A while back, a Vox Populi post saw a rash of upset comments about the Georgetown University Hospital’s role in the 2010 Campus Plan. Specifically, a Vox reader noticed that in the open letter Citizens’ Association of Georgetown President Jennifer Altemus (COL ‘88) had sent to University President John DeGioia outlining the community’s concerns about the proposed Ten Year Plan, she had made this suggestion regarding the Georgetown University Hospital:

“Relocating the hospital to another site on the University campus accessed from Canal Road would avoid these objectionable impacts and also create a large space for the construction of new student housing.”

Subsequent student commenters were not pleased, and responses ranged from this:

“What an idiot. She actually suggesting moving the hospital? I had thought the association was comprised of slightly cranky but generally reasonable non-student residents, but not actual extremists. The author is a true fool.”

To this:

“Jennifer Altemus deserves every bad thing that ever happens to her in her life.”

But Altemus’s suggestion that the University move the Hospital did not come out of nowhere. Vox is guessing that her comments derive from the fact that plans to build an entirely new Hospital facility really are part of Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan. Only, construction of a new facility isn’t going to free up any room for more student housing, because the current Hospital facilities don’t seem to be going anywhere.

Read more after the jump, plus some seriously nasty e-mails between a Georgetown alum and the CAG Vice President about the Hospital

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We’ve been speculating about whether or not the 2010 Campus Plan would be hampered by the kind of neighborhood opposition that beset the 2000 Campus Plan. We can stop wondering now. Georgetown alum and CAG President Jennifer Altemus (COL ‘88) has announced that the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown is launching a campaign against the Campus Plan—and it’s not just an advocacy campaign.

“[I]t is clear that we will need support from experts to enhance our efforts in advocating the needs and concerns of the residential community,” Altemus wrote in an e-mail that went out over the Georgetownforum listserv. “To that end, we are asking you to help us fund this important effort.”

She goes on to ask residents to visit the CAG website and donate to the “Save Our Neighborhood” fund, where suggested donations start at $300 and go up to $5,000. Or neighbors can make a (tax-deductible) donation of any amount. In either case, they’ll receive an invitation to the “Save Our Neighborhood” cocktail party at Georgetown restaurant il Canale.

She also announced an April meeting among neighbors to discuss the 2010 Campus Plan specifically from the neighbors’ point of view.

Members of the CAG and the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have made no secret of how much they dislike Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan. Even at a community meeting where Georgetown administrators more or less promised that they were rerouting the GUTS buses according to the ANC’s wishes, ANC Commissioner Ron Lewis openly threatened to impede the plan’s passage if Georgetown did not acquiesce to more neighborhood demands.

“There is a problem,” he said. “And the problem is that people who come to your classes are jamming up our streets by parking. It’s not our role, it’s not our job to figure out the solution—it’s the University’s. But there is the problem. And unless the problem goes away, it’s going to be a problem for the plan.”

I guess those problems start now. Read Altemus’ full letter after the jump.

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If you don’t recall how neighborhood residents of Georgetown reacted when administrators presented the 2010 Campus Plan back in November, let me remind you of the words of Advisory Neighborhood Commission Chair Ron Lewis when he heard that adding 1,000 parking spaces in the University was part of the plan:

“There is a problem,” he said. “And the problem is that people who come to your classes are jamming up our streets by parking. It’s not our role, it’s not our job to figure out the solution—it’s the University’s. But there is the problem. And unless the problem goes away, it’s going to be a problem for the plan.”

And that was at the meeting where Georgetown said it was definitely rerouting GUTS buses through Canal Street, which the ANC has been demanding for years.

Now, as the end of January nears—at which point Georgetown administrators have said they hope to submit the Plan to the ANC for its first stage of review—neighbors are no less content than they were in November about the proposed 2010 Campus Plan.

Jennifer Altemus (COL ‘88), the president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, sent a dense letter to President John DeGioia last Thursday which she provided to the Voice. The letter enumerates the neighbors’ grievances with the current draft of the Campus Plan.

“We are extremely disappointed with the process thus far. It appears that community input at the GU sponsored meetings has been ignored,” she wrote. “This list is by no means comprehensive but these issues represent the priority concerns of the community that will be raised during the plan review and approval process.”

Read the full letter and a summary, after the jump.

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While University officials have been floating plans about student life and transportation over the past couple weeks, this week is the big unveiling of the full first draft of the plan.  The University will be holding three meetings with neighbors and one for students this week.

