DC Office of Planning’s “Scam” High Density Luxury Re-Zoning at 1617 U Street Wins ANC-1B Support Again

Press Alert July 3, 2024
Save DC Public Land: Working for a Safe, Truly Affordable & Racially Equitable U Street
Contact: Debby H. 202-854-1822,  the1617project@savedcpublicland.org

DC Office of Planning's “Scam” High Density Luxury Re-Zoning at 1617 U Street Wins ANC-1B Support Again

Last Year ANC Commissioners Weren't Informed About Split Zoning, This Year Commissioners Voted Without Knowing That Customized Zoning Can Be Used To Mitigate Displacement

City Planners “Have Not followed their own Comprehensive Plan”

Washington, DC — The Mayor's Office of Planning convinced ANC-1B again that the city must prioritize “flexibility” for a to-be-named developer to profit from high-density MU10 air rights above 2-acres of public land at 1617 U Street.

At a special meeting last Thursday, June 27, 2024, ANC 1B voted in favor of OP's revised luxury high-density zoning application. Video here.

Two ANC Commissioners voted in opposition and one did not vote (Cmr. Kensek and Cmr. Sycamore voted nay; Cmr. Fields, who represents the area around the site did not vote).

Arlene Feskanich, who has lived nearby for decades and chairs an opposition party said of the vote: “The concept of ‘neighborhood’ was completely missing from ANC-1B’s consideration and ultimate approval of OP’s dramatic MU10 rezoning proposal. ANC-1B could have withheld their decision until OP explored and explained the alternatives and impacts of this luxury rezoning. Instead most Commissioners chose to ignore their responsibility to the neighborhood and support OP's poor planning instead.”

Nearby Adams Morgan neighbor, Meg Staines, said: “Those Commissioners who voted yes say that this luxury housing project will bring rent costs down, when that is a fallacy, like 'trickle down economics.' What's happening at 1617 U Street is nothing short of highway robbery – a total scam.”

Founder of the Black Neighbors of 1617 U Street, Gregory Adams expressed his opinion of the Mayor's Office of Planning: “They say they are the 'stewards of the Comp Plan,' but OP has not followed that plan, a plan that is supposed to identify and consider past and current systemic racial inequities as well as identify who benefits or is burdened from a decision. OP says it 'acknowledges and listens to diverse voices from neighborhoods,' yet failed to do so in this case before making its decisions, thus threatening my neighbors and my family with imminent harm.”

 

More than a year ago, at the April 2023 vote, the ANC told the public that split zoning couldn't happen at 1617 U Street, likely informed by the city's planners that it wasn't a thing.

OP has since backtracked on split zoning in a major way and has re-introduced a new MU4/MU10 split zone proposal at 1617 U Street (see rendering above and more here).

And now, more than a year later and after 30+ hours of zoning hearings in the early months of 2024, OP may again have purposely steered ANC Commissioners wrong, distracting them from taking an honest open look at creating a custom zone at 1617 U Street as allowed by the regulations. DCMR 11-X Chapter 4.

As expert testimony on the zoning record indicated, custom zoning would get the Commissioners everything they put in their support resolution.

A custom zone at 1617 U would require appropriate building-height transitions, could require deeply affordable housing & workforce housing including family sized units, and a custom zone at this public site could guarantee protections for the community who are more vulnerable to displacement.

Moreover, at the June 27th special ANC meeting, representatives from OP didn't elaborate much on any other combination of zoning options that could have found a compromise in the community.

Instead they landed only on the revised MU4/MU10 split without any explanation of preferences or rationale for their own matrix of zones the found also consistent with the DC Comp Plan:

1617 U Street Neighbor Bill Garber says, “OP has driven a flawed process, with decidedly poor community outreach and purposely limiting the terms and scope of conversation. Accept this. Accept that. The result is that they have actively disempowered our ANC to openly examine alternatives and trade offs. Most frustratingly, Commissioners didn't demand this of OP.”

Here's what Jennifer Steingasser, Deputy Director of the Office of Planning did tell ANC Commissioners and the public about their revised proposal:

• “[OP] wanted maximum flexibility in the development potential,” and the MU10 zoning “creates a box in which a project can be built.”  Video.

• “I don't want to mislead anybody that it'll be any particular height less than [MU10] but it'll be no more than the height maximum [120 feet with penthouse],” agreeing that for developers to make profit they will want to go as high as they are allowed. Video.

• Steingasser demonstrated she is not aware of DC's planning maps by suggesting, “There are many areas in the city that are zoned MU10 and you know I'm not sure how many went to the maximum height and how many maybe you know uh 5, 10 feet lower.” Video.

There are currently 5 areas of the DC zoned as high-density MU10. These areas all show a substantial degree of gentrification (development activity) and significant changing of race and class demographics by displacement and replacement. Expert report here & attached.

Scott Kuchenmeister, also living nearby 1617 U Street,stated: “This entire situation orchestrated by the Bowser administration with the help of Councilmember Nadeau and now the ANC, is nothing more than a deception, designed to boost the number of high-income earners in the District under the misleading banner of 'affordability.' It exemplifies a capitalist dystopia where long-time residents who have endured through good times and bad are merely collateral damage, sacrificed for corporate real estate profiteering using our public assets.”

The next Zoning Commission meeting where 1617 U Street is scheduled to be discussed is on July 11, 2024, starting at 4pm.  

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