Bates Area Civic Association

Location: Mt. Sinai Church, 3^rd and Q ST NW

I. 7:04pm Meeting Called to Order – David Hall, President

II. Treasurer’s update by David Hall (treasurer out of town): balance $3,648.00 and 26 members plus 2 tonight, possibly more online; no money spent yet

III.  Review of Last Meeting Minutes – Christa Fields, Secretary

IV. General Updates from President, David Hall

• He went to community leader meeting with Councilmember McDuffie’s office with ANCs on Monday 3/31 to discuss developments such as budget concerns
• He also met with Comm’r Quinn about neighborhood concerns and what might coordinate with Bloomingdale on such as cook-off/competition with surrounding neighborhoods, beautification day; noted mayor’s office may be involved in beautification day too so may get more donations from Home Depot etc

Community Representatives

7:10-7:25 ANC Commissioner Bradley A. Thomas – Single Member District (SMD) 5E05

• Walter Johnson Liquors has applied for 3-year license renewal, deadline for protests is APRIL 27 so let him know if have concerns, protest could be from ANC or neighbors, any protest would go to ABRA and also gives time to work with store for settlement agreement – Geo noted getting crime statistics from MPD as to that location could be helpful, wants to protest because Revive/DCity Smokehouse is relocating partly due to loitering from liquor store so might want to get more input from neighboring businesses, other resident noted she sees trash and urine etc around that corner, possibly prohibit use of brown bags to help avoid being able to hide alcohol consumption; noted that all residents have indicated do want to protest renewal
• Questions re 57 N Street – they appeared at Hanover Civic Association meeting weren’t prepared with responses to many questions, they were invited to come back to Hanover in May meeting, will also be at ANC meeting for April with brief presentation but no request for vote of support at that time because Bradley indicated would be denied
• His next SMD meeting is April 11, had over 50 people last time and block captain volunteers – guests include representative of SOME to talk about clients using alleys etc; DCRA enforcement manager to talk about blighted and abandoned properties; People’s Counsel to talk about their opposition to proposed Pepco-Exelon merger, if SMD has consensus to oppose merger then he will take it back to ANC; possibly representative from Department of General Services (DGS) re reopening of O Street and completion of track at Dunbar to allow for community use
• Wants to form task forces of 3-5 residents each to focus on certain neighborhood issues
• Question re status of charter school and use of building – see speakers below
• Re lot at Florida and Q Street – there may be new RFP issued for development

7:25-7:30 ANC Commissioner Teri J. Quinn – SMD 5E06

• DC Water and Councilmember McDuffie will be having Ward 5 town hall meeting this Thursday, 6:30-8:30, at Noyes Education Campus – re tunnel on First Street will go from Bloomingdale to Anacostia, contest winner for name of Bloomingdale portion of tunnel will be announced on Tuesday at 11:00 am between Channing and Michigan
• DCity Smokehouse liquor license application – hope to take vote on it this month but still haven’t received notice of application, some neighbors are really in support but no placards yet to know seating, hours, etc
• Will also be another business applying for support – they’re here tonight, see below
• Next couple of weeks will be another hearing re Aida Electronics and violation of settlement agreement to stop selling synthetic marijuana etc, complicated process with courts and first step is this scheduling hearing and City will likely ask for severe penalty

7:30-7:37 Kate Mitchell with Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s Office

• See flyer re Ward 5 DC Water town hall
• Mayor has sent down budget to Council, have about a month before first vote – proposed Ward 5 projects include ongoing project of “flooding in Bloomingdale” $4 mill for FY16 and FY17, allocations re other Ward 5 areas not in BACA boundaries, McMillan $69 million for FY16 through FY18 for entirety of project, Councilmember will be trying to get some of projects that were reallocated from their proposals to be moved up in priority
• Question re Small Area Plan funding – what about traffic on First Street and P Street? And Main Street project for revitalization of area? These are still separate projects from ones mentioned above and are still very high priority for CM
• Also question re O Street reopening – important and could help relieve congestion; noted DDOT said that traffic will only get worse with I-395 project and upcoming project re NJ Avenue, but we can work with ANC commissioner re traffic calming application, noted that First Street and North Capitol congestion causes problems for emergency vehicles so that’s another reason that traffic needs to be dealt with
• Noted that Bloomingdale residents are also concerned about traffic funding and mitigation of congestion

Guest Speakers 

7:37-7:50 Patricia Brantley, COO, & Jeff Scanlon, Principal – Friendship Charter School

