When ANC 3F meets on June 15th, commissioners will be considering three draft resolutions presented at the May meeting.
Two of them focus on Mayor Bowser’s FY 2022 budget. The draft resolution on schools funding includes a request that DC maintain or increase funding levels so schools can maintain their current staffing, and increasing funding for wraparound services. Read more about it in Mark Moran’s article about ANC 3F’s Schools and Universities committee.
The draft resolution on affordable housing is in regards to the dearth of affordable housing in Ward 3 and ANC 3F, and the need to fund more of its construction and preservation. The resolution calls for investing $250 million dollars of the District’s estimated $3.3 billion dollars in stimulus funding in the Housing Production Trust Fund, which Bowser did include in her May 27th budget request. The mayor also added $150 million dollars for the trust fund to the FY 2021 supplemental budget. The 3F resolution calls for $250 million in supplemental funding.
In addition, this resolution supports additional funding for emergency rental and home purchase assistance programs, as well as funding for exploring alternative models for providing affordable and mixed-income housing.
The third ANC 3F resolution focuses on the UDC 2021-2030 Campus Master Plan, which the commission will provide to the Zoning Commission for its June 21st hearing. The resolution supports UDC’s plans, with some caveats.
ANC 3F recognizes UDC’s importance to the District – “As a public, historically
black, and land-grant institution” – and to this community – “a major employer and economic engine… whose growth and development is critical to Van Ness and surrounding community’s continued vibrancy, inclusivity, diversity and therefore success.”
ANC 3F’s “overall support” for the plan includes UDC’s intentions to raise its student population over the coming decade to 7,000, and to provide housing on campus for 600 students. The draft resolution, however, mentions concerns about how the university intends to do so. The student housing is an unmet goal set out in the previous campus plan. And UDC enrollment has fallen by 50 percent in the past decade to 2,359 in 2020. Working and older students have made up a majority or significant portion of the university’s system since its inception. Currently, UDC centers its recruiting on high school students locally and in the mid-Atlantic region.
The 2021-2030 campus plan also includes a number of streetscape changes that UDC hopes will make the Van Ness campus more accessible and easier to navigate. Here, too, ANC 3F is generally supportive, but the resolution notes that proposed changes raise questions. UDC General Counsel Avis Russell told commissioners that the university could provide answers once it hears back from DDOT about the proposals, and the ANC 3F Streets and Sidewalks Committee was to set up a walkthrough with UDC early this month.
One proposed streetscape change would remove the vehicular entrance at Veazey Terrace and add seating and plantings.
The final concern listed in the draft resolution involves public engagement. The 2011-2020 Campus Master Plan created the UDC Community-Campus Task Force, and the resolution states concerns about the task force’s effectiveness in helping UDC achieve the previous campus plan’s objectives. The ANC requests that the task force be strengthened. More than that, ANC 3F sets out as a condition for its approval that UDC commit to a public engagement process, and that it begin within 90 days of the Zoning Commission’s approval of the campus plan.
General Counsel Russell said the university would address the concerns raised by the resolution.
ANC 3F will meet on Zoom (bit.ly/anc3Fmeet) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15th.
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