STATEMENT: DC ZONING COMMISSION CASE-10-32
Georgetown University proclaiming itself "spiritually and intellectually progressive" and "neighborhood friendly" has for a decade maintained a remarkably unfriendly policy, tolerated drunken students misbehavior driving out residents and created NEIGHBORHOOD BLIGHT WITH POORLY MAINTAINED STUDENT GROUP RENTALS .. IT'S PRETTY CLEAR THAT URBAN PLANNING ISN'T A MAJOR AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY. They offer no remedies except SNAP which operates fifteen hours a week. Given the amount they seem to have invested in this plan, you would think that SNAP would be a full time all year round effort instead.
There were 6500 students attending GU when I moved into Burleith in 1992, Now there are 14000 plus. Twelve out of fourteen houses adjacent to me are investor-owned student {?} group rentals. Nine of my neighbors along that same strip (all community leaders) have moved since 2000. Every semester, I face 48 to 72 new students who normally need to be told to move the party inside at 11 PM. As a result of my complaints about student behavior, my family has been threatened and the police saw fit to give me police protection during last year's "Georgetown Weekend."
I urge you to:
*Cap the University at 10000 students on campus,
* Require all undergraduates to be housed on campus
WE NEED RELIEF!
My second concern is the hospital. The plan is incredibly vague--asking the neighborhood to agree to a 600,000 square foot hospital addition without seeing where it will be placed, that streets be altered without mitigating cut thru traffic into Burleith and that current overcrowding be made worse.
They can't reach an agreement with their own partner MEDSTAR. FOUR neighborhoods, THREE Council members, the Department of Transportation and the Office of Planning have spoken and written negative reports on the plan. GU claims to be making headway on the loop road with the National Park Service which has deemed their plan "disappointing" but they have done nothing to mollify neighborhood concerns. Their plan is a study in problems, not solutions!
The BZA dropped the ball on remand in 2003 and let GU increase undergraduate enrollment without providing housing or demonstrating it could control effectively off campus student behavior. GU has demonstrated it is not willing to do anything to be a good neighbor to the surrounding community unless and until this Commission tells them they have to do it. We are relying on you to do just that.
Georgetown University proclaiming itself "spiritually and intellectually progressive" and "neighborhood friendly" has for a decade maintained a remarkably unfriendly policy, tolerated drunken students misbehavior driving out residents and created NEIGHBORHOOD BLIGHT WITH POORLY MAINTAINED STUDENT GROUP RENTALS .. IT'S PRETTY CLEAR THAT URBAN PLANNING ISN'T A MAJOR AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY. They offer no remedies except SNAP which operates fifteen hours a week. Given the amount they seem to have invested in this plan, you would think that SNAP would be a full time all year round effort instead.
There were 6500 students attending GU when I moved into Burleith in 1992, Now there are 14000 plus. Twelve out of fourteen houses adjacent to me are investor-owned student {?} group rentals. Nine of my neighbors along that same strip (all community leaders) have moved since 2000. Every semester, I face 48 to 72 new students who normally need to be told to move the party inside at 11 PM. As a result of my complaints about student behavior, my family has been threatened and the police saw fit to give me police protection during last year's "Georgetown Weekend."
I urge you to:
*Cap the University at 10000 students on campus,
* Require all undergraduates to be housed on campus
WE NEED RELIEF!
My second concern is the hospital. The plan is incredibly vague--asking the neighborhood to agree to a 600,000 square foot hospital addition without seeing where it will be placed, that streets be altered without mitigating cut thru traffic into Burleith and that current overcrowding be made worse.
They can't reach an agreement with their own partner MEDSTAR. FOUR neighborhoods, THREE Council members, the Department of Transportation and the Office of Planning have spoken and written negative reports on the plan. GU claims to be making headway on the loop road with the National Park Service which has deemed their plan "disappointing" but they have done nothing to mollify neighborhood concerns. Their plan is a study in problems, not solutions!
The BZA dropped the ball on remand in 2003 and let GU increase undergraduate enrollment without providing housing or demonstrating it could control effectively off campus student behavior. GU has demonstrated it is not willing to do anything to be a good neighbor to the surrounding community unless and until this Commission tells them they have to do it. We are relying on you to do just that.
