The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Group targets Ward 3 school overcrowding
Beer garden, Safeway face protest in Dupont
HIDDEN TREASURE
■ Businesses: Neighbors
seek to protect local character
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Ward 3 parents and city officials now largely agree that overcrowding in the area’s public schools will only grow more acute over time. Though solutions have remained elusive so far, efforts are ramping up to find them, including through a new working group. Overcrowding is, in some ways, a good problem to have for D.C. Public Schools, which faces lackluster achievement records and outdated facilities in many locations. But schools in affluent Ward 3 are seen as among the most desirable in a city with widening income and opportunity gaps. By this fall, projected enrollment will exceed building capacity in all of the ward’s public elementary, middle and high schools except for Hearst Elementary, which will be overfilled by fall 2020 at the latest. Class sizes have ballooned, and parents report that some Ward 3 schools have resorted to using stairwells as classroom space and closets as offices. See Schools/Page 27
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Portions of Dupont Circle are among the city’s most robust commercial areas, but nearby residents don’t always see eye to eye with proprietors on operational issues. In recent months, two separate proposals for alcohol sales in the area have prompted significant neighborhood backlash. Safeway at 1701 Corcoran St. NW — described as the “Soviet
Brian Kapur/The Current
Transit: Some residents oppose eliminating stops
■
The “Dupont Underground Historic Tour” offers a chance to explore the city’s newest art space — a former trolley station with 75,000 square feet of underground platforms and tunnels. Tours are offered several evenings a week, with details available at dupontunderground.org.
By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
Brian Kapur/The Current
The project would replace the commercial building at Wisconsin Avenue and Upton Street NW.
with set-back penthouse units on top. Developers envision neighborhood-serving restaurants and a small-scale grocer on the site. The design proposes a prominent corner on Wisconsin Avenue and Upton Street, with a courtyard
Safeway” by shoppers who find the range and availability of products unsatisfactory — has been in discussions with the community since last fall about acquiring a license to sell beer and wine, among other changes to its food and beverage offerings. More recently, Dacha Beer Garden — which has clashed with neighbors near its original Shaw location numerous times since opening in 2013 — has announced plans to open a new establishment at 1740 14th St. NW, just steps away from numerous residents on S Street NW. See Licenses/Page 12
Slate of changes advances for 16th Street bus service By GRACE BIRD
Current Correspondent
Developers outline plans for Tenley project Donohoe Development last week presented plans to build 720 apartment units and ground-level retail at 4000 Wisconsin Ave. NW in Tenleytown, drawing suggestions that developers build more and larger affordable units. Plans call for razing the 1980sera commercial and office building on the lot while preserving its underground parking garage. Three courtyards will break up the mass of the new mixed-use structure, which will include about 34,000 square feet of retail space. Due to varying elevations of the lot, the new building will have seven stories at its highest point,
Vol. XI, No. 28
Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End
entrance bounded by a potential restaurant and apartment lobby. Some residents asked developers last Tuesday to retain the location’s gym and indoor pool, currently operated by Sport&Health. Project officials said about 17,000 square feet of the project are devoted to a health club; their goal is to find another gym to sign a lease if Sport&Health doesn’t renew, according to the developers’ filing with the D.C. Office of Planning. The redeveloped site will include about 883 total vehicle parking spaces and 325 bicycle spots, according to the filing, “and enough loading facilities to serve the mix of uses.” A curb cut on Wisconsin Avenue will be scrapped See Donohoe/Page 16
A controversial four-year plan to overhaul the popular 16th Street NW bus service and improve chronic issues of unreliability and overcrowding is moving ahead with some support, though residents at a recent community meeting expressed concerns about service changes. A planning study completed in April 2016 by the D.C. Department of Transportation recommended adding peak-period bus lanes and off-board fare payments, consolidating bus stops and lengthening bus zones. The study area covers the stretch of 16th between Arkansas Avenue and H Street NW, where 20,000 people take Metrobus every weekday. “16th Street is one of the busiest corridors in the District,” Transportation Department project manager Spring Worth told The Current. “There are a lot of difficult choices, but ones we have to face to improve the service.”
Brian Kapur/The Current
16th Street NW is a major bus corridor, but overcrowding and slow travel times are issues.
Changes to 16th Street bus schedules are set for implementation June 25 by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, in a “cost-neutral manner,” according to service planner Kristine Marsh. “The total number of service hours for the corridor is exactly the same,” Marsh told residents — aside from a modest increase in late-night service to accommodate Metrorail changes. In conjunction with the changes, Metro is also shifting some 16th Street Metrobus service from the local S1, S2 and S4 lines to the S9 limited-stop commuter route. The S9 will also begin running for the first time in the middle of the See Buses/Page 16
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