ANC 3/4G-05 Updates 8/14/24

Hello neighbors!

I hope your summer is going well. ANC 3/4G is on recess and we will be back on September 9th. There is a chance there might be a special meeting on the Maret/ECC field but that doesn't look likely. 

Avalon Movie Tonight—Join or Die​:

Tonight there is a viewing of the documentary Join or Die (trailer) at the Avalon. The producers will be there for a question and answer session at the end of the movie. The film covers the social capital studies of Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone and what his research means for our country, community, and democracy today. It is fantastic. If you are around and have a free night, I highly recommend checking it out. You can buy tickets here. 

ANC:

On the topic of community involvement, I'm happy to see that four people have decided to run for the ANC 3/4G-05 seat. I hope you get in touch with them and learn about their candidacy. Check out these and other ANC candidates at Open ANC. 

Over the course of my time on the ANC I have signed on to and drafted city wide letters that other commissioners can choose to support. Erin Palmer of ANC 4B-02 wrote a letter addressing a rejection of this practice that I was proud to support. It would be wise to support commissioners who also believe that collaborating with commissioners around the city and raising their collective voice is a good thing. 

Chevy Chase Civic Core:

The RFPs for the Civic Core are expected to come out at the end of August. 

Last week I met with Autumn Tomlin and Diarra McKinney of Rosewood Development, Marc Hoppler and Hope Richardson of Eastbanc, Kevin Brown of Montage Development Group, Jeff Blackwell and Leila Finucane of Victory Housing. 

I reiterated my consistent request that civic space, outdoor space, library space and the usage of these places be maintained, that housing should be all or majority affordable, and that height of buildings should be focused away from the adjacent neighbors. 

The group envision at the site the following:

-A stand alone civic building of around 4 floors with a sport court on the roof. 

-All affordable housing for elderly over the age of 55. 

-Those affordable units would comprise two buildings, taking up the full 60 percent of lot coverage combined with the civic building. There would be 140 units with buildings 4 to 7 stories high. 

-90% of units would be at the 50% MFI scale, 10% would be at the 30% MFI. (MFI Guidelines from 2022)

-There would be a variety of studios and two bedrooms. 

-Victory Housing would hire a community coordinator for the elderly residents. 

-There would be a small retail section, likely a cafe. 

-A playground, reading areas, a town square space, and the heritage tree would comprise the outdoor space. 

-They would have to work with DMPED and DDOT on parking, they were unsure of this. 

DC State Fair:

The annual DC State Fair is on Saturday September 7 at Franklin Park downtown.  

• Contests: The DC State Fair includes 50+ contests and we'd love to get more registrants before the August 16 deadline, especially in the agriculture and art categories. 

The DC State Fair is a free annual event to celebrate the District's homegrown agricultural, artistic, and culinary talents. This year's fair will be on Saturday September 7 at Franklin Park. Inspired by time-honored state fair traditions—growing and gardening, contests, and deep-fried foods—the DC State Fair honors what makes the District unique.

Registration for DC State Fair contests closes soon, and includes everything from best apple pie to funkiest looking vegetable. If you are interested in registering for any of the contests, please read more in the contest guide here: https://dcstatefair.org/contests. Contest registration is free and closes August 16.

• Volunteer Judges: If you are interested in judging any of the contests, please sign up via https://forms.gle/KqmVGKVuycKsecLeA and I will send detailed instructions closer to

  DC Statehood:

This comes from Neighbors United for DC Statehood:

In the presidential race, one side doesn’t support statehood and is threatening to repeal Home Rule. On the other side, Vice President Harris cosponsored the statehood bill when she was in the Senate and Governor Tim Walz who cosponsored the statehood bill when he was in the House. The difference between the two main presidential tickets couldn’t be more stark. The choice is obvious and it’s time for statehood supporters everywhere to get involved.  

Neighbors United for DC Statehood is NOT a 501c3 non-profit, we’re simply a group of neighbors committed to making D.C. the 51st state. Let’s put our collective energy toward organizing postcard writing events to voters in key battleground states. Let’s demonstrate our POWER! There will be a lot of other groups organizing phone banking, text banking, door knocking, and more. I encourage you to work with them too as we need to do everything we can to protect democracy, Home Rule, and put statehood on a positive path forward!!!

Make no mistake, Home Rule is on the line this election year but so is Statehood. Let’s be inspired and motivated by what is possible and let’s get to work!

If you haven't already, please sign the League of Women Voters DC Statehood Petition. 

Thank you all and if you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out. 

Peter