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SPORTS

REAL ESTATE

LOCAL EVENTS

INDEX

Flint Hill tops Sidwell

Adams Morgan

This week in D.C.

Calendar/10 District Digest/2 In Your Neighborhood/5 Opinion/4 Police Report/6

Claire Miller leads the Lady Huskies past the Quakers in a battle of two top teams / Page 7

A historic co-op with Meridian Park views is on the market in Adams Morgan / Page 9

Check out a listing of events for the area from Feb. 10 through Feb. 16 / Page 10

Real Estate/9 School Dispatches/8 Service Directory/13 Sports/7 Week Ahead/2

Tips? Contact us at newsdesk@currentnewspapers.com

The Northwest Current

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

ANC 3/4G gives report on Chevy Chase Community Center rebuild

Serving Chevy Chase, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Brightwood, Crestwood, Petworth & 16th Street Heights

LETTING THEIR VOICES BE HEARD

Current Staff Writer

Current Staff Writer

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3/4G (Chevy Chase) released a report Jan. 22 on the proposed Chevy Chase Community Center slated to replace the existing building sometime after 2020. The report offered specific recommendations for the new center, drawn from a survey completed by nearly 1,000 residents. The report recommends the new building “include space for a fitness center with equipment, a lecture/performance hall with about 125 seats, meeting/games/party rooms, a halfcourt gymnasium, a childcare room with an indoor play area, a kitchen, a quiet lounge, an activity/tech lounge, a dance/yoga/Pilates studio, a fencing/exercise room, a pottery area and an arts and crafts space, offices, and rooftop amenities (e.g., a garden, greenhouse, and/or outdoor lounge).” ANC Chairman Randy Speck said the commission held 16 meetings with stakeholders over 16 months to gather input, and met with See CENTER/Page 14

Sunrise project now in the ‘developer’s court’ By KIRK KRAMER

By KIRK KRAMER

Hannah Wagner/The Current

America’s oldest collegiate a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs, performed in Bethesda on Feb. 3. The group consists of Yale’s most talented senior students and travels around the country, as well as China, to put on shows.

Vol. LI, No. 3

Tenleytown resident Judy Chesser has been a vocal opponent of the proposed Sunrise retirement home on Alton Place since the plans were announced in September. However, she understands why Wisconsin Avenue Baptist Church, the owner and occupier of the property for the proposed senior center, is partnering with Sunrise for a new building on the site. “[The pastor] is looking to finance his church,” Chesser said. “That’s perfectly legitimate. But that doesn’t mean the zoning rules shouldn’t apply. You can’t start bending zoning rules because of the financial situation of a church or business. “It’s a four-story building in a neighborhood of two-story houses – essentially more than 100 residents over 60 in a residential neighborhood.” Sunrise Senior Living is a forprofit corporation based in McLean that runs more than 300 facilities around the country. The proposed building would contain both housing for the elderly, as well as a new

church. The Wisconsin Avenue Baptist Church has been located at three different sites in Tenleytown for a century. The current church, Sunday school classrooms and office face toward Alton Place and are bound by Nebraska Avenue to the east and Yuma Street to the south. The Reverend Lynn Bergfalk has been pastor of the church since 2000. During an interview, he presented an old architectural drawing of the entire campus planned for the site at the time of its construction in 1954. A much larger and taller sanctuary than the existing one appears in the drawing, on the south side of the existing building. A shortage of funds meant the large church never got built and explains why much of the church’s land is vacant. “The building is obsolete,” he said. “It is not handicapped-accessible. We just spent $3,000 to get the heat working in a wing that houses an asylum seekers assistance program. “The church has a very valuable property, but not liquid assets. The question is how to use our assets to See SUNRISE/Page 3

District given updates on proposed Union Station-to-Georgetown streetcar line BY KIRK KRAMER Current Staff Writer

The return of streetcars to Washington, and to the neighborhood where Joe Gibbons lives and serves as an elected official, brings out the philosopher in the Georgetowner. “A streetcar has a bit of Norman Rockwellness to it,” Gibbons said. “It’s a social form of transportation. It gets you out of your bubble. You sit next to someone, or you’re standing with other people.” Gibbons, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E (Georgetown, Burleith), was in the audience on Jan. 24 at a public meeting held by the District Depart-

Current File Photo

The District’s streetcar network is currently limited to a stretch of H Street and Benning Road.

ment of Transportation (DDOT) to provide an update on the proposed extension of streetcar service from Union Station to Georgetown. The addition of three-and-a-half

miles to the existing streetcar line along H Street NE that opened two years ago will require 15 additional cars and additional storage and maintenance space. While the added storage facility is likely to end up on Pepco property along Benning Road NE or at Hechinger Mall, the transportation department is also looking for an additional, smaller storage site for three cars in Georgetown or Foggy Bottom. Haley Peckett, a transportation department official, said a storage space near the west end of the new line will ensure the cars keep moving. “If Mount Vernon Square closed See STREETCARS/Page 3


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