In preparation for the big week, the University put its 2010 Campus Plan presentation outline [PDF] online this weekend.  Here are some of the most interesting tidbits from the presentation:

• The slide on off-campus student life activities since the 2000 campus plan boasts that the University has implemented “stronger, swifter sanctions for violations of the Code of Conduct occurring in the community.”
• The University is planning on doubling the SNAP staff and “establish two Community Advisor positions in Burleith and West Georgetown.”
• The University is requesting the opportunity to increase graduate enrollment by more than 3,200 students, the majority of which would be in the Continuing Studies program
• Georgetown is hoping to add 480 employees
• Plans for the proposed Graduate/Faculty student housing on the 1789 block may involve the conversion of six houses on N Street currently used by undergraduates
• Facilities is considering a relocation from their current headquarters under Harbin to an “alternative location on the edge of campus”

With more details the plan coming to light, the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown is weighing in on the plan.  Like their peers in Burleith, CAG is less than psyched about the proposals.

CAG President Jennifer Altemus (COL ‘88) wrote in an e-mail to the Georgetown Forum listserv this weekend that she was not pleased with the fact that the University is not proposing any new undergraduate housing:

Currently there are 5,053 beds in what GU considers “on campus.”  111 of these beds are in the University owned townhouses.  The lack of on campus housing puts a huge strain on the community.  I am extremely disappointed with this aspect of their proposal.

To help with off campus issues they will add a second SNAP car to patrol on Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights.  And they plan to institute two Community Advisors who will be RAs for off campus students living amongst the students.  While this is a start, I do not believe it will offset the added burden of the growth in enrollment for an already saturated community.

You can read Altemus’ full e-mail after the jump…

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When Georgetown announced plans to establish Magis Row, the block of 16 townhouses designated for living and learning communities that sit on the only strip of University property facing residential homes, the Voice editorial board and many students instantly suspected that Magis Row was appeasement for neighbors frustrated by student trash and noise.

A set of e-mails that the Voice obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Magis Row’s establishment followed months of meetings between University administrators and community leaders in which the leaders tried to effect changes in student housing.  They also show that neighbors hope the University will turn more student housing outside the front gates into LLCs, too.

The FOIA request, which the Voice filed in March, obtained e-mails sent between Citizens’ Association of Georgetown directors and officers and members of Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E. Before submitting the results, the ANC redacted some street names and the names of the CAG members and ANC commissioners who sent and received the e-mails. Ron Lewis, the chair of ANC 2E, wrote in a letter accompanying the FOIA requests that redactions were made according to advice from the D.C. government.

Although it is unclear when the University or neighbors conceived of Magis Row, a September 1 e-mail indicates that neighborhood had long been trying to influence the makeup of student housing outside Georgetown’s gates, and the Georgetown had been attentive to their complaints.

“We have been in monthly meetings to discuss numerous student issues that effect the whole of Georgetown,” the sender wrote. The sender added that with regards to an unspecified block of academic housing which had been designated as normal student housing for that year, “We have solid commitments that that will change in the 2009 academic year.”

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Last semester, Vox ran a handful of interviews with members of Georgetown’s local government, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. We’re breathing new life into “Better Know an ANC Commissioner” this Fall, and we’re expanding it to include other local politicos, too.

For this edition, Vox spoke with Jennifer Altemus (COL `88), the East Georgetown resident who succeeded Denise Cunningham as the President of the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown in May. CAG, along with the ANC, is going to try to exercise a strong hand in the formation of the University’s Ten Year Plan in the coming months, and can usually be found backing new noise and trash policies in Georgetown.

Below, Altemus tells us what CAG members want from University administrators and how her time at Georgetown as a student influences her understanding of town-gown issues.

As a private community group, what ability does CAG have to affect issues pertaining to the University and surrounding neighborhood?

I guess it really depends on what the issue is. We write letters, and we can protest liquor licenses. As far as Georgetown goes, and its upcoming Ten Year Plan, I think we do influence the Zoning Board. If we approve something, it makes it that much easier to pass. We will also be working very closely with the [Advisory Neighborhood Commission] on that, and they take our advice pretty seriously. We’ve already had a number of meetings on the [Ten Year Plan].

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The West Village People: like this, but more concerned about trash and student noise

With the battle over Georgetown’s 2010 campus plan starting to heat up, a couple of new neighborhood groups have been formed to defend the interests of permanent residents, according to an article in the most recent edition of the Georgetown Current [PDF].

