MFP Manipulations

Here is a timeline based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources. It shows that, throughout 2008, DCPS was planning to move Janney up near the front of the modernization queue based on "right-sizing" initiatives, but that in the final days before the release of the September draft Master Facilities Plan (MFP), political intervention pushed Janney's addition to the very end of the modernization line, despite a protest from DCPS's facilities expert.

In July, after Mayor Fenty announced his decision to pursue a public-private partnership for the site, Allison Feeney wrote an email to CM Mary Cheh, offering advice regarding how to pressure the community into accepting a deal it clearly did not want. Cheh forwarded Feeney's note to Deputy Mayor Albert, adding her own endorsement of the strategy. Subsequent events seem to indicate that DMPED followed this advice -- including manipulating DCPS's modernization queue to suggest that the only way for Janney to ensure that its facilities would be addressed in a timely manner would be to consent to ceding part of its campus to private development.

In the March 2009 revised draft MFP, the Fenty Administration seems to have adopted that position. Now the question is before the Council. Will it reject the notion that which schools get what facilities when may be a function of the market value of their campuses? A Council hearing on the MFP, currently scheduled for March 26th (during DCPS's Spring Break!), may prove decisive.

The documents on which this timeline is based can be found at http://documents.scribd.com/docs/jr77ouz4qn4qvpr6ywv.pdf

September 2006 – Superintendent Clifford Janey submits his Master Facilities Plan draft to the DC Board of Education. In this plan, where the order of the modernization queue is determined primarily on the basis of the condition of a school’s existing facilities, Tenleytown’s Bernard T. Janney Elementary is near the end of the line (#104), despite the fact that it is one of the most overcrowded schools in the District and there is a lengthy wait list for out-of-boundary students seeking admission.

January 23, 2008 – As part of its “right-sizing” effort, DCPS anticipates accelerating Janney’s modernization. [Anthony DeGuzman email to Eric Lerum]

March 6 – Bev Sklover announces at a Community Meeting that she has spoken with the consultant working on the MFP who told her that, as a result of the school closures, Janney’s modernization will be moved up to 2010.

March 31 – Consultant’s draft Master Facilities Plan places Janney near the head of the modernization queue. In this document, Janney is #8 in line for modernization (the line does not include the 11 modernization projects already in progress). Janney’s renovation and addition is scheduled to begin in FY2010 and be completed by FY2012. The document makes no reference to PPP discussions and, judging from the timeline and budget figures, it does not assume that there will be a PPP at this site.

July 10 -- Despite overwhelming community opposition, Mayor Fenty announces that he's going forward with a PPP for the Tenley Library/Janney School site and has chosen LCOR as the private partner.

July 12 – Janney parent/SIT member Allison Feeney writes to Councilmember Mary Cheh suggesting that the only way to gain community support for the PPP is to ensure that there is no other way for Janney to get moved up in the modernization queue. If Janney is #8 without a PPP, Feeney points out, then no one will support a PPP. CM Cheh forwards Feeney's email to DM Albert, expressing her hope that Albert “will co-ordinate with those responsible and pursue” Feeney’s suggestions.

September 2-4 – As the final touches are being put on the draft MFP in anticipation of its public release, Anthony DeGuzman and Eric Lerum agree that Janney’s addition should take place in 2010 with renovations to follow in 2012 or 2013 depending on budget pressures. Lerum informs Chris Dunlavey (the consultant preparing the draft MFP) of this decision, emphasizing the order (addition before renovations) as well as the timeline.

September 8 – After a high-level meeting, Dunlavey circulates a new draft of the MFP, indicating that the “Changes include…shifting Janney addition out to 2014.”

September 9 -- DeGuzman questions this change: “why has the addition been moved to 2014? Schools with lesser space needs have leapfrogged them. This contradicts the guiding principles.” Dunlavey responds that it was made “per DME” (Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso).

September 10 – The draft MFP is released with Janney’s addition at the very end of the line (2014) and scheduled to take place after Janney’s renovations.

October 10 and 24 -- ANC 3E Commissioner Anne Sullivan and the Janney SIT and PTA submit testimony to the DC Council contesting Janney's position in the MFP queue, and citing some of the documents mentioned above. For the text of that testimony, go to http://ttownrfp.blogspot.com/2009/02/public-oversight-hearing-committee-of.html

November 25 -- Andrew Smiles reports to the Janney SIT that Anthony DeGuzman has told the Facilities Committee that Janney was likely to be moved up in the queue regardless of whether the PPP went forward. He adds that "The Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by the ANC meant downtown got called on Janney students’ needs not being prioritized in the MFP placement according to guiding principles of DCPS assessments."
http://www.janneyschool.org/PTASITPPP/SIT_Minutes/SIT%20Fall2006-2009/2008_Nov_SIT_minutes.pdf

January 30, 2009 -- Chancellor Rhee and DMPED officials meet with the Janney SIT. Rhee suggests that the only way to move the school's modernation up from 2014 is with the PPP. http://ttownrfp.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-which-chancellor-rhee-joins-dm.html

March 3-- OPEFM submits a revised MFP schedule to the Council. In this schedule, Janney's addition is restored to its original slot in 2010, only now a footnote states "Janney schedule is predicated upon a successful partnership between a private development company and the District of Columbia with respect to the redevelopment of the former Tenley/Friendship library site." Interestingly, another section of the MFP contains the same scheduling information without the footnote.

PPP 101

Here's a short introduction to the proposed public-private development project in Tenleytown. It is designed to describe the deal and to explain why so many community groups are opposed to it. The description of the project is based on the most recent site plan available (dated January 21, 2009). This page will be updated as new/different/additional information is made public.

If there is a public-private project (PPP) at this site, what would the private developer (LCOR) build?

A mixed-use building with 165 rental apartments (13 priced as workforce) and the public library on the bottom floor(s) as well as a 200+ car garage. District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) will pay for the construction of the library.

The building’s footprint covers the entire library lot as well as 11,000 SF of the soccer field above ground. The garage will continue underground for another 60 feet, with excavation ending about 30 feet from Janney’s historic building.

LCOR will not be building any facilities for Janney Elementary School.

Why is this project objectionable?

1. IT WILL FURTHER DELAY THE LIBRARY: Negotiations have already delayed the reconstruction of our library by nine months. The deal itself would delay its re-opening by at least an additional two years because it will require a radical redesign of the library and a series of new/independent regulatory approvals including environmental impact assessments. LCOR will also have to get construction financing for the private residential component before the library can be built. By contrast, DCPL’s stand-alone design is fully-funded and already approved. Without a PPP, we could have our library back by fall of 2010. If the LCOR deal were to go through, and all goes well, it would be 2013 before we have a full-service neighborhood library again. Our library has already been closed for more than four full years.

2. THE ONLY THING JANNEY GETS OUT OF THIS DEAL IS A SMALLER CAMPUS: Allowing private development on Janney’s campus will deprive the school of land needed for its expansion. DCPS’s modernization plan for Janney will relieve overcrowding and expand the school’s student population to 550. To do this, Janney’s interior space needs to double. Exterior facilities (a multipurpose playing field and various age-differentiated hard and soft scape playspaces) need to be preserved and expanded as well to serve a larger student body. By depriving Janney school of the use of its most versatile campus land, the LCOR deal virtually guarantees that the exterior facilities that DCPS’s own educational specifications mandate for a campus this size cannot be provided. The 11,000 SF it will consume above ground is significant – it’s equivalent in size to the footprint of the new wing. And the land above the underground garage is largely lost to campus planners as well – it can’t be built upon and it will no longer be large enough for a playing field. Janney’s SIT opposes this public-private project, which would shrink the school’s campus without providing more or better facilities, and which now risks delaying the school’s modernization. In a recent poll, Janney parents were opposed to the project by a margin of over 5:1.

3. THE PPP WILL HOLD OUR PUBLIC FACILITIES HOSTAGE TO THE VAGARIES OF CAPITAL AND HOUSING MARKETS: DCPL has the money in hand to build our library. LCOR does not have the money in hand to build its apartment building. If the two projects are combined, nothing gets built unless/until LCOR gets financing. DCPS has the bond authority necessary to raise the money to modernize Janney and it is eligible for additional stimulus funding targeted for school construction. But until the LCOR project is completed (or cancelled), DCPS can’t move forward on Janney’s addition. In these economic times, public financing is oriented toward getting things built as quickly as possible, whereas privately-financed projects are being delayed, postponed, or abandoned.

4. ALLOWING PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT ON THIS SITE LIMITS FUTURE USES OF THIS PUBLIC LAND: The construction of a nine-story multi-million dollar apartment building would prohibit any major expansion or reconfiguration of the library to meet future needs. Nor could the library ever be relocated and its land added to Janney’s campus to meet the school’s needs. Nor could complementary public facilities (e.g. a teen center) be co-located at this site.

5. ADDING 165 APARTMENTS AND A 200+ CAR GARAGE AT THIS LOCATION WILL OVERBURDEN THE SITE, ADD TRAFFIC AT AN ALREADY PROBLEMATIC INTERSECTION, AND POSE A VARIETY OF SECURITY AND SAFETY ISSUES. We already have 700 schoolchildren on this block (at Janney and St. Ann’s), moving between schools, playgrounds, and the library. Their safety is the community's paramount responsibility. There's no shortage of underdeveloped privately-owned land along upper Wisconsin Avenue. And housing built on those sites wouldn't compromise our school and library facilities.

