On Saturday May 4, from 10 AM to 3 PM
Read More at the Georgetown Dish
Cast Your Vote for One City One Book
DCPL’s annual city-wide book group takes place this fall from October 15 through November 15. You have until May 3 to vote for the title you would like to become the book the whole city is reading!
http://dclibrary.org/dcreads
Tenley Library Friends To Host Book Talk and Discussion: The Orange Tree
On Wednesday April 10 at 7 PM
The Friends of Tenley-Friendship Library will host an evening with Martin Ganzglass as he talks about his book, The Orange Tree, Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Tenley Library.
Set in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area, The Orange Tree is the story of the unlikely friendship between an elderly Jewish woman and a young Somali Muslim woman who cares for her in a Bethesda nursing home. Both women are haunted by the prejudice and violence in their lives. The book will be on sale after the discussion for $15. Cash and checks accepted. Tenley-Friendship Library is on Wisconsin Avenue at Albemarle Street, NW Take the red line to Tenleytown.
Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library
4450 Wisconsin Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
tenleylibrary@dc.gov
202-727-1488
Friends Contact: Mary Alice Levine, maryalicelevine@starpower.net
Mayor Petitioned in FOIA Appeal
March 22, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Robin Diener
rdiener@savedclibraries.org
Mayor Petitioned in FOIA Appeal
The DC Library Renaissance Project (DCLRP) Wednesday filed an appeal after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was denied by the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED)’s FOIA officer.
Denials of FOIA requests are appealed directly to the Mayor, whose office has not yet responded but which has ten days to do so.
DCLRP’s FOIA request was for the Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) in the matter of the “sale” of three pieces of public land in the West End — to be conveyed to a developer, EastBanc LLC, in exchange for construction of a library and firehouse. A draft LDA was presented to the DC Council but no final version is in the public record. Also referred to as a “term sheet,” the LDA in this case would outline (among other things) the relationship between the public facilities and private buildings in which the library and firehouse would be located.
DC LRP maintains that the grounds for denial — attorney client privilege — are incorrect. The terms of sale of publicly owned assets should be public information.
Update March 23, 2013
DCLRP lawyer has asked the DC Attorney General to look into whistleblower allegations of document shredding by the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Planning and Economic Development.
FOIA Request Denied for West End Library Agreement
March 14, 2013
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Robin Diener
rdiener@savedclibraries.org
FOIA Request Denied for West End Library Agreement
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officer has denied a request by the DC Library Renaissance Project (DCLRP) for a copy of the final land disposition agreement (LDA) between the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) and developer EastBanc, LLC for the controversial West End Parcels deal. An LDA is a contract of sale, often referred to as a term sheet.
When the case was heard recently at the Court of Appeals, Judge Roy L. McNeese’s first question was “Where is the final LDA?” EastBanc’s counsel Deborah Baum confirmed that only a draft agreement was included in the record.
“The terms of a deal conveying valuable public property to a private developer should be public,” said DCLRP attorney Oliver Hall. “The District’s refusal to disclose the LDA, in apparent violation of the District’s open records law, raises serious questions about the propriety of this deal.”
The DC Library Renaissance Project is suing the Zoning Commission (ZC) over its decision to approve a Planned Unit Development (PUD) of three pieces of publicly-owned land in the West End, which the city is conveying to EastBanc in exchange for its construction of a new library and firehouse. Among the points of contention is the improper granting of a waiver of the affordable housing required under the District’s Inclusionary Zoning law.
DCLRP maintains that prime real estate was substantially undervalued and offered as an incentive to build the facilities, which the ZC then failed to take into account when approving the Eastbanc waiver. In addition, according to DCLRP, the new library/firehouse facilities are being paid for by the city through the land transfer and they should not count towards a waiver.
DCLRP filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the finalized LDA document after the Court of Appeals hearing. On Friday that request was formally denied in an email by DMPED’s FOIA Officer Ayesha Abbasi “on the grounds that these documents contain internal discussions and recommendations of a deliberative nature as well as attorney client communications. These documents are exempt pursuant to D.C. Official Code §2-534 (a)(4).”
