DETERMINED NEIGHBORS SAY NO TO AU

Palisades,  April 25, 2011 --Determined residents of Spring Valley, Wesley Heights and Tenleytown filled the Community Meeting Room at Sibley Memorial Hospital to air their opposition to the American University Campus Expansion Plan at a special meeting of ANC3d, called to consider the

ANC’s recommendations to the DC Office of Planning and the Zoning Commission.

In votes on 12 resolutions presented by Chairman Tom Smith, citing the many objectionable conditions presented by the AU Expansion Plan, the nine- member ANC voted in most cases by votes of 8 to 1 or 7 to 2 to repudiate the AU plan and recommend steps the Zoning Commission should take to alleviate the most egregious conditions.

These included traffic gridlock along the Nebraska Avenue corridor, pedestrian safety issues at Ward Circle, access of emergency vehicles, parking issues and inadequate buffer zones between student housing and residential neighborhoods.  The AU plan also calls upon DDOT to remove the Metro bus stops in this area.  The ANC resolutions called for the removal of the AU Nebraska Ave. shuttle bus stops, which are a real traffic halter during rush hours.

Additionally the AU plan seeks to expand its on-campus student population by about 30% and does not include a cap against further expansion in the future.  The ANC would like the 2001 Expansion Cap reinstated and expressed its feeling that the obfuscation about the cap in the plan is simply AU

attempting to vitiate any cap.

Other issues addressed by the resolutions  included  the gobbling up of 528,000 square feet of neighborhood commercial properties without regard  to neighborhood needs and the university’s stated aim to buy up any properties which become available within 1 mile of its core campus.

A further resolution introduced by Commissioner Stuart Ross recommended that the Zoning Commission should require AU to address the issue of pedestrian traffic mitigation strategies, including but not limited to a  tunnel and/or bridge at Ward Circle.  This passed 8-1.

David Fehrmann - Westover Homeowners Assn. representative and one of a coalition of neighbors from Wesley Heights, Spring Valley and Tenleytown - expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting.  “We’re pleased to see our ANC stand up to AU and see to it that our communities  are not just steamrollered into oblivion. We’re not going to give up on this.”

DC  Council At-Large Candidate Patrick Mara was the only candidate present and distributed handouts stating “AU cannot continue to ignore ANCs and communities...[and] must keep the 2001 student and employee cap.”