What’s the financial benefit to the City?
A one-time payment that is unlikely to do more than cover the cost of providing school and library parking , subsidize the workforce units, and provide some compensation for losses associated with delay and redesign of the library. DCPL will still be paying for the construction of the library; DCPS will still be paying for the construction and renovation of the school’s facilities. There’s no free school or free library in this deal.

ANC and PTA/SIT testimony on Janney's place in the MFP queue

Note that this testimony was presented before all of the FOIA documents used in the timeline were obtained. And see the postscript/response at the end of the two documents.

PUBLIC OVERSIGHT HEARING, COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Vincent C. Gray, Chairman
"The Facilities Plan for District of Columbia Public Schools"
October 10, 2008

Testimony of Anne C. Sullivan, ANC 3E05

My name is Anne Sullivan, and I have lived in DC for 25 years. For fifteen years, I was a parent of children in DC’s public schools. For decades, most DCPS parents had little hope in the governments’ ability or desire to modernize and expand the public school facilities, let alone make basic repairs and perform necessary maintenance work. Now there is a new agency with an outstanding leader, Allen Lew, for school facilities, and a new promise from the government in the form of the DCPS Master Facilities Plan to repair, upgrade, modernize, expand and maintain schools on an abbreviated timeline.

While the plan is long on ambition, it is short on details. Still, the document is an attempt to provide efficient and fair plans to modernize schools according to the four core educational priorities set by Chancellor Rhee. Embedded in principle number three is the priority to appropriately expand schools with evidence of overcrowding and waiting lists. This is good, because just as there is a sense of urgency to upgrade schools recently configured to receive an influx of new students, so should there be a sense of urgency for schools that are grossly overcrowded, expected to grow even larger, and have a long waiting list of students. This makes sense in the context of the principle to accommodate emerging/existing feeder patterns, enrollment trends and school clusters.

In general, it is easy to follow the modernization queue of schools according to this priority, but there is one glaring exception: Janney Elementary School. Janney was in the #8 spot in line with a planned modernization and expansion scheduled in 2010 to 2012 (?), according to a March 31, 2008 consultant’s draft of the modernization queue. However, Janney has now been moved to near the end of the queue, with a 2013 -2014 time frame for the construction needed to accommodate a burgeoning student population. There is only one other school that comes close to the 133% overcapacity that Janney experiences, and that school (Burrville Elementary, at 132%) is scheduled for a 2010 modernization and expansion. The question must be asked: Why has an overcrowded, blue-ribbon award winning school with a waiting list of 155 students been kicked to the end of the line while schools with little or no overcrowding have been moved up ahead of Janney?

The answer is a political one.

The Ward 3 Council Member, the former Janney principal, and a group of Janney Elementary School parents started advocating for a land sale of part of Janney’s campus and development rights above the site of the planned Tenley-Friendship Library branch back in the beginning of 2007. The motivation for the school group was to force the modernization and expansion of the school ahead in the line. The Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development issued an RFP for the site in October of 2007, and three developers’ proposals were shown to the community in February of 2008. It was obvious to all community stakeholders that none of the proposals would be acceptable; all three would result in Janney’s campus being too small to accommodate the needed expansion and the needed P.E. playing field. For those who were concerned with the library plans, it was distressing to note that the land sale and subsequent development would delay the new library by at least two years and cause millions of dollars in costs associated with that delay.

In spite of nearly unanimous rejection of the proposals, Mayor Fenty, with the Ward 3Council Member standing at his side in support, issued a press release on July 10, 2008, announcing the selection of LCOR as the development partner for the site.

Shortly thereafter, the Ward 3 Council Member forwarded a letter to Deputy Mayor Albert from a Janney parent outlining concerns that if Janney was scheduled for a modernization and expansion in 2010 without a land sale, then surely the community would opt out of the proposed land sale. This was of great enough concern to both the Janney parent and the Council Member to urge the Deputy Mayor to make sure that the land sale was perceived as the ticket to moving Janney ahead in the queue.

I believe there were two possible reasons that the newly announced modernization queue put Janney back at the end of the line: either the political decision was made to put it there to force community acceptance of the land sale to move Janney back toward the front, or Allen Lew has wisely realized that any land sale and associated Planned Unit Development (PUD) will take years to finalize, and that Janney needed to be moved back to accommodate that reality.

In either case, it is unfair that the current and future students of Janney Elementary School have to postpone having a modernized and expanded learning environment because of the desire to accommodate a large residential building on their campus.

I urge the Council, Mayor, Chancellor and Executive Director Allen Y. Lew to immediately halt all plans for any type of land sale on Janney Elementary School’s campus and to move the school forward to its rightful position in the modernization queue. I believe that fairness should trump politics.

Written Testimony submitted to the Council on October 24, 2008

by the Janney Elementary School PTA and SIT

We are deeply appreciative of this opportunity to share thoughts and concerns from the community and families of Janney Elementary School with the DC Council Members through this written testimony. We hope that our information and comments will be considered in the process of completing an effective plan for improving and expanding the school buildings serving our DC Public School students and communities.

This is a critical time as the proposed Master Facilities Plan is considered by the Council Members. Thanks in larger part to your ongoing commitment to improving the DCPS system, Janney Elementary School has greatly benefitted in the last few years. The Blitz efforts have markedly improved our classrooms and common spaces, and the budget has supported critically important educational and service program improvements at our school. The commitment of over $1 billion for facilities improvements, expansions, and additions will help address a serious backlog and take a true giant step towards providing the school facilities essential to effective learning and a brighter future for ALL DC Public School students. Your commitment – time, attention, and funding – is recognized and greatly appreciated by our school community.

As to the Master Facilities Plan as proposed, our testimony focuses on four areas. These include:

• Appreciation for the priority given to meeting DCPS’ needs for facilities upgrades and improvements;
• Recognition of the guiding education-based principles behind a strategic MFP;
• Understanding of the need to address years of deferred facilities maintenance at far too many elementary schools;
• Requesting appropriate consideration be extended to elementary school
  overcrowding in amending the MFP.

First, we applaud the commitment the Council and other city leaders are considering toward dedicating $1.3 billion to projects that would “place all DC children in dramatically improved buildings by 2014.” That is an acceleration over prior plans, and places priority on addressing chronic and critical needs across all corners of our city.

Second, we appreciate the guiding principals behind the MFP. The large and complex assignment to be tackled through the Master Facilities Plan certainly necessitates a carefully constructed set of principles and priorities to be consistently and accurately applied. As we reviewed the details of the proposed MFP, we saw evidence of the considerable work entailed in its development.

Third, we understand the prioritization of modernization of elementary school classrooms and other instructional space. Years of deferred (no) maintenance at far too many buildings have left some in shockingly poor repair. At Janney Elementary, our basic facilities are in reasonably good repair. But this is a basic problem affecting many other elementary schools, and their students and families deserve prompt action.

Fourth, we ask for due consideration to overcrowding conditions at schools that have suffered and continue to grapple with severe overcrowding and lack of sufficient and appropriate facilities. The four “Guiding Principles” developed by the DC Public School Chancellor’s office included: (1) Modernize/enhance Classrooms; (2) Ensure Building Support Programs; (3) Accommodate Emerging/Existing Feeder Patterns, Enrollment Trends and School Clusters: and (4) Leverage the School as a Community Asset.

We ask the Council’s help in ensuring an important question is addressed by those responsible for the MFP and the implementation of the construction plan. Were these principles consistently and rigorously applied, using accurate information, in the development of the list of project priorities and schedules included in the MFP?

The information and level of detail provided in the MFP make it a challenge to assess if the four principles have been followed in the cases of severely overcrowded schools. Within DCPS, overcrowding is a less common challenge than schools with facility capacities that exceed their current or projected enrollment. While overcrowding may be less common, it is certainly injurious to the learning environment and performance of students. Yet the MFP gives limited consideration to addressing overcrowding in some elementary schools.

Janney Elementary School is a great school with a growing problem. Our building was constructed in 1925 with few upgrades and no additions since that date. The facility is limited, but enrollment is large and growing. Consider these facts based on DCPS data:

• With a capacity of 364 students, Janney enrollment has breached 500 and will grow to 550.
• We already have five classrooms in trailers.
• Janney Elementary has the second highest utilization rate of all elementary schools in the system at 133%. Oyster School, a new building, has the only utilization rate higher than Janney’s;
• At Janney, there are 90 square feet per student – far below the 140 square foot standard. Our enrollment places us as the third worst elementary school on this standard.
• Our Multipurpose Room is too small to serve as either a cafeteria, gym, or auditorium – yet it shoulders all three duties.
• A single set of boys and girls bathrooms on the first floor of a three story building is inadequate for the nearly 500 students. It is nearly impossible to keep the bathrooms clean and supplied with towels, soap and toilet paper. With 64 adults on the Janney staff there is often a queue for the single toilet in the staff lounge. The lack of adequate bathroom facilities is a serious health and sanitation issue.
• The building is not compliant with Americans with Disability Act accessibility standards.

