Mention You're a Shaw Resident for Discount at New Hotel

At its regular monthly meeting April 1, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw granted a stipulated liquor license to the soon-to-open 182-room Cambria Suites Hotel (899 O Street NW) located above City Market at O. The full ANC followed the recommendation of the liquor-licensing affairs committee of ANC6E to grant the stipulated license. The vote was unanimous.

And also a hotel for out-to-town visitors

As part of the presentation in support of the request for a stipulated license, attorney Stephen J. O'Brien of the law firm Mallios & O'Brien told ANC6E that Shaw residents will get a discounted rate at the new hotel if they make reservations directly by phone to the hotel after it opens on May 1. O'Brien conceded residents themselves would have little reason for a hotel room for themselves. This discount is aimed at Shaw residents who are hosting out-of-town guests and cannot adequately house them in their tiny inner-city apartments.

The discount will not be advertised on the hotel's web site.

"The community will have to know enough to ask for it," O'Brien said. If the person answering the phone at the hotel doesn't know about the discount, he added, Shaw residents seeking the discount should ask to speak to Francisco Selles, the General Manager, who would make sure the discount was applied.

There may be blackout periods, O'Brien also said.

It was admitted at the meeting that it is impossible to collect or maintain a full list of Shaw residents. So, the discount will operate on the honor system, meaning, anyone calling and claiming to be a Shaw resident would receive the discount.

The Cambria Suites Hotel would be primarily aimed at the business traveller, according to O'Brien. As a result, the operators expected most of the guests to stay between Sunday and Thursday evenings. More rooms will be available on Friday and Saturday nights which, O'Brien hoped, would compliment the needs of local residents who have out-of-town guests coming for the weekend.

The hotel's web site is accepting reservations for check in after May 14.

On-line information says the hotel project represented an investment of over $40 million and created an estimated 300 jobs in the Washington area. The majority of employees are D.C. residents, according to information presented at the meeting, and there are still "a handful of jobs" left. They can be applied for through the company web site, www.concordhotels.com.

Granting a stipulated license is one of the few actions that an ANC can take that is more than advisory in nature. On the basis of ANC6E's action, the hotel will be able to legally serve alcohol until its long-term liquor-license application makes its way through the D.C. liquor-licensing bureaucracy, assuming no other party makes an official objection.

Alcohol will be served in the hotel lobby bar, which will be one level up from the street. There will be a summer garden with alcohol service. It will close at 11pm.

ANC6E videos its meetings and puts the videos on Youtube. Watch the section of this meeting that deals with the Cambria Suites Hotel here, starting at time 11:00.

ANC1B: Quorum Achieved, Some Habitual Absences, Norman Leaves

At its regular monthly meeting on April 3, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street had less trouble obtaining a quorum than last month. There was a quorum nearly from the beginning of the meeting.

(Image from ANC1B web site)

However, some Commissioners are making a habit of being absent. Commissioner Sedrick Muhammed (district 03) missed his fourth consecutive meeting. Commissioner Jeremy Leffler (02) missed his third consecutive meeting.

ANC1B Chair James Turner (09) announced the seat for 1B district 10 was now vacant. There will be a special election to fill it. District 10 was the former seat of Tony Norman. Norman was ANC1B Chair until January, when the ANC voted 5 - 4 to replace him with Turner -- see SALM blog post of January 3.

Attendance record of Commissioners

Commissioners who failed to attend this meeting: Leffler, Muhammed, and Juan Lopez (07).

(Full disclosure: I attended the meeting from 7pm, when it started, until 9pm. By that time, the agenda was over 80% complete. It is possible that Commissioners showed up after 9pm and therefore were not absent for the entire meeting.)

Commissioner Deborah Thomas (04) was 60 minutes late for the meeting.

Commissioners who arrived at the meeting on time: Marc Morgan (01), Ricardo Reinoso (05), Dyana Forester (06), Turner, E. Gail Anderson Holness (11), and Zahra Jilani (12).

Commissioner Emily Washington (08) resigned in February.

Below is ANC1B Commissioners' attendance record for the last six meetings, based on my observation. Just like airlines, I define "late" as arriving more than 15 minutes behind schedule. Meetings usually last between two and three hours.

