The Georgetown Business Improvement District announced its 15-Year Action Plan on Jan. 30, which proposes 75 action items that seek to improve transportation, use of public spaces, business, and accessibility in the Georgetown area by the year 2028.
According to Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb, the 2028 Plan marks one of the first comprehensive community attempts to restructure and holistically improve the Georgetown area. “There really was no comprehensive transportation plan like this where we got everybody in the community to participate in thinking big and for the future,” he said.
The action items include measures to add more transit services, such as improved Circulator and bus services, a streetcar that will run along lower Georgetown and K St, N.W., and the potential for an aerial gondola lift between the Rosslyn Metro and Georgetown. The plan also includes the addition of a Georgetown Metro stop by 2028.
Georgetown Associate Vice President of Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives and member of the Georgetown BID 2028 Task Force Lauralyn Lee said that the University has “worked very closely with the BID” on the plan, especially on transportation issues and added that the plan “parallel[s] very nicely” with Georgetown’s campus planning.
Both Lee and Sternlieb expressed excitement for the Metro stop. “[It] would be totally a game changer for the city if we could achieve [a Metro stop] within 15 years,” Sternlieb said.
He also noted that “it’s inevitable that we have to build another tunnel, and it’s likely it’ll have to come through Georgetown. … It’s technically, from an engineering standpoint, certainly feasible. … The only question is when the region and the federal government will put up the money to make it happen.”
ANC2E Commissioner Craig Cassey (COL ‘15) said he felt the ANC supports the plan all-around but noted concern, however, about the impact on business and residents construction would have, and expressed hope that the Georgetown BID will focus on “how best we can mitigate the impacts.”
Sternlieb anticipates that many of these initiatives will complement transportation services Georgetown students already use. “I think a University student picking up a Capital Bikeshare bike … on or near campus can be down in Wisconsin and K in five minutes, drop off the bike, hop on a street car, and ride it downtown,” he said.
He added that many of the plans, however, will be long-term. “If you’re a freshman today and graduating in three and a half years, of the 75 items, you might see 20 of them come to fruition or be piloted over the next three and a half years, but a lot of them are much farther out and will take many years to get approved,” he said.
