Mark your calendars. The LeDroit Park Civic Association’s final meeting before the summer recess is Tuesday at 7pm at the Florida Avenue Baptist Church (enter at the rear on U St).

This month’s agenda:

• Ward 1 School Board member Patrick Mara
• Representatives from Metro. Police and Fire to discuss safety/crime
• A discussion on the Howard University project, and how it will benefit our neighborhood
• A discussion about the living conditions at Kelly Miller and our call for action to DCHA
• An update on the new Park

Howard University is inching closer to finalizing its draft campus plan.

As you recall, each university in DC is required to submit a decennial campus plan to the Zoning Commission for approval.  The campus plan is a legally binding plan that commits the university to certain enrollment caps as well as plans for future physical changes to the campus.

Please note that this is a draft and the university is getting closer to finalizing the plan it intends to submit to the Zoning Commission.  There will continue to be many opportunities for community input and the Zoning Commission will likely decide on the final plan in the fall.

HU Draft Campus Plan (Part 1)

HU Draft Campus Plan (Part 2)

Is LeDroit Park a “food desert”?  The phrase refers to a neighborhood where the nearest grocery store is more than a mile away.  First, this metric would classify many of the tony precincts of Bethesda, Potomac, and McLean as “food deserts”.

Despite that, the metric isn’t entirely useless.  Distance does matter greatly to populations who, for whatever reason, do not have cars.  Groceries are heavy, after all.

Even still, WAMU’s recent characterization of LeDroit Park as a food desert is incorrect.  In fact, you can plug in directions from Anna J. Cooper Circle, the neighborhood’s center, to the Giant at 8th and P Streets NW.

The distance?  Under a mile. That’s about 15 minutes by foot.

In fact, if you’d rather take a bus, which we frequently do with groceries, the G2 runs every 30 minutes from LeDroit Park and along P Street.  It passes not only the aforementioned Giant, but also the Whole Foods on the 1400 block of P Street.  If you return in under 2 hours, the round-trip bus cost is $1.50.

This grocery store is slated to close soon so a new Giant, along with housing, can be constructed on the site.  After that happens, the 3-year-old Safeway at 5th and L Streets NW and the 6-month-old Harris Teeter in NoMA will vie for the title as nearest grocery store.  Each is exactly 1 mile away.

Furthermore, once the Howard Town Center project takes flight, it will feature its own grocery store.  The project is about a half-mile from Anna J. Cooper Circle.

So there you have it.  Within 1 mile of LeDroit Park one will find a Giant, a Safeway, and a Harris Teeter.  That hardly qualifies the neighborhood as a food desert.

Rendering of 1905 14th St NW

It’s that time again.  The monthly meeting of ANC 1B will be on Thursday at 7 pm on the second floor of the Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets NW.

On this month’s agenda:

Liquor licenses

Mama Chuy DC – 2620 Georgia Avenue NW – Class C restaurant license – Full-service Mexican restaurant with carry-out and delivery service. No live entertainment. Summer Garden with 16. Seating capacity is 16. Total occupancy 32. Hours inside and outside: Sun-Thurs 9 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 9 am-3 am. Hours for sales and consumption of alcohol: Sun-Thurs 9 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 10 am-3 am.

Happy Hour – 1201 U Street NW (above the Islander) – Class C tavern license – Neighborhood bar with light food, games including Skiball, Wii Stations, and other electronic video games. Entertainment includes live bands. Hours (including alcohol): Sun-Thurs 11 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 11 am-3 am. Live entertainment: Sun-Thurs 6 pm-2 am, Fri & Sat 6pm-3 am.

Land use and transportation

• Proposal for a new apartment building at 1905-1919 14th Street NW (pictured above).
• Presentation from Howard University on its proposed new dormitories on 4th Street just north of LeDroit Park.

The ANC is starting a transportation committee to address parking policy, streetscape proposals, Metro service, and other transportation topics.

This Sunday we toured the just-renovated Ledroit Place condo building at 1907 3rd St NW. All of the units are now for sale and the top-floor units come with terraces with breathtaking views.

The building is open again this Sunday if you wish to see some of the views yourself.

If you missed Tuesday night’s civic association meeting, never fear! We have copies of the Howard University housing presentation, which focuses on the two proposed dorms the university wishes to add on campus along 4th Street NW.

HU Housing Presentation

Additionally, we also have a draft of the executive summary of the campus plan.

HU Campus Plan – Draft Exec. Summary

This is just a draft, mind you, and the university expects to submit its final campus plan proposal to the Zoning Commission by the end of June. We have been assured that we will receive a copy of the full proposal before the university submits it to the Zoning Commission.

Even though the university will submit the proposal by the end of June, we will have to wait until the fall until the Zoning Commission holds hearings and votes on the proposed plan.

We will post more, including the final draft of the full plan, once these documents become available.

Howard University will present details of its draft campus plan at Tuesday’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association. The university is required to submit a plan every ten years and the university is currently finishing its draft that it will submit to the Zoning Commission in the coming months. This is your chance to learn about the future of Slowe Hall and Diggs Hall, as well as future dorms on 4th Street and buildings along Georgia Avenue.

Tuesday, April 26 at 7pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church, 623 Florida Ave (enter on U street)

Also on the agenda:

• Park update— it’s nearly finished!
• Vote to support the liquor license application of Shaw’s Tavern
• Nominating committee for the coming civic association elections

All neighbors are encouraged to attend.

DC developer Neighborhood Development Company bought the vacant apartment building at 1907 3rd Street and is nearly finished renovating it. The building, which sat vacant and blighted for years, was finally auctioned off last summer and is being turned into a 12-unit condo building called Ledroit Place.