• Morgan (01): Four present, one absent, one early departure*
• Leffler (02): Two present, four absent
• Muhammed (03): One present, five absent
• Thomas (04): One present, three absent, two late**
• Reinoso (05): Six present
• Forester (06): Three present, two absent, one late***
• Lopez (07): Three present, two absent, one late****
• Washington (resigned, 08): Two present, one absent
• Turner (09): Five present, one absent
• Norman (resigned, 10): Three present, two absent
• Anderson Holness (11): One present, three absent, two late*****
• Zilani (12): Six present

* missed at least 30 minutes of meeting March 26
** arrived 40 minutes late for March 26, 60 minutes late for April
*** arrived 20 minutes January, left same meeting after 90 minutes
**** arrived 25 minutes late January
***** arrived 90 minutes late December 2013 and February

Now two special elections

There is at least one candidate for the vacant seat in district 08. Mark Ranslem is aspiring to fill Washington's former seat, according to an announcement made at the meeting. Ranslem was present at the meeting but did not participate.

Candidates for an ANC must gather at least 25 signatures. The signatures must be validated by DC election officials, so candidates sometimes gather more than double the minimum to guarantee their place on the ballot. After DC election officials have validated the signatures, a special election is held. Often, it is on the sidelines of an ANC meeting. The special election for Washington's seat may take place on the sidelines of the ANC1B regular monthly meeting in May or June.

ANC Chair Turner also announced the seat for district 10 -- formerly held by former ANC Chair Norman -- was open. In three other cases I have seen, when Commissioners vacate their seats, they come to a final meeting, announce their departure, say how much they've enjoyed working at the ANC, and are thanked by their ANC for their work. In this case, there was no mention of Norman's name, and he did not appear. In fact, no one at the meeting actually said Norman had resigned -- only that his seat was now up for a special election. Norman had missed the two previous ANC meetings.

Norman was first elected to ANC1B in 2010.

Ward One Task Force on Community and Church Parking Created

Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street will participate in a Ward One-wide task force on community and church parking. ANC1B Commissioner E. Gail Anderson Holness (district 11) made an announcement about the formation of the task force at the ANC's monthly meeting on April 3.

Florida Avenue Baptist Church

"These problems are not new," Holness said. "They've just become more intense."

Commissioner Holness announced the office of City Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward One) had formed the task force to address how to facilitate parking at churches across Ward One on Sundays and at other times of religious worship. Holness said she expected the task force to meet three or four times. The first meeting will be within the next two weeks, and there will be a town meeting. The task force will issue a final report.

"We want the final report to reflect the entire community," Holness said.

Task force membership

Holness said eight Ward One pastors would serve on the task force. She named several of them, including Dr. Earl D. Trent Jr. of Florida Avenue Baptist Church (623 Florida Avenue NW) and Father Patrick Smith of St. Augustine Catholic Church (1419 V Street).

Holness also asked for "a commissioner other than me" to participate in the task force. Commissioner Dyana Forrester (district 06) volunteered to do so. Forrester said she has attended Florida Avenue Baptist Church.

Forrester compared D.C. police tactics concerning churches and parking to suburban police tactics in the same context.

"In Maryland and Viriginia, police help. They don't write tickets," Forrester said.

Holness on the traffic scene

Holness took the opportunity of the announcement to touch on several traffic-related issues. They included bloggers who complain about suburbanites coming on Sunday to park near historical churches, while not complaining about suburbanites who drive into D.C. from Monday to Friday and park on local streets.

She compared weekday commuters to Sunday church visitors: "Many people who come in on the weekends have lived here at one time."

She also commented on bicyclists.

"I'm 57 and I ride a bike," she said.

However, Holness went on, bicyclists received too much consideration because they do not bicycle in inclement weather.

"You don't see bikes when it snows, when it's raining," she said.

Concerning the historic churches in Ward One, Holness said: "They were here before many of the new residents came. They will be here after they are gone."

Dupont Underground: "If You Don't Have a Prominent Public Entry, It Just Won't Work"

The committee on design review for Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2B/Dupont Circle took a field trip to the tunnels under Dupont Circle on April 2. Down below, partisans of a redeveloped Dupont Underground told the Zoning, Preservation, and Development (ZPD) Committee their vision for the space. There was also a bonus tour of the urban caverns for attendees.

Julian Hunt presenting Dupont, underground

The project is a complex and ambitious operation with a lot of moving parts, involving numerous reports to and permissions from a bewildering variety of D.C. and federal government entities. The space will be renovated in stages, in the hope that revenue and experience from the first stage can help advance a second and third.

"Dupont Circle is not living up to its potential," said lead presenter Julian Hunt, Chairman of the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground. Hunt is also an architect and founding Principal of Hunt Laudi Studio.

One of the many challenges facing the developers will be constructing and maintaining an entry to the proposed underground development. The current multiple narrow staircases to the space scattered around Dupont Circle are, at best, "very uninviting", to quote a characterization made by D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward Two) at the last ANC2B meeting.

"Every developer said: if you don't have a prominent public entry, people won't see you. It just won't work," Hunt said.

