During the D.C. Zoning Commission’s speedy meeting last Monday, the expansion of the Georgetown Hotel & Conference Center was briefly mentioned in discussions over the campus plan. As part of the revised agreement, the University will house an additional 450 students on campus by fall 2015. Sixty-five of those beds will come from relocating the townhouses on the 1400 block of 36th street, but a whole 385 beds will come from the conversion of the Leavey Center into a dormitory.

According to University spokeswoman Stacy Kerr, the building as it stands now can only house an estimated 250 beds, so the remaining 135 beds will come from an extension of the building to the East. “There is no finished design,” Kerr wrote in an email to Vox. “We’ll begin design work in the next few months.  Our goals with the addition are to keep the height equal to the current building, and to build eastward from the hotel tower – toward the bookstore.”

The campus plan agreement allows Georgetown to add on and renovate the Leavey Center without further approval from the Zoning Commission, even though there are not yet any definitive plans yet for its construction. The commissioners were initially unsure about whether they should allow the University to bypass zoning procedure without knowing any specifics about the building.

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Last night, Georgetown administrators and neighbors gathered before the D.C. Zoning Commission to discuss the 2010 campus plan for the final time as the University, ANC 2E, and neighborhood groups submitted a revised version of the original campus plan that they hammered out last month. The commission voted 3-0 with one abstaining to accept the proposal in its entirety.

After the Zoning Commission voted last February to postpone any decision on the campus plan until the parties reached an agreement, neighbors and administrators restarted negotiations. The commissioners were highly pleased with the result. “We don’t always get the results we would like to see, and, in this case, I feel like we got everything and more,” Commissioner Peter May said. “And so I really am very, very happy with this result.” The other commissioners agreed: “I think that what’s happened in this case is no less than exceptional,” commissioner Michael Turnbull said. “To see Georgetown and the neighborhood come together like this is just wonderful.

The room erupted in cheers after the commission voted without opposition to approve the agreement, and Georgetown administrators joined in the sentiment. “What this process has made clear is that there is great strategic advantage for the University to align ourselves with the city,” University spokeswoman Stacy Kerr said. “I think you’re going to see from this a lot of opportunities for us to find new ways to engage deeper with the city and engage beyond just Northwest D.C. and beyond that historical 37th and O street. And, really over the long term, we see that as… [an opportunity] to strengthen the residential undergraduate experience at 37th and O street.”

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Update (5:00 p.m.): Tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., on P Street and 36th Street NW, Mayor Vince Gray, President John J. DeGioia, and ANC Commissioner Ron Lewis will make a “major announcement” on the subject of campus plan negotiations, according to an email sent to campus press.

Last night, at the monthly meeting of advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, ANC Chair Ron Lewis announced a request to the Zoning Commission for a one-week extension–from June 11 to June 18–on the filing date of the Georgetown University Campus Plan. By June 18, assuming the groups reach a final agreement, the University, ANC 2E, Citizen’s Association of Georgetown and Burleith Citizen’s Association will conduct a joint filing of the plan. The letter, addressed to the Anthony Hood, Zoning Commission Chair, predicts the real final decision by July 16.

Mayor Vincent Gray left us with high hopes last Wednesday (“We are 95% to getting this solved”) for an official agreement by today’s meeting, but in all fairness, the extension is necessary to gain a recommendation from the Zoning Commission for the joint filing.

University spokesperson Stacy Kerr commented on the meeting’s proceedings in an email to Vox:

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Georgetown scored a victory last Thursday when the DC Zoning Commission unanimously approved the University’s revised plans for  a new athletic training center to be built on the tennis courts adjacent to the McDonough Gymnasium. The design for the Intercollegiate Athletic Center was originally part of the 2000 campus plan.

After a presentation of from the University on the changes to the project, administration officials and coaches responded to questions from the zoning commissioners.

The possibility of putting additional student housing in the building was the most debated issue of the hearing. “Some of the feedback we’ve received has been a disappointment about not including housing,” said Zoning Commissioner Peter May. “Has there been any though given to the potential future expansion of the building going upwards, since there’s very tight constraints of the campus?”

According to representatives of the University, putting student housing on top of the two-story portion of the ATF would only create enough space for 70 to 75 residents, which is not a large enough number to engender a dormitory community. Going on, they stated that the minimum number to create a reasonable dormitory at a University the size of Georgetown is 250. By comparison, Darnall Hall houses 300 students.

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While the 2010 Campus Plan struggles through the regulatory process, one project from its predecessor is close to being realized. Final plans for a new practice facility for varsity athletics, first approved as an amendment to the 2000 Campus Plan in October 2007, will be submitted to the various regulatory boards over the coming months.

The Athletic Training Facility (also called the Intercollegiate Athletic Center) was last presented to the Old Georgetown Board in October 2011. (The OGB must approve the architectural design of buildings within the Georgetown neighborhood.) The board sent the plans back for modification, but administrators are hopeful that revisions incorporating the OGB’s feedback will be approved.

If all goes to plan, the ATF will go before the city Zoning Commission on April 26 to receive final approval. While the Zoning Commission has proved to be a quagmire for the 2010 Campus Plan, the process for the ATF should be smoother because its prior approval.

“This is a modification of a fully-approved building, so it’s not a full-blown-out hearing,” Vice President for Public Affairs Erik Smulson said. “It’s more of a bridge process.”

Since October, small changes have been made to the design of the building, which will be built on the site of the tennis courts adjacent to McDonough Arena. One of the OGB’s main concerns last fall was that the new building would obstruct the facade of McDonough, so the orientation of the ATF has been changed and a glass rotunda has been added to connect the old and new athletic facilities.

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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.]

Georgetown announced changes to its 2010 Campus Plan yesterday, including plans to lower its main campus enrollment cap and add 250 beds either on-campus or outside of the area by the fall of 2014.

If the University goes the on-campus route, it must file an application with the D.C. Zoning Commission for “further processing of an on-campus residence hall.” It is unclear whether “further processing” means adding beds to current rooms or constructing more rooms on existing dorms. In May 2009, though, architects hired by the University identified spaces on campus that could potentially hold up to 800 beds — including North Kehoe, Harbin Esplanade, North Residential (an area past Darnall Hall), a small extension to Village C, and the walkway outside of Lauinger Library.

If not added to the main campus, the beds will be put in an “off-campus housing location outside of residentially-owned land within zip code 20007,” a boundary which covers the whole of the Georgetown, Foxhall, and Glover Park neighborhoods. While Georgetown owns property elsewhere in D.C. and also in Virginia, a pre-hearing submission filed with the Zoning Commission did not identify any specific locations.

Last December, the University scrapped plans to build the  “1789 block,” a housing complex for graduate students and faculty. The plan, which faced significant opposition from neighbors, would have included approximately 120 beds and 80 parking spaces.

The University also proposed to lower its main campus enrollment cap from 16,133 to 15,000. However, only 133 spots in the total enrollment will be eliminated; 1,000 students in the School of Continuing Studies will be relocated to satellite campus by the end of 2013. The proposed cap of 6,675 undergraduate students remains unchanged.

Other changes announced in the pre-hearing submission include one promise to work with the National Park Service to “minimize any slope changes and loss of trees and to provide appropriate screening” while constructing an on-campus loop road and another to not use a proposed Kehoe Field enclosure for convocations. The University also agreed to submit annual compliance reports with the D.C. Office of Planning and the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission about its enrollment and housing commitments.

The Zoning Commission will hold its first hearing about Georgetown’s Campus Plan on Apr. 14.

After the jump, we’ve republished the pre-hearing submission and its proposed conditions.

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