• They are replacing CAPCS at First and P St effective July 1 as well as online campus; they will maintain it as pre-K through 5^th grade, this is pending agreement with CAPCS
• Lease/agreement with church does not transfer from CAPCS to Friendship – Friendship will be taking over bond effective in May once they have closed
• Re parking lot that used to be green space – one of their plans is to remove some of parking spaces and put back jungle gym and green space; current plan says require 80 spaces, CAPCS claims there are 90 spaces but paved area is much larger than that; noted that CAPCS is supposed to dig and install trench as mitigation measure but she has gotten two bids to complete that if it isn’t completed by July 1 when they take over
• Principal Jeff Scanlon: he wants students to be part of community and us to be supportive of school as well so please reach out to him, they want to be involved in beautification and other events and reach out to businesses in area and possibly Dunbar for use of fields etc, see how to keep current food pantry in school replenished
• Right now they have 7 campuses, Jeff is coming from Woodridge which is pre-K to 8, they also have a foundation in Baltimore and in Louisiana
• Re occupancy do they plan to expand beyond 5^th grade? No, their long-term plan is only to 5^th grade because in other campuses it’s difficult to have higher grades together with them, they will be using part of building for storage
• Playground timeline would probably be next summer due to limitations of when can work on it on weekends and early mornings
• Re second opening of parking lot onto O Street noted don’t think it was permitted so may want to look at that in determining best use of lot
• Also suggestion that may want to get crossing guard – crossing guards were previously managed by DDOT but thinks not by MPD so will need advocacy on that, they will have staff outside too and have worked with CM McDuffie’s office about crossing guards
• They want to be involved in advocacy against synthetic marijuana because is big problem with middle and high school students
• Question/suggestion to have joint open house in community in coordination with other schools e.g. Mundo Verde and Dunbar – Jeff indicated he would like to do that, would also love to bring Science Fair etc out into other community spaces
• Resident Jason Miccolo Johnson noted he has personally known Pat Brantley for over 10 years and has been involved in photographing them and they are very well run

7:51-8:07pm Sam and Rachel Fitz, Basque Bar LLC – proposed restaurant “Anxo” (pronounced “Ancho”) at 300 Florida Ave NW

• they are brother and sister, grew up in Baltimore and moved to DC and have lived through communities changing with construction
• they like Truxton Circle/BACA area and have signed 10-year lease with 10 years of options but building needs a lot of work, they got $500,000 loan from Small Business Administration (SBA) for renovations and hoping to be here for a while
• They worked at Meridian Pint and are wanting to do high-end restaurant, Basque-style cider house with upscale food, chef is owner and executive chef of Boundary Road on H Street NE, have applied for liquor license for wine pub permit but no placards yet because they’re first to apply for that type versus brew pub permit and there are delays
• Rachel noted they want to be involved in community beautification days etc
• Comm’r Quinn question re proposed hours – want to have more mature clientele but full tavern hours to 2am, building is basement with mostly storage/back house use and 2 levels with casual/community feel of roughly 40 seats on first level and 49 seats upstairs more intimate, not sure about reservations; lot outside is owned by city and they have first right to apply or patio which they are going to do and hoping to open by November; patio is not included in initial ABRA application and will focus on that later – gave suggestions based on protests to night hours for other businesses in area, suggested hand out flyers to surrounding homes around 3^rd and Florida Ave too
• Noted would like to have presence at beautification day so may be there will beverages
• Question re parking – realize they can’t provide much parking but will encourage other types of transportation such as 10% discount for bike helmets, bus fares in area, possibly Uber etc, possibly bike station out front for tools/air/etc to repair bikes
• Expect to be mostly neighborhood destination Monday through Thursday so shouldn’t affect parking much, then weekends more traffic
• See also City Paper article today, or email him at sam@anxodc.com, assuming they have received placards by next month they will bring chef to speak too

8:07-8:23pm Community Concerns

David Hall: re BACA Beautification Day in conjunction with Neighborhood Civic Associations, and ANC 5E – April 18, 2015

• it’s on Earth Day and Dunbar plans on having school open and activities relating to LEED certification etc
• will be getting plants/flowers and mulch; will get $500 each from 2 ANC commissioners plus will probably contribute $500 from BACA funds, let David know if have perennial plant suggestions
• will also be cleaning up trash etc and can point out places that need attention to ANC commissioners and other elected representatives; David will reach out to co-op and other neighbors to get more people involved in beautification/clean-up day
• question is city still doing adopt-a-tree initiative? Yes people should be able to help out with that, also can report dead trees to have them removed, David will reach out to Mt. Sinai about care of newly planted trees on property

concerns for MPD from attendees

• increased activity on 100 block of Q Street with nicer weather, also seemed to be one possible gunshot recently
• noted 3 home burglaries in area and several in Bloomingdale so need to remind people not to leave windows open if don’t have bars, let neighbors and/or MPD Lieutenant for our PSA know if will be out of town especially for extended period
• noted blighted properties on unit block of Q Street, one of them seems to have people going in and out of them – can bring that up to representative at SMD meeting this week, also plan to do another walk through in future, suggest task force for that

• question for Bradley Thomas and Teri Janine Quinn – what is going on with North Capitol Main Street and Green Team? Neither of them are officers anymore but are still on board; yes green team is still going on but not sure about boundaries, re storefront grants they discussed refocusing energies and figuring out required funding so any grants would be smaller this year and probably not first priority

• resident artist Jason Miccolo Johnson invites everyone to Martin L. King Library through April 26 to see installation of his photography artwork, next month should be in Smithsonian museum too

• Joyce Robinson-Paul noted trying to get youth involved in beautification day such as getting high school seniors involved for community service requirements, let Bradley know at SMD meeting

8:23 PM Adjourn                

Next meeting: Monday, May 4, 2015