Quick wrap-up of meeting to form the Committee on Square 2986

• What has previously been referred to as "the potential Wal-Mart site" or "the Curtis Chevrolet site" will now be referred to as "Square 2986", as that's what the Office of Zoning calls it, and that's what the site will be called regardless of what happens to get built on it. Hence this committee has been deemed "The Committee on Square 2986".
  
  
• There are five subcommittees:
  
  1. Large Tract Review, chaired by Richard Layman
     
  2. Community Benefits Agreements, chaired by Bethany Pointer
     
  3. Business impact, co-chaired by Taalib-Din Uqdah and Dan Shulman
     
  4. Outreach, chaired by Renee Bowser
     
  5. Alternative uses for Square 2986, chaired by Taalib-Din Uqdah
     
     
• Although this committee was created by 4B, the ANC in which the site is physically located, it's important for the community to recognize that the site does indeed sit at the intersection of three ANCs (4A, 4B, and 4C). Those who live in 4A and 4C are welcome and encouraged to serve on the subcommittees.
  
  
• Renee Bowser had some choice words for those who expressed the view that it's not worth searching for alternative uses for the land because it's a matter of right project. In a nutshell, her point was that although the developers have the legal right to do what they want with the site, they don't have the moral or ethical right to do something that may be harmful to the surrounding community, and the community in turn has the right to seek out and ask for alternatives. A group of residents met with Councilmember Bowser last week (full disclosure: I was one of them) and discussed this very issue.