ANC 5A held its monthly public meeting on February 26, 2025. Commissioners present: Timothy Thomas (5A02) – Vice Chair; Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) – Chair & Secretary; Derrick Holloway (5A06); Elaine Alston (5A08); Shelagh Bocoum (5A09) – Treasurer. ANC 5A01, 5A05, and 5A07 are vacant. The Board of Elections certified the election of Jack Hermes to fill the vacant ANC 5A04 seat on February 28.
Commission Business
There are still vacant seats for ANC 5A01, 5A05, and 5A07.
ANC 5A has a balance of $103,095.69 in the bank. No official treasurer’s report given.
Ward 5 Mayor’s Office Report
Ward 5 MOCR Manager Anthony Black could not attend, so he gave information for Commissioner Lucio to share. The mayor’s office held a budget forum at Rosedale Recreation Center on February 27 at 5:30 pm. Spring registration for DPR programs opens soon, so plan ahead by setting up an account. Aquatics registration opens on March 11. All other programs open March 12. Find info at dprprograms.com.
The Ward 5 MOCRs hold Ward days on Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am-3 pm when they can come out to hear concerns from commissioners and residents.
Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School (Jose Sousa, Chair, Board of Directors) (5A05)
Washington Yu Ying Presentation to ANC 5A (February 2025)
Washington Yu Ying’s new building opened at 4350 1st Street NE on January 2, 2025, at the old Kirov Academy. This campus serves prek3, prek4, and kindergarten. The existing Taylor Street NE campus serves grades 1-5.
The school is working with DDOT to address dropoff/pickup and traffic issues around the new campus. The school has a walking school bus for parents with children at both campuses. The school is using spaces at Archbishop Carroll for overflow teacher parking. School officials will continue to meet with the community to refine plans.
There is no ANC commissioner for this area. Questions/concerns may be sent to leadership@yuying.org.
Washington Latin Public Charter School) (Peter Anderson, Head of Schools/CEO) (5A05)
Construction is underway for Washington Latin’s new building at the old Kirov Academy. They expect to move into the new building summer 2025. Kashiffa Roberts will be the principal.
The high school will occupy the renovated building. The middle schools will occupy the new wing. They anticipate that the older students will use public transportation to get to school.
The buildings will have a fence with a gate that is closed during school days. The gate will be open during dropoff/pickup.
Representatives stated they have been letting teachers know that there is very little parking for teachers at the campus, and they have encouraged teachers to find alternative ways to get to the campus.
They said the school sees itself as a community resource.
They would like an exception to do construction on holidays to make up construction time because of the winter weather this season. An SMD meeting was scheduled for March 6 to discuss the exception.
There is no ANC commissioner for this area. Questions may be directed to communication@latinpcs.org or 202-209-2195.
Wesley Housing 1 Hawaii Avenue NE Project (Joe Nelson; Grant Koehl) (5A06)
Wesley Housing broke ground on the 1 Hawaii Avenue NE project in July 2024. They are targeting LEED platinum certification. They expect move-ins by February 2026.
They are requesting an exception to do construction on DC Emancipation Day and on Memorial Day to get construction back on schedule and to avoid working on weekends. Sandi Washington, president of the Fort Totten Civic Association and former ANC commissioner, asked to work with ANC Commissioner Derrick Holloway (5A06) on the request and to schedule a virtual single member district (SMD) meeting. Ms. Washington said she would not support working on Emancipation Day, so she suggested they look at a different holiday. (Note: This project was in ANC 5A07 before Census redistricting. Ms. Washington was the commissioner at that time. Now the project is in ANC 5A06).
Commissioner Alston (5A08) asked about internship opportunities for high school students. In response, the team said that their contractor Davis Construction already had plans to have the local high school focused on trades visit the site.
McDonald’s Rebuilding Update (Eileen Seeburger, Construction Area Manager; Christian Mercado Ribertt) (5A08)
(Note: I shared an update from the meeting in this post: McDonald’s to Close for Rebuilding March 1, 2025)
The McDonald’s team received their final building permit to begin the process for rebuilding the restaurant located at 4950 South Dakota Avenue NE with a drive-thru. The Gavignano family bought the restaurant in May 2024. The restaurant closed on March 1, 2025. The goal is to reopen in August 2025.
Eileen Seeburger is the area construction manager. She can be reached at eileen.seeburger@us.mcd.com or 215-206-5386 for construction-related emergencies.
The crosswalk on Delafield will close (unclear when). Notice of 72 hours is required before closing a sidewalk. They are still looking at using Faith United Church for parking for construction workers.
The restaurant will have 22 seats with two kiosks for ordering. Commissioner Alston stated she was disappointed in how few seats there will be, stating that this is a community gathering place. Ms. Seeburger stated that design, seating, and other decisions are dictated by McDonald’s headquarters in Illinois. Ms. Seeburger stated that McDonald’s did do a seating audit, but she did not say what the audit found.
In response to my question about how the team plans to communicate construction updates, the team did not have an answer. The owner said everything has to go through headquarters and that it is hard to get a hold of headquarters to approve content for release. All of these non-answers made Commissioner Tim Thomas (5A02) a bit exercised, and he suggested that the ANC work to get a stop work order. Ms. Seeburger stated that no work had started to be stopped.
(Aside: This is why the majority of residents opposed this drive-thru plan, because it was clear that this was all driven by people in Illinois who had no concern for the experience of pedestrians around the location. The ANC, NMPCA, OP, and ZC all shrugged and accepted McDonald’s fictitious account of why a drive-thru was necessary. At every meeting this new team has attended, they have not been able to answer very simple questions. It’s all very strange).
Lots of questions were not answered. As a result, Chair Lucio asked McDonald’s to come back for a special meeting tentatively scheduled for March 13 to provide a more comprehensive presentation with a communications plan. (Note: On March 6, the ANC distributed an email stating that a special meeting will not take place and that any questions should be directed to Commissioner Alston at 5A08@anc.dc.gov).
Next Stop...Riggs Park 