Hunt and allies have ambitious plans, but they'll have to move bureaucratic heaven and earth to make them happen. One example: the case of pie-shaped piece of land bordered by P Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and 20th Street NW, just west of Dupont Circle. The triangular east-pointing tip of this land, now containing a boarded-up entry to the underground tunnel, is owned by the D.C. government. A square-ish chunk of land on the western side, now containing a tiny brick building called the Dupont Resource Center (9 Dupont Circle), is owned by the National Park Service.

Proposed entryway to Dupont Underground

Hunt showed the committee a proposed design for the space (see photo). In order to make this design a reality, Hunt must have the cooperation of both parties, including permission from the National Park Service to demolish the building. The developer's task will not be made any easier by the fact that this building is used during the day as the offices of the Dupont Circle Citizen's Association, a group often objects to new construction in the neighborhood.

This is not the only highly-visible part of the Circle that the group wishes to transform. Another slide in Hunt's presentation depicted a "cap park" on a wide median between Dupont Circle and Q Street, created by covering over the Connecticut Avenue underpass. Yet another replaced the magnolia trees which bloom in concrete boxes on the center median of Connecticut Avenue just south of Dupont Circle with a long, gradual pedestrian ramp into Dupont Underground from the N Street intersection.

Hunt talked some about the unique difficulties mounting a project of this size in the district.

"This is something that would be kind of normal in a normal city," he said. "If we had a Senator who would say 'it's my project', it would happen automatically."

This project's above-ground problems are only a few of the many problems it will face. Hunt's subterranean talk to the ZPD Committee covered many, many other topics related to this ambitious development. Read a good report summarizing them (with great pictures) from District Source here.

More coverage of the development can be found on page one of the latest edition of The Dupont Current -- available as a 32-page .pdf here (click on "No. 14 April 02, 2014").

Assisting the presentation were Braulio Agnese, Managing Director of the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground, and Patrick Smith, a developer who is seeking to bring a 41-unit "pod" hotel (rooms 180 square feet each) to the first phase of the project.

Also attending were ANC2B Commissioners Kevin O'Connor (district 02) and Leo Dwyer (district 07). Dwyer is also Chair of the ZPD Committee meeting.

ANC6E Endorses Longer Opening Hours for Dacha Beer Garden

At its regular monthly meeting on April 1, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw endorsed longer opening hours for Dacha Beer Garden (1600 7th Street NW).

This mural presides over Dacha Beer Garden.

Dacha Beer Garden sought three changes to its settlement agreement with ANC6E. Specifically, it wanted the ANC to

• remove restrictions on opening hours
• allow the Beer Garden to close later (i.e., have weekend hours) on the Sunday evenings of three-day weekends and the days before holidays like Fourth of July
• allow music to be played outside

Of these, ANC6E voted to endorse the first two suggested changes only. (Outside music was vetoed.) The endorsed changes will now go D.C.'s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board for final approval. 

The motion to endorse the first two changes was made by ANC6E Chair Alexander Padro (Commissioner for district 01). Dacha Beer Garden is in his ANC district. The local civic association had no objections, according to Padro.

"The neighbors had absolutely no objections," Padro also said.

But some Commissioners were not so enthusiastic. If restrictions on opening hours were completely removed, Dacha Beer Garden would legally be allowed to start serving alcohol at 7am. A few Commissioners worried there would be early-morning drinking.

Dmitri Chekaldin, co-owner of the Dacha Beer Garden, told the ANC repeatedly he had no intention of serving liquor so early.

"We're not going to open the beer garden before noon," he said. "We're going to open in the afternoon."

So why, he was asked, was he seeking permission to open at 7am?

Chekaldin explained his eventual plan to build a structure on the site. (The beer garden is currently open to the elements.) Once the structure is built, the plan is to open at 7 and sell coffee in the morning, while continuing to operate as liquor-serving establishment in the afternoons and evenings. Chekaldin did not want to have to come back again to seek separate permission to open at 7am.

Some Commissioners were not convinced of the wisdom of granting 7am opening right away. In the end, there was a roll call vote. The motion to endorse Dacha Beer Garden's request for longer hours passed by a vote of 4 - 2.

Commissioners voting to support the request: Padro, Kevin Chapple (district 02), Marge Maceda (05), and Alfreda Judd (07).

Commissioners voting against: Frank Wiggins (03) and Rachelle Nigro (04)

Liquor-serving establishments often enter into settlement agreements with local ANCs and other parties as a condition of their liquor license. These agreements often dictate the hours an establishment can stay open, use of public space like sidewalks, method and frequency of vermin control, operation of valet parking, and other details of licensee operation that can have an impact on the neighborhood.

