Current Issues on which the FCCA is Active

The FCCA monitors and acts on a range of neighborhood issues by working independently and with our Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC3D) and sister community associations. Given our location just a mile from Georgetown and two miles from downtown Washington, development and growth is always an issue and mitigating its sometimes-negative impacts is a constant focus. We constantly track a wide range of major and minor issues that affect the neighborhood—from historic preservation and pets and potholes to expansion and operations of the seven private schools in our area. We remain very active in reducing the affects of traffic through the area. We bring items of concern to the attention of residents, assess community opinion, and then act on behalf of the community. Below are items of current concern and action.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO WORK ON ISSUES
We can only be as effective and active as our volunteers. Most Board members have active professional lives and limited time to work on these issues of vital concern to our neighborhood. And numbers count at public meetings and hearings. If you are interested in one of these issues, please contact us to express your interest and whoever is spearheading the effort will make sure to notify you of upcoming meetings and needs for additional help.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S 10-YEAR CAMPUS PLAN

Issue Overview | Why should you care?

Georgetown University must follow a yearlong process to have their proposed 10-year campus plan approved. The plan covers a range of things including enrollment numbers, construction projects, and other issues that may affect neighboring communities. DC requires the University to file its multi-year campus plan with the zoning commission. The University filed its new plan on December 30, 2010, which triggers a series of hearings for community involvement which begin April 14 with the DC BZA. To download the plan and receive e-mail updates, go to http://community.georgetown.edu/campusplan.html.

FCCA Board Action to Date

  • January 20, 2010 FCCA Membership Meeting: Hosted Linda Greenan, Associate Vice President of External Relations at GU, to present the GU 2010 plan to the FCCA community. See February 2010 Newsletter for meeting notes.
  • February 11, 2010: Issued letter to GU President, Dr. John J. DeGioia summarizing the FCCA’s concerns about the plan.
  • April 26, 2010: Attended GU sponsored public meeting on revisions to the 2010-2020 plan.
  • May, 2010: Attended Campus Tours to view and discuss aspects of the 2010-2020 Plan
  • Letter emailed to all FCCA members urging them to contact a long list of public officials and others to express concern over the plan and its impacts on them.
  • Formed working group with representatives from Burleith, Georgetown, Glover Park, Hillandale and ANC3D
  • July 2010: Representatives of all area community associations met with city officials to air shared and unanimous opposition to several aspects of GU’s plan.
  • Fall 2010: The Board has continued to actively monitor the Plan’s progress and liaison with our sister community associations, especially after the September general meeting, in which members present were nearly unanimous in being opposed to the Plan due to several issues that will negatively impact our area, and pushing the issue as possible in the November elections for DC officials.
  • January 2011: The January and February meetings will help us plan an active strategy. Please see the January newsletter for details of the Plan, as filed, which the FCCA objects to. The Board has invited Linda Greenan, GU Associate Vice President of External Relations to again address the Member Meeting on January 19, 2011. She will discuss the Campus Plan that was filed at the end of December. The Board his lined up Mary Cheh to meet with us in February to discuss the FCCA’s opposition to key aspects of the University’s plan. See the February newsletter for details of initiatives being organized by the FCCA to voice our members’ opposition to key aspects of the plan.
  • February through June 2011: The FCCA participated in a long series of Zoning Commission hearings, described in the newsletters for the first part of 2011 as well has focusing several of our meetings solely on this topic. Yard signs went up throughout our area, and particularly on 44th Street, protesting the proposed “Loop Road” and many residents submitted testimony to the Zoning Commission. The Commission seems to be responding to the unanimous opposition of the communities surrounding Georgetown University, but the final hearing was postponed until November 2011. This delay was to allow GU time for a more complete traffic study, which may affect the Commission’s decision on the Loop Road because the road would affect traffic on Canal Road as well as peace and quiet in our neighborhood.

NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS PRESENT UNITED VOICE TO D.C. GOVERNMENT ON JULY 8, 2010

Speaking with one voice and conveying the concerns of Wards 2 and 3, representatives of Georgetown, Burleith, and Glover Park citizens’ associations, the FCCA, and members of ANC2E (Georgetown and Burleith) and ANC3D (Foxhall Village, Colony Hill, and the Georgetown Reservoir Area) combined forces to reach out to the City Administrator and the staff of the Council Chairman about Georgetown University’s 2010 campus plan on July 8. Citing “saturation” by the University, neighborhood speakers focused on issues such as increased enrollment and the resulting impacts on residential communities: exacerbated traffic and parking problems, deferred maintenance of group houses, declining property values, inappropriate student conduct, and GU’s proposal to construct a “loop road” along the steep slope of the western border of Glover Archbold Park to provide a route for GU’s buses. The park road proposal is inconsistent with terms of a scenic easement by which the University obtained 2.5 acres of National Park Service land on Canal Road to enlarge the campus entrance in exchange for preserving open space and using a road to be constructed for “service vehicles” only. [See also notes from FCCA’s June General Meeting, which focued on GU’s plan in the September 2010 newsletter, which covers FCCA's concerns in more detail.]

Foxhall Community Citizens’ Association Board President Bob Avery and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Ann Haas spoke on behalf of our neighborhood. Joining in opposing the campus plan were Citizens Association of Georgetown President Jennifer Altemus, Burleith Citizens’ Association Vice President Walter Hillabrant, Glover Park Citizens’ Association Board Member Karen Keating, and Commissioners from ANC2E Ron Lewis (Chair), Bill Starrels (Georgetown), and Ed Solomon (Burleith).

Georgetown University filed its plan with the Zoning Commission on December 30, 2010, and Board of Zoning hearings could be scheduled as soon as February 15. The time to act is now, making our opposition to the loop road, enrollment caps, and changes to the athletic facilities audible to our elected officials and those in positions to make decisions that affect us.

FEB AND MARCH 2011: ANC3D and ANC2E VOTE TO OPPOSE GU PLAN AND MARY CHEH WRITES LETTER TO GU AND ANC3D EXPRESSING CONCERNS OVER SEVERAL ASPECTS OF THE PLAN

With the first Zoning Commission hearing set for April 14, it appears that combined efforts by citizens associations in Burleith, Georgetown and Foxhall are beginning to bear fruit. ANC3D and ANC2E Commissions voted almost unanimously (the one dissenting vote was from a commissioner who is also a GU student) to oppose the plan. In addition, after a meeting on campus and quick tour of the site in January, Councilmember Mary Cheh wrote a letter to ANC3D and to Georgetown Unversity expressing concerns over various aspects of the plan including increasing numbers of students, the loop road, and the proposed roof over Kehoe Field. See below for both documents.

FCCA is preparing yard signs to make more residents and non-residents alike aware of the issue, particularly the loop road. Signs will be available at the April meeting if not before. Volunteers will canvas neighbors along 44th Street to make sure they are fully aware of the threat the plan poses to their quality of life.

Download the Scenic Easement agreement previously signed by Georgetown University—which the new Plan does not honor.

Photo Gallery

Above Left: Proposed loop road location. Above Right: Footpath to become a road.

Above Left: Georgetown Observatory foot path. Above Right: Proximity of park to road.

CRIME

Issue Overview | Why should you care?

We hope that no one remains unaware of recent and troubling crimes that have occurred in our generally very low-crime neighborhood. We have issued numerous warnings in meetings and in the newsletter about an on-going problem with break-ins and thefts from cars. This problem has not gone away and we strongly advise residents and their guests to leave NO items of value in their cars, even during the daytime on busy streets. If everyone would cooperate, our neighborhood would quickly become far less attractive as a prowling ground for this type of crime of opportunity. Please report anyone you see looking into parked cars to 911 immediately.

In the past year there have also been three incidents of pedestrians being accosted by one or two young men wearing ski masks; in two cases the men were armed with a gun. In December 2010, there were several burglaries of residences, including one in which the residents were home at the time. The FCCA is working with police to step up patrols, but in the meanwhile we encourage everyone to be vigilant and to report any suspicious persons to 911 immediately. So far, no one has been injured, but we have to consider this a dangerous development and help the police help us. As well, a neighborhood watch group has been restarted in the Foxhall Village area; see the newsletter for contact information.