By Electronic Mail

November 30, 2022

Gilles Stucker
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development 1350 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 317
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Director Stucker:

The Commissioners of ANC 3/4G would like to thank you again for attending the ANC’s meeting and discussing the property surplus process with the Chevy Chase community. I am writing you on behalf of the Commission to reiterate our concerns expressed at our November 28, 2022 meeting regarding the need to be more fully engaged with the ANC and our community, and to convey in the strongest possible terms, our belief that your office should delay the public surplus hearing you have scheduled for December 15, 2022, only three days before Hanukkah and 10 days before Christmas, until after the Holidays.

We fully understand your desire to “open the record” on the question of surplussing a portion of the Chevy Chase Community Center-Library campus as a first step towards developing a multi-purpose facility at the site that includes affordable/workforce housing, a goal we all support. However, we were surprised at the extent to which DMPED, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the DC Public Library have proceeded with no substantive participation by this Commission or the community. As should be clear from Monday’s ANC meeting, many Chevy Chase residents have general concerns.

about the overall direction of the project and about surplussing in particular. This Commission’s ability to advance the goals we have expressed for many months – to create more affordable/workforce housing, including in the Civic Core – depend on there being time for the community to better understand surplussing and the implications of various options for the space.

For the project to succeed, we believe the Commission needs to be involved at every decision point in order to ensure that we have time to consult with our constituents. Without community buy-in, the goals we share are less likely to be achieved. We are concerned that opening the record followed by a hearing in the next few weeks could lead to closing the record at a point in time before we have given our neighbors opportunity to better understand how this center of our community will be developed.

We ask that DMPED defer the hearing date until January 15, 2023 and set the comment period until, no earlier than, February 15, 2023. This will allow all stakeholders sufficient time to design and conduct the survey and for the community and the ANC to have the benefit of your FAQ’s. The revamped civic core will exist for the next 50 years at least. A few more weeks for proper consideration and community engagement is not too much to ask at the outset of a major, and perhaps the major element of the SAP.

Because of the urgency with which we view this matter, we are transmitting our request through this correspondence. But, if necessary, we will prepare and act on a resolution calling for a hearing delay and a reset of the process to ensure both the Commission’s and the community’s involvement. We ask that you notify us in writing of your decision on our request by December 6, 2022. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (202) 498-7032.

Sincerely,

Lisa R. Gore, Chair, ANC 3/4G

cc: Muriel Bowser, Mayor, District of Columbia
John Falcicchio, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Phil Mendelson, Chairman, Council of the District of Columbia
Mary Cheh, Councilmember, Ward 3
Matthew Frumin, Councilmember-elect, Ward 3
Janeese Lewis George, Councilmember, Ward 4
ANC 3/4G Office
John Higgins, ANC 3/4G-02
Randy Speck, ANC 3/4G-03
Michael Zeldin, ANC 3/4G-04
Connie Chang, ANC 3/4G-05

Peter Gosselin, ANC 3/4G-06

Charles Cadwell, ANC 3/4G-07