As the Council, Mayor, DCPS, and Office of Public Education Facilities Management continue to consider revising the MFP as proposed, we ask consideration of and response to three questions:

Have the pressures of constant, continued, and growing overcrowding been given due consideration in the MFP? As we review the MFP details, our concern centers on the delay of Janney School’s expansion to 2014 -- at the end of a long line for improvements. Janney would receive “modernization” focused in improving the appearance and functionality of classroom and other instructional space in 2013. We certainly appreciate that Janney is in the MFP in 2014 for an addition to address our space crunch. But instructional quality at Janney and all of our students are affected on a daily basis by the highest utilization rates, lowest space allotment/student, and substandard facilities found across the elementary schools. Janney School’s placement seems to be the result in part of inconsistent application of the four guiding principles established by the DCPS Chancellor’s Office. In our parents’ discussion at the public meetings on the MFP with OPEFM officials, it has become clear that overcrowding was not given due consideration in the establishment of the priorities and schedule for projects.

Will the MFP be amended to provide accurate and current information on all DCPS Schools? How will corrections be considered in revising the priorities and schedule set in the MFP? There were errors of fact in the MFP details on Janney Elementary School.

These included:

• The MFP lists Janney as having a Gym, Auditorium, and Multipurpose Room. We have a single room that serves – inadequately – all three purposes. For example, our students are divided into three groups and have just 20 minutes for lunch each noon hour for sitting and eating their lunches. Indoor gym class scheduling is a challenge. And school assemblies overtax the available space on a regular basis.
• With over 500 students in a building with a capacity for only 364, we have relied for years on trailers for additional space. The School Profile in the MFP indicates we have 1 Expansion (Portable). We have three trailers and they are fully utilized as 5 classroom spaces.
• The School Profile in the MFP is inaccurate in the class configuration at Janney. We have been able to accommodate only 1 Pre-K class to date due to a lack of classrooms. The School Profile indicates 2 Pre-School, 4 Pre-Kindergarten, and 4 Kindergarten classes at Janney. Due to a lack of classroom spaces, we have 1 Pre-K and 3 Kindergarten Classrooms. Because of classroom space limits, Janney School cannot meet the DCPS and Council goal of offering Pre-K to our community. The Profile also lists 4 Art Rooms, 2 Media Centers, 1 Home Economics Room, and 1 Science Lab. We have a single Art Room made from a converted classroom space. We have a modest library which includes a computer lab. The 2 Media Centers, 1 Home Economics, and 1 Science lab listed in the School Profile do not exist at Janney.

Clearly, there are evident problems with the Janney Elementary School data used in the MFP. It may be possible that comparable errors have been made with other schools. Is there an opportunity to correct the data used in setting the MFP? And if so, how will corrections be factored in to revising the MFP’s priorities and schedules?

Can OPEFM consider trading the classroom modernization scheduled for 2013 in order to expedite the expansion scheduled for 2014? Janney Elementary School has invested in maintenance and our community has put both funds and people power in to maintaining and improving the grounds and classroom conditions. Given the pressure of overcrowding, an expansion at an earlier date may be preferable over classroom modernization to be followed by expansion.

In conclusion, we strongly believe the four guiding principles must be consistently applied in setting the MFP. To date, the Plan seems not to adequately recognize the constant pressure of severe overcrowding at some elementary schools. Specifically, we see a compelling case for moving forward to an earlier date the expansion so greatly needed by Janney Elementary School. The school has been and is projected to continue to face severe overcrowding throughout the next five years. Our existing facilities rated at a capacity of 364 students are stretched to the breaking point by our current enrollment of over 500 pupils. Long before this revised MFP was released, in May 2007, a small group of concerned parents collected over 300 signatures of Janney Parents and other community members on a petition calling for the Council and Mayor to support an addition at our school at the earliest possible date. Those 300 signers were added in only a week’s effort. It is a tangible sign of the abiding community interest in and support for the actions we again request through this testimony.

On behalf of the Janney Elementary School community – the students, the PTA, and the SIT – thanks again to the Council Members for making education reform and facilities improvements among the highest priorities in our city. We hope the MFP will be revised, the Janney expansion will be scheduled earlier, and the final plan will meet with your approval and support.

original available in pdf format at: http://www.janneyschool.org/PTASITPPP/JanneyMFPTestimonyOct2008.pdf

And a postscript:

SIT Minutes Nov 25, 2008 Facilities Committee

Andrew noted that according to Anthony DeGuzman at DCPS Janney’s place in the MFP is likely to be advanced, regardless of the outcome of the PPP. But no promises or stipulations were officially made. The Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by the ANC meant downtown got called on Janney students’ needs not being prioritized in the MFP placement according to guiding principles of DCPS assessments.

http://www.janneyschool.org/PTASITPPP/SIT_Minutes/SIT%20Fall2006-2009/2008_Nov_SIT_minutes.pdf

In Which Chancellor Rhee joins DM Albert's Extortion Ring?

From the Janney School website:

January 2009

On January 30, the SIT met with Chancellor Rhee, members of her staff, Eric Scott (DMPED) and Matt Troy (DMPED) to discuss Janney's position in the draft Master Facilities Plan and the proposed PPP. Chancellor Rhee stated that Janney is slated to begin expansion in 2014 if a PPP is not approved. She also confirmed that expansion would begin earlier if a PPP is approved. Her office could not provide a firm date for expansion if a PPP is approved, but confirmed that expansion under a PPP could begin as early as 2010, as the SIT has reported in prior updates. The Chancellor summarized what she sees as compelling reasons to favor a PPP but said she would make a decision only after she receives community feedback on the latest LCOR proposal.

Here are the SIT's minutes from the meeting:

SIT Meeting with Chancellor Michelle Rhee, January 30, 2009

DCPS: Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Eric Lerum, Anthony DeGuzman; SIT: Tawana Franklin, Karen Langford, Andrew Smiles, Shellie Wood, Dr Karen Crews, Kirk Rankin, Marijke Gero, Karen Martin, Malin Kerwin, Mary Osterman, Jane Malhotra; PTA: Lucy Smiles

Chancellor Rhee began by apologizing. After the meeting with the 2007-08 SIT one year ago, she felt that the group was interested in exploring a PPP as long as the main concerns – preserving green space for Janney, and ensuring that Janney would benefit from the deal – would be addressed. She felt it would be okay to push for the project with that in mind. She must look across all of DC to prioritize facility needs. Janney would get extra money, and the student population would grow, so the PPP appeared to be a win-win. Although she lost direct communication with the SIT, she always told the mayor that if the school doesn’t get out of it what they need, it’s a no-go.

Through DMPED, lots of frustrating things occurred. She saw specific emails about green space, but didn’t realize there was a lack of good information.

It is her belief that we can come up with a situation that will benefit the school. The most recent proposal – with an increase of green space, moving up the timeline for Janney in the MFP, and additional money that the PPP will put toward the renovation of outdoor facilities – in her view, makes sense. Much went wrong in the process. Other interests were driving things. She and the mayor never wavered on the fact that this would not go through unless the school would benefit from it.

She said that the best next steps need to be determined, and she will chart a course to ensure that she is fully aware of what is going on.

Kirk Rankin thanked the Chancellor for taking the time to meet with the SIT. He noted that last year was a different time and group. That the rationale of getting advanced in the queue has changed. That the Janney community is now confident that Alan Lew and Chancellor Rhee would get Janney’s facility needs addressed without need to give up land. The PPP appears to be more of a land sale. How much would we give up? When we get rebuilt is what’s important. Through FOIA’d documents, there appears to have been political manipulation showing Janney had been scheduled for a 2010 renovation but it was moved later to the end of the queue to make a PPP more attractive. Janney is a high-achieving, overcrowded school that needs to be expanded.

Chancellor Rhee noted that the only official documents released have Janney in 2014. If we move with the PPP, the timeline will move up. Drafts go back and forth all the time.

Kirk said the draft reflects informed decisions made be people such as Anthony deGuzman, her own assistant, who believed that, based on the guiding principles of the MFP, Janney’s needs should be addressed soon.

Chancellor Rhee responded that every school feels that way. Her first focus is on classroom environment and by that standard, Janney’s issues are not the top priority. There are schools in Ward 8 with deplorable conditions. Many schools have demountables. She understands that Janney is bursting at the seams but some schools’ conditions are incredibly bad. She does not play in the politics of it and that is not how she makes her decisions.

Kirk agreed that many school’s facility problems are great, but that Janney’s peculiar needs are around capacity. Chancellor Rhee said she understood that Janney SIT would by definition be advocating for our school’s needs. Kirk asked where is Janney in the MFP now. Chancellor Rhee answered that her goal is to combine all that needs to happen citywide, and that Janney’s place in the MFP queue would be dependent on the PPP.

Kirk clarified that if there is no PPP, Janney would be modernized and expanded beginning in 2014. Chancellor Rhee confirmed this but noted that she does not know the details. Andrew Smiles brought up the MFP guiding principles, suggesting that Janney’s needs should be addressed based on the merits of our case. Chancellor Rhee responded that Janney’s expansion/modernization without the PPP would be slated for last on the list. That the guiding principles first focus on classrooms, and that having demountables is not considered a negative classroom experience. That demountables are beautiful compared to some of the classrooms in buildings across the city.

