WARD REPORTS

(Published February 24, 2003)

 

WARD 1

 

LANIER HEIGHTS SAFETY: Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Ken Levy and Mindy Moretti will host a public safety forum on Feb. 26 to implement the Metropolitan Police Department’s “Partnership for Problem Solving” program in Lanier Heights. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at The Ontario, 2853 Ontario Road NW.

“With community input, we will target ongoing burglaries, theft from autos, and personal assaults which have touched many lives in Lanier Heights during the past year,” Levy wrote Feb. 19 in an electronic invitation for neighborhood residents to participate.

Block captains are expected to be selected during the meeting, which will be attended by MPD Lt. Robert Fulton.

WARD 2

 

AIDING FIRE VICTIMS: The Phillips Collection and the Dupont Circle Citizens Association have teamed up to raise funds to help seven neighborhood residents who lost their possessions when fire swept through their home at 1617 21st St. NW on Jan. 15. One resident, Christopher Duncan, died as a result of burns he suffered in the fire.

The citizens association is requesting that donations by check be made payable to DCCA, with a memo line that designates the contribution to the “1617 21st St. Fire Relief Fund.” Donations may be mailed to Peter Luciano, DCCA Treasurer, 1744 Riggs Place NW, Washington, DC 20009.

The Phillips Collection at 1600 21st St. NW will host the neighborhood at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 to mark the opening of its Margaret Bourke-White photo exhibit and to honor the victims of the fire. 

The District’s response to 911 calls on the morning of the fire remains under investigation. Several residents complained that their calls to 911 went unanswered for possibly as long as 45 minutes before the fire department was dispatched shortly after 6 a.m.

 

WARD 3

 

AMBULANCE CONCERNS: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3/4G has asked Acting Fire Chief Adrian Thompson to investigate ways to strengthen an agreement that allows the suburban Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad (BCCRS) to respond to medical emergencies in Upper Northwest Washington.

“Imagine our dismay when we heard you say, at your confirmation hearing on February 6, that you planned to remodel Engine 29 (MacArthur Blvd.) with bays for additional units ‘to reduce the need for BCCRS to come down’ to the District,” wrote ANC 3/4G Chairman Anne M. Renshaw in a Feb. 12 letter to Thompson. Renshaw’s letter, approved by a 7-0 vote of the ANC, said the planned additional units housed at Engine Company 29 “will be too far away to respond, within eight minutes, to serious medical emergencies in the upper northwest.”

The Bethesda-Chevy Chase squad’s provision of routine service to D.C. residents has recently come under fire by some residents and officials in Montgomery County, Md., at a time when their county is facing a budget deficit amid the metropolitan area’s heightened anti-terrorism security concerns. The Common Denominator highlighted those complaints in its Jan. 27 issue.

Renshaw’s letter to Chief Thompson also cited the current war-time climate, saying it “calls for enhanced mutual aid agreements with surrounding jurisdictions, not the cancellation or diminution of long-established” practices.

A spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department indicated that Chief Thompson’s concern for expanding the District’s ambulance service in Upper Northwest also recognizes the long-standing tradition of neighboring jurisdictions’ fire departments providing mutual aid.

“There’s a big hole there. There’s no way we can provide EMS mutual aid [to Montgomery County],” spokesman Alan Etter said. However, Etter said the District is able to respond to Montgomery County’s requests for mutual aid to fight fires.

 

WARD 4

 

FIREHOUSE CHANGES PROPOSED: City officials are exploring the possibility of relocating the fire department’s Engine Company 22, currently housed in the District’s oldest firehouse at 5760 Georgia Ave. NW, to a new building further north on Georgia Avenue. The move would allow Engine 22 to respond more quickly to emergencies north of Missouri Avenue and could encourage more economic development around the 5700 block of Georgia Avenue, according to Ward 4 Councilman Adrian Fenty.

In an electronic newsletter to constituents, Fenty said Acting Fire Chief Adrian Thompson and Mayor Anthony A. Williams plan to include $7.2 million in the city’s fiscal 2004 budget for complete renovation of Engine 22’s historic firehouse. But Fenty said the fire chief also “indicated that he would prefer to relocate the building ... because this would be less costly and better serve residents.” One of the city’s newer fire stations, housing Engine Company 24 at Georgia Avenue and Gallatin Street NW, is located a short distance south of Engine Company 22.

 

WARD 5

 

HALFWAY HOUSE OPPOSED: A group of residents calling itself Citizens for a Safe Ward 5 has hired attorney Donald M. Temple to help fight plans to locate a halfway house for up to 300 convicted criminals in a building that they claim is improperly zoned for such a facility. The building, located in a warehouse area near Bladensburg Road and New York Avenue at 2210 Adams Place NE, adjoins a day treatment program for developmentally disabled individuals.

