ANC 3F meets tonight at 7:30 at The Methodist Home. Here is what 3F commissioners covered at their last meeting, on June 18th, courtesy of the Northwest Current:
■ commission chair Adam Tope said that the University of the District of Columbia has failed to meet 12 of the 28 conditions of its campus plan, primarily regarding pledges to provide community updates. The commission has filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Zoning.
■ commissioner Sally Gresham reported that the WAMU radio station will move into its new offices by July 15 and the studios by the end of the summer, in its new building at Connecticut Avenue and Windom Place. American University, which sponsors the station, has pledged to clean up the small park in front of the building after everyone has moved in.
Gresham also announced that there will be a community meeting at the end of summer about design plans for the Forest Hills Playground.
■ commissioner Manolis Priniotakis reported that there will soon be construction on Connecticut Avenue between Cumberland and Davenport streets to make the curbs compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
■ John Thomas, director of the D.C. Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Administration, discussed
his agency’s work managing 140,000 city street trees.
He said the administration hopes to install larger tree boxes and limit the number of the city’s curb cuts,
which reduce the area in which trees can be planted. Last year the agency planted 7,000 street trees of 142 species.
Most street trees in the District are very young or very old, he said, because no trees were planted for several years due to budget problems. The agency also may plant more nut trees so the nuts could be harvested for food, according to Thomas.
■ commissioners voted 6-0, with David Lowell abstaining, to recommend against declaring a house at 3530 Springland Lane a historic landmark. Neighbors filed a Historic Preservation Review Board landmark application for the house after learning that its owners intend to raze it and replace it with a larger home.
Commissioners voted 4-2, with Sally Gresham and Bob Summersgill opposed and Lowell abstaining, to request that the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs investigate neighbors’ concerns that the new construction could disrupt groundwater flow and a nearby stream.
■ commissioners voted unanimously to recommend to the D.C. Department of Transportation that the reconstruction project for Broad Branch Road between Linnean Avenue and Beach Drive provide residents with safe access to Rock Creek Park on bicycle or on foot, and that the plan minimize stormwater runoff to protect the adjacent streambed.
Commissioner Karen Perry said implementing the commission’s recommendation could affect some neighbors’ yards, and that it could become an international issue because some of the homes on that stretch of Broad Branch are embassies.
■ commissioners voted unanimously to write a letter to the Public Space Committee requesting postponement of a hearing on Van Ness Square, because developer B.F. Saul is redesigning previously submitted plans for the mixed-use project at 4455 Connecticut Ave. Commissioners asked that the hearing take place after their July meeting.
■ commissioners voted unanimously to write the mayor’s office, various D.C. Council members and the heads of the police and fire departments to complain that the 911 call center is not properly staffed. Commissioners named two examples where it took too long for a 911 call to be connected.
Resident Jennifer DiGiacinto brought the issue to the commission’s attention, saying it took her 10 minutes to reach an operator when she was reporting smoke coming from a house. She said a neighbor who had been assaulted also couldn’t reach an operator for 10 minutes.
The commission will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, at the Methodist Home of D.C., 4901
Connecticut Ave. NW.
For details, call 202-670-7262 or visit anc3f.us.