Fort Myer’s asphalt plant along the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Image by the author.
Last week community leaders in Eckington made the case for restoring the Comprehensive Plan’s Future Land Use Map Amendments that would allow housing on the industrial land near the metros and along the trail in their neighborhood.
As they laid out, these amendments would seem to be a home run. In addition to its transit accessibility, the large area in question could accommodate a significant chunk of the city’s housing goals (including two large District-owned lots that are primed for affordable and deeply affordable housing). And unlike other neighborhoods that have organized against similar map amendments, these were supported by the neighbors and ANC alike.
D.C. leaders are reacting to word that the District’s crime lab is now fully unaccredited. While Mayor Muriel Bowser affirms the lab has appealed the decision, the future of lab operations is in question.
After learning the Department of Forensic Sciences had its accreditation completely withdrawn on Sunday, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said of the lab director, “I would say I don’t have confidence.”
Mendelson, who wrote the legislation that requires DFS to have accreditation to operate, said it’s critical that the District has an independent lab.
“What we’ve seen across the country over the years is that when you don’t have an independent lab, then it just becomes a mess, either for the prosecutor or for the police, and that’s not in the interest of justice or public safety. So we want the best lab there can be. The legislature requires it has to be accredited,” Mendelson said.
A budding industry: D C is ready to take the next step toward legalizing the sale of marijuana georgetownvoice.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from georgetownvoice.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Starting May 1:
Seated live entertainment venues will reopen, both indoors and outdoors, with a capacity limit of 25% or 500 people, whichever is less;
Movie theaters can reopen at 25% capacity;
Live music will be allowed near outdoor restaurant seating;
Weddings and special events, business meetings and conventions can operate at 25% capacity or 250 people, whichever is less;
Graduations will be allowed, with limits specifics on those limits will be coming soon, Bowser said;
Non-essential retail will operate at 50% capacity indoors and outdoors;
Libraries, museums and galleries can reopen at 50% indoors and outdoors;
Indoor and outdoor public pools, as well as indoor recreation centers, can reopen at 50%;
By Lexi Lonas - 03/31/21 09:34 PM EDT
A computer error potentially cost Washington, D.C. thousands of dollars in taxes on homes that are vacant or dilapidated.
Tax rates are meant to increase on a home that is unkempt as an incentive for the homeowner to keep their property clean, News4 reported.
However, a computer error meant taxes on dilapidated homes didn’t increase in 2019, 2020 or in 2021.
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The director of Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) told D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson in a letter that the tax rates weren’t being raised because the computer system at the Office of Tax and Revenue had been upgraded, according to News4.