One person confirmed that she was aware that Janney has just one set of bathrooms on the first floor for the 500 students. That there is just one adult toilet for the staff. Again, Kirk noted that capacity is our issue, not condition.

Chancellor Rhee said that expansion of schools is not a priority. We have to choose. The mayor and Alan Lew want the former 20-year MFP compressed so that all schools across the city would have needs addressed in the next five years.

Kirk responded that the Janney community, the only population that conceivably benefits from the plan, opposes it by a margin of five to one, and would prefer to wait until 2014 and not have any part in a PPP. No one in the community, execept for the few hardy souls that DMPED meets with, supports this plan. The library has been hung out to dry, and they are mad at us for the delays caused by entertaining this project for the last five years. This is extremely divisive in the neighborhood. The broader community has looked repeatedly at the concepts, the Janney community has looked at all the plans, and we are not interested, we are willing to take a pass. He asked the Chancellor if she will listen to us.

Chancellor Rhee said she has to look at the facts and weigh in. She’ll have to make a decision. With the current plan it appears that there would be increased green space, the modernizing of the school’s outdoor facilities (which Janney would not get if it waited until 2014), and everything would happen earlier.

Andrew remarked that no one saw 2014 as getting anything less. Lucy Smiles noted that we want the library and the school’s public space preserved. We have to consider what we want the space to look like in 100 years. Chancellor Rhee noted that she is looking at the proposal from the school’s purview so she is focused on that point of view. Lucy affirmed that the building of a nice library of great value to the community. Jane Malhotra said that the library is an educational asset to the community as well, and the lack of it for five years has had a negative impact not only on access to knowledge for the kids at Janney, but on the students at Deal and Wilson as well, where school libraries are sorely lacking.

Shellie Wood noted that one year ago when the SIT met with the Chancellor, there was a nice sentiment about the project. People were open about looking at the possibility. But plans eroded. There is a huge trust issue. Wrong numbers were used to make it appear that we were getting more green space in the proposal.

Chancellor Rhee responded that she wanted the back and forth dialog on what was being proposed. She said she has to look at what is currently being proposed. We won’t move forward til we all look at it.

Kirk asked the Chancellor how much money is being generated from the sale of the land.

She said she didn’t know. She asked Anthony DeGuzman, and he said they would need to ask the DMPED people who were waiting outside the conference room.

Kirk asked if she had not seen a term sheet. Chancellor Rhee said there are certain things she knows. She doesn’t know how much money is coming through the deal, but there is an upside of moving forward with a PPP vs. a delay if we didn’t.

Kirk asked about the status of the library. That Neil Albert’s letter says that the library has to be integrated into the structure. This would mean a delay to the library 18-20 months post PUD approval. This consideration should be in the Chancellor’s analysis, as five years has been the wait already. Chancellor Rhee said this was helpful to know.

Kirk confirmed that the Janney community will be engaged in the design process with or without a PPP. Chancellor Rhee agreed but that the plans could look different. Kirk asked what is the scale of the Janney addition and what is the status on the educational specifications. DeGuzman said they want to move quickly with the Ed Specs. Lucy emphasized to the Chancellor that the community is overwhelmingly against this.

Kirk asked about the process for dispossessing land and that this would need council approval and that would require Councilmember Cheh’s support. Chancellor Rhee said that how the council operates can be unclear and that, while it would require council approval, she and the Mayor have placed a focus on education that the council recognizes.

Lucy noted that the library and the school will be impacted by a large building right there. Dr. Crews stated that Oyster teachers had problems with not enough teacher parking in the garage when more teachers were added. What would happen if Janney added another 20 teachers after the project?

Chancellor Rhee said she doesn’t care about the development aspect of the deal. She is willing to fight with DMPED to make sure the school’s needs are addressed first.

Additional DC staff joined the meeting:
Sam Yeung (OPFM), Tony Robinson (OPFM), Eric Scott (DMPED), Matt Troy (DMPED)

DeGuzman notes that the ed specs call for a 35-40,000 sq ft addition for Janney.

Chancellor Rhee asked if the latest plans have been seen. Eric Scott said they are now up on their website. Chancellor Rhee said she wants to have the proposal. Doesn’t want anyone in the school community to think it’s the end all and be all. There is a process to resolve problems. The plans may look glossy and thus appear decided but they are not. DeGuzman noted that the plans have suffered more from a lack of glossy.

E. Scott noted that there have been many iterations of the plan. He said they sought community feedback. The changes they have made are a result of community feedback. At some point they will reach a stopping point.

Chancellor Rhee responded that there is a natural progression of back and forth but the impression has been that there’s not been much opportunity for input. Andrew Smiles asked about the term sheet – as a DC tax payer, how much would be put into the city coffers from this deal?

Matt Troy asked if he meant how much would be given to DCPS. He said it changes as the building plans change, and the market is getting worse. There has been a major downshift even since two weeks earlier. The original proposal using to justify – or not justify, but measure – what would come to Janney, has changed. It is now a 165 unit building. They are looking at somewhere between $5-7 million. Nobody is lending anymore.

Andrew Smiles said say it was seven million. Is some used to move Janney up in the queue, and some for outdoor enhancements and renovations? E. Scott said it would not be earmarked for any specific use. Jane asked about the library part of the mixed use site – what about the legislation saying revenue from library property/air rights must be used for library purposes? Troy responded that he has read the entire legislation and that, because the property also includes school land, the funds do not have to be directed to DCPL specifically but to any public benefit.

Kirk asked when the term sheet would be confirmed. Troy said there would be a readjusted capital appraisal today or tomorrow. Developing the term sheet had been slow as it has taken a back seat to the time DMPED has been spending on collecting community outreach. (Laughter and brow-raising from some SIT members.) Troy continued that they expect a term sheet in mid-February.

Chancellor Rhee thanked everyone for coming. Malin asked to make one more comment: that the SIT is looking out for the best interests of the school, and that it is not the building that makes Janney, but the community of people inside it that make Janney vibrant. And the majority of this community – six to one – do not want this PPP.

Chancellor Rhee said she understood. But she believes that Janney parents were responding this way more due to a widespread lack of understanding of what has gone on. It is based on fear of what may have been going on. Folks should understand what took place and where we are now.

Karen Martin asked what is the time line moving forward, so that we can get back to our community with some next steps. Chancellor Rhee said that the SIT, DeGuzman and E. Scott should agree on a timeline to get information out there, and clarify misperceptions of what’s out there and why. DeGuzman said he would set up a follow up meeting with the SIT, DCPS, DMPED and OPFM. Jane asked if DCPL shouldn’t be included. DeGuzman said he would check with the chancellor. Karen and Andrew asked when is DMPED’s community meeting to present the final plan. Dates will be scheduled around Janney availability but sometime in mid-February. Kirk asked if Chancellor Rhee would allow the people who wrote the FOIA’d emails to meet with the SIT to explain what happened, including the conctractor Dunleavy. She said yes.

Original PDF posted at http://www.janneyschool.org/PTASITPPP/SIT_Minutes/SIT%20Fall2006-2009/RheeMinutesJan09.pdf

The Latest LCOR Site Plans (dated January 21st)

Variations on a theme. More trimming of edges and rearranging heights to retain SF while preserving "green space." The cynical/fictional garage entrance/exit onto Wisconsin Avenue remains. And the new addition is that the apartment building's courtyard opens onto Janney. What's that about? Seems like a bad idea for both the school and the residents.

Here are the links:

http://www.dcbiz.dc.gov/dmped/frames.asp?doc=/dmped/lib/dmped/tenley20090121_proposed_conceptual_site_plan.pdf

http://www.dcbiz.dc.gov/dmped/frames.asp?doc=/dmped/lib/dmped/20090121_tenleysiteareas.pdf

Janney Parents endorse SIT's decision to withdraw support for a PPP

The results of the SIT's poll of Janney parents are in. By a 5:1 margin, respondents approved of the SIT's decision to oppose the LCOR deal.

Here's the report from the January 27th edition of the Janney PTA Newsletter:

"The SIT Corner:

Thanks to all who responded to the PPP survey which went home last Wednesday. We debated the survey within the SIT and it took a while to finalize the langauge and prepare it for distribution. We apologize for the short turn around time. The preliminary results are that of those repsonding, 61 support the SIT's position, 12 oppose, and 2 offered comments alone.

We did not expect unanimity of responses and we understand that there are some within the community who may not agree with us. To those of you who do not support the SIT's position, please stay engaged and feel free to talk with us as events devlop. Please remember that the SIT is committed to Janney's future, and while some of us may disagree, we all share a common desire to help Janney be the best school it can be.

We do not have a firm date for a community meeting yet but we expect it to occur sometime in early February. We will certainly let you know as soon as it is scheduled. In the meantime we will continue to advocate for modernization and an addition to Janney as soon as possible. Thanks again and, as always, we welcome your comments.

Kirk Rankin
Chair, Janney School Improvement Team"

Two months later, Neil Albert finally responds...

