At a June 9 meeting to discuss the surplusing of the historic Hurt Home with the Georgetown community, a particularly aggravated local resident told City representatives that when developers were preparing their plans for the home, "the gloves would come off."
Her fiesty warning seems to have come true. In the last week, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans has told the Dish, Evans' office has received an onslaught of phone calls from Georgetown residents who are concerned about the pending development of the Hurt Home into luxury condominiums.
Evans is addressing them just as he is also trying to combat the $1.37 million price tag that a local blogger is apparently mistakenly touting as the final purchase price for the home.
The calls, which picked up after Evans said he was not open to finding a new developer for the historic property at 3050 R Street in a City Council roundtable to discuss the building's sale, are mostly from nearby residents concerned about the size and effects on parking of the redevelopment, Andrew Huff, Evans's director of communications, said.
Residents used both that June 16 Council roundtable and the June 9 meeting to voice concerns that they had not been included in dicussions about the Home's future. And although Evans said at the June 16 roundtable that the Argos Group had shared development concepts with the ANC, the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and the community itself in at lest two public meetings, his responses have not satisfied residents.
Now, he is seeking to reassure them that going forward, while the City will stick with its selection of the Argos Group as a developer, the community will have plenty of opportunities to weigh in on the development before it is finalized.
In fact, the surplusing and sale of the Home have not even been finalized. In the midst of residents' calls, Evans is also disputing the provocative headline of an article from Georgetown Metropolitan that was republished on the Dish and Washington Post, "Hurt Home to be Sold for Only $1.37 Million." The proposed purchase price of $1.37 million that GM reported from a terms sheet about the anticipated sale, said Ruth Werner of Evans' staff, is based on the assumption that the 35 units that Argos is proposing to build will be approved and is still very fluid. If the property is ultimately zoned for fewer units, the purchase price will be less.
The Council did not vote to surplus and dispose of, or sell, the property on Wednesday, June 23, either but continued the hearing on the surplusing of the Hurt Home and several other District-owned properties to July 1. That residents at the hearing did not get to hear from the Deputy Mayor for Economic Planning and Development was part of the reason for the delay, Werner said.
1 Comment For This Article
Since it's the City that is selling the Hurt mansion for a measely $1.37 million, why don't the residents get together and buy it as a community cultural center. It's Georgetown, for Heaven's sake. The money is there. The creativity is there. The energy is there. Now let's see some get-up-and-go. I'm surprised that
georgetowners would just be willing to sit around and complain. The gloves come off when the people take charge of their own interests. I certainly am feeling feisty.