DCLRP plans to appeal the denial of its FOIA request.
Film Screening & Talk by documentary filmmaker Michelle Jones at MLK
On Monday March 18 at 7 PM
Michelle Jones’ film “Master Builders” showcases the life and projects of pioneering African American architects in Washington DC at the end of the 19th century. Many years in the making, this documentary brings to light an overlooked contribution to architecture in the nation’s capital. The DC Preservation League website proclaims it “… truly a history worthy to be shared.”
Executive Producer Michelle Jones, a former archivist at the American Institute of Architects, will be on hand to discuss the film.
Black Studies Center, Room 316
Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library
901 G Street, NW
Mt. Pleasant Library Friends to hold first book sale in new library
On Saturday April 6, from 10 AM to 3 PM
Volunteers needed for set up Friday afternoon and for the sale itself on Saturday. Even a couple hours would be appreciated.
Book donations accepted through Friday April 5. Drop them off at the front desk of the Mt Pleasant branch when library is open. Please do not put them in the outside book drop.
Join the Friends of Mt. Pleasant Library. Registration forms available at the Library or online http://www.dclibraryfriends.org/mtpleasant/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheMountPleasantLibrary
Twitter https://twitter.com/FriendsofMTPlib.
Author Talk by Rebecca Gale March 6 at Tenley Library
Author Rebecca Gale will discuss her new book, Trying, on Wednesday, March 6th at 7 PM at the Tenley Library.
Gale works at CQ Roll Call, where she writes a new weekly advice column called Hill Navigator. She has worked as a press secretary and communications director for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa). Trying is her first novel.
Support the Friends of Tenley Library on Facebook.
Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library
4450 Wisconsin Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
tenleylibrary@dc.gov
202-727-1488
Court of Appeals Raises Issue of Double Counting in West End Deal
Press Release
February 15, 2013
Can facilities to be constructed by a developer as payment for acquiring public land also be counted as offsets towards a request for zoning relief? That was among the questions posed yesterday in a lengthy hearing at the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The three-judge panel, considered the D.C. Library Renaissance Project’s appeal of the Zoning Commission’s approval of developer EastBanc’s planned unit development (PUD) scheme for three parcels of publicly owned land in the city’s West End. Judge Roy W. McLeese III specifically asked if a new library and firehouse that are part of the PUD deal were being counted “twice.”
DCLRP has argued consistently that, since the city would pay for the facilities through a land transfer, the same facilities cannot be counted to offset the zoning relief requested.
Based on EastBanc’s testimony that it could provide a new library, fire house and 52 units of affordable housing out of the land transfer proceeds and the resulting up-zoned PUD, in 2010 the D.C. Council okayed the land transfer, contingent on PUD approval. By the time EastBanc got to the PUD hearing in 2011, it sought to have the city’s new Inclusionary Zoning law–which requires affordable housing in all new multi-unit residential developments–waived for the luxury residential building it plans to construct, claiming that without this waiver, it could not afford to build both the library and firehouse. EastBanc’s lawyer did not explain this discrepancy.
In rebuttal, DCLRP lawyer Oliver Hall argued that the District’s own appraisal valued the public land at $30 million (the Chief Financial Officer’s Office put the estimated fair market value at $100 million as assessed for deed and recordation fees) and that it was “impossible to weigh the PUD’s adverse effects against its alleged public benefits, as the Zoning Commission is required by law to do.”
The judges seemed to take these contentions seriously, discussing them at length.
Also hearing the case were Judges Vanessa Ruiz and Corinne Beckwith.
Library Oversight Hearing February 27, 2013
The DC Council Committee on Education will hold an oversight hearing on the performance of the DC Public Library (FY2011-12).
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 at 10 AM
Council Chamber (Room 500)
Chairman David Catania
Persons wishing to testify should contact Brendan Williams-Kief of the Committee on Education
202 724-8061
bwilliamskief@dccouncil.us