Last October, Council Members Mary Cheh and Kwame Brown asked Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert to pull the plug on what they called the "fatally flawed" LCOR deal for a mixed-use residential project at the Tenley Library/Janney Elementary site. The text of that letter is available here: http://ttownrfp.blogspot.com/2008/11/cms-cheh-and-brown-ask-mayor-to-abandon.html The two CMs requested a reply by November 7th, but Albert blew them off -- although he did go to the media with his "damn the Council, full speed ahead!" message.

Now, two months later, he's given them the courtesy of a direct response. Here it is:

[[click image to enlarge]]

Rebuttal of DM Albert's letter to CMs Cheh and Brown

Sent January 16, 2009

Dear Councilmembers Cheh and Brown:

We are writing to point out a number of misrepresentations made by Deputy Mayor Neil Albert in his January 12th letter regarding the proposed public-private partnership involving the Tenley-Friendship Library and Bernard T. Janney Elementary School. As you both know, we have been actively engaged in work related to this project for the past 20 months and, in the course of our efforts, have met repeatedly with community members, developers, and government officials.

First and foremost, we want you to realize that there have been no serious re-design efforts on LCOR’s part over the past six months. In fact, whenever community stakeholders point out a problem with LCOR’s plans, the response has been to manipulate the data and/or images rather than to try to solve the problem. So, for example, we’re still seeing a soccer field where one goal would be somewhere between 9 and 12 feet higher than the other, as well as a driveway on Wisconsin Avenue that will never make it through the PUD process, given the volume of traffic associated with the 200+ car garage it serves. In short, LCOR, with DMPED’s aid and encouragement, is deliberately presenting unrealistic scenarios in an attempt to sell the project to the Council and the community. Neither DMPED nor LCOR seems to have any interest in making this a better project – they just want to seal this deal, secure in the knowledge that, once they have a deal, all of these problems will be someone else’s responsibility.

It’s ironic to hear DM Albert “hope that the members of the community will engage constructively” when his office has ignored every constructive suggestion the community has made throughout this process. The wisdom of some of those suggestions – e.g. to include community/school representatives on the selection panel; to do ed specs for the Janney campus and a concept plan showing how all of the required educational facilities for an elementary school of 550 can be provided onsite before making any decision about whether/how much/what land should be devoted to private use – has already been vindicated. Other suggestions – such as ANC’s request that the RFP require the private partner to come to the table with financing in hand – anticipate (and would have helped avert) problems likely to emerge in the near future if this project moves forward.

Secondly, we want to point out that DM Albert’s claims about the advantages of this project are largely specious. The statement that “preliminary estimates show that DC Public Library will save approximately half of its construction budget under this mixed-use scenario” (or 5 million dollars) flatly contradicts LCOR’s estimate in September of 2008 that the library could save about $800,000 in construction costs as a result of mixed-use. Even that figure was an overestimation because LCOR acknowledged that it hadn’t offset the savings by taking into account increased costs associated with redesign and construction delays. Given that the private/profit-making component of the project may have gotten slightly smaller since September, it seems unlikely that the construction cost savings for the library could have more than sextupled since then.

Even less persuasive, is DMPED’s claim that LCOR’s proposal will provide a means for moving Janney up in DCPS’s modernization queue. In fact, as FOIA’d documents demonstrate, a last-minute political intervention was made to move Janney from its rightful place near the front of DCPS’s facilities modernization line to the tail end. This intervention was apparently designed to accommodate a public-private partnership. As DCPS’s own facilities expert immediately pointed out, relegating Janney to the end of the modernization queue “contradicts the guiding principles” of the Master Facilities Plan.

Janney’s place in DCPS’s facilities queue is not yet fixed. The MFP released last September was a draft and Janney’s position has been controverted both within DCPS and in public testimony before the Council. There is absolutely no reason why Janney cannot be renovated and expanded more quickly without a public-private partnership. The money is available. Post-closures, DCPS desperately needs to expand capacity at high-performing schools that can serve as receivers under NCLB standards. And Janney remains one of DCPS’s most over-crowded campuses with a waiting list of over 150 students.

By contrast, if the PPP moves forward, LCOR’s need for Council approval of the deal, as well as a PUD for the project, necessarily puts Janney’s addition on hold. And without a new addition, the only way to renovate the existing building, would be to send the students off campus. So either the renovations wait for the addition or they wait for swing space to become available. The bottom line is that, at this point, the PPP can only delay Janney’s modernization.

Finally, DMPED still doesn’t seem to understand the facilities issues involved. “No net loss of green space” has never been an appropriate criterion for evaluating this project’s impact on Janney. Given the anticipated expansion in its capacity, as well as the doubling of the amount of its built space, the challenge involved in modernizing Janney will be to enable its outdoor educational facilities to expand in order to keep pace with its indoor facilities. “Green space” per se isn’t what’s at issue. Janney needs programmable outdoor space that can be used to provide the field needed for PE instruction as well as the various age-differentiated hard- and soft-scape play areas mandated by DCPS’s current educational specifications for an elementary school campus of 550 students.

While a mixed-use project at this site may have appeared promising in theory, a year’s worth of attempts to translate that theory into practice have not borne fruit. Three different development teams, each of whom has had the opportunity to present revised or alternative designs, have tackled this project. We’ve seen lots of site plans over the past year, but no one has been able come up with a concrete proposal that has garnered the support of even one local stakeholder group. In fact, at this point, a strong consensus has emerged that our community will be better served by devoting all of the publicly-owned land at the Wisconsin and Albemarle site to school and library use and entrusting these two construction projects to DCPL and OPEFM rather than involving a private developer. ANC 3E, the Janney SIT, the Friends of the Tenley-Friendship Library, as well as a number of other civic associations and neighboring property-owners have all espoused this position.

And it’s not just the community that has reached this conclusion. The Library’s Board of Trustees announced at its November 19th meeting (and apparently affirmed earlier this week, after seeing DM Albert’s letter) that it has instructed Ginnie Cooper to move forward with the already-funded and designed standalone reconstruction of the Tenley-Friendship branch. And the Janney design and construction project itself has already been handed back to DCPS. LCOR isn’t building anything for the school at this point – it’s just delaying the school’s modernization (by first stalling and then extending construction at the library site) and depriving Janney of a part of its campus.

Frankly, LCOR and DMPED seem to be the only parties that want this deal – yet six months into negotiations, even they do not seem to have managed to reach agreement on something as basic as a term sheet. As DMPED’s website indicates, no such agreement had been reached as of December 31, 2008.

The bottom line is that, after two years of work on this project, DMPED has no agency buy-in and no community support. That’s because Neil Albert’s office seems inclined to get this deal “by any means necessary” –- including sacrificing public facilities needs to subsidize private development. In a tight credit market, even if Albert ultimately offers LCOR a deal so enticing that it signs on the dotted line, there’s no guarantee that LCOR will have the financing to move forward once it clears the political and regulatory hurdles that the project still faces (in part because DMPED failed to seek a timely decision regarding whether the public land in question was actually surplus). By contrast, DCPL has both construction financing and necessary design approval in hand.

It has become increasingly clear that continued negotiations over a public-private partnership at this site are setting us back rather than moving us forward toward the broadly-shared goals of providing improved public school facilities and reinvigorating the dead space created by the premature closing of our branch library. Already, our library’s reconstruction has been delayed an additional 6 months by these discussions. And that’s after a delay which has already extended four years. Each of the other four neighborhood libraries shuttered at the end of 2004 broke ground last December. There’s a big hole where our library used to be -– and while other CMs are cutting ribbons in 2010, we’ll be lucky if ground has been broken on this project before the next election cycle is over.

It is time for the Council to step in and pull the plug on this project. Apparently the opposition of individual Councilmembers to LCOR’s proposal has not deterred DM Albert from moving forward with it. The Council as a whole needs to step in and reassert its role as a co-equal branch and a custodian of public land. Your colleagues will follow your lead on this matter – as Ward CM, as Committee Chairs, and as early proponents of exploring a mixed-use project at this site, it is up to you to let them know that DMPED’s efforts have failed and that, conversely, DCPL and OPEFM seem ready, willing, and able to rebuild our library and modernize our school.

Sincerely,

Sue Hemberger, Anne Sullivan, Daniel Carozza, and Amy McVey

CM Cheh's and Brown's response to Neil Albert's letter

See how little LCOR's site plans have changed since September

Last week, I sent the following note to CMs Cheh and Brown, along with the three images provided below:

I've attached a pdf including images of LCOR's site plans for the PPP as they were presented to community members (and published on DMPED's website) in October, November, and December. I think they bear out the claim that very little substantive revision -- and no attempt at problem-solving --has taken place over the course of the past four months.

The September plan (which we saw on boards but never had a printout of) was essentially the same as October's. To my knowledge, that was the first design community members saw after the Mayor's July 10th selection announcement. The major changes from LCOR 's original proposal (presented February 28th) have been to shift the base of the mixed use-building south and east (up to the property line in each case) and to move the driveway from Albemarle to Wisconsin Avenue. The building's footprint and overall square footage seem to have remained constant throughout.

And, of course, somewhere between February and September the decision was made that Allen Lew rather than LCOR would modernize Janney's campus. Once that decision was made, LCOR relocated the school's addition and dramatically shrunk its footprint in all of its "Proposed Conceptual Site Plan" images. Whether the "potential" locations and dimensions depicted are realistic or bear any resemblance to what DCPS would actually build has not been established.

