It’s all about the neighborhood
ANC 4C Vice Chair Zach Teutsch sent out an email earlier today about a 14th Street express bus that many residents have been pushing WMATA to implement for a few years. There's an opportunity to share your opinion - and get your voice heard - coming up twice. Read Commissioner Teutsch's message after the break:
Read MorePurple tables! There must have been some event at Truesdell EC earlier in the day, and the tables were covered in purple construction paper. I really wanted a box of crayons... Alas, I took notes from the meeting instead. Read more to see photos and read the notes after the break...
Read MoreIn a useful first for ANC 4C, the draft agenda sent out for next week's August meeting includes some short summations of the agenda items. The intention is to give residents an opportunity to understand what will be discussed and contact their commissioners with questions. They will also be voting on a new Vice Chair, as the prior Vice Chair, Joe Maloney, has resigned from the commission. (Seat's open if you're interested.)
After the break is the agenda with summations, as sent out by both ANC 4C Secretary Taalib-Din Uqdah and Commissioner Zach Teutsch...
Read MoreThis could be you at the table!
Have you ever wanted to be an elected official in Petworth working with no pay? Yeah? Cool, then it might be your time to shine. If you live in the area bounded by 4C02, there's an open Commissioner seat. Joe Maloney, who held the commissioner seat, resigned from the ANC as his family is moving out of the area.
The map on the right shows the areas that 4C02 covers. (Basically, 16th Street on the west, Georgia Ave on the east, Buchanan on the south and Morrow Drive on the north.)
To be eligible for the Commissioner seat, you must live within the boundaries of 4C02. The full map of ANC 4C is available on the ANC4C.org website.
If you do live in that area, you will need to pick up nomination papers at the Board of Elections (441 - 4th Street, NW, Room 250N). You will need to get a petition signed by 25 people who also live in 4C02.
Candidates must live within SMD 4C02 boundaries and be registered to vote. Plus the people who sign the nomination petition must also be registered voters in 4C02.
Once you turn in your signatures, then you wait to see if you have an opponent. All petitions can be challenged, and once that period ends in September there will be a special election. ANC special elections are held in the back of the room at a regularly scheduled ANC 4C meeting, with the winner announced at the end of the meeting. If there is no opponent, then there won't be an election and you're in like flynn.
For more information, call the Board of Elections at 202-727-2525.
Good luck!
Image courtesy of UrbanTurf
If you were wondering what was going to happen to the Sweet Mango Cafe after it closed earlier this year, wonder no more. Looks like it's going to be torn down to build a 21-unit apartment building at 3701 New Hampshire Ave.
According to DC UrbanTurf, "the 65-foot, five-story residential development will have one and two-bedroom residential units on floors two through five and there will be retail on the ground floor."
And of course, the developer wants to get a variance to reduce the amount of required parking spots down from the 13 the zoning laws call for (not sure what the final desired number is). The developer will need to go before ANC 4C and ask for a letter of support, and then the DC Zoning Board will have to approve their request for the variance.
Considering it'll be an apartment building with 1-2 bedroom units located across the street from the Petworth metro and a block from Safeway, etc, I would image that they'll get that variance approved.
7/31 Update: For those lamenting the loss of Sweet Mangos Cafe, bear in mind that the restaurant closed in March 2015 due to financial troubles (the building went into foreclosure). It was subsequently purchased by Rooney Properties for $2,430,000. There had been rumors of a new restaurant, but since the lot is zoned for residential as well, it's not a surprise that it's being redeveloped into a larger building. This redevelopment into a new mixed-use building is not the cause of Sweet Mango's demise.
According to a Park View blog post from April:
"The property is zoned GA/C-3-A. C-3-A permits matter-of-right medium density development, with a density incentive for residential development within a general pattern of mixed-use development to a maximum lot occupancy of 75% for residential use and 100% for all other uses and a maximum height of sixty-five (65) feet. Additionally, the Georgia Avenue (GA) overlay stipulates that the ground floor level of each building shall have a uniform minimum clear floor-to-ceiling height of 14 ft. To accommodate this, buildings permitted an additional five feet of building height over that permitted as a matter-of-right in the underlying zone, meaning that any new development on the site could be up to seventy (70) feet."
