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Thursday, July 2, 2009 1:41 p.m.

ANC commissioners recommend boutique hotel for historic school site

by Gabrielle Bluestone

This post was written by Hatchet Staff Writer Amy D’Onofrio.

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A voted at a special meeting last week to support a bid to install a boutique hotel in the historic Stevens Elementary School building on 21st and L streets NW.

Three of the five commissioners present at the meeting voted to support a proposal from the Peebles Development Corporation and the Morgans Hotel Group to turn the former school building into a boutique hotel with 44 parking spaces. The school, which closed in 2008, was built in the mid-1800s as a public school for black children.

Three potential developers have been selected by the city to compete for the space, and each presented a unique plan for the historic building at an ANC earlier in June. Commissioners reviewed the proposals and passed a resolution in support of the Peebles project, but the D.C. government will ultimately decide what replace the old school.

The two other projects that did not receive much support from the commission were a proposal from Moddie Turay Company and Kimpton Hotels that would create a boutique hotel in conjunction with retail and office space and 151 parking spaces, and a proposal for a 190-unit apartment building with 9,000 square feet of retail and 90 parking spaces from Equity Residential, the developers behind the 2400 M apartment building.

The apartments, popular with students, are too dorm-like, Commissioner Rebecca Coder said – something the other commissioners agreed with.

“[The building] doesn’t add anything to the community,” Commissioner Asher Corson said.

Though the commission can only offer recommendations to the city on the redevelopment of the school, their comments will be taken into consideration when the city chooses between three proposals. The ANC will still be able to comment on the proposal again before the final decision is made on the project.

The Commission is expected to submit their recommendations to the city before July 2, though the Foggy Bottom Association did get an extension of the deadline for comments to the city until July 10.

- Gabrielle Bluestone contributed to this report.

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Saturday, June 20, 2009 4:17 p.m.

ANC recommends townhouse landlord lose business license

by Gabrielle Bluestone

Commissioners from the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the landlord of a 22nd Street townhouse commonly leased to GW students lose his basic business license.

The five commissioners will write a letter to the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which oversees businesses and real estate.

The townhouse, located at 1016 22nd St., has long been a source of strife for neighbors, with overbearing trash, noise and parties, residents testified at the monthly meeting. Commissioners also mentioned checking the two-family rental unit to see if it has been filled over its occupancy level.

Michael Akin, GW’s executive director of government, international and community affairs, said while GW students live there and may be responsible for some of the issues, the problem seems to be with the landlord.

“Given the history of problems, we support the Commission’s decision to pass a resolution asking the city to take another look at the proper zoning and licenses for this house,” Akin said in an e-mail.

The townhouse was shut down by the city in 2004, and received a $1,000 sanitation-related ticket from the D.C. Department of Public Works in February, according to a former resident who graduated this year.

The landlord could not be reached for comment.

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Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 11:29 a.m.

ANC supports single sale waiver for some liquor stores

by Alex Byers

This post was written by Senior Staff Writer Amy D’onofrio.

Three Foggy Bottom establishments are one step closer to an exemption from a ban on single sales of alcohol now that a local neighborhood commission has agreed to write them letters of support.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A voted Feb. 18 to draft the letters of support for The Wine Specialist, Riverside Liquors, and The Market at Columbia Plaza. The establishments can then include the letters in an application to receive a pass from a law that bans liquor stores from selling bottles of beer that are 70 ounces or less and bottles of liquor that are less than four ounces.

The Alcohol Beverage Control Board will ultimately decide if the businesses will get a reprieve from the restrictions of the law passed last December. The D.C. City Council approved the measure, suggesting that it might limit lewd behavior on streets, but ANC 2A Chairman Armando Irizarry said that hasn’t been a problem for the stores requesting a waiver.

“There was no littering or loitering as a result of single sales,” he said. “We gave [letters of support] because [the liquor stores] did not represent a problem.”

The commission voted on each establishment separately, but with the same motion and vote of 4-1 in each case. Irizarry said Feb. 19 that once the letters were completed, they would be sent directly to the merchants.

Since the ban took effect Feb. 10, no banned sizes of beer or liquor have been sold in Ward 2.

The application for an exception to single sales restrictions requires a letter from the ANC as well as evidence of no adverse community impact, no Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration violations within the previous 12 months, and evidence of licensee participation in the community.

Manager Tim Schliftman of The Wine Specialist at 2115 M St. said his store turned in an application before Feb. 9, but will complete the application with the ANC’s letter.

Schliftman said that if they receive an exemption, the store will still not sell some of the types of beer that prompted the ban in the first place. “Malt liquor, 40s—we never sold that in the first place…what we sold before is not what they’re trying to ban.”

Schliftman said his store’s beer sales are down 25 to 30 percent since the ban started.

Riverside Liquors, located at 2123 E St., has seen fewer customers since the ban according to Sonu Singh, the store’s owner.

Singh said his store’s intention in applying to the ABC Board is to be able to sell craft beers again. “We don’t carry anything that the homeless will buy. We don’t carry cheap vodkas or half pints,” he said.

According to ABRA, the ABC Board has 60 days from the date of the submission of a completed application package to determine whether the application will be granted.

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Friday, June 20, 2008 2:10 a.m.

ANC Stalls Discussion of E Street Statue

by Danielle Meister

Despite the indignation of some Foggy Bottom community members, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission has decided to delay taking a position on the potential installment of a new statue of George Washington at the corner of the 1957 E Street building.

The issue of the statue’s installment is currently “tabled” by the DC Public Space Committee, and the ANC will not discuss it further until the PSC has, said ANC chairman Asher Corson, at a meeting Wednesday.

However, several individual community members raised concerns at the meeting about the placement of the statue and the prevalence of George Washington images in the neighborhood.

“The sidewalks and the street do not belong to GW. They belong to the community,” said Dorothy Miller, a Foggy Bottom resident. “We are sick and tired of 16 million statues of George Washington.”

Director of DC and Foggy Bottom/West End Affairs Michael Akin pointed out that the plan for the statue falls with in the boundaries of the campus plan and that it would not be in sight of any residential units.

“The location where we placed this one, I think, is appropriate,” he said.
-Reed Cooley

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