ANC 5A held its monthly public meeting on November 17, 2021, a week earlier than usual due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Commissioners present: Damion McDuffie (5A01); Charles Lockett (5A02); Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) – Secretary; Ronnie Edwards (5A05) – Chair; Derrick Holloway (5A06); Sandi Washington (5A07) – Treasurer; Gordon Fletcher (5A08) – Vice Chair. ANC single member district (SMD) 5A04 covering Catholic University is vacant.
Note: District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Acting Director Everett Lott was scheduled to attend, but he cancelled. The ANC will look to reschedule his attendance at the next ANC meeting.
Also, this meeting turned out to be super long, almost three hours, so I might be forgetting something.
Request for one-way streets in ANC SMD 5A07
Commissioner Sandi Washington (5A07) requested the ANC’s support for her request to convert four two-way streets into one-way streets.
- Unit block of Buchanan Street NE for one-way travel westbound
- Unit block of Crittenden Street NE for one-way travel eastbound
- 4900 block of Rock Creek Church Road NE for one-way travel northbound
- Unit block of Farragut Street NE for one-way travel eastbound
Commissioner Washington noted that DDOT has changed the requirements for submitting traffic safety investigation requests and she still has questions about the process. Commissioner Washington said she is requesting these one-way conversions to address traffic congestion on these narrow streets and to address incidences of car mirrors getting knocked off. She said residents in the area support this request, and one resident chimed in to offer her support as well. The commission voted unanimously to support the request. DDOT will need to conduct a traffic study before approving any of the conversions.
Student nominee for vacant ANC 5A04 seat
As noted in a previous recap, Catholic University first-year undergraduate student Diego Rojas has submitted paperwork to fill the vacant ANC 5A04 seat covering Catholic University. The ANC anticipates that Mr. Rojas will be able to formally join the commission by the next ANC meeting.
MPD Police Report (Lt. Patrick Schaut)
MPD Fourth District Lt. Patrick Schaut stated he had no further information regarding a homicide that took place on Taussig Place NE.
MPD continues to see theft of vehicles that are left running. In addition, individuals sitting inside unlocked cars with the car running are being robbed of the car keys. Lock your car doors if you are sitting in your vehicle and do not leave your vehicles running unattended.
Lt. Schaut said there has been a significant increase in package thefts in the Sligo Mill NE area. There has also been an increase in burglaries in that area as well. As a reminder, the holiday season is a season of package thefts and thefts from autos. Lt. Schaut recommended that if you are going out of town and traveling with suitcases, try not to get a ride hail directly in front of your home. Individuals may be casing your home and see that you will be away for a period of time. If you are traveling for the holidays, you can let MPD Fourth District know and they can put your home on a “special attention” list. Also, you should alert your alarm company to immediately call police if your house alarm goes off so that the alarm company does not spend time trying to call you while you are out of town.
There has been an increase in thefts of vehicle parts such as airbags around the Varnum Street NE area.
Lt. Schaut stated if you know someone who is having mental health issues, reach out to DC’s Department of Behavior Health (DBH). Also, if you know someone who is having issues with animals, reach out to DC’s Animal Control. Best to reach out before more episodes arise so that police are not the ones being called on to assist residents in need.
If you have video evidence of possible crimes that you would like to share with MPD, Lt. Schaut said it is best to send it from a desktop to him. His email address is patrick.schaut@dc.gov.
Ward 5 Mutual Aid grant request
There was another long discussion about the grant request from the Ward 5 Mutual Aid group. There are now three commissioners involved with this grant request (Commissioners Holloway, Fletcher, and Lucio), plus the ANC’s treasurer Commissioner Washington. The commissioners will have a meeting with the group to figure all of this out. (Commentary: I do not know why this is so hard. This group has been trying to figure out how to request grant money for over two years now, and the ANC just cannot get it together. It is as if the commissioners are not looking at the ANC website that the ANC has once again paid a bunch of money to someone to update. So they do not know what their own guidelines say or what they are supposed to say. They only updated the website with the correct grant application at the beginning of this month after an exchange of a bunch of emails between myself and the commissioners. It is very strange.)