[[click image to enlarge]]




No response (yet?) from either Cheh or Brown to our letter or this follow-up. But given that they characterized the first plan as "fatally flawed," it's hard to see why the third suddenly shows "promise of meeting the[ir] essential requirements." Not much has changed and the "green space" reclaimed by cutting out the southwest corner of the residential building doesn't really benefit Janney in any way. It's too small, awkwardly-shaped, and badly-located to be used as a playground or built on.

Special Committee's Status Report on the Janney Elementary/Tenley-Friendship Library PPP

Presented at ANC 3E’s November 13, 2008 Public Meeting

CHEH-BROWN LETTER #4

On October 29th, Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Kwame Brown (chair of the Committee on Economic Development) wrote to Mayor Adrian Fenty asking him to terminate negotiations with LCOR and allow the reconstruction of the Tenley-Friendship branch to move forward. Their letter requested a response from the Mayor by November 7th. It is our understanding that no such response has been forthcoming.

That said, the day after the Cheh-Brown letter was released, Deputy Mayor Neil Albert indicated to the media that his office plans to move forward with the project. And DMPED refused ANC 3E’s request to cancel or postpone a previously-scheduled meeting with LCOR until after November 7th. Full speed ahead seems to be the Administration's stance.

MEETINGS WITH LCOR/DMPED

Since our last report, ANC Commissioners and Special Committee Members have met twice with LCOR at DMPED’s request. These meetings were held on October 17th (attended by Matt Frumin and Sue Hemberger) and November 3rd (attended by Anne Sullivan, Danny Carozza, and Sue Hemberger). The site plans shown at those meetings included a number of changes from the plans viewed in September.

CHANGES:

1. The underground garage now extends 50 feet beyond the edge of the residential building. This means that the edge of excavation/construction will be no more than 30 feet from the eastern façade of Janney’s historic building. Longer-term, it probably also means that the remains of the soccer field will be land that is of very limited utility to the school. Presumably, it can’t be built on, nor can it be used as a playing field. About all that it could be used for is a playground and it’s not a great location for a playground, given proximity to both classroom and residential windows as well as the presence of a stairwell providing teachers with access to the garage.

2. At this point, DMPED is talking about 1:1 replacement of Janney’s parking spaces – “approximately 50 spaces, give or take a few” was the way they put it. Janney will not gain parking; its parking will simply be inconveniently relocated, as will the library’s (which will now have 9 spots in the underground structure rather than surface parking along the southern edge of the building's first floor).

3. The mixed use library/residential building has now been shifted at least 10 feet toward St. Ann’s. It will be built up to the property line, covering what used to be the driveway for the library. The building’s southern façade appears to be about 20-30 feet from St. Ann’s Academy.

4. Most of the library will now be covered with and surrounded by apartments. Except for a 20 foot edge along Wisconsin and a 10 foot sliver on the eastern edge of Albemarle, the library will be located underneath residences. As a result, the airy interiors of the previous design must now be riddled with columns to provide structural support for the interior walls of the apartments above. And the roof terrace option no longer seems possible. The design images aren’t detailed enough to indicate how incorporation of the library into a mixed-use building will affect the number and location of library windows. Ceiling heights are being preserved; two library floors will be equivalent to three residential floors.

Special Committee Members pointed out that the site plans appeared to be sales tools rather than realistic attempts to solve problems or even to show that the school's needs could be met once the residential/library building was constructed. We pointed out three crucial fictions that seemed to underlie these representations.

FICTIONS:

1. LCOR, relying on dated images, substantially overestimated the amount of land on Janney’s campus currently devoted to parking. Its site plan claimed that the parking lot was 17,450 SF when, in fact, it was including land that is used as hardtop play space and for a demountable. The plan also indicated that the footprint of LCOR’s building would consume 14,800 SF of Janney’s soccer field.

While the Special Committee has always pointed out that “no net loss of green space” is the wrong standard – the issue is athletic/playground facilities (not green space) and these facilities need to be increased (not simply preserved) to accommodate an increase in Janney’s student population – even this standard is clearly not being met.

Previously, LCOR had always acknowledged the fact that its building would consume a few thousand more square feet of Janney's land than it would replace by providing underground parking. The footprint of LCOR's residential building hasn’t changed, and the amount of parking LCOR will provide to Janney seems to be shrinking. Yet now LCOR is producing images which suggest that the project will produce a net gain in green space. The project certainly hasn't been modified to produce that result; LCOR (at DMPED's behest?) has simply changed its rhetoric.

Since our last meeting, yet another set of images have been posted on the web. LCOR responded to the revelation that it was overestimating the land currently devoted to parking at Janney by downwardly revising its already lowball estimate of how much of Janney’s land it will consume (without changing the footprint of its building). The same area previously represented as 14,800 SF is now labelled 14,500 SF. Then it reconfigured the outline of Janney's current parking lot to exclude some hardtop playspace but it still seems to include the land around and under the demountable. Given that the demountable is not going to be located in the underground garage, the inclusion seems to be motivated by the need to assert that Janney is getting more than it gives up.

This is symptomatic of what we’re dealing with at this point. The only material change in LCOR’s project since January is that LCOR will no longer be renovating the school or building its addition. In each new site plan, LCOR just moves massing in its building around (a few stories cut off on this corner and pushed over toward the center). LCOR hasn’t budged on the residential building’s footprint or on the number of units. We’re being treated to endless spinning and re-spinning of essentially the same universally-condemned project. And the response to any critique is not to solve the problem but to find a better way to obscure it.

2. The second fiction we pointed out was that LCOR’s “optional soccer field locations” were located on land with steep changes of grade and thus were costly and unrealistic options (and, of course, held out a promise LCOR itself wouldn’t be keeping. Allen Lew would be saddled with these unrealistic expectations.) One layout had a height differential of 9 feet between the two goals; another looked closer to 12 feet. Since LCOR’s own image had contour lines, this information was available to them. This was an intentional attempt to mislead – not a mistake based on ignorance.

The newest site plans show the soccer field relocated to a flatter area bordering Bon Secours where a swing set and play equipment are now located.

3. LCOR’s current site plans are premised on the assumption that the library’s driveway (which provided access to fewer than 10 parking spaces) will now serve as the sole vehicular access (for both entry and exit) to a 200+ car garage and loading dock area for a 174 unit apartment building. Given the facts that this curb cut is located on Wisconsin Avenue just south of the Wisconsin and Albemarle intersection and that it abuts St. Ann’s driveway, it seems unfathomable that DDOT would allow such an arrangement. More likely, the driveway would be relocated to the site LCOR previously proposed – the “green space” between Janney and the residential building. But such realism would interfere with the “no net loss of green space” claim and so it’s been excised.

LCOR’s claim that the pre-existence of this curb cut shields the project from DDOT’s oversight is specious. This project will require a PUD and the Zoning Commission will not allow the requisite upzoning without working out a different traffic plan.

FOIA RESULTS

We are in the midst of receiving and reviewing documents from DCPS that are belatedly being produced in response to a July 18th FOIA request. What we’ve learned thus far is that on September 8th, two days before the release of the MFP, Janney’s addition was moved to the end of the modernization queue and scheduled for 2014, a year after its classrooms were to be renovated.

Prior to September 8th, Anthony DeGuzman (DCPS/OOC) and Eric Lerum (DME) had recommended a 2010 date for Janney’s addition, with classroom renovations to follow in 2012 or 2013. These dates are consistent with the March 31st consultant’s draft of the MFP, and the proposed sequencing was a crucial element of the swing in place strategy. The addition would need to be available before the classrooms in the old building could be vacated for renovation.

On September 9th, once DeGuzman saw what happened to Janney, he pointed out that the school’s new place at the end of the queue violated the fundamental principles (e.g. rightsizing) articulated in this MFP: “Schools with lesser space needs have leapfrogged them. This contradicts the guiding principles.” He was told that the change was made “per DME.” We suspect that this means Reinoso personally, given that Lerum, Reinoso’s chief of staff, had been arguing for 2010 just a few days previously.

To put it bluntly, there is clear evidence that the decision to move Janney to the end of the queue was based on politics rather than principle and that the move was designed to accommodate the PPP. Michelle Rhee indicated on September 3rd that “Allen Lew is modifying the plan assuming a PPP for Janney.” There is no indication that prior plans made such an assumption.

The documents also show that DCPS (including Rhee’s office, Lew’s office, and Reinoso’s office) were unfamiliar with LCOR’s proposal when Mayor Fenty made his July 10th developer selection announcement. Yet DCPS reassured the Janney SIT that everything was under control and the school’s needs were being protected even as it scrambled internally to figure out who knew what, if anything, about the proposal.

We have not yet found any documents explaining when or why the decision was made to sever Janney’s modernization from the rest of the PPP. In late July, DMPED contemplated an arrangement in which LCOR would be a “fee developer” for the school.

And, once again, we see no evidence of any planning regarding facilities needs, land use, campus design, logistics, or swing space related to this project.


Once all of the documents have been delivered and analyzed, we will post the most significant ones and an explanatory timeline on the ANC website and on the listservs.

