sargent Road and Allison Street NE.
Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08) repeated some highlights from the public safety task force meeting: addressing gun violence and property crimes, traffic, and infrastructure concerns.
MPD Police Report
Derek Staten, MPD’s community outreach liaison, stated MPD will have a bike registration pop-up at Providence (1150 Varnum Street NE) on Friday, April 30, 2021, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, near the urgent care center entrance. If you want to register your bike (not required, but encouraged), stop by. Edit: This is being done in conjunction with Commissioner Lucio and Metro Transit Police. The first 20 people will receive bike locks.
A police officer was not available to give updates on crime stats, so Derek reiterated the usual advice MPD gives. Continue to exercise caution with vehicles. Do not leave your car running unattended. Always lock your car, and do not leave anything visible in your car at all.
Commissioner Charles Lockett (5A02) mentioned a problem with commercial trucks parking on residential streets. On that note, Mr. Staten mentioned that he is planning a community conversation about traffic with MPD’s traffic enforcement unit, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and the DC Department of Public Works (DPW).
Ward 5 Mayor’s Office Report
Ward 5 MOCR Nokomis Hunter stated that starting May 1, 2021, DC will have 11 high capacity walk-up, no appointment necessary vaccination sites around the city. One will be located at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center (note one will also be at Lamond Recreation Center and at Providence).
Assistance to help DC residents pay rent and utility expenses is available through stay.dc.gov.
DPW will resume parking enforcement and street cleaning May 1, 2021.
Commissioner Sandi Washington (5A07) mentioned that notice was sent out that residential parking permit (RPP) fees will increase starting June 1, 2021. This is the fee that residents who live on blocks zoned for RPP pay to park their vehicles on the street. The current fee is $35. The new rates are:
- $50 for the first vehicle
- $75 for the second vehicle
- $100 for the third vehicle
- $150 for each vehicle beyond the first three vehicles
There is an exemption for one resident 65 years of age or older per household. Exempted residents will pay a $35 annual RPP fee for the first vehicle registered at a legal mailing address. The fee for each subsequent vehicle registered at a legal mailing address will be identical to the tiered rates noted above.
The ANC decided they want to discuss these new rates further and talked about maybe having a special meeting to get more information about why they are going up or something. (Aside: The current fee of $35 has not changed since 2011. The government approved increasing the fee in legislation back in 2019. There was a lot of press and discussion about this with an opportunity to comment, so I am not sure exactly what the ANC is objecting to–increasing the fee during a pandemic, getting only roughly 30 days notice about the increase, or objecting to any fee increase at all). At any rate, they will decide if they want to send some sort of official communication to District officials, so stay tuned for a possible special meeting about all of this.
ANC SMD Reports
Apparently, both Commissioners Damion McDuffie (5A01) and Charles Lockett (5A02) had walkthroughs of their respective areas last week. Commissioner McDuffie will have a 5A01 SMD meeting tentatively scheduled for May 19, 2021.
Commissioner Lucio confirmed that a gelato shop/Italian restaurant/market type concept will indeed occupy two vacant spaces at the strip mall near the McDonald’s on South Dakota Avenue NE. The only shop currently open in that strip mall is the Chinese food carryout. I believe the exact address of where the new shop will be located is 4944 South Dakota Avenue NE (note this is the location where the property owner wanted to put in a liquor store, which the North Michigan Park community fought against). Commissioner Lucio mentioned this possibility at a previous meeting and stated last night that the shop is in fact coming, but I am not sure if that means a lease has been signed. No one was able to share anything about timeframe for opening, but it sounds promising. She also said they are interested in having patio seating. Apparently there might be space behind the building. I have never been behind the building, but Commissioner Lucio said the owner has been working to clear out the back of the building (apparently there’s a paper alley or something and the owner has been working to address the drainage issue there).
Commissioner Lucio has two upcoming meetings. One will be for residents near 10th Street and Varnum Street NE. A resident in that area requested a traffic safety investigation, and one of DDOT’s proposal is to make part of 10th Street that is currently one-way open to two-way vehicular traffic. This area borders ANC 5B. The 5B commissioner for that area had an SMD meeting for her residents already. Commissioner Lucio will also have a regular SMD meeting on May 6, 2021. The tenative agenda for that meeting includes Mundo Verde, McDonald’s, and EYA.
Commissioner Fletcher (5A08) held an SMD meeting on April 27. His next SMD meeting will be June 22, 2021, at 6:30 pm.
Miscellaneous
I asked Chair Edwards about making draft copies of the resolutions available prior to the meetings so that residents will know what the commissioners are voting on. I also asked if the ANC can upload resolutions to the ANC resolution portal, especially since the ANC 5A website is being updated right now. Currently, only a couple handful of ANC 5A resolutions are on that portal. He said he would consider these suggestions.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 