GW responded last month to several questions Board of Zoning Adjustment members posed at their last meeting on the University’s campus plan Dec. 12. The BZA is scheduled to meet Tuesday to vote on the 2000-10 plan.
University Senior Counsel Charles Barber said the BZA made about 14 requests of clarification and information about how GW has complied with the 1985-2000 plan and how the University will meet housing promises in the new plan. The previous plan expired in December.
“We listed all the actions we had taken under the 1985 campus plan to manage transportation, including the parking rates we charge and parking spaces we provide at the Kennedy Center,” Barber said, listing carpooling efforts and other initiatives to reduce traffic problems on campus. “We went over them and showed how we took them.”
Foggy Bottom Association President Michael Thomas said he responded to the new information with his own testimony to the BZA. Thomas said the University has not complied with its 1985 traffic management plan.
“GWU met the minimum off-street parking requirement only if one counted the 150 spaces in the Kennedy Center,” Thomas wrote in testimony that was reviewed by the BZA. “More importantly, under the agreement between GWU and the Kennedy Center, they are only available when and so long as the Kennedy Center makes them available.”
Thomas said a provision in GW’s new traffic management plan to prevent trucks from using residential streets to make deliveries is inadequate.
“(GW’s traffic plan) essentially said, `we encourage truck drivers to not come early in the morning through residential streets,'” Thomas said. “(The plan) in fact was not managing anything.”
In his testimony Thomas also raised concerns that GW will not deliver the housing it promises because plans hinge on uncertainties.
Thomas said GW may not provide an additional 500 beds outlined in the campus plan because proposals for the current GW Hospital site are contingent on the D.C. Zoning Commission’s approval of a certificate of Planned Urban Development.
“What we want to do is apply for a zoning change for additional commercial space that would provide the funding for an additional 500 student beds on campus,” Barber said.
Barber said GW will file for a certificate of Planned Urban Development within a year of plan approval.
Without approval, GW has few options for adding the promised 500 beds, Thomas said.
“Does that mean they unequivocally promise to get 500 beds? No,” Thomas said. “They still haven’t unconditionally said they will provide the beds.”
