Press Release - Aug. 5, 2024 Contact: Nick DelleDonne delledonne.n@gmail.com
Bowing to high-end housing development, on July 24 the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) denied an appeal that would have assured more affordable housing to the former Wardman Hotel site in Woodley Park – a region in dire need of affordable housing. While the Mayor celebrates her accomplishments in new housing elsewhere in the city, the two new apartment towers now under construction at Connecticut and Calvert Street will bring 900 market rate housing units to Ward 3, only 72 of them affordable.
The appeal from the Wardman Hotel Strategy Team challenged developer Carmel Partners that at 160 feet in height, the building complex exceeded the zoning height and setback restrictions. Carmel Partners and the DC Department of Buildings (DOB) argued that the height is allowed, if all the buildings in the complex are linked by a passageway to constitute ‘one building.’ The Wardman Team pointed to regulations requiring such a passageway to be “meaningful” and “free and open” to residents of all the buildings. Both Carmel and DOB stipulated that the passageway would not provide through access to residents of the two existing towers, The Woodley Apartments and The Wardman Tower.
BZA Chair Fred Hill found that the passageway met the access requirement, even if only for a maintenance crew. “The Zoning Administrator never interpreted this language to mean that the passageway would be open to the public,“ glossing over the difference between the public and residents of the complex. While agreeing with Hill, Commissioner Robert Miller suggested that the regulations may warrant clarification and “not just be a way to work around the regulations to get to the ‘one building’” conceit. But in fact, BZA revised the regulations as recently as 2016 on just this point, adding the language “meaningful” and “free and open passageway.” All to no avail. See the YouTube video of the hearing at 42 and 45 minutes here.
Had the BZA upheld the appeal, Carmel would have had to seek a zoning variance and engage the community in an agreement for amenities which could have included more affordable housing, as housing officials had sought all along.
While the Mayor’s Office of Planning (OP) publishes glossy brochures on the crisis in affordable housing in Rock Creek West, OP denied for nine months that the site measured more than three acres, requiring a Large Track Review – a review intended to serve community affordable housing needs. The site is nine acres.
The result of BZA’s legitimizing the "work around" of zoning rules meant to serve the needs of the community is that the Mayor missed yet another chance at her touted goals for affordable housing.
The Wardman Team is deciding whether to appeal. Let us know what you think. David Brown of the law firm Knopf Brown represents the Wardman Team, along with Architect Jim Schulman. Documents in BZA Appeal #21082 can be examined on the DC Office of Zoning Website.
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