The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Vol. X, No. 13
Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End
DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION
Pepco merger may not go forward ■ Utilities: Mayor, regulators
at odds over settlement terms
By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer
Exelon Corp. may abandon its long-fought, controversial effort to acquire regional utility company Pepco, with the D.C. Public Service Commission and Mayor Muriel Bowser finding themselves
at odds over the merger’s terms. The merger has been hotly debated in the District since it was first announced. Civic activists derided Exelon’s environmental record and questioned whether the District could effectively regulate a Chicago-based energy giant. Meanwhile the utility companies, the business community and eventually Bowser and most D.C. Council members said the merger would bring improved reliability
and financial benefits to the city and local ratepayers. But as of The Current’s deadline yesterday, the $6.8 billion deal was on the ropes, essentially due to a $25.6 million disagreement between city officials and one member of the District’s independent utility regulatory panel. Last fall, Bowser had negotiated a series of conditions with the utility companies, including the See Pepco/Page 5
Fillmore Arts again facing budget cuts By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
Brian Kapur/The Current
Students from CityDance’s Dream program performed at halftime of Monday’s Washington Wizards game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Verizon Center. Thomson Elementary students were among more than 130 D.C. public school students in grades 3 through 12 to participate.
The communities of five Northwest elementary schools are scrambling to undo a nearly $600,000 budget cut to Fillmore Arts Center that would spell an end to the long-standing program. D.C. Public Schools says the city spends double the amount per pupil compared to other schools to continue the program, which serves 1,700 students from Key, Ross, Marie Reed, Hyde-Addison and Stoddert elementary schools. The students are bused every week to the arts center in Georgetown to take classes in arts, drama and music. Two dozen parents and school members huddled last Tuesday at a Friends of Fillmore meeting to strategize opposition. As of yesterday evening, over 1,000 people have signed a change.org petition calling for the program’s funds to be restored. And supporters See Fillmore/Page 9
Brian Kapur/The Current
D.C. Public Schools officials said they would rather fund arts programs in individual schools than bus students to the center at Hardy Middle.
Board calls row house expansion too drastic
Zoning panel to air push for affordable housing reforms
By BRADY HOLT
■ Development: Proponents
Current Staff Writer
A proposed rear addition to three 1890s Dupont Circle row houses is too large and must be scaled back, according to a Historic Preservation Review Board decision last Thursday. The buildings at 1508, 1510 and 1512 21st St. NW have for years been divided up into a total of 12 apartment units, thanks to their 20th-century rear additions. A development team that owns all three buildings — purchased in September for $6.5 million — intends to replace the rear additions with a larger one, resulting in a total of 14 units and a height of up to five stories facing the rear alley. But those plans hit a snag last week, with the preservation board voting 5-1 against the current proposal. The majority of board members felt that a
seek to increase ‘IZ’ setasides Brian Kapur/The Current
Developers hope to construct a five-story addition behind the row houses at 1508-1512 21st St. NW and restore their front facades.
four-story addition would be more appropriate, concurring with Historic Preservation Office staff reviewer Kim Elliott and with Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2B. “That amount of new construction compared to the original mass and size of the row houses seems to overwhelm the original homes,” Elliott testified at Thursday’s hearing. She also raised concerns that See Addition/Page 8
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Efforts to update the city’s inclusionary zoning regulations for affordable housing are inching forward, with a public zoning hearing set for tomorrow night. The Zoning Commission’s March 3 hearing will focus on measures to make more affordable units available to lower income levels in the District, as proposed by the local Coalition for Smarter
Growth and analyzed by the D.C. Office of Planning. The hearing — which continues a discussion that began Jan. 28 — comes after the Planning Office requested several postponements. Current inclusionary zoning, or “IZ,” regulations specify that 8 percent to 10 percent of a large multifamily development’s square footage must be set aside for affordable units. Existing regulations also allow developers to exceed density caps to provide more IZ units. Depending on the project and its location, most units are set aside for prospective resiSee Housing/Page 18
NEWS
EVENTS
SHERWOOD
INDEX
18 years of film
‘Folded and Framed’
‘Allow extra time’
Calendar/20 Classifieds/29 District Digest/4 Exhibits/21 Foggy Bottom News/13 In Your Neighborhood/26
Organizers expand festival to feature broader selection of local, global movies / Page 2
Colorful polymer-clay artworks by Fran Abrams will be on display starting today at Foundry / Page 21
Riders won’t wait forever for Metro to sort out its host of operational issues / Page 10
Opinion/10 Police Report/6 Real Estate/17 School Dispatches/12 Service Directory/27 Week Ahead/3
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