Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Vol. VIII, No. 44
The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT
Council targets grocery covenants
S TAT E M E N T M A R C H
■ Palisades: Bill addresses
future of MacArthur Safeway
By KATIE PEARCE Current Staff Writer
With the Palisades Safeway up for sale, the D.C. Council intervened yesterday to ensure that the 4865 MacArthur Blvd. site could continue to host a supermarket. Fearing Safeway might impose a
covenant to prohibit future grocery stores on that property — a common practice for national supermarkets selling their stores — the council unanimously passed emergency legislation Tuesday to prevent that possibility. Though triggered by the Palisades situation, the legislation has citywide impacts, making it unlawful for any grocery chain to apply restrictive covenants on future land use when it sells, leases or transfers
its property in the District. At-large Council member David Catania, who introduced the bill along with Ward 3’s Mary Cheh, criticized such covenants for placing “unreasonable strain on competition,” with “detrimental” impacts on surrounding communities. In the Palisades, that type of restriction would create a “food desert,” with “residents deprived of a grocery retailer within two miles,” See Council/Page 7
Board seeks St. Thomas’ design tweaks By ELIZABETH WIENER Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
A Saturday evening march and rally to demand “Justice for Michael Brown and Police Reform in D.C.” started in Foggy Bottom and ended at 34th and M streets.
The D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board last week rebuffed a proposal for a tall multifamily complex that would finance reconstruction of St. Thomas’ Parish in Dupont Circle. Board members said the residential building — facing narrow and historic Church Street — must be downsized, and they also suggested modest changes to the design of the church facing 18th Street. Debate at a hearing last Thursday centered, as it has for the past year, on the height of the residential building, which would rise mid-block on a one-way street lined mostly with row houses. The present project proposal, already scaled back, would top out at nearly 70 feet plus a penthouse, with upper stories set back from Church Street and the line of row houses to the east. A connecting building containing the entrance to the residences would also rise seven stories. And two floors See Church/Page 18
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
The board expressed concern about the planned complex, which would help finance a new church to replace facilities destroyed by fire in the 1970s.
GWU historic district wins board’s approval
Agency unveils new options for K Street streetcar route
By ELIZABETH WIENER
■ Transit: Configuration of
Current Staff Writer
A new historic district straddling the George Washington University campus in Foggy Bottom will be added to the city’s inventory. The D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board approved the designation last Thursday as a belated footnote to the university’s current campus plan. University officials promised in 2006 to seek historic district protection for some of their buildings, largely to ensure their preservation as new construction proceeds under the 2006-2025 campus plan. But because the district also includes private property outside campus boundaries, the city preservation office was the official sponsor, and spent several years consulting with property owners and drawing up the nomination.
NEWS
roadway remains undecided
By KAT LUCERO Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
Lisner Hall, the first building on campus to be used exclusively for a library, is part of the new historic district approved by the D.C. preservation board.
As approved, the George Washington/Old West End Historic District spans about 12 blocks bounded by Virginia Avenue, 19th, 20th, I and 22nd streets, including the historic core of the campus, pre-Civil War homes in what was once the city’s most prestigious See Landmarks/Page 18
EVENTS
Incumbents face criticism at forum on statehood issues — Page 4
Studio Lab will present premiere of ‘Wolfe Twins’ — Page 23
City transportation officials unveiled an updated proposal for a streetcar line from Georgetown to Union Station last week as the project gears up for the next phase of development. Two options are now under consideration for a 3.46-mile streetcar system from Wisconsin Avenue NW below the Whitehurst Freeway to
SHERWOOD
Obama endorsement of Bowser generates unexpected debate — Page 8
just past Union Station in Northeast — a diverse route that includes service lanes, federally owned parkland and downtown districts. The two alternatives take different approaches to K Street’s role in the transportation system. A draft environmental assessment of these two options — plus a third, required “no action” alternative — is slated to come out early next year. A second public meeting is planned for next month. The first option would require a major overhaul of the downtown stretch of K Street, carving out tranSee Streetcar/Page 16
INDEX Calendar/20 Classifieds/29 District Digest/5 Exhibits/21 Foggy Bottom News/11 In Your Neighborhood/10
Opinion/8 Police Report/6 Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/19 Service Directory/27 Theater/23
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