The condo building’s open house is this Sunday from 1pm to 5pm.

Here is what the building looked like two weeks ago:

That southern façade is just begging for a mural.

Here is what the building looked like on May 1, 2010:

Big improvement, right?

This is the first big project to open in the neighborhood since we moved here in May 2009 and we’re glad to see that one of the biggest eye sores is finally returning to productive use.

WMATA owns three vacant lots on the 700 and 800 blocks of Florida Avenue NW on the east end of the U Street corridor.  The agency has just put the lots up for sale for the fourth time in 9 years.  Judging by the brief sales window and by developer JBG’s previous hefty offer, we suspect the lots will be sold for a mixed-use development quite soon.

First let’s revisit this 9-year saga.

Act 1

The agency acquired the lots decades ago to build the Green Line and the lots have remained vacant, save for weekend flea markets, ever since.  The agency first tried to sell the lots in 2002 and tentatively set a deal with Howard University in 2003. The university already owns the lot occupied by the CVS and its surface parking lot on 7th Street between Florida Avenue and T Street NW.

Act 2

Litigation brought that Howard deal to a halt and WMATA offered the lots again in 2007.  Banneker Ventures LLC, infamous for its park contracts, won that round and aimed to lease the land for redevelopment into apartments and retail space.

Act 3

Then came the recession and the agency lost patience with Banneker’s inability to get financing for the deal.  Last year the WMATA board voted to end its engagement with Banneker and put the lots out for bids yet again.

U Street land barron JBG offered WMATA $11.5 million, by far the highest offer, to buy the lots.  The agency recently determined that in Act 3, none of the bids were “technically compliant” and so no sale could be completed.

Act 4

Now, nearly nine years after the agency first tried to dispose of the lots, WMATA is requesting sale offers again.  These will be due May 2, leaving a 3-week window for offers.  We assume (and hope) this fourth act is a formality so WMATA can properly sell the land to one of the third-round bidders.

* * *

Despite these delays, there is some good news as to what must go on these lots.  WMATA’s RFP for the lots mandates a mixed-use development in compliance with the Office of Planning’s DUKE Plan:

WMATA parcels should be developed to include active, ground floor arts and retail with offices and residential above. Preference may be given to projects which include specialty restaurants, a small-format anchor and/or a cluster of retail shops, small clubs, and/or museum uses themed to the African American culture and experience of the district.

Furthermore, WMATA has requirements for design, too:

• Any building rising to the maximum permitted by-right height of 65 feet should provide a meaningful cornice at 65 feet. A one to one setback from the cornice should be provided for any building height above 65 feet (to a maximum of 90 feet) if requested through a planned unit development.
• Provide a minimum of 14’ ground level floor to finished ceiling clear height.
• Parking should be below grade. Please note that below grade parking will be limited by the presence of WMATA’s train tunnel directly below the Property
• All buildings are to be set directly on the front and side property lines.

The tops of the Green Line tunnels are about 30 feet below the surface, thus limiting the size of any underground garage.  Since the lots are with within 900 feet of two metro stations, the parking demand for any project will be low.

WMATA’s requirements are good in that they mandate design features that create vibrant streets.  Ground-floor retail (or cultural space) and the fact that the buildings will go up to the sidewalk are requirements that will enliven the sidewalk, especially at night.  Prohibiting above-ground parking will prevent unsightly parking decks and will limit the ability for projects to induce car traffic.

We hope this last round will finally get these vacant lots into productive uses that enhance, rather than detract from, the area.  With Progression Place and the Howard Theatre already in the works and with Howard Town Center just a few years off, these blocks are slated for some much-needed rejuvenation.

Draft Campus Plan

Representatives of two large projects of local interest will appear at Thursday’s monthly meeting of ANC1B.

First, Howard University will give a short presentation of its draft campus plan (right). The university is finishing up the draft that it intends to submit for public review and Zoning Commission approval in the coming months. The draft we’ve seen shows positive steps for development along lower Georgia Avenue.  We will post more details later this week.

Second, the city and its architects will present the concept design for the renovation of Cardozo Senior High School.  The historic school building opened at a time when girls and boys were separated within schools.  As a consequence, the building has two small gyms, rather than one adequate gym.  The architecture team proposes appending a new gym to the west side of the building and partly burying it into the hillside.  Burying the structure into the hillside allays residents’ previous objections to any additions that would obstruct the spectacular views from Clifton Street NW.  The roof of the gym will serve as a parking lot and may provide a fireworks view (not launching!) platform for future Independence Days.

Two liquor licenses are on the agenda, too:

• Sankofa Café, 2714 Georgia Avenue NW – New tavern. “Live entertainment and a Summer Garden. Total seating is 86. Total occupancy load is 136. Summer garden 40 seats. Hours of operation: Sunday-Thursday 7 am-2 am, Friday & Saturday 7 am-3 am. Hours of sales/service/consumption of alcoholic beverages: Sunday-Thursday 5 pm-2 am, Friday & Saturday 12 am-3 am. Hours of live entertainment: Sunday 6:00 pm-2 am, Thursday through Saturday 6 pm-1 am. Summer Garden hours of alcoholic beverage sales/service/consumption: Sunday 12 pm-12 a,. Monday through Thursday 3 pm-12 am,Friday & Saturday 12 pm-12 am. Summer Garden hourse lf live entertainment: Sunday 6 pm-9 pm, Thursday through Saturday 6 pm-9 pm.”
• H2 LLC Voluntary Agreement

The monthly meeting of ANC1B will be Thursday at 7 pm at the Reeves Center at 14th & U Streets NW.