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

Mon Mar 5 09:04:25 EST 2012

Mary is correct. The owners of the Church building, the congregation of that
branch of the Church of Christ Scientist, don't want the building
"Landmarked" until approval of the whole project is forthcoming. That
approval would enable their big payday. If the approval is something less
than what has been requested, and the potential "profits" aren't a
certainty, the Church may pull out of the deal. Thus, they don't want to be
saddled with the Landmark status, which may limit what can be done with the
property.

  _____  

From: mintwood-place-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org
[mailto:mintwood-place-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of
maryjbelcher at comcast.net
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 8:22 AM
To: Cynthia Pols
Cc: mintwood place
Subject: Re: [Mintwood-place] ANC likely to vote on the First Church of
Christ Scientist hotel project this Wednesday

Hi Cynthia & Mintwood List:  

You are correct in noting that the ANC is voting on a measure related to the
First Church of Christ Scientist "Church-Hotel" at its upcoming meeting this
Wednesday night, March 7, at 7 p.m. at Mary's Center.  But the ANC is voting
on the design concept of the hotel, not whether it should be historically
landmarked.  (The historic-landmarking issue is down the road a ways.)  

This upcoming ANC vote is very important, however, because if the ANC gives
its nod to the "design" of the hotel--most notably its height and mass--this
approval will carry weight when the church-hotel design-concept matter goes
before the Historic Preservation Review Board later this month (on Thursday,
March 22).  In fact, the question of the design of the hotel is a more
important matter for the ANC to take a position on than whether the church
deserve historic designation: The design of the hotel will change the
residential, low-rise character of Champlain and Euclid streets forever, and
it will be our several-member ANC helping make that decision on our behalf.

There is great difference of opinion in the neighborhood about whether this
hotel is a good idea for Adams Morgan.  But there is no question,
design-wise, that the 10-story hotel will tower over everything else in its
midst, and it will out-mass every other building in the Reed-Cooke section
of Adams Morgan.

Now the pro-hotel folks can go crazy with my comments on this listserv.
Have at it, everybody!  You can't change the fact that this is a giant
building being squeezed into an intersection of two very narrow residential
streets.  And you can't change the fact that this upcoming ANC meeting is
very important, although you  know that the controversy tends to cause
people to shut down and lose interest.

Thanks, Cynthia, for letting the neighbors know about this upcoming ANC
meeting on Wednesday night.  It's time for everybody to show up at Wednesday
night,

Mary Belcher

1869 Mintwood 

  _____  

From: "Cynthia Pols" <polscm at aol.com>
To: "mintwood place" <mintwood-place at lists.mutualaid.org>
Sent: Monday, March 5, 2012 12:48:40 AM
Subject: [Mintwood-place] ANC likely to vote on the First Church of Christ
Scientist hotel project this Wednesday

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
<http://www.anc1c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid
=77> &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=SHCxj82t
LP2HHyUmjLVbRw%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+
<http://planning.dc.gov/DC/Planning/Historic+Preservation/About+HPO+&+HPRB/W
ho+We+Are/Historic+Preservation+Review+Board/Agendas+and+Reports/HPRB,+March
+22,+2012>
&+HPRB/Who+We+Are/Historic+Preservation+Review+Board/Agendas+and+Reports/HPR
B,+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
<http://www.anc1c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog
&id=25&Itemid=62> &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

_______________________________________________
Mintwood-place mailing list
Mintwood-place at lists.mutualaid.org
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/mintwood-place

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mintwood-place/attachments/20120305/979ef8b1/attachment.html>