At a public meeting on Feb. 11, Ward 5 Councilman Vincent Orange and several advisory neighborhood commissioners publicly expressed their opposition to the halfway house, which would be operated by Florida-based Bannum Inc. under a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Bureau of Prisons representatives in attendance at the meeting said the halfway house contract allows Bannum to select the halfway house site but requires that it comply with applicable laws. Bannum representatives were invited to the meeting but did not attend.

Residents contend that city zoning officials accepted a misinterpretation of D.C. zoning regulations by Bannum’s attorney, without seeking independent legal advice from city attorneys, when they approved the company’s plans for the halfway house.

A spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) acknowledged Feb. 21 that there is no evidence on file that the city’s former zoning administrators sought legal advice before signing off on Holland & Knight attorney Mary C. Brown’s letterhead to approve the project’s zoning. Brown represents Bannum Inc.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B, in which the halfway house would be located, has appealed the zoning law’s alleged misinterpretation to the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment. Councilman Orange, who said he has received no response to his requests that DCRA place a stop-work order on the project, said he may ask D.C. Auditor Deborah K. Nichols to investigate the performance of the zoning administrator’s duties.

 

WARD 6

 

SCARLET FEVER CASE: D.C. health officials are monitoring students at Tyler Elementary School, 1001 G St. SE, after a kindergarten student there contracted scarlet fever. A letter to parents and guardians, accompanied by an information sheet about the disease, was sent home with all students on Feb. 13. D.C. Public Schools officials said Feb. 21 that the student had not yet returned to school.

Officials described scarlet fever as an illness that commonly affects children between the ages of 2 and 10. The disease is caused by the same bacteria that causes strep throat and is usually spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Major symptoms include a sore throat, fever and a red rash that usually spreads over the entire body except the face. Antibiotics reduce the length of the illness, according to health authorities, who urged parents to seek medical evaluation of their children if they display symptoms of the disease. 

 

WARD 7

 

REC CENTER SUPPORT: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7B is unanimously supporting a proposed zoning change that would allow large recreation centers to be built in residential neighborhoods as a matter of right, bypassing an existing process that requires public hearings to be held to gain approval for individual projects. The zoning change, proposed by the D.C. Office of Planning and the Department of Parks and Recreation, would restrict new matter-of-right recreation centers to 50,000 square feet in size, 45 feet in height and 40 percent lot occupancy.

In a Jan. 21 letter to D.C. Zoning Commission Chairman Carol J. Mitten, ANC 7B-05 Commissioner Jim Byers expressed concern that a planned Hillcrest Community Activity Center could be delayed if the standards proposed by city planners and recreation officials are not approved.

“The current unsecured site has become a notorious hideout and escape route for criminals from outside our community, attracted by the existing unlit paths winding through dense, unkempt woods,” Byers’ letter said. “The new Center, and its attendant iron fencing, pruned woods, and better-lit paths, also is key to a series of crime prevention measures which, over a period of years, have been planned and approved under close examination by a consortium of our community, law enforcement and city administrators and officials. Thus, its importance extends far beyond its principal use as a Recreation Center.”

 

WARD 8

 

ST. ELIZABETH’S CAMPUS TOURS: The D.C. Office of Planning will offer public tours of the sprawling St. Elizabeth’s Hospital grounds on March 15 as part of an effort to involve citizens in efforts to redevelop much of the currently restricted area for community use. Guided tours, offered from 9 a.m. to noon, will leave every 20 minutes from the Chapel at the Main Entrance, Gate 4, at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE.

During the tour, city officials and community tour guides will talk about the history of the campus and its buildings, describe the people who have lived and worked at St. Elizabeth’s, share what many people call the best view of Washington, and answer questions about the future of the campus.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams delineated his five goals for redeveloping the campus when he launched the official planning process on Jan. 30. The mayor said he wants to break down the barriers to open up the campus, link the campus to the surrounding neighborhoods, attract new uses that have community and citywide benefits, work together with citizens as partners in the planning process, and ensure that the process is open and inclusive.

 Plans are underway to build a new, smaller hospital on St. Elizabeth’s East Campus, which would continue to house mentally ill patients and provide other mental health services. The building is being designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott architects, with Arnold & Porter serving as land use counsel.

The D.C. Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. March 6 at One Judiciary Square, 441 Fourth St. NW, on the Department of Mental Health’s request to zone the entire East Campus, which is currently unzoned. The requested “SP-1” zoning classification would allow matter-of-right medium-density development, including all kinds of residential uses, with limited offices for nonprofit organizations, trade associations and professionals permitted as a special exception requiring Board of Zoning Adjustment approval.

 

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator