The Citizens Association of Georgetown has established a fund called “Save Our Neighborhood” in its latest attempt to derail D.C. Zoning Commission approval of the university’s 2010 Campus Plan.

“The situation has reached an intolerable level,” CAG’s GU Relations Committee wrote in an announcement this month appealing for donations. CAG will use the tax-deductible fund to campaign against the campus plan and to present its case to the D.C. Zoning Commission on an unscheduled date.

“It seems clear that residents’ rights are continually being violated,” CAG said in the announcement. “It is imperative we take a strong stand in front of the Zoning Commission to protect our rights.”

CAG’s main objection revolves around the number of students living off campus, according to CAG president Jennifer Altemus (COL ’88). Many residents are frustrated by the behavior of student residents outside Healy Gates, and the campus plan does not incorporate expansions of on-campus living options to accommodate predicted hikes in enrollment.

“We sent a letter to [University President John J. DeGioia] at the beginning of the year outlining our concerns, which continue to be the huge increase in grad students and the proposed new development,” Altemus said. “Among other things, we are hoping they will add more undergraduate beds within the campus gates.”

The letter cited complaints about students living off campus, including their excessive noise, trash, vandalism and safety violations.

According to the campus plan, the university will seek to enroll more than 3,000 new graduate students over the coming decade, while maintaining the current number of undergraduates. The majority of those projected for enrollment are set to enter the School of Continuing Studies, while the Medical Center M.D. program will retain its current size.

About 120 of these new students will reside in a housing complex set to be located in the block of 37th and 36th Streets between N and Prospect Streets. The project is slated to contain over 10,000 gross square feet of retail and common areas, which will be open to the public, as well as university affiliates. Underground parking for about 80 vehicles is an additional feature of the proposal.

Among area universities, only Gallaudet University currently provides housing for a greater percentage of its undergraduate population, the plan says. It makes no provision for new undergraduate housing complexes.

Lexi Kirwin (COL ’10) is a student living off campus, but sympathizes with some facets of the CAG opposition. She felt that an increase in off-campus graduate student housing would be detrimental.
“I think that this neighborhood has a lot of students already,” she said.

Kirwin added that, while graduate students are generally quieter than their younger counterparts, the proposed increase carries the possibility of increased partying and noisemaking nonetheless.

As part of the campus plan, the university seeks to double the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program, a university service that responds to neighborhood complaints about off-campus student conduct, and to install community advisers who will serve as intermediaries between students living off campus and local residents.

The campus plan does not only incite objections to student housing among neighbors, for predicted increases in transportation levels are another focus of recent criticism.

“The proposed 1,825 increase in Continuing Studies enrollment (a 235 percent increase) on campus would overwhelm the transportation infrastructure in West Georgetown,” Altemus said.

The lack of residential parking and the presence of Georgetown University Transportation Shuttles lines have been cited as disruptions, and the campus plan includes a rerouting of the GUTS service that would establish a loop through campus. It would also remove the service running from the Car Barn in favor of an entry-exit route through the Canal Road gate.

GUTS ridership in the 2008-2009 academic year stood at 2 million, with almost half of all riders traveling to Dupont Circle. While a resident suggested in the February 2010 Issues Report, a document posted by the university that addressed specific neighbor concerns, that the Dupont service could be replaced by a Tenleytown station stop, the university rejected it.

In addition to measures to increase sustainability, the campus plan includes a sizeable addition to the Medical Center that will be located across from the Darnall and St. Mary’s complexes. Altemus said she supports the notion of hospital renovation, but claims that the plan would severely impede traffic on Reservoir Road.

Aaron Golds (COL ’11), Georgetown University’s representative on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission-2E board, the neighborhood’s primary forum for public concern, said that the ANC has not established its stance on the campus plan.

Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said that the university has been collaborating regularly with the neighborhood to gather feedback on the campus plan since 2008. Olson also said the university intends to hold a meeting open to the local community before filing the campus plan with the Zoning Commission.”