Trouble brewing for 14th Street office project?

Back in October, DC Mud reported that the Historic Preservation Review Board gave a thumbs-up to developer Giorgio Furioso's plans to contruct a six story, 55,000 sf office building along 14th Street, in the vacant lot between Posto and the Great Wall restaurant. According to the poposal the building, which will extend across part of the building which houses Posto and the art galleries Curator's Office and Hemphill Fine Arts.



However, at the February ANC2F meeting, Furioso encountered some pushback from residents of Kingman Place, whose homes run behind the proposed site.

As noted in the Dupont Current, Furioso was at the ANC meeting to seek support for several zoning variances that he is requesting. Among them is a request to have cars who wish to park in a 12 unit garage underneath the building enter through an alley entrance. Kingman Place residents appeared to have two complaints about this proposal:

The first issue is that the volume is spaces is too low, and that office tenants ill instead park on nearby residential streets, taking up valuable parking spaces. Due to the daytime residential parking restrictions in place, this does not appear to be a matter of significant concern. After all, one cannot park for more than two hours without an appropriate residential parking permit.

The second issue is that the volume of spaces, and the cars it would attract, is too great, leading to additional congestion in the alley behind the building. I might be inclined to be more sympathetic to this argument if the projected volume of the parking garage was higher--say, 30 or 40 spaces, rather than 12. After all, it can't be ignored that people who purchased homes on Kingman did so knowing that the rear of their property abutted a commercial corridor.

These complaints may be viewed as being in opposition to each other (too many spaces vs. not enough), but I don't necessarily think that they are. Ultimately, I think the resdient's parking concerns can be summed up as being opposed to anything that would bring additional cars to the alley or to their street.

However, what is apparent is that certain residents of Kingman Place aren't particularly amenable to seeing this project built, particularly if it involves adding more of the dreaded "t" word to the neighborhood. (t = traffic) And thus, we find ourselves basically where every proposed project ends up at some point: opposed by a small group of residents who simply don't want to see the project go up, for varying reasons.

The ANC decided to take no action at the February meeting, meaning that action will be postponed until at least the March meeting. There is no requirement in place that the Board of Zoning Adjustment follow the advice of the ANC, but by District law ANC opinions must be given "great weight"--meaning that a vote by the ANC to not support the proposed parking plan could be a potential setback for Furioso's plans.

There's no anticipated groundbreaking date yet for the project, which requires BZA approval before it can go forward.

Worried About a Local Landmark? Nominate it as an Endangered Place

The DC Preservation League--the organization that seeks to raise awareness of threatened historically significant structures--is accepting petitions for buildings to include in its 2010 list. A few structures in the Shaw/Logan area could probably qualify for the list (I'm looking at you, Vermont Baptist Church-owned house at 12th and Q streets), but it's questionable as to whether they are "significant" enough to warrant inclusion.

The full press release is included below.

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DC PRESERVATION LEAGUE ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR 2010 LIST OF MOST ENDANGERED PLACES

November 13, 2009: The DC Preservation League (DCPL), the District of Columbia’s only citywide nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the historic and built environment, is accepting nominations for its annual list of Most Endangered Places in Washington for 2010. Nomination form can be found at www.dcpreservation.org and must be postmarked no later than Friday, February 5, 2010. Selections will be announced in May 2010.

This list, issued annually since 1996, has included historic buildings and places such as the west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, McMillan Reservoir, Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Library and the Joseph Taylor Arms Mansion (Chancery of the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The list of Most Endangered Places in Washington is chosen by the DCPL Board of Trustees based on nominations submitted by concerned individuals, communities and organizations. Nominations are assessed based on the severity of the threat to the resource in question, whether through demolition, neglect, or inappropriate alteration. The list can include buildings, parks or other landscaped areas, or even vistas and other aspects of the city's unique planned history. All Most Endangered Places selected are located in the District of Columbia.

Detailed descriptions of each site listed in past years including information about the threats motivating their inclusion on these lists can be found at www.dcpreservation.org.

DCPL invites volunteers, civic associations, District government, and other groups to partner with us in preserving and protecting these endangered places. For more information, contact DCPL at 202.783.5144 or info@dcpreservation.org. For more information on DCPL, visit www.dcpreservation.org.