GW is lobbying to up the number of beds in two townhouses on campus currently used for sorority housing.
University officials are also seeking to amend the 20-year campus plan in order to enable GW to use a third townhouse as space for the GW Law School.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission proposed no objection to the amendment, and GW must now file an application for the amendment to the D.C. Zoning Commission.
The two F Street townhouses would be for residential, campus life or athletic use.
University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said the amendment will allow the houses to include additional on-campus beds “beyond what is permitted as a matter of right [and/or] provide related program and meeting space for student organizations and activities.”
University spokeswoman Candace Smith said the townhouses have up to six residents each, and there aren’t any plans for additional renovations for the properties, which aren’t connected inside.
“The leases are assigned as part of the [Greek-life] housing assignment,” Smith said.
Sherrard said allocations for housing for Greek-life organizations are reviewed when lease terms expire.
As for the G Street townhouse, Sherrard said GW plans to renovate and join 2000, 2002 and 2004 G St. into a single building for the Law School. The addition will “create space efficiency and also add interior handicap accessibility.”
Exteriors of the townhouses will remain under the stipulations of the Historic Preservation Plan in the campus plan, Sherrard added.
She said a “minor modification” will be made to GW’s already approved development plan in conjunction with the proposed amendment.
At a Jan. 19 ANC meeting, GW officials presented the proposed amendment, and the ANC voted 5-0 to pass a motion for no objection to the proposal. The commission wasn’t in favor of allowing the University to have more flexibility when it came to future acquisitions, however.
ANC chair Rebecca Coder said the ANC “did not support providing open-ended acquisition of properties within the campus, which was the other part of the request.”
Coder added, “I didn’t feel we had enough of an understanding of what this open-ended on-campus acquisition strategy meant nor where these properties were located.”
Some neighbors suggested that off-campus fraternities be housed in the F Street townhouses currently occupied by Phi Sigma Sigma.
“There seems to be a preference from [Greek-life] organizations and residential neighbors for an on-campus solution near other [Greek-life] organizations,” Coder said.
