(Unofficial)
Deborah Crain, Ward 5 Planner spoke. See this Ward 5 fact sheet she handed out about development plans in Ward 5. See this Fact Sheet that she handed out She stated that funding for planning has been severely cut (I think she said normally there is $300,000 or $400,000 and this year there is nothing! We discussed with her ideas to be able to do a small area plan for this area. She said though there are no funds from the city to do that currently, there are partnership possibilities with local universities that could help us.
Aakash Thakkar, First Vice President of EYA talked about the development plans for the McMillan Reservoir. This is one of many presentations he has given to the BACA on this proposal and the most recent iterations of it. Some points he
• Summer 2010 PUD submission, breaking ground by early 2011 -1212.
• Would be mixed use, with retail like grocery store, etc. open to the rest of the community, with green space for parks.
• One neighbor asked for help making North Capitol Ave more appealing.
See some background on it at their site, the WashTimes here, WashPost here, and NBC4 here.
Bates Market 3rd and P St NW
Mamuka Tsereteli spoke on his plans as owner of the commercial property at the NW corner of 3rd and P St NW. The first floor is zoned for commercial use and second floor for residential. He envisions a wine store or market store. He said he is renovating the property currently, which should be complete in the next two months. He said his intentions were to use the space upstairs to hold cultural events related to the country of Georgia, like art shows, musical performances.
He said he came to hear from the community what they would like in the space downstairs. Ultimately, he will be leasing the space out to another business.
Some neighborhood suggestions and concerns mentioned were:
- Parking during events/function
- Late night hours of operation
- One neighbor asked for a Georgian restaurant, yummy food. (Zoning doesn’t currently allow a restaurant)
- One neighbor wanted a coffee shop in the a.m. 5 and 8 a.m. –
- yet another corner liquor store when there were several others within a few blocks.
Mr. Tsereteli, a professor at American University, said he would work with the community and continue to update us on the progress. He also said that ultimately he would be leasing the property out and another company would be taking it over but that he would work out a cooperation agreement with the leaser.
Dog park issue at Bundy Park
Martin Moultin, president of the CCCA and member of Friends of Bundy, presented the Friends’ position on the dog park issue application at the site of the parking lot behind the Bundy School at 400 P St NW. Among Mr. Moulton points, he noted that there were children’s space/parks all around, that there was sufficient parking for that building, that a dog park would help with neighborhood crime where a parking lot would not.
Annie Hill, the president of their Board of Directors of the 2nd St NW Coop and ANC 2C Commissioner Doris Brooks presented their opposition to the park. They focused their opposition on the need to have the full amount of space for parking so that it would not impact the neighborhood. The dog park opponents said that Safe Shores would be a 24 hour facility instead of 9 to 5, and would have 70 staff, with children living onsite and families visiting them! She also said 10 agencies would have a presence in there!
Discussion was charged on the Bundy issue and the BACA deferred plans on taking a decision on the issue.
The different committees presented their plans. These are the public affairs committee, the environmental Committee and the safety committee.
Miles Holloman discussed a basketball tournament he is helping to plan at the Florida Ave. park as a fundraiser. More details to come on this.
Caryn
Bates Area Civic Association 
There are athletic field light posts and fixtures on the perimeter of the vacant lot at Bundy Park. These aren’t the type of lights usually installed for parking lots and would better serve residents using the space for recreational purposes than a vacant car park at night.
It’s often suggested that even a MPD vehicle itself parked on the the street can be a deterrent to crime. We need as much crime prevention on the streets of our gang infested area as possible. So I’d rather see at least the MPD staff at Bundy School park on our streets.
The parking concerns are overblown. I walk those blocks 2 or 3 times a day, at all different hours, and aside from maybe Sunday mornings, there is ample street parking. Much of it is zone 2 residential, so perhaps the concern is that visitors who want to park overnight could be crowded out. Frankly, we shouldn’t worry about that– parking needs to be a priority for residents and local businesses/organizations.
More importantly, Safe Shores and OPM will make the decision on how much off-street parking they need at the facility. It’s an office for 10 agencies to cooperate, but it’s not as if it’s a building where 10 different organizations are locating their headquarters and working 24/7. The reality is that, if that entire back lot is reserved for Safe Shores parking, we’ll be staring at a lot of useless pavement most of the time, and the problems we have with that space currently are not likely to go away.
Also, there is off street private parking within the 2nd St Coop. I know because I’ve been asked to leave that private property when walking my dogs through the parking lot.