[Mintwood-place] ANC likely to vote on the First Church of Christ Scientist hotel project this Wednesday

[Cynthia Pols]

Our advisory neighborhood commission, ANC 1C, is scheduled to meet  
this Wednesday (March 7) at 7PM in the Mary's Center building (the  
pink building) on 2355 Ontario Road. On the agenda is possible support  
of designation of the First Church of Christ Scientist church building  
as an historic landmark. People who have concerns about the proposed  
hotel project to be built in connection with the pending request for  
landmark status for the church should consider attending this meeting  
to voice those concerns and otherwise convey their concerns.  It is  
likely that the ANC will vote at this meeting on whether to support  
the developers' request for landmark designation for the church (as it  
is to be developed through the hotel project) and, in doing so, will  
be voting to approve (or disapprove) the developers' proposal as it  
currently stands, including the size and height of the proposed hotel  
building.

The meeting begins at 7PM but it is probably o.k. to arrive a few  
minutes late as several other items are scheduled to precede the hotel  
discussion, including an update on the 18th Street construction  
project, and are likely to take up some time.

The church item is listed on the agenda for the meeting as item VII.C. 
1 and entitled "Review by ANC 1C of First Church of Christ Scientists  
Application for Historic Designation before the Historic Planning  
Review Board (HPRB)." Here is a link to the agenda for the March 7 ANC  
meeting.

	http://www.anc1c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=77

The hotel developers revised and updated their plans in late January  
in response to criticisms received at the November 15, 2011, meeting  
of the Zoning Commission (ZC). At that meeting, the ZC decided to "set  
down" the developers' "planned unit development" (PUD) application for  
redevelopment of the church and an adjacent property that presently  
contains the City Paper offices and several other offices. The ZC  
voted in favor of "setting down" the PUD application for consideration  
at the commission level in spite of negative recommendations made  
about the proposal by the District's Office of Planning. (The standard  
process is for PUD applications to be reviewed and revised at the  
staff level and then presented to the ZC for final approval in  
relatively polished form; in this case , there are many issues  
unresolved that would have to be dealt with in a less structured way  
at the commission level.) Among other things, the professional  
planners at the Office of Planning deemed the height of the proposed  
hotel to be excessive for the neighborhood and the application to be  
flawed in numerous other ways.

Here is a link to a video of the Zoning Commission's Nov 15, 2011,  
discussion of the developers' PUD application and decision to "set  
down" the application for disposition:

	http://view.liveindexer.com/ViewIndexSessionSLMQ.aspx?indexPointSKU=SHCxj82tLP2HHyUmjLVbRw%3d%3d

Go to this link to download and see the developers' latest plans:

	http://adamsmorganhistorichotel.com/index.php/home

As you can see in the latest plans, the developers still plan to  
construct a large hotel just behind (and attached to) the church that  
will be significantly taller than the church building and will loom  
large over it and the immediate neighborhood. While the developers  
revised their plans following the Nov 15 ZC meeting, they elected not  
to reduce the height of the building in any meaningful way (it went  
from something like 96 feet to something like 94 feet in the latest  
plans even though several of the zoning commissioners made clear at  
the Nov 15 meeting that they expected the developers to revise the  
plans by reducing the height of the building by eliminating a floor or  
two.

The hotel project is apparently on the March 22 agenda of DC's  
Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) for "conceptual review" for  
possible designation as an historic landmark based on the revised  
plans by the hotel developer for the building. Go to this website for  
the agenda for this meeting:

	http://planning.dc.gov/DC/Planning/Historic+Preservation/About+HPO+&+HPRB/Who+We+Are/Historic+Preservation+Review+Board/Agendas+and+Reports/HPRB,+March+22,+2012

If you cannot attend Wednesday's ANC meeting and would like to convey  
your concerns to any and all ANC members, here is a link containing  
their names and contact info:

	http://www.anc1c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=25&Itemid=62

Like most community residents, I would like to see the church building  
preserved and used for new purposes that will enhance the  
neighborhood. I was initially attracted to the hotel and am not  
necessarily unalterably opposed to the idea of a hotel (if properly  
scaled and dimensioned and if more is done to preserve its interior)  
but believe that perhaps we are missing out on an opportunity to turn  
the church building into a much more valuable community asset such as  
a library/community center that would not depend on appending a large- 
sized hotel to the church.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information.

Cynthia M. Pols
1862 Mintwood Place, NW - # 304
Washington, DC  20009
202-328-0654

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