ACTION ITEMS:

1. AUDITOR – The Special Committee plans to renew its request to the DC Auditor to investigate DMPED’s decisionmaking regarding the disposition of public lands. Last Spring, in response to our submission, the Auditor acknowledged the importance of the issue, but said she lacked the resources to investigate because of her office’s heavy workload during the Council’s annual agency Oversight Hearings. We believe that new events and new evidence underline the increasingly urgent need for a comprehensive evaluation of deal-making involving public land. No Commission action is required on this item; any citizen has the right to request an audit.

2. ANC RESOLUTION ADDRESSED TO THE COUNCIL – The Special Committee suggests that the Commissioners adopt a resolution urging the Council to reassert its status as a co-equal branch of government and a steward of public lands by supporting CM Cheh and Brown’s call to abandon public-private partnership negotiations and to enable DCPL to commence rebuilding the Tenley-Friendship Branch and by moving legislation to reform Title X out of committee.

ANC 3E's Resolution Regarding the Tenley-Friendship Library and the Janney Elementary School Proposed Public-Private Development Project

WHEREAS, Council Members Kwame Brown and Mary Cheh have written a letter to the Mayor asking for the library rebuild to move forward immediately and the private development proposal for the site be dropped, yet have not received a response by their due date of November 7, 2008, and

WHEREAS, the Council Members’ lack of impact on the project signals that the Council’s status as a co-equal branch of the government is threatened, and

WHEREAS, the failure of the Mayor to end this extremely unpopular project has resulted in real harm to the community by causing a prolonged delay of the library rebuild,

THEREFORE, be it resolved that ANC 3E urges the Mayor to end negotiations for a public-private development project at this site and to authorize DCPL to move forward with its plans to rebuild the Tenley-Friendship, and

THEREFORE, be it resolved that ANC 3E urges the Council to re-establish its role as an effective steward of public lands by instructing the Mayor to stop wasting time and money on this project that is opposed by both the community and the Council Members who initially supported it, and

THEREFORE, be it resolved that ANC 3E further urges the Council to complete the work it has begun to reform Title X by moving a bill out of committee and passing legislation this term to ensure that surplussing decisions must be made by the Council before the Mayor and his agents are authorized to offer public land for sale or long-term lease.

Approved this day of November 13, 2008 by a vote of 3-1 with a proper quorum present of Commissioners.


Signed,
Amy McVey, Chairperson of the ANC 3E

What’s Up with the Tenleytown Public/Private Project?

originally published in the November 2nd edition of dcwatch's The Mail

In Thursday’s Examiner, Ward 3 Councilmember Cheh claims “It’s finished.” But in Friday’s Washington Business Journal, Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and LCOR both say the project is “moving forward.” Loose Lips declares that it’s now “officially a pissing match.” For those who haven’t been following the story, Mayor Fenty pulled the plug on DCPL’s long-delayed reconstruction of the Tenley-Friendship branch library last July. At that point, DCPL had already spent a year (and about $1 million dollars) for demolition, design, and approvals and was on track (and within budget) to break ground in three months and reopen the library by early 2010.

So why did Fenty, essentially, yank the shovel out of Ginnie Cooper’s hands as she was finally ready to rebuild our library? To enter into exclusive negotiations with LCOR that would enable private residential development on the parcel of public land that houses both the branch library and Janney Elementary School.

Ostensibly/originally, the rationale for this project was that it would speed Janney’s modernization. It was always clear that there was nothing in the deal for the library, whose airy design will be riddled with columns to support the apartments above and whose reopening will most likely be delayed until 2013 (it was closed in 2004). Janney was supposed to get new and better facilities sooner, yet none of the proposals that emerged from the competitive bidding process were able to effect that outcome. At this point, it looks as if all that the LCOR proposal will do for Janney is take away some of its campus and delay its modernization. As a result, the Janney SIT (which includes the school’s principal) has called for an end to PPP discussions. And Councilmembers Cheh and Brown (Chair of the Council’s Committee on Economic Development) have written a letter asking the mayor to let the library reconstruction move forward independently of any public-private deal.

So what’s it going to be? Will Mayor Fenty sacrifice our public facilities’ needs to line developers’ pockets? Councilmember Cheh’s odds of reelection hinge on his decision. After all, if she can’t protect a fully-funded branch library project and an award-winning but severely overcrowded elementary school from Neil Albert’s depredations, what good is she to Ward 3 residents? Cheh may have proven prescient last spring when, after receiving an award from the Humane Society, she said “if cats and dogs could vote, I’d be in great shape.” Pets don’t vote, but taxpayers, library patrons, and the parents of schoolchildren do. And it’s not just Cheh’s future that’s at stake. If the rest of the council fails to back up Cheh and Brown in this fight, all of the councilmembers are likely to see their power reduced to that of glorified ANC commissioners (albeit with six-figure salaries!).

Already the pattern is establishing itself. Fenty listens to the council when its members tell him what he wants to hear. So Cheh and Brown’s first letter on this project, which endorsed putting this piece of public land on the auction block, was embraced. Their second letter, pointing out that none of the submissions received in response to the RFP was acceptable, was ignored. Fenty chose one of those proposals anyway. When they reiterated that LCOR’s proposal was unacceptable, Albert ignored them once again. And when they asked the mayor to pull the plug on the deal, Albert went to the media to trumpet his refusal.

Long story short, unless there’s a real backlash from the council, the moral of this story is that the council can and will be ignored with impunity. Thus far, the only prerogative I’ve seen this council stand up for is their baseball tickets. It’s time — way past time — for councilmembers to reclaim their role as stewards of public land.

CMs Cheh and Brown ask Mayor to abandon PPP

COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
1350 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W.
WASHINGTON, DC 20004
MARY M. CHEH
Councilmember, Ward 3
Council Committee on Public Sercies and Consumer Affairs
Office: 202-7244-8062
Fax: 202-724-8413
mcheh@dccouncil.us

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty
Government of the District of Columbia
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004

October 29, 2008

Dear Mayor Fenty:

Based upon all of the information presented to us and the views of the community, involved groups,, the developers, and District and ANC officials, we write to ask that you permit the Tenley Library to be build now and separate it from any possible mixed use, or public/private, development on the site.

At the same time, however, we ask that the Library's design be amended to include the structural supports necessary to permit development on top of the Library at a future date. That development could be residential, mixed-use, or even an increase in the size of the library. Our preliminary assessment is that such a modification would not be difficult and, although it will involve additional cost, that cost should be modest and manageable. In any event, the cost should be viewed as an investment in the future.

This approach will allow the library to move forward now, on its own timetable, with its design intact, and with monies already allocated.

As for the current LCOR proposal, we believe that it is fatally flawed; we cannot and will not support it. There are many reasons why we have reached this unsatisfactory place, but our lack of support relates to the LCOR proposal alone.

We still believe, as we have throughout, that the public interest lies in the comprehensive development of this site. There is an urgent need to have vibrant, mixed-use development along our main corridors and the Tenley site, which is located across the street from the subway, ought to be a key part of such development. We need energy and life along our corridors, and we need to make transit oriented development a priority.

Please let us know by next Friday, November 7, 2008, of your decision on allowing the library to go forward now, as modified with appropriate structural supports for future development. Thank you.

Best regards,

Mary M. Cheh
Councilmember, Ward 3

Kwame Brown
Councilmember, At-Large

cc: Neil Albert, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
Ginnie Cooper, Chief Libraries for the District of Columbia Public Library
LCOR
ANC 3E Commissioners
Kirk Rankin, Janney Elementary School SIT Chair
Dr. Karen Crews, Janney Elemenary School Principal
John Hill, DC Board of Library Trustees President


A signed copy of their October 29th letter is available at http://www.marycheh.com/Press%20Releases/Tenley-Janney.pdf

Community Groups Urge Cheh/Mayor to Pull the Plug on the PPDP and Stop Delaying the Reconstruction of the Tenley-Friendship Library

ANC 3E Chair Amy McVey sent the following letter to CM Cheh, Mayor Fenty, and DM Albert yesterday:

ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 3E
TENLEYTOWN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PARK FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS
c/o Lisner Home 5425 Western Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20015

October 2, 2008

We, the undersigned, heartily endorse the following statements:

Since the Janney SIT/LSRT has written to the Mayor rescinding all support for a development project, there is now a consensus among community stakeholders, for the Janney Elementary School and the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library that the public/private development project should be abandoned and that the reconstruction of the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library should proceed immediately. Furthermore, due to the severe overcrowding of the school and an anticipated population expansion to 550 students, Janney Elementary School's modernization/expansion should be moved as far forward as possible in the new Master Facilities Plan.

