Neighborhood Notes - Foxhall: 2 August, 2000
This
week’s roundtable by the Zoning Commission presented a solid set of arguments
for reforming the campus plan process, including economic and fiscal benefits. A
number of speakers asked that Universities change their habits of only looking
at adjacent residential neighborhoods when they need to expand, and see if they
can’t just cooperate with the city’s economic development program. This
program plans to strengthen neighborhoods by encouraging home ownership and also
identifies tax-advantaged enterprise zones of the city that are ideal for new
development, such as NOMA (North of Massachusetts Avenue) near Union Station, or
new South-West developments being anchored by Naval relocation. The fact that
Universities are tax-exempt gives them no special advantage in these zones, but
with less impact than displacing commercial space in fully developed urban
areas, like Georgetown.
So
this city-wide approach raises an interesting question – instead of GU putting
their new “Public Policy Institute” into the former Wormley School in
Georgetown, why not build in NOMA? This is close to their own Law School and
Capitol Hill, seat of the federal government and relatively close to the John
Wilson building, which will become the seat of D.C. Government again at
year-end.
DC
Recreation & Parks have now posted a large sign at Hardy Rec Center stating
that a Neighborhood Improvement project is "coming soon" with
renovated basketball court and ball fields. We hope this sign will soon be
followed up with actual construction, as DCRP already missed the benefit of the
summer period for site earthworks. It looks like this means that the soccer
fields and softball diamond will be out of commission for at least the fall
season, but at the end of the project we should have irrigated playing fields,
plus resurfaced basketball court and vinyl-coated fencing.
© Bob Andrew, Foxhall
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