(a) The affected ANC shall notify the Board in writing of its recommendations, if any, and serve a copy upon the applicant or licensee not less than 7 calendar days before the date of the hearing. Whether the ANC participates as a protestant, the Board shall give great weight to the ANC recommendations as required by subchapter V of Chapter 3 of Title 1. The applicant or licensee shall have the opportunity to respond to the ANC recommendations in a manner to be prescribed in the rules adopted by the Board.
(b) In the event that an affected ANC submits a settlement agreement to the Board on a protested license application, the Board, upon its approval of the settlement agreement, shall dismiss any protest of a group of no fewer than 5 residents or property owners meeting the requirements of § 25-601(2) . The Board shall not dismiss a protest filed by another affected ANC, a citizens association, or an abutting property owner meeting the requirements of § 25-601(3) upon the Board’s approval of an ANC’s settlement agreement submission.