We strongly urge all decision makers in the District of Columbia government to cease negotiations with all developers intending to build private residences on the library and/or school land. The District of Columbia Public Library system should be directed to go ahead immediately with plans to rebuild the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library, and we urge Allen Lew of the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization to move Janney Elementary School in the modernization queue to allow for its expansion/modernization to begin as soon as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy McVey, ANC3E01
Carolyn Sherman, ANC 3E03
Lucy Eldridge, ANC3E04
Anne Sullivan, ANC3E05
Friends of the Tenley-Friendship Library Executive Board
Board of Directors, Tenleytown Neighbors Association
Board of Directors, Friendship Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors, Tenleytown Historical Society
Board of Directors, CSTO
Marvin Tievsky, Friendship-Tenleytown Citizen’s Association
Dorothy Maloney, The Heights Foundation Inc.
Tenley Campus Neighbors

An Announcement from Janney Elementary School Improvement Team (SIT)

Last night, the Janney SIT announced its categorical opposition to a public-private redevelopment project involving the school's land in the following email sent to Janney parents:

An Update on the PPP and DCPS' Modernization and Expansion Plans for Janney

September 17, 2008

To the Janney Community -

The School Improvement Team (SIT) would like to update you on several important developments regarding the City's public-private partnership (PPP) plans and the District of Columbia Public Schools' (DCPS) modernization and expansion plans for Janney.

For the last year, and as recently as July of this year, the Janney SIT has offered conditional support for the concept of a PPP with the goal of securing a modernized and expanded Janney facility within a short time horizon. After careful consideration of the needs of the school and the sentiments of the Janney community, the SIT is withdrawing previously stated conditional support for this initiative. We are optimistic that the necessary modernization and urgently needed expansion of Janney can be completed through an effective Master Facilities Plan process without ceding land to a private developer. The SIT will advocate for timely modernization and expansion through this process.

The SIT appreciates the feedback we have received from the community so far and we welcome your questions and input going forward. A detailed Q&A regarding the current situation is located at the end of this letter, along with information on how to contact your SIT representatives. We are communicating with the City early next week, so if you have comments, please let us know as soon as possible.

The following factors have led us to this conclusion:

-- On September 10, 2008, DCPS issued an official draft of the Master Facilities Plan (MFP). According to the MFP, Janney is slated to begin modernization in 2013 and construction of an addition in 2014. Based on our current understanding, the modernization and addition are scheduled to occur at this time, regardless of whether the PPP moves forward. To view the official draft of the Master Facilities Plan, please go to http://opefm.dc.gov/pdf/DC_Master_Plan_2008.pdf.

-- None of the plans submitted by the City's selected lead private developer (LCOR), nor by any other developer, have thus far met the set of conditions stated by the SIT. We are skeptical that there will ever be an acceptable proposal given that the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) has failed to engage in meaningful discussion with Janney. The City's PPP process has been opaque. We doubt both the City's intent and their ability to satisfy our basic conditions including green space preservation and an earlier time schedule for modernization and expansion. To read a history of the issue and previous letters issued by the SIT, please go to http://www.janneyschool.org/PTASITPPP/Library%20development/librarydevelopment.htm.

In light of repeated unacceptable plans from LCOR and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the failure of the City to engage Janney in meaningful dialogue, and confidence that Janney's modernization and expansion plans can be completed in a timely manner by DCPS without a loss of Janney land, the SIT believes that the Janney community should no longer offer to cede part of its campus to advance a PPP.

We encourage you to review the Q&A that follows. If you'd like to contact us, we'd be happy to talk with you:

a. "Office Hours" -SIT members will be available in front of the school on Friday, September 19 at these times: 8:20 - 9:00am; 3:00 - 3:30pm

b. Comment Card - Stop by the SIT table at the times listed above, grab a comment card, fill it out, and drop it in the comments box that will be located at the SIT table. Comment cards will also be available in the Janney office.

c. Email and Phone - Shoot us an email or give us a call.

Please see the attached document for a Q&A regarding the current situation.

Best regards,

Janney SIT

Just when you thought the deal couldn't get worse...

It's been a big "news" week for this project and, as usual, most of the information came our way as the result of FOIA requests and conversations with the developer rather than from direct communication between DC officials and the community. The short version is (a) Janney has been kicked back to the end of the school modernization queue, (b) LCOR won't be building or renovating the school, and (c) we can thank Mary Cheh and Allison Feeney for both of these developments.

As the following timeline indicates, the continued pursuit of a public-private “partnership” for the Janney/Tenley-Friendship library site is delaying not only the construction of the library, but the school’s modernization project as well.

October 31 – The Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) issues a “Solicitation of Offers” for a public-private development project that would involve rebuilding the Tenley-Friendship Library and modernizing/expanding Janney Elementary, while adding a residential building to the site. Private developers are offered public funds to build both the library and the school.

February 28 – All three developers who submitted proposals are given the opportunity to present them to the public. LCOR’s presentation includes a detailed site plan for Janney’s expansion and modernization.

March 31 – Janney is placed at #8 in queue in a draft Master Facilities Plan (MFP) submitted to DCPS officials by their consultants, FHAI. Both the budget and the timeline for Janney in this plan are totally inconsistent with the budget and timeline for the school that was laid out in DMPED’s Solicitation of Offers, suggesting that, thus far, there has been no coordination between DCPS and DMPED regarding the Janney modernization project.

April 28 – DMPED officials Neil Albert and Eric Scott insist that Janney is number 100-something in the MFP queue; at this point, they are unaware of DCPS’s March 31st draft MFP.

July 10 – The Mayor announces that he has decided to pursue the public–private option and has chosen to negotiate exclusively with LCOR. LCOR’s press release that day says “LCOR will develop the school and library while developing the nearby apartments.”

July 12 – CM Cheh urges Neil Albert to “co-ordinate with those responsible” to act on Allison Feeney’s suggestions that the way to engender community support for the PPP is to shut down the possibility that Janney could be near the front of the modernization queue without a PPP and to put Allen Lew’s shop in total control of Janney’s modernization project.

Sept 10 – DCPS makes its new MFP public and Janney has now been moved back to the end of the modernization queue. LCOR VP Tim Smith tells ANC special committee members Anne Sullivan and Sue Hemberger that his company will not be designing or building any of Janney’s facilities; that will be a DCPS project under Lew’s direction. The only thing DCPS is deciding with respect to the LCOR deal is how many parking spots it wants to buy in the underground garage.

The assertion that Janney was moved up in the queue only because of the PPP flies in the face of all of the evidence. If it were true, we’d expect Janney to move forward rather than backward after the Mayor’s July 10th announcement, but the opposite happened. Janney’s scheduled completion date went from 2012 (March/pre-PPP draft) to 2014 (September/post-PPP draft).

A paradigm shift in DCPS’s approach to school modernizations is what lead to Janney's move to the front of the queue in March. Right-sizing is the new priority and that meant relieving overcrowding (and increasing capacity at successful schools) as well as shutting down low-performing schools to eliminate excess capacity in the system. On this model, Janney belongs near the front whereas on the older model, where the priority was fixing the facilities in the worst condition first, Janney had been near the end.

And the fact that the current anticipated completion date (2014) is earlier than the anticipated completion date under the older pre-takeover Master Facilities Plan (2015) has absolutely nothing to do with the PPP. It’s an artifact of the new regime’s decision to modernize at a much faster pace, and move through the whole queue in the next 5 years. Under the new draft MFP, no school modernizations are scheduled for completion after 2014. And, incidentally, the start dates in both the pre-takeover MFP and the current version are the same -- 2013. The claim that Janney’s modernization schedule has been hastened as a result of this PPP is pure fabrication and, as Allison’s email suggests, it’s a fabrication whose circulation is urged by those whose primary motive at this point is to promote a PPP rather than to get better facilities for the school sooner.

In addition to Cheh's advice to Neil Albert, there's another reason why the prospect of a public-private partnership would argue for postponing Janney's modernization. Odds are, Allen Lew has reached the point where he now assumes that the PPP is a done deal and he is planning accordingly. It woudl be a real nightmare to stick with the consultants' proposed 2011/12 Janney modernization if LCOR were working on the adjacent site simultaneously. So in his position, the rational thing for Lew to do would be wait to start the Janney project until after LCOR is basically done and gone. The other option would be to modernize Janney before LCOR is even ready to break ground but, in the absence of any site planning/campus design efforts or even a binding decision about how much land Janney will lose to the deal, that's just not feasible.

Currently, no one is engaged in site-planning for Janney. LCOR will plan its apartment/library building (in conjunction with DCPL) and acquire Janney land to build that structure. Janney’s modernization/expansion will be planned only after its campus shrinks.

This is precisely the outcome that the ANC special committee has been arguing against for over a year now. It should not be the case, when public land is at issue, that private developers have their needs met first, while the school is forced to make do with the land left over. It’s a perversion of priorities and an evasion of the law. The right approach is first to figure out how to best meet our facilities needs, reserve the land that’s required to do so, and, then, if there’s land left over, consider whether, how much, and what kind of private development makes sense for the site.

Janney will end up with less -- not more -- as a result of this deal and it’s not even a “we’ll take less to get it sooner” scenario any more. Maybe DCPS gets some revenue (but not much – which is why DC government forbade the developers from information about the financial structure of their proposal during public presentations) from this deal, but it’s not revenue that is needed for school modernizations which already have an ample and dedicated funding source. And, of course, it’s always the case that DCPS could raise money by selling off schools or the land under them. But DCPS’s function is to provide schools not make real estate deals. We’re not getting something for nothing or something extra here. We’re liquidating irreplaceable assets in an area -- and on a campus -- slated for growth. It’s a short-sighted decision that will be detrimental to both the school and the neighborhood.