Like last year, Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) released a series of “humorous” budget proposals to lighten the mood as the D.C. Council begins tough budget negotiations this week.

This time, however, Cheh seems to be digging her own trenches into “Battleground Burleith.”

As if actually declaring war our sugary beverages wasn’t enough, among the items in Tuesday’s facetious memo are replacing all packaged food with broccoli in vending machines across the District and seizing three of the city’s universities.

“The Committee takes notice that the ten-year review of the campus plans of Georgetown University, American University and the University of the District of Columbia has caused far too much community discord in the District of Columbia,” the report reads.

“Therefore, the Committee recommends that the government of the District of Columbia…hereby condemns and seizes all land and the physical structures located therein of the above mentioned Universities.”

Under the “plan,” Georgetown University would become a Metro station; American University, a dog park; and UDC, a strip mall.

Although this memo is a joke, Cheh – unlike Councilman Jack Evans, who actually represents the area around the University – went out of her way to testify against the 2010 Campus Plan at the May 12 meeting of the Zoning Commission. She particularly opposes the GUTS loop road because residents of her district might be able to see or hear the busses from across Glover-Archibold Park on the western end of campus.

Cheh is also known for her support of a payment-in-lieu-of-tax arrangement for universities and other nonprofits.

h/t DCist

Yesterday, two Advisory Neighborhood Commissions and a neighborhood group requested that D.C. Zoning Commission Chairman Anthony Hood postpone community members’ campus plan testimony scheduled for Thursday.

According to the Georgetown Dish, the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown and ANC commissioners from Georgetown, Burleith, Foxhall, and other neighborhoods farther from campus filed the request in light of changes the University made to its plan earlier this month. The letter argues that community testimony should be delayed until the D.C. Office of Planning revises its report about Georgetown’s 10-year campus plan.

“Georgetown University filed voluminous new material only recently, and the parties need time to digest, analyze and respond to it,” the letter, which was supported by D.C. Councilmembers Jack Evans and Mary Cheh, reads. “We need to have the [Office of Planning] and the [District Department of Transportation] reports in hand as the foundation for our presentation.”

Evans, who unlike Cheh does not plan to testify at the hearing, supported the request “to ensure that the community has ample opportunity to express their views on this very important issue.”

Representatives from the Office of Planning and DDOT are scheduled to testify on May 12, according to the Dish. While both ANC commissioners and community leaders have been openly critical of the plan, which they claim does not provide enough on-campus housing to students, the details of the community testimony are largely unknown.

“If the Office of Planning needs more time to present its findings, the community representatives should be able to see what those findings are,” Cheh told the Dish.

[Editor's Note: We'll have more about the community's delay request later today, and in tomorrow's issue of the Voice.]