Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cleveland Park House Tour

Sunday, November 4th, 1-4 PM in Cleveland Park.

Whether you buy your tickets in advance, (a savings of $5 per ticket) or purchase them at the Cleveland Park Club (3433 33rd Place, NW) on Sunday, don't miss the opportunity to visit eight wonderful, fascinating and diverse homes in the Cleveland Park Historic District. Tickets for members of CPHS are $25.00, for non-members $30.00 when purchased on Sunday.

DC MUD on the Tenley PPP

The DC Metro Urban Diary has a recent entry on the release of the Tenley-Janney PPP RFP.

Friday, October 26, 2007

McLean Bible Church to the Uptown: Update

Jacqueline Salmon provides an update in the Washington Post to the issue of a large, suburban church's desire to use the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park for Sunday morning services.

The comments in the follow-up to the article, as well as on the Cleveland Park
Listserv are pretty divergent and amazing.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Washington Post on Sears House

Sylvia Moreno reports on the Jesse Baltimore Sears house in Palisades.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Sibley Expansion Discussion Continues

From ANC 3D:

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D will hold a special/emergency meeting on Thursday, Oct. 25th at 7:00 p.m. in order to hear a presentation by Sibley Memorial Hospital on its plan revisions for a Medical Office Building and multi-story parking garage. The meeting will be held at Ernst Auditorium on the Sibley campus. No other ANC business will be conducted.

The special meeting must be held on short notice in order for the ANC to comply with a deadline imposed on the proceeding (Case 05-42), by the Zoning Commission. When the Zoning Commission met to vote on Sibley's proposal last spring, they decided neither to grant the hospital's application nor deny it, instead sending the hospital back to the drawing board to, among other things, reduce the size of the building. Zoning Commission chairman Carol Mitten left the door open for Sibley to re-file when it was ready, and specified that once the hospital filed revised plans the parties would have one week in which to file written comments. Sibley on Tuesday evening informed the ANC that it plans to make its filing this Monday, Oct. 19th.

The special meeting date of Thursday, Oct. 25th was chosen so that the commission may hear from the hospital and members of the public; determine how the revised proposal stacks up against the ANC's vote last December to approve a smaller MOB with a series of conditions; and file its comments by Monday, Oct. 29th. According to Sharon Schellin, secretary of the Zoning Commission, the case file is closed except for written responses from the parties. Sibley Neighbors for Responsible Growth, also a party to the case, has opposed the MOB entirely.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Woodley Park Day, October 20

Saturday October 20, Noon to 4pm.

The spot light is on the upcoming Woodley Park Day.

The newly formed Woodley Park Business Association (WPBA) is hosting and sponsoring the first annual Woodley Park Day, a fabulous day for celebration and entertainment.

Live music with the acclaimed Trio Caliente, delectable international foods from Woodley Park restaurants, a scrumptious buffet hosted by the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, diverse performances and demonstrations: creations of gigantic bubbles, mounted police, tour of the historic Perle Mesta suite, the famous K-9 dog demos, art exhibit, Moon Bounce for the youngsters, superb door prizes, and many more.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

ANC 3E Special Meeting on Commerce Bank

From Chair Amy McVey:

Saturday, October 20, 9 am, Lisner Home, 5425 Western Avenue, NW

ANC 3E will convene a special meeting to discuss and possibly vote on the Public Space Permit Application for driveways and curb-cuts for the Commerce Bank on Wisconsin Avenue. We have invited and are expecting a DDOT engineer to attend so the community can get our technical traffic questions answered.

As you may know, we have requested an engineer be available at our two previous meetings but thus far, DDOT has not permitted one to be present. ANC 3E is working with Councilmember Cheh to arrange for a member of DDOT's engineering team to be at our meeting on Saturday.

The traffic engineers who first reviewed the plans recommended that the the request to develop this site as a drive-through bank be denied for various reasons such as compromising the existing service and emergency uses of the alleyway, the impact of adding several hundred vehicles into the small site affecting refuse collection, residential access and most seriously, emergency vehicle access.

DDOT issued a statment that "although the proposed use of the public alleyway for patron access could have some impact to the public access with elevated levels of daily traffic that may create some difficulty to the service and emergency vehicle access within the alley, and queuing into the alleyway, we have no objection to this application."

As the attorney for Commerce Bank and DDOT's Ken Laden acknowledged at our last meeting, there have been changes to the site plans which were originally submitted to DCRA and upon which the building permits were approved and issued in August. We have asked the Commerce bank attorney and DDOT for a copy of the most recent plans (7th DDOT submission)to be delivered to the ANC prior to the meeting as well as a copy be delivered to DCRA for a re-review by the Office of Zoning to ensure compliance with zoning regulations. This re- review is required when there are changes made subsequent to the
issuance of the building permit as has occurred in this case.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Soka Gakkai Continues to Draw Ire

Michael Neibauer reports on the continuing zoning battle between Embassy Row residents and the Buddist Temple slated to come in to the predominantly residential neighborhood.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Wash Post on the Tenley Library Demo

Elissa Silverman covers the tear-down of the Tenley Library building in this article.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Tregaron Clean Up Day

Please join us for the 2nd Community Clean-Up at Tregaron Estate
Sunday, October 14th
10 am to 2 pm*

We will meet at the gate on open Klingle Road.

Activities will include planting grass and flower seeds in the meadow, removing vines from the historic stone steps and waterfall area, and picking up litter.

Bring gloves and pruners. If possible, please bring one bag of leaves for us to use for erosion control.

Snacks & water provided!

*Rain date: Sunday, October 28th from 10 am – 2 pm