Tuesday 21 May 2013

Re: [WardFive] PRESS ALERT: Court Decision in Major Brookland Development

Rob et al
 
Our legal system, although probably one of the most accessible and universally open in the world still leaves much to be desired.  The recent experiences of the 901 Monroe 200 footers provides another example on civil injustice.   Years ago, the process by which the CUA development was shoehorned past the rules set down at great expense in both the small and large area plans provided a classic example of economic and political power trampling the rights of those most affected.  Once more, the rights of minorities ( the 200 footers in the 901 Monroe project) were once more ignored as economic and political chicanery allowed the rules as defined in both LAP and SAP to be trampled upon by blatant disregard and zoning gerrymandering... Both of these instances represent the cynical abrogation of the purpose and responsibilities of the office of planning and the zoning board.  
 
Any unbiased observer who visits either zoning or planning functions soon recognizes the too cozy relationship between developers and their supposed regulators.  It is far too cozy for there to be any semblance of objectivity.   Members of both developer and regulator communities regularly exchange jobs and responsibilities.  Regulators fro the city become Vice Presidents of Development companies and Developers join the zoning and planning functions within the city  It is not illegal and it is also NOT right!  During testimony before City Council I asked then Mayor Gray to appoint a special counsel to investigate the revolving door between the two ...he declined.
 
A good friend and local attorney once told me, "... in this country you are entitled to all the justice you can afford."   Too often our court systems reflect the economic tyranny of the monied class over the rights of minorities of all kinds.   as James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, “the great danger in republics is that the majority will not respect the rights of minority.”  
 
Jerry on Lawrence
 
 
----- Original message -----
From: Rob <indianrob@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [WardFive] PRESS ALERT: Court Decision in Major Brookland Development
Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 05:58:32 -0400
 
Good Morning,
 
Just imagine if the community was together on respecting the Small Area Plan that the existing Community (Black and White) wanted and still Office of Planning decided was BEST for the years to come for this metro station -- a C2A zone with specific height limitations as defined in the SAP and the direct correlation to the Comprehensive Plan.  But I guess that is why the Zoning Commission sent OP back to rewrite the justification for their support for this project as proposed 4 times and why the Vice-Chair admonished OP for having specified height limitations in their SAP.  What's the use of having a SAP -- I thought that is what involving the community was for.  
 
Furthermore, those houses should never have been removed -- except for the one on the corner of Monroe and 10th and maybe the two on the 10th Street side.  The removal of the Houses on the Lawerence Street side was Horrible.   What they are building there is not our neighborhood. We could have still had our Street level Retail and Rental above without it being this large.
 
I wish the best for Bo as he continues to grow in business and personally and I only wish he had blended this development better into the fabric of our community.  With his abilities, he will have much more opportunities to continue to be a developer in DC.
 
Rob Ramson 
 
 
 
 
 


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From: DC for Reasonable Development [dc4reality@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 4:27 PM
To: press@dc4reality.com
Cc: admo4rd@gmail.com
Subject: PRESS ALERT: Court Decision in Major Brookland Development
 
Col. Brooks Neighbors Win in Court
DC Court of Appeals Sends PUD Case Back to Zoning Commission
 
The neighbors of the former Colonel Brooks' Tavern at 9th & Monroe Streets, NE, won a victory in the DC Court of Appeals on Friday.  The District’s highest court ruled that the Zoning Commission needed to further justify how its approval of a six-story, mixed-use Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the Brookland site conforms to the District’s Comprehensive Plan.

The decision supports neighbors, known as the 200-Footers because they live within 200 feet of the proposed development and who have opposed the project from the start. "While the Court did not reverse ZC's decision outright and judge that the application be denied," says Carolyn Steptoe, Vice Chairperson of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B, "...the Court however did make clear that the ZC must make adequate findings of fact on several material issues which they failed to address or explain."

The Zoning Commission now has to explain: a) how this 200-unit development conforms to what Comprehensive Plan designates as “low density residential,” b) how the destruction and replacement of existing freestanding homes conforms to the Comprehensive Plan’s explicit preference for maintaining existing residential structures and neighborhoods, and c) how this project can be approved for an area designated in the Comprehensive Plan as a Neighborhood Conservation Area meaning that changes be “modest in scale.”
 
“In this case the Court refused to allow the Zoning Commission to violate and ignore the District’s Comprehensive Plan, which establishes mandatory protections for every neighborhood and community in the city,” said Oliver Hall, the attorney for the appeal of the West End PUD now pending before the Court.  “The Court should do the same in the West End and Hine School cases now before the Court and reverse the Zoning Commission’s order greenlighting these PUDs.”
 
The Court “remanded” the case back to the Zoning Commission.  Director Harriet Tregoning’s Office of Planning, on which the Commission largely depends for interpreting the Comprehensive Plan, must now explain its approval of the PUD.
 
"The 200 footers have done a great service for all their neighbors near Metro property,” said John Feely on Brookland listserv. “Their stand will send a message to other developers and the Office of Planning that a cavalier attitude to the rights of homeowners and the comprehensive plan process will not go unnoticed. It may well embolden other neighbors to begin to mobilize and prepare for the onslaught coming their way. “

copy of the ruling >> http://www.dcappeals.gov/internet/documents/12-AA-973.pdf

### end ###

 

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--
R. Ramson
3744 12th Street, N.E.,
Washington D.C., 20017
202-438-5988

"We must become the change we want to see" - Mohandas Gandhi-
(Together, for a Brighter Tomorrow)




 
 

 

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