A local governing body called on the District Department of Transportation to beautify Virginia Avenue during its monthly meeting Wednesday.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission unanimously passed a resolution calling for the “beautification” of Virginia Avenue with new trees after DDOT announced plans earlier this year to install a two-way bike lane and resurface the street. Commissioners also supported the renewal of a sidewalk cafe outside Flower Child and announced the release of applications for relief grants from the ANC.
Commissioners said the ANC’s next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 14, will be held in a hybrid format, but the commission has not yet announced the location of the meeting.
Here are some of the meeting’s highlights:
Beautifying Virginia Avenue
The resolution regarding improvements along Virginia Avenue requests DDOT to plant native, long-blooming trees in the median of the avenue from Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway to G Street. The resolution urges DDOT to plant trees from DDOT’s Green Infrastructure Plant List after the Virginia Avenue bike lane is built this fall.
“Virginia Avenue actually looks right at the Washington Monument,” Barbisch – who presented the resolution – said during the meeting. “And anybody that looks right at that monument – it should be beautiful and make you feel so proud to be an American and where we are and what we do.”
Commissioners unanimously passed the resolution.
Releasing grants applications
Members of the ANC’s humanitarian grants special committee, which the ANC authorized in March, announced that nonprofit organizations could apply for COVID-19 relief as of Thursday, opening $12,000 in funding for community aid. Under the committee’s plans, the ANC’s funding for each nonprofit would be sent directly to local residents in need of financial assistance in D.C.
The committee is made up of Commissioners Yannik Omictin, Trupti Patel and three other Foggy Bottom residents who held their first meeting last month, Omictin said.
“We’re seeking to help vulnerable folks in our community with things that they need,” Omictin said. “That is the purpose of the grant, very straightforward, and we have $12,000 available.”
Restoring Flower Child’s patio
The ANC unanimously voted to recommend DDOT to approve Flower Child’s request for an outdoor patio, which will hold nine tables and nearly 40 seats, according to the ANC’s meeting agenda. Flower Child, a GWorld vendor on Pennsylvania Avenue, did not renew its license for outdoor seating last year due to the pandemic, a representative for the restaurant said at the meeting.
The ANC’s vote to support the patio is not binding and will either be approved or denied by the DDOT’s Public Space Committee.
