tl;dr
- Medical Cannabis Dispensary at 2308 Rhode Island not happening; the Council-imposed cap for licenses was hit with a new license in Ivy City
- Chuck Brown Day at Langdon Park on 8/20/2022; there will definitely be portapotties. There will be various personnel there to manage traffic/parking/trash. They should close 20th St. to drivers but may not.
- A family on Irving is redoing their rear porch; this is a small BZA case (20780) to repair/replace an old porch in kind, necessitated by poor DCRA recordkeeping
- Preliminary proposal to build a Fire/EMS station in Langdon around 1901 Evarts; this is early and notional, but a lot to unpack and we should stay alert about this
Chuck Brown Day
This is the 7th annual occurrence of this large and awesome event in our neighborhood, and I think we’re collectively used to it by now. The portapotties were a belabored topic at the meeting and the DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) personnel promised to internally agitate on the portapotty issue to make sure they’re prepared.
Chuck Brown Day 2018
DPR is also addressing various traffic, parking, and trash issues. There will be traffic officers at many adjacent intersections, shuttles from off-street parking facilities, extra trashcans on-site, and trash pickup during and after.
There was some discussion from residents about closing 20th St. to drivers during the event, which has been done on some past Chuck Brown Days and not others; it was noted that 20th St. barely functions under those circumstances for through driving, and could be made available for people to traverse the two halves of the park freely. Another concern raised was the especially bad post-event traffic on Franklin around 20th and 18th; something that could also improve if 20th St. is closed to drivers. DPR personnel said they’d bring up the topic of closing 20th St. to drivers. Folks may consider dropping them a line (contact below) if they have a strong opinion on this.
Any issues regarding this event can be directed to Christopher Dyer, Community Engagement Manager at DPR: Christopher.Dyer@dc.gov, (202) 702-9453
FEMS Station
The latest info on this topic is available at the the Model Cities/FEMS Engine 26 issue page
Commissioner Montague received a very preliminary plan for a possible DC FEMS station in 5C02, just across Evarts from Langdon Elementary School.
These particular plans would include:
- razing the existing Model Cities building at 1901 Evarts St. NE, and replacing it with a new two-story complex with similarly-sized surface parking lot, accessed by one curb cut on Evarts St.
- closing a notional portion of 20th St. NE south of Evarts (where it’s plotted but unbuilt; there is a patch of trees there now); this might require Council action
- building a FEMS station there, with a large surface parking lot in back, accessed by a second curb cut on Evarts
- building a vehicle bay on the east side of the FEMS station, with emergency vehicles accessing from a third curb cut on Queens Chapel Rd.
Early Site Plans
my take
switching from facts to opinion
I have some major concerns with this, including:
- putting a loud emergency vehicle dispatch right outside Langdon Elementary School, which would disrupt the learning environment
- having emergency vehicles use 20th, Queens Chapel, and/or Franklin for egress; Commissioner Montague mentioned a community benefit of this would be more aggressive snow removal on the roads here, which I’m not compelled by at all. We need traffic calming where 20th St. cuts between Langdon Park’s playground and rec center (and everywhere else), and I’d worry that additional emergency vehicles would be used by DDOT to justify not acting on that.
- having additional curb cuts on a sidewalk where children are likely to be walking; I’m not sure why the two parking facilities couldn’t share a curb cut or be consolidated entirely
- removing trees primarily to add surface parking lots, which is an inherently poor use of the land. If this much parking is really necessary, this might be a candidate for a second underground parking garage in the neighborhood, after the one at 2026 Jackson
We should monitor this situation closely. These are DC Government buildings replacing a DC Government building, which allows both more flexibility in use, but also ideally a little more community control. We should work to make sure new construction there is community-serving and pedestrian/transit-oriented, and these plans are neither.
