October 25th NW Current wrap up

A few items caught my eye in the October 25th NW Current:

- The headline, top fold article about the Comprehensive Plan is very interesting. The Office of Planning has added language to assuage the opponents of the passage of the Comp Plan this term. According to the article the amendments include additional protections for "historic neighborhoods" where Transit Oriented Development are concerned. In other words, Woodley Park and Cleveland Park and their historic designations are relatively safe from any new TOD plans. Of course, this also means that Tenleytown and Friendship Heights may still be ripe for development proposals, particularly on the 5220 Wisconsin Avenue, WMATA Garage and Pedas properties, this continuing the angst against the plan by "civic activists".

- Theresa Conroy, the Republican Ward 3 candidate has written a viewpoint parsing DC Law where Ward 3 Democratic nominee Mary Cheh's "association" with George Washington University may cause Cheh to recuse herself from Council proceedings where GWU is concerned. Of course, GWU officials and Council attorneys had weighed in on this prior to the Democratic Primary, but if Conroy wants to turn the dead horse into glue, that is her prerogative. In its endorsement of Mary Cheh, the Northwest Current states,

We doubt that analysis, given the outgoing D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp - whose husband is an official at George Washington University - has not faced similar problems. Nor have practicing attorneys such as sitting council member Jack Evans and former members Harold Brazil, Kevin Chavous and Bill Lightfoot, all of whom have chaired various council committees

At the Democratic State breakfast earlier this month, DC representative Eleanor Holmes Norton praised Cheh for her committment to education, noting that she too had such an appointment at a local university.

- Speaking of dead horses, there is an article by Staff Writer Julia O'Donoghue pointing out that Candidate Conroy is gaining traction with certain Ward 3 Voters who are in favor of delaying the implementation of the Comp Plan and who oppose new development (or overdevelopment) in the Ward. The irony here, of course, is that the "keep it as it is" voice was heard and largely ignored in the democratic primary, given the means by which the development critics raised the banner in the weeks prior to the election. It is funny, Theresa Conroy is quoted in the article as saying the retail options on upper Wisconsin Avenue are "adequate" given the shopping opportunities in Friendship Heights. I am glad the republican candidate is happy to have our retail dollars going to Maryland businesses.

I guess a "sensible growth", pro-life, anti-business republican candidate in Ward 3 makes a complex recipe. November 7th should be interesting.