(Photo credit: flickr.com)

Campaign to Improve Disabled Access to Restaurants Starts at ANC2F

Eliot Imse, Director of Policy and Communications at the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR), kicked off a new campaign in Logan Circle on March 26 to improve access by the disabled to restaurants. Imse told a committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle his office had released, that same day, a guidebook for restaurants who wish to increase access for the disabled. The OHR will also ask restaurants to take a pledge to be "accessibility friendly".

Imse told the Community Development Committee (CDC) of ANC2F the new campaign as a "smile-friendly, business-friendly approach". He said that 11 percent, or about 70,000, of D.C. residents have some kind of disability. Seventy-five percent of people with disabilities eat out at least once a week. He also cited a statistic which said that people with disabilities spend over $35 billion in restaurants yearly (a statistic that appears to come from this 2003 study).

The guide (available here) contains a list of best practices for restaurants and a questionnaire to determine an establishment's level of accessibility-friendliness. It was developed with assistance for D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Imse said his office would encourage restaurant owners to support the campaign by putting up an OHR-produced sticker in their windows. It says: "We pledge to be Accessibility Friendly".

A wheelchair-bound woman spoke up at the meeting to say the level of handicapped accessibility for restaurants on nearby 14th Street NW was not adequate. Restaurants often had one or more steps up into the establishment, which effectively prevented people in wheelchairs from entering.

Only three restaurants on 14th Street are handicapped accessible, she said. It was not clear to what stretch of 14th Street this remark applied.

Imse said, if the woman wished to improve accessibility on 14th Street, D.C.'s Office of Disability Rights (ODR) "is a good first stop".

After the meeting, I made a completely unscientific study of an area of popular restaurants on 14th Street. Here's what I found:

Rice Restaurant (1608 14th Street) has a step up - not wheelchair friendly.

Pearl Dive (1612 14th Street) also had a step up from the sidewalk.

The soon-to-open Red Light Dessert Bar (1401 R Street) has two steps up from its patio.

Barcelona (1622 14th Street) seems to be more accessibility-friendly.

1450 V Street (Portner Place): "We Don't Want to Be near Partygoers"

The entire board of the tenants' association of Portner Place (1450 V Street NW) turned out at the March 25 meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street. They were there to tell the ANC the design of the proposed development was OK with them.

"We want to be on V Street," the President of the Portner Place tenants' association said. "We don't want to be near partygoers."

An image from the February meeting

Portner Place is now a group of garden apartments next to the Reeves Center (14th and U Street), on a piece of land that stretches from U to V Street. The proposal is to raze the garden apartments, and in its place build two separate high-rise buildings. Facing V Street would be 96 units of affordable housing. Facing U Street would be 270 units of "market rate" (i.e., much more expensive) housing. The buildings would share a common back wall but not a common entrance.

This design led a member of ANC1B's Design Review Committee to say the project "implied segregation" -- see SALM blog post of March 3.

But this is what the residents want

"Stop telling us what we are," a Portner Place tenants' association Board member said. "Let us tell you."

The five women of the tenants' association board made very clear that separate buildings was the design they wanted.

"We're happy with the amenities and support the massing," one said.

Board members said it was now very difficult to maintain security on Portner Place, and they looked forward to living in a building that was more secure.

"Portner Place is the building we deserve," a Board member said. "We've waited such a long time."

Presenting again

A team from Somerset Development Company, led by Principal Nancy L. Hooff, made an abbreviated presentation to the ANC. It was the second time this month Hooff and the team presented. The first presentation was at ANC1B's meeting of March 6, but the ANC could not vote on the matter because not enough Commissioners were present to establish a quorum -- see SALM blog post of March 10. ANC Chair James Turner (Commissioner for district 09) asked for an abbreviated presentation for the benefit of commissioners who had not attended the earlier meeting.

Commissioner Juan Lopez (district 07) asked where the residents will go during the construction of the high-rise.

"We own a lot of properties," Hooff said. "The idea is to find one or two buildings. We will master lease 47 units somewhere."

They need an endorsement now

Somerset Development was asking for ANC1B's endorsement before they pitched the project to D.C.'s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). The hearing at HPRB was scheduled for less than 48 hours after the ANC meeting. This meant the ANC would have to produce a document of support at faster-than-normal speed.

"We'd really appreciate something by tomorrow," Hooff said.

The ANC voted unanimously to endorse the concept and massing of the project.

"I hope we allayed your fears," Hooff said.

The blog District Source has reported on Somerset Development's subsequent appearance before the HPRB. The reception was generally favorable.

See the HPRB staff report on Portner Place here.