ANC1B Update: Media Center One Inches Forward, Masa Hits the Roof
Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo and other matters kept us too busy to follow up on the February meeting of ANC1B, so here is the belated report of the highlights.
The owner of 1916 Ninth Street requested a variance to allow him to use the house as an art gallery. His description of the renovation included achieving LEED Platinum certification for the old rowhouse.
The owner of 321 T Street sought and received ANC support for his conceptual design of his proposed renovations to the rowhouse on T Street here in LeDroit Park. The owner had presented the plan at the previous LeDroit Park Civic Association meeting and didn’t receive any opposition.
Finally, a lawyer representing Media Center One (a.k.a. Broadcast Center One) (pictured above) requested and received approval for a two-year extension for the planned unit development (PUD) application for the project. The developer’s representative blamed the financial markets (of course), sympathized with the community’s “development fatigue” and said that the project was moving forward thanks to the successful leasing of office space to the United Negro College Fund in addition to Radio One.
The reconfigured project will remain largely the same, except 50,000 square feet of apartment space will become office space. That means the project will include 133 apartments instead of 180 and will include 160,000 square feet of offices instead of 110,000 square feet.
Groundbreaking is now set for June or July 2010.
On the liquor front, Ulah Bistro received the ANC’s assent to host DJs and jazz bands Sunday through Thursday nights 9 pm to 1:30 am and Friday and Saturday nights 9 pm to 2:30 am. Ulah is one of the few licensees in the U Street area without a voluntary agreement.
The proprietors for Bella (900 Florida Avenue NW) did not show up and the ANC protested their request for a license.
Finally, the proprietor of Masa 14 (1825 Fourteenth Street) presented the most contentious proposal of the night, requesting that their liquor license extend to their proposed roof deck (see the drawings) permitting them to sell alcohol Sunday through Thursday 8 am to 2 am and Friday and Saturday 8 am to 3 am. Some neighbors voiced concern that the roof deck would create too much noise and doubted that a place described as restaurant would need to serve alcohol so late into the night. The ANC voted to protest the application until the owner and the ANC could come to a voluntary agreement. [Clarification: the ANC typically protests all new liquor licenses as a tactical move to goad applicants to reach what is called a “voluntary agreement” (VA) with the ANC. These voluntary agreements are less permissive than the District’s standing liquor laws.]
The next meeting is set for Thursday, March 4, 2010, at 7 pm on the second floor of the Reeves Building at Fourteenth and U Streets.
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