D.C. Councilman at Large Michael Brown stressed the need for conversation, cooperation and compromise between the neighbors and AU to successfully implement AU’s Campus Plan during his visit April 4.
Brown toured AU with Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and School of Public Affairs freshman Deon Jones and Penny Pagano, AU’s director of community and local government relations.
“The ultimate goal is to find a compromise plan that everyone is satisfied with, so we don’t have to have any kind of adversarial situation,” Brown said. “That’s the hope.” Brown said good relations must be established before moving forward.
“Universities need to grow, and neighbors need to feel comfortable in their neighborhoods, and that’s the balance,” Brown said. “The challenge is trying to figure out what that balance is, and I don’t know if we’ll know that for a few months.”
During his tour of Letts Hall, Brown talked to current and prospective students in the lounge, and visited a triple.
“It’s tight, especially for rooms that are designed for two,” he said.
Brown also saw Clark and Roper Halls and discussed a community group’s proposal to tear them down and put up larger dorms.
“[Brown] saw what he needed to see, especially seeing the need for new housing and the need for the ability to get rid of obligated or mandatory triples,” Jones said.
Jones said he believes the tour showed Brown how much students care about D.C.
“It’s not the just the administration versus the community, but the students have a voice in this process as well,” Jones said.
Brown also spoke about the new D.C. noise ordinance, which bans “unreasonably loud noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that is likely to annoy or disturb one or more persons in their residences.”
Brown said the noise ordinance came about because of the loudness of AU’s “colleagues at Georgetown,” but was more a way of reminding students to keep it down. He said the ordinance is rarely enforced, but rather was a “middle ground” between students and neighbors.
“We all live in this tight little environment,” Brown said. “Be cognizant of the neighbors around you and that they’re not just hating AU. It’s not about that. It is about a quality of life issue with them. Be sensitive to the people on the other side of the issue.”
mzoglo@theeagleonline.com