About three months ago, the “West Village People” group was formed as a way for permanent residents living close to the University to communicate their grievances.

Members send comments and complaints about the University and its students to gtown411@ymail.com. The anonymous person behind the email account then removes all personal information from the complaint and sends it out to Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission, the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown and sometimes the University.

More recently, CAG has formed a committee to deal specifically with “longstanding differences” between neighbors and GU, mostly “quality of life” issues like alcohol, noise and trash, as well as the 2010 campus plan.

More about the new committee’s plans after the jump!

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The image that haunts ANC Commissioners’ nightmares

The big excitement last night was supposed to be a resolution on same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia, but that was pulled from the agenda at the last minute in an effort to better coordinate with the local gay rights movement, according to Georgetown Metropolitan. According to the University’s student Commissioner Aaron Golds (COL ‘11), the resolution will probably be introduced in a few months.

With the same-sex marriage discussion postponed, the meeting’s major drama was anxiety over a new restaurant opening at 3251 Prospect Street, the former home of Georgetown Billiards. The company that purchased the space also owns Eyebar, which is much more of a nightlife destination than a culinary enterprise, putting neighbors who fear a massive club rat invasion into tizzy.

According to ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels, the Voluntary Agreement (the pact an establishment makes with the ANC that determines the conditions alcohol can be served under) Georgetown Billiards had was “very, very strict” and will apply to the new “restaurant” unless they file for a new one. As of the last time Starrels checked, they hadn’t filed for any substantial changes to the Voluntary Agreement, but he will be meeting with them Monday to discuss their plans for the space.

Starrels tried to assure the community that because of the Voluntary Agreement the new business “cannot be party central, cannot be a nightclub; it would be virtually impossible for them to legally run anything other than a restaurant.”  But neighbors still had concerns that the company was going to stealthily transform it into a private club. The issue will be discussed further at the next ANC meeting.

Besides the preemptive hand-wringing over the new restaurant, the ANC also unanimously conferred a commendation on Denise Cunningham, stalwart student noise nemesis, for her two-and-a-half years of service as Citizens Association of Georgetown President, praising her “persistence” and encouragement of “cooperation between all elements of the community.”

He reaps what you sow

Students had better start doing an improved job of bagging their trash, if a community email chain is any indication.

Early last week, the overflowing trash cans on the 1300 block of 35th Street—the student side—offended one neighbor to the point that she took photographs and sent them, along with a complaint, to Charlene Barber, D.C.’s Trash Inspector:

I request that you send an investigator to investigate and fine these homes (1320, 1322 35th Street, NW) for these violations. Additionally I request that an Investigator monitor the West Village of Georgetown to fine the increasing number of solid waste storage violations.

The result, according to an ensuing email, is that Barber will (or—eek!—already has) sent inspectors to West Georgetown to ticket the owners of the offending properties. Naturally, the email which contained that message exudes mild disappointment that the students who live in the properties are not the ones who the City will actually fine:

She said she will be patrolling our neighborhood and looking for violations and writing tickets if she finds any (including us). The tickets written to the property owner, not particular the student living in it …. She also said if you have photos to please send and she will follow-up with a visit to that site.

While our mess sounds pretty gross, it concerns me that nowhere in the email chain do annoyed neighbors indicate they brought their trash grievances up with the offending residents (and can we really be blamed for the vagrant student’s choice to put his greasy Philly P plate in our recycling bin?).

However, the first email (containing the complaint) does cc: the entire ANC 2E (Georgetown ANC) membership. Aaron Golds, why didn’t you tell us we were such slobs (or warn us that trash inspectors were coming to West Georgetown)?!

Full text of both emails, including a bonus opinion from the President of the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown, Denise Cunningham, after the jump.

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Georgetown’s student body didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome back in their inboxes this Wednesday. In a campuswide email and in typical no-notice style, Georgetown administrators told student that the Metropolitan Police Department “are again authorized—and intend—to issue 61D Citations for excessive noise”—which land for any rowdy students unlucky enough to cross MPD with a fine and an arrest record.

When they say “again authorized,” they mean of course the MPD crackdown that accompanied the administration’s monstrously harsh alcohol policy last September. The crackdown included a flurry of alcohol and noise violation citations. But where did the pressure for MPD to resume handing out noise violations come from?

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