Chuck Brown mural on the side of the former Sweet Mango Cafe
It will be a shame to lose that awesome mural, though. The mural was put up in 2012 to honor iconic DC musician Chuck Brown (the mural was drawn from a 1992 photo taken by Washington City Paper) who passed away that year (here's his Washington Post obit). Sounds like a great opportunity for ANC Commissioner Timothy Jones (4C08) to reach out to the developer and work with them to get a new mural created at that location.
There's been some lively discussion on this topic on the Petworth News Facebook page. Feel free to add your thoughts on FB or below.
One resident posted this option on the Petworth News Facebook page:
Courtesy Mike Henry
Sources: DC.UrbanTurf, ParkViewDC
I wasn't able to attend most of the July meeting for ANC 4D as I was participating on a neighborhood walk-through along Kennedy Street with a large group of residents, DC agency heads and CM Brandon Todd. However, I'm grateful for Sarah Levine, who volunteered to attend the ANC meeting and take notes. The only things that's probably missing from the notes below is a bunch of my snark. In that case, you should really enjoy these! Big thanks Sarah for being awesome!
Read the full notes and see some pictures after the break:
Read MoreThe July meeting of ANC 4D is Tuesday the 21st, 7-9pm, at Truesdell Education Center, 800 Ingraham Street NW. Draft agenda is below (I've been advised the agenda will probably change before the meeting).
See the ANC 4D DRAFT AGENDA after the break:
Read MoreAccidents will happen, especially when you’re not prepared or forewarned. Otherwise they’d be called "on-purposes." But what happens when you — or in this case, DC agencies — are forewarned? Then it’s not really an accident, is it? Two collisions in one day at the intersection of Quincy St and Kanas Avenue NW sheds light on a long-standing frustration of residents and ANC 4C.
Read more and see pictures after the break:
Read MoreANC 4C met at the Petworth Library meeting room on a rainy Wednesday evening and brought a smaller-than-usual crowd (it was raining). On the agenda were discussions about DC Water Green Rivers program, ABRA agreements for Timber Pizza and Taqueria Habanero restaurant, a grant application for Cease Fire Don’t Smoke the Brother and Sisters, a vote on the parking exception request for Latney’s Funeral home and a letter of support for Grant Circle safety efforts. My biggest takeaway from the meeting — ANC 4C needs to do a much better job of communicating and being transparent about topics before residents show up at a meeting. It’s confusing.
Read the full notes and see photos after the break:
Read MoreWhen ANC 4D04 Commissioner David Sheon was campaigning as a first-time candidate for ANC last Fall, he spent a lot of time walking from house-to-house in his Single Member District (SMD) asking every person he could find what they would like to see changed in their community.
And like any dedicated community leader, he kept track of the responses. Improving how traffic and speed on Illinois Ave was managed was at the top of the list of concerns.
Read about the concerns, and what DDOT is proposing to do to resolve them:
Read MoreANC 4C's July 2015 meeting is on Wednesday, July 8th at the Petworth Library in the Community Meeting room on the lower level. The meeting will begin promptly at 6:30pm.
DRAFT AGENDA – July 8, 2015 Community Meeting
1. Call to Order (6:30pm)
2. Roll Call and Introduction of Commissioners (6:33pm)
See the full agenda after the break:
Read MoreWill paint and pylons keep drivers from zipping around Grant Circle, nearly running over pedestrians and driving with a little more sense of calm and respect? DDOT thinks so.
Over the past couple of weeks, ANC 4C Commissioners Joe Martin and Kathleen Crowley, along with several residents including myself, have contacted DDOT looking for clarification on the status of the Pedestrian Safety Plan (see my prior article) for Grant Circle. This plan called for some rather large changes to the Circle, including eliminating... Read more after the break and see the proposed solution from DDOT:
Read MoreIt’s time for “Better Know a Commissioner!”
This ongoing series is about the ANC 4C and 4D commissioners that serve our Petworth neighborhoods. Hopefully you know your ANC commissioner -- if not, now you can.
I’m pleased to introduce Kathleen Crowley, ANC 4C commissioner for single member district (SMD) 4C10. A newly elected commissioner for 2015, Kathleen took her community activism and made it formal when she won a contested race for the SMD. Learn more about Kathleen after the break:
Read MorePetworth News, a neighborhood blog on local news, information & events about the Petworth area in Washington DC.
Petworth News is a news site about Petworth area neighborhoods in Washington DC, written by Drew Schneider and other amazing contributing writers. It features facts and objective reporting, as well as an occasional subjective point of view and opinion.
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