Neighborhood residents criticized the university for failing to consider how its proposed Campus Plan would affect the neighborhood in a community meeting Tuesday night at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.

The plan, which the university is required to submit every 10 years, calls for several construction projects, including expansions of Lauinger Library, McDonough Gymnasium and the Medical Center, as well as new student housing at various locations inside and outside the limits of campus.

“I think that they really haven’t listened to what we’ve been saying for the last year during this planning process,” Citizens Association of Georgetown President Jennifer Altemus (CAS ’88) said. “There was plenty of outrage last night – they saw that. And we’ll see if that gets worked into the next draft.”

Georgetown’s current campus plan, which took effect in 2000, will expire on Dec. 31, 2010. University representatives said the zoning process will take about a year. They are working with the Office of the Provost in order to draw up preliminary projections for future enrollment numbers, which will be used to draft the 2010-2020 Campus Plan.

Officials aim to use feedback from open meetings with the community to improve the model that will be presented to the D.C. Government Zoning Commission in early February. According to the university’s “Our Community” Web site, university officials will review the final draft of the Campus Plan at community meetings on Nov. 18 and 19.

Charles DeSantis, the university’s Campus Plan manager and associate vice president for benefits and chief benefits officer, began the meeting with a presentation of projections for the university’s future enrollment, as provided by the Office of the Provost. While Georgetown officials predict virtually no growth in the traditional undergraduate population by 2020, they do anticipate an increase in the graduate and non-traditional undergraduate sectors, including commuters, older students and students in the medical, MBA and certificate programs.

DeSantis said the current graduate and professional student population is 5,512, which the Office of the Provost predicts will increase to 8,700 by 2020. He said the non-traditional student population is expected to climb from 1,255 to 1,632.

“It’s actually the university’s focus . to have a broader graduate and professional program,” DeSantis said.

any members of the community said they were concerned that the growth in the university’s graduate programs will affect traffic, parking and housing.

“Just an extra 60 students will maybe displace undergraduate students and will have a major impact on the community,” Altemus said.

Linda Greenan, associate vice president for external relations, said a major portion of the expansion will occur at the Center for Continuing and Professional Education in Arlington, Va., and on other university campuses.

Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs, said that while the majority of the graduate and continuing studies students live in the D.C. metropolitan area, the university is interested in building a housing facility for full-time graduate students. The small-scale facility would not be used to create space for further expansion; it would only be used to accommodate the anticipated growth in graduate student enrollment.

Greenan said that the university is studying where these students currently live and what effect the new Campus Plan would have on housing. Some community members strongly disapproved of any plans to build a new housing facility on the block bounded by 36th, 37th, N and Prospect Streets, as they said it would irrevocably change its character.

“We do not want to see any more residences off campus,” Altemus said.

The university officials present recognized the impact of students living off-campus and the community’s desire for more on-campus residences, but said they need funding for other initiatives that would enhance student life.

“There are other things in the plan like the expansion of the library, more student space, a multi-sport facility – so we looked at it in terms of, `It’s questionable if we spent the money . whether students would even consider living there,'” Greenan said.

Students who attended the meeting stressed the importance of student life as off-campus residents. The students’ presence in the neighborhood has greatly angered community members because of disturbances caused by noise, trash and parties.

Olson responded to neighbors’ concerns by highlighting programs that the university has already implemented to improve off-campus student life, including SafeRides and the establishment of Living and Learning Communities in Magis Row. He also discussed plans for creating community advisers who would live off-campus in university-rented residences in order to hold nearby students accountable for university policy violations.

Plans are also in place to double the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program, which consists of an officer who patrols West Georgetown and Burleith to break up loud parties and respond to neighbors’ noise complaints.

Community members said SNAP has been a complete failure, however. Attendees maligned the inefficiency of the program and expressed their disbelief that it has the same effect on student parties as Metropolitan Police Department officers.

Community members said they felt anger and frustration toward the university for providing little numerical data and hosting meetings that appear not to be sincere efforts to incorporate the community’s concerns into the Campus Plan.

Greenan said that after this meeting, the university plans to re-evaluate its first draft.

“I think the community is pretty clear about what they want . and we’re going to go back and discuss it. . I’m not hopeful that the community is going to change,” Greenan said.”