Advisory
Neighborhood Commission 4B
6856 Eastern Avenue, N.W.
Draft
Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B thanks the Office of Planning for its considerable efforts to meet with residents to discuss the draft Upper Georgia Avenue Master Plan. ANC 4B supports some elements of the Plan, particularly those that provide additional streetscape and safety improvements and those that seek to improve retail opportunities.
We urge that the Office of Planning make the following changes:
1. Address redevelopment and revitalization
along on the west side of
2. Detail specific programs to assist existing businesses and encourage small and minority business start-ups in the corridor. Retaining existing businesses and helping small and minority businesses establish and succeed in the redeveloped areas should be a key Plan goal.
3. Provide more affordable housing and more programs that help existing tenants purchase and improve multi-family and single-family homes. These should be key elements of the Master Plan. The new Inclusionary Zoning regulations provide a small number of affordable or workforce housing units. The Master Plan should also detail how many existing residents might be displaced by redevelopment and address how those displaced will be served.
4. Provide more detail and a very specific
plan, with time-frames, for bringing quality retail and major retail anchors to
the corridor, including the Gateway
5. Better address pedestrian access throughout the corridor; it is poor and often dangerous. Access to Shepherd Park Library is one example. These pedestrian issues should be addressed immediately in the implementation plan for very short-term action, even before redevelopment. We support the Plan's acknowledgement that pedestrian safety and access should be key elements in redevelopment design.
6. Strengthen the language that promises to protect the residents of the residential, single-family homes adjacent to C2A and C3A-zoned sites (including the community near Geranium and Hemlock Streets) from inappropriate development. Currently, the C2A zone allows a maximum height of 65 feet for Planned Unit Developments and 50-feet as a matter of right. This is too high for buildings that are as close as 20 feet from single-family homes.
The Plan's suggested "stepped down" mixed use building designs may help protect the character of some adjacent single-family home neighborhoods, but the very shallow commercial lots on many sites along the corridor, including those at Geranium and Hemlock Streets, prevent the effective use of this technique. An Overlay Zone and/or other changes in the zoning regulations are needed to ensure that redeveloped building heights are appropriate and the character and viability of the surrounding single-family neighborhoods are protected.
7. Provide concept
plans for the redevelopment of the Walter Reed site and detail its impact on
the surrounding residential neighborhoods on the east and the west sides of
8. Restrict the number of surface parking spaces to be permitted and detail how many and/or the percentage of surface, structured, underground, and shared parking spaces to be built along the corridor, including the sites at Geranium, Hemlock and Eastern Avenue. Specific solutions and recommendations for providing parking need to be included in the Plan before it is adopted. The concept design on page 34 for Geranium and Hemlock Streets, which has a high percentage of surface parking, is not supported by the community.
9. Detail possible sites for the new Engine 22 Fire Station and the possible new MPD station and provide concept plans for relocating the stations at these sites.
10. Plan for providing public transportation
for residents, employees and shoppers to and from the Takoma Metro Station to
encourage them to use public transportation and relieve some traffic congestion
from our streets.
11. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B authorizes each Commissioner to represent his/her Single Member District at all hearings related to the Master Plan and to detail how the points noted in this resolution apply to that Single Member District.
Adopted in a unanimous 8-0-0 roll-call
vote by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B during its Special Meeting, held on
signed signed
__________________ ___________________
Blondine Hughes, Chair Sara Green, Secretary
Date Date