RED BUTTONS DOMINATE AT DC ZONING COMMISSION

Wearing red buttons that read:  “Oppose the AU Plan” dozens of residents of American University’s surrounding neighborhoods packed the DC Zoning Commission Hearing Room for the third time on July 14th to express their dissatisfaction with AU’s proposed 2011 Ten Year  Campus Expansion Plan.

Zoning Commission Chair Anthony Hood, commenting that everywhere he looked all he saw were folks wearing red buttons, wondered aloud why so many people were so opposed to the Plan.

Cross examining the AU presenters and the Office of Planning recommendations on the plan, representatives from Spring Valley, Wesley Heights, Westover Place and the Tenley Campus Neighbors and Tenley Neighbors Association, as well as ANC3D Chairman Tom Smith all made quite clear that the campus plan proposed by American University would impose severe objectionable impacts on the adjacent communities and should not be approved as filed.

These include a huge increase in the number of students overwhelming existing low-density neighborhoods, growing traffic gridlock with no detailed plans for dealing with it, insufficient parking moving onto neighborhood streets, no long term “Green Space” and noise and air pollution resulting from putting high-density development into the middle of low density areas without sufficient buffer zones.

Tom Smith, Chairman of ANC3D, within which American University is located, elicited during his questioning of the Office of Planning that although AU has claimed to be in conversation with the neighbors for a little over two years about their objections, very little in the plan had changed.  This resulted in the Office of Planning suggesting a facilitator to help the process but this proved unsuccessful.

The hearings will resume in September after an August recess.

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.”

COMMUTER NIGHTMARE LOOMS FOR VIRGINIA, MARYLAND AND DC RESIDENTS

*     Ward Circle, at the busy commuter intersection of Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues, ALREADY has the highest accident rate in DC, according to the Rock Creek West II Livability Study (DDOT).
*     AU’s Overreaching Expansion Plan to ingest Nebraska Ave, in the context of expansion plans of Homeland Security ( an estimated additional 1800 workers and cars) and Wesley Seminary along Massachusetts on each side of the circle, will create traffic havoc throughout the region.
*      Massachusetts Avenue carries almost 21,000 commuter and resident cars every weekday. Nebraska averages almost 25,000.  That’s not counting pedestrian and bicycle traffic at the intersection.
*      What’s going to happen when AU’s expansion plan to house a minimum number of 770 students on its Nebraska Ave parking lot, engulfs Nebraska and makes it the main road through their campus? Where’s all this traffic going to go?  Answer:  nowhere fast.
*      Lifesaving emergency equipment already faces the challenges of getting through.  This will only get worse if these plans are approved, endangering the lives of residents, federal workers and students alike.
*      AU’s plan to impose meeting halls, campus book stores and student food establishments (replacing a much needed neighborhood food market) along New Mexico Ave will lead to even more foot traffic.   
*     The worsening gridlock ensures increased air pollution, air toxins, greenhouse gasses,
and noise pollution.  Parking will become more of a problem for both those who live in the community and those who drive. What is already an intolerable situation for residents and commuters alike will become a nightmare.

*     It’s vital to stop AU from ingesting essential commuter and resident thoroughfares into their own campus expansion!

SO WHAT CAN I DO?

Write Mayor Vince Gray at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 316, Washington DC  20004 or go to dc.gov, click on Ask the Mayor and e-mail him.  Maryland and Virginia residents should contact Gov.Martin O’Malley or Gov. Bob McDonnell.  Tell them you’re opposed to the AU expansion plan.

For more information on the issue of AU expansion, and other things you can do to help, visit Neighbors for a Livable Community.  NLC is a coalition of community groups in the Spring Valley, Wesley Heights and Tenleytown areas.