Art Place at Fort Totten Block B Modification
Representatives for the Cafritz Foundation returned to provide additional updates regarding the modification for Block B (the second phase) of Art Place at Fort Totten. Recall the Zoning Commission requested that the modification be processed as a Modification of Significance requiring a public hearing. The hearing is scheduled for December 13, 2021 (case number 06-10G). The modifications were previously described in these four posts. One of the modifications is the addition of 23 housing units to Block B for a total of 294 housing units. DC’s Office of Planning requested that the developer consider making some of the additional 23 units below market-rate, even though the developer is not legally required to do so. In response, the developer is proposing to make three of the additional 23 units below market-rate units (inclusionary zoning units). This is in addition to the 30 affordable artist housing units that were already planned for Block B.
The development also stated that with respect to connecting the road on 3rd Street NE, DDOT has agreed to put up school zone signs and to lower the speed limit to 15 miles per hour.
Commissioner Lockett again raised the issue of a lack of a grocery store or sit-down restaurants in the project to date. An Aldi grocery store is planned for Block B. According to the development team, if everything proceeds smoothly at the December 2021 hearing, they anticipate construction will begin after the new year and the grocery store will open sometime in 2024. Mr. Lockett suggested having a sit-down restaurant or food vendors in Building A, which still has a lot of vacant retail space. The development team said they have been looking at putting fresh fruit/vegetable vendors in a vacant space there. A resident raised the point that UDC’s Bertie Backus Hub across the street hosted a farmstand (a couple of summers ago) and recommended that the development team work with the food hub.
The ANC voted unanimously to support the modification.
Catholic University Solar Project
There was another long discussion about Catholic University’s plan to install a solar farm on their west campus. A hearing on the project is scheduled for January 6, 2022. Catholic presented on the plan last month and the ANC told them to come back this month in order to give the commissioners time to get a resolution prepared for a vote. Commissioner Holloway talked about parking issues with respect to Catholic University events and requested that there be a special meeting about the solar project. Commissioner Washington reminded her colleagues that they told Catholic they would be prepared to vote on the project at this meeting and suggested proceeding with a vote. She recommended keeping the event parking issues separate from consideration of this solar project.
Commissioner Lockett again raised a point about the energy being produced being sold back to the market and stated that he believed neighborhood residents should benefit from that energy production. Catholic University representative Matthew Dolan explained that residents are able to purchase energy at a lower rate. Mr. Dolan stated that this project specifically is a way for the university to reduce its utility costs and use the savings to support the university’s mission.
Commissioner McDuffie reiterated concerns about job training opportunities and specific scholarship opportunities for ANC 5A students. Then Commissioner Holloway said he too wanted to hear more about opportunities for DC residents. Mr. Dolan stated the university will talk to their general contractors to make sure they are communicating with the ANC about job training and job fairs. They will give the ANC information to be placed on the ANC’s website. He also highlighted the university’s various scholarship programs, including one that is exclusive to Ward 5 students. The ANC voted to support the solar project, with Commissioner Holloway voting to support with (undetermined) conditions and Commissioner Lockett voting no.
Ward 5 Mayor’s Office Report (Ward 5 MOCR Nokomis Hunter)
Commissioners Lucio and Washington expressed their concern about Mayor Bowser’s decision to lift the mask mandate. The commissioners asked what was the basis for the decision. Mr. Hunter did not have a response.
Ward 5 Council Report (Senior Advisor Silas Grant)
Silas Grant, Senior Advisor to Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, stated that while the ANC meeting was happening, the majority of the DC Council signed onto a letter by Council Chair Phil Mendelson with concerns about the mayor’s decision to lift the mask mandate.
Mr. Grant noted again the Council’s support of Councilmember McDuffie’s baby bonds bill. The goal of the initiative is to decrease the racial wealth gap.
DDOT Urban Forestry
Although DDOT Acting Director Lott could not make the meeting, a DDOT Urban Forestry representative stayed on the meeting to address street tree issues. Commissioner Holloway had a lot to say about Robert Corletta, a supervisor within the urban forestry division, and wants him to come to an ANC meeting to address impact of trees on plumbing in residents’ homes. Commissioner Lockett mentioned there are a lot of street trees that were planted years ago that are too big for the space where they were planted and he suggested that DDOT do a hard pruning of trees that overhanging peoples’ homes. Commissioner Washington requested an update regarding her 311 requests for street trees. Commissioner Lucio brought up the trees planted along Puerto Rico Avenue NE that are supposed to act as a sound barrier. Commissioner Lucio noted that the trees are dying and the grass in the area is always overgrown. She said that Mr. Corletta told her that there is not regular maintenance of the grass in that area. It appears there should be though, so Commissioner Lucio asked for the team to do regular maintenance of the grass and to also conduct regular review of tree growth in public spaces.
Stay tuned for the next ANC meeting date.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 