Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Serving Chevy Chase, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Brightwood, Crestwood, Petworth & 16th Street Heights
Vol. XLVIII, No. 49
The Northwest Current
16th Street bus proposal due next week
Current Staff Report The D.C. Department of Transportation plans to present a detailed proposal to improve transit on 16th Street NW between H Street and Arkansas Avenue to a citizen advisory group on Dec. 15, culminating months of studying the corridor’s bus service. The final proposal will combine elements of three distinct approaches the agency presented in January, project manager Megan Kanagy said at recent community meetings. The key elements of these approaches were to: ■ set aside curb lanes exclusively for buses from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. while reconfiguring the intersection of Harvard and Mount Pleasant streets and Columbia Road NW; ■ set aside the curb lanes only during rush hours (7 to 10 a.m. southbound, and 4 to 7:30 p.m. northbound); and ■ speed up boarding by having passengers pay at bus stop kiosks and enter through both the front and rear doors. Another concept under consideration from all three approaches would have traffic signal lights offer early or extended green lights when a bus arrives if more than two minutes has elapsed since a bus passed through the intersection. According to Kanagy, 16th Street carries as many weekday bus passengers as automobiles — about 20,000 daily. But the corridor’s bus service has been faulted for overcrowding and unreliability. The buses spend only about half their time in motion, with the rest spent stopped for passengers, red lights or illegally parked cars, she said. The agency’s goal for the upcoming proposal is to have rush-hour buses run two minutes apart. “There is the possibility of having more buses on the corridor,” she said. Bus-only lanes, though, have faced some resistance over concerns about their impact on parking, loading zones and automobile traffic. Kanagy said two exclusive bus See Buses/Page 5
NEWS
■ Education: Lower grades
would move from Bethesda By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
St. John’s College High School hosted a special dinner theater performance of “Steel Magnolias” on Thursday. The play’s run continued Friday and Saturday at the Chevy Chase school.
— Page 7
As Sidwell Friends School prepares to relocate its lower grades from Bethesda to the current site of the Washington Home, many neighbors are worried about a twice-daily influx of cars onto neighborhood streets for pickup and drop-off of 300 or more students. The Washington Home, a nonprofit providing senior housing and hospice services, is located at 37th and Upton streets NW, just north of Sidwell’s middle and high school campus. Sidwell’s plan to use the existing Washington Home building and driveways would increase activity on these residential side streets, which neighbors say are already bursting with existing traffic from Sidwell and Hearst Elementary. “The situation today is untenable,” one resident told Sidwell officials at a community presentation Monday. “We really want you guys to come into the neighborhood, but by definition unless we do some
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
Sidwell Friends would retain the Washington Home building and driveway for the lower school.
kind of real fundamental changes, we’re going to make this situation worse.” The Washington Home reached an agreement in September to sell its 5.7-acre campus to Sidwell for $32.5 million, and the nonprofit plans to close its facility in December 2016 to focus on providing in-home services. Sidwell will move its 295-student lower school from Bethesda to unite its grades on a single campus. The school also plans to replace two existing campus buildings with new space in the Washington Home building, which will be expanded with two new additions. Sidwell hopes to complete its project in time See Sidwell/Page 15
Millie’s reaches agreement with ANC on hours, operations By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
The upcoming seafood restaurant Millie’s has reached an accord with the Spring Valley/Palisades advisory neighborhood commission, resolving a lengthy dispute over issues like operating hours and neighborhood impacts in its liquor license application. The settlement agreement the commission approved last Wednesday allows Millie’s to be open from 11 a.m. to midnight daily, and its outdoor seating must stop serving alcohol by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. The restaurant will have a smaller bar than originally proposed; forbid staff from parking on the street; offer discounted off-street parking to patrons; have no outdoor amplified sound; and offer no drinking games or all-you-can-drink specials. “I think it’s a good compromise that provides the protections it needs [to],” commission chair
SPOR TS
Jewish Community Center receives $6.5 million donation
Sidwell’s consolidation sparks traffic concerns
steeling the show
Gonzaga rolls past H.D. Woodson to repeat in DCSAA — Page 9
Brian Kapur/The Current
Millie’s still faces preservation concerns over plans to expand the former gas station.
Tom Smith said of the agreement, which went through eight drafts before reaching the version the commission passed unanimously. Restaurant owner Bo Blair hopes to turn the former Chicken Out space at 4866 Massachusetts Ave. NW into a spinoff of the original Millie’s he
HOLIDAYS
Segways offer novel way to take in D.C.’s many holiday sites — Page 17
runs in Nantucket, Mass., which serves Baja-style seafood in a relaxed atmosphere. Blair also owns five Jetties sandwich shops and other D.C. eateries. But his plans faced resistance in Spring Valley, whose modest commercial strip has no comparable large late-night venue. The neighborhood commission initially declined to support Blair’s alcohol application, filed in October, unless he agreed to stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m. Commissioners said last week that additional restrictions — especially on drinking games and drink specials — made them comfortable with the later closing time. Blair pointed out during the meeting that his restaurant has no obligation to stay open for the full length of the approved hours and said he expects he’ll often close earlier than the deadline, with a dwindling number of patrons as midnight approaches. “If [you’re] able to have enough busiSee Millie’s/Page 5
INDEX Calendar/18 Classifieds/25 District Digest/3 Exhibits/19 In Your Neighborhood/14 Opinion/6
Police Report/4 Real Estate/13 School Dispatches/12 Service Directory/23 Sports/9 Week Ahead/3
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