Saturday, May 10, 2014

Bertha Holliday: Encouraging your attendance at the final Tuesday, 05-13-2014 McMillan zoning hearing


         
From: Bertha Holliday 
Date: Sat, 10 May 2014 02:52:09 -0400
Subject: Encourging your attendance at the final Tuesday, 5/13/2014 McMillan Zoning Hearing
               
At this past Thursday McMillan zoning hearing, which focused on the proposed Healthcare/Medical Building, The Bloomingdale Civic Association was well represented at the witness table.  Four members of the BCA Executive Board provided the Commission both written and oral testimony:  Mat Bader, Angela Prentice Ray, Bertha Holliday, and Sherry Howard.  Each testified on different aspects (e.g., impact of traffic generated by the Healthcare building, the absence of both an identified primary tenant and associated specific building uses thus resulted in invalidating findings of the developer's fiscal impact and transportation/traffic studies, and the history of the evolution of the building and its incompatibility with its requested zoning  and prior recommendations for site use).  The Commissioners were extremely attentive and asked several questions of our witness panel.  We think we made a slight difference, and look forward to making a larger impact.
            
The final McMillan Zoning Hearing will be Tuesday, May 13, 6:30 p.m., 441 4th St., SW (Judiciary Sq. Metro), room 220 South.  This hearing is viewed as a continuation of the first hearing, and thus will focus on the McMillan Master Plan, Open Space and the ParkThis hearing provides an opportunity for anyone to talk about just about anything related to the McMillan development.  The BCA Executive Board had agreed to focus its testimony at this hearing on the various provisions of the BCA Community Benefits Agreement and related resolution.  That Agreement addressed the following priority issues:  

(1)  Administrative, financial, and accountability structures and procedures, 
(2) Reduction of traffic on 1st  St., NW, 
(3) Re-adaptation and use of underground cells, 
(4) Historic preservation, 
(5) South Service Park and Community Center design issues.
               
We would like to have at least 6 to 10 people willing to testify on behalf of the BCA CBA proposal.  We would also like to encourage those testifying on behalf of other groups to include some brief mention of support of some aspect of the BCA CBA proposal.  And we would like to have BCA members in the audience as a means of demonstrating their concern about McMillan.  The benefits requested by BCA are attached. 
           
Should you desire to testify on behalf of BCA, or testify on behalf of others but include mention of your support for a BCA CBA  provision -- PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP OF THE BENEFIT OR PROVISION  OF YOUR CHOICE so that all might be well organized for the hearing.
                                
Testimony should be 3 minutes in length.  The use of visual materials on a thumb-drive is encouraged.  Help us spread the word.  As  noted previously -- It takes a village......

2 comments:

Natalya said...

Bertha, how can we get in touch with you?

Oldgal said...

You can email me at bhollidaypsy@gmail.com or call me a 202-491-3996.
Bertha