[Mintwood-place] Tony Harvey's Report on the ANC1C meeting about the Admo Millionaires Hotel

[John Cloud]

Adams Morgan ANC Rejects New Hotel Plan Following Earlier 
Consideration by its Planning, Zoning & Transportation (PZT) 
Committee
Published: March 9th, 2012 
By Anthony L. Harvey
Accompanying images can be viewed in the current issue PDF
After several hours of contentious discussion by approximately 50 
proponents and opponents of the proposed Adams Morgan Historic Hotel — 
designed to incorporate the First Church of Christ, Scientist in an 
adaptive re-use historic preservation project — the Adams Morgan 
Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) narrowly defeated by a tie vote 
of 4 to 4 at its March 7th monthly meeting a motion by ANC Chair Wilson 
Reynolds to “go on record [to the Historic Preservation Review Board] as fully supporting all appropriate action to place the First Church of 
Christ, Scientist under complete District and Federal historic 
[landmark] protection without prejudice to approval or denial of the 
proposed hotel structure.”
The text of Reynolds’ failed resolution further asserted that the ANC found the applicants’ hotel design concept to be in “greater harmony 
with the church building and represents real progress from previous 
designs.” It further resolved that “the proposed materials, doors, 
windows, and roof shape of the proposed design of the hotel are 
sufficiently different as to provide a suitable contrast from the 
presentation and character of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.”
The resolution took no position, however, on the proposed hotel 
structure’s “height, density, lot occupancy or any other zoning issues”; for several commissioners, this was the resolution’s fatal flaw.
[Ed. Note: For background, see “Long-Awaited PUD Application Filed 
for Controversial Luxury Hotel Tower on Champlain Street in Adams 
Morgan,” The InTowner, August 2011, page 1.]
Commissioner Olivier Kamanda, for example, noted that many at the 
meeting raised over and over the issue of the proposed hotel being too 
high, too dense, and simply too massive for the Reed-Cooke neighborhood. Very few — almost none, in fact — talked about the bricks, doors, 
windows, and roof shapes being proposed for the new structure. Why then, Kamanda asked, were the commissioners being asked to endorse these 
smaller technical issues relating to a new structure’s acceptability and compatibility with an existing historic structure — the church building — while at the same time being asked to offer no comment on much larger issues such as height, density, and massing.
Commissioner Steve Lanning saw no reason for the ANC to comment on 
any of these matters, observing that the HPRB would be making its 
decision based on its own professional expertise and that of its 
Historic Preservation Office advisors. In this he was joined by 
Commissioner Marty Davis, with Commissioner Gabriela Mossi providing the fourth and tying vote to defeat the resolution. Commissioners Stacey 
Moye, Adian Miller, and Kathie Boettrich joined ANC Chair Reynolds in 
support of his resolution.
Prior to the ANC votes, a formal presentation to the commissioners 
and the community was made by the project developers and their architect and historic preservationist, whereupon, following questions from the 
commissioners, the floor was opened to questions and expressions of 
community concerns from all those present who wished to speak — and for 
over two hours they spoke.
Many raised issues above and beyond those on the evening’s agenda, 
and draft copies of Chairman Reynolds’ proposed resolution were made 
available to all attendees. Opinion was fairly evenly divided between 
supporters and opponents of the hotel project, with supporters stressing their belief that the 227-room hotel with its planned five levels of 
underground parking in the new structure, together with the hotel 
facilities in the connecting, rehabilitated church building would bring 
jobs, daytime retail traffic, and, as a couple of persons mentioned, a 
“better class” of people to the existing Adams Morgan night life along 
with “new standards of cleanliness” to the neighborhood.
Several people stated that the hotel would be a vital economic  
mechanism to provide for the restoration and preservation of the church 
building; otherwise, it was asserted, the building would be demolished 
and the church would sell the site as simply a vacant lot.
Opponents of the project — as presented in its latest iteration — 
stressed their concern for it being out of scale, and out of character 
for the Reed Cooke neighborhood. Also criticized was that the hotel 
building would be more than twice the height allowed under the existing 
Reed-Cooke Zoning Overlay and therefore be totally incompatible with 
zoning overlay.
Several persons also voiced their outrage that the City Council in 
December 2010 voted to give the developers a $46 million tax break at a 
time when the District is struggling to fund vital social service and 
public safety programs.
Toward the end of the evening the presidents of the Kalorama Citizens Association (KCA) and the Reed-Cooke Neighborhood Association (RCNA) 
spoke. KCA’s president noted its support for the preservation of the 
Christian  Science  Church building “as part of a more moderately-sized 
project than has been proposed” but its strong objection to the project 
as proposed and for the precedent it would set affecting the relatively 
low-rise stretches of Columbia   Road. RCNA’s president re-affirmed its 
full support for the project’s goals of increasing job opportunities and economic development and its support for the “preservation of the 
church building and the concept of the hotel development on this site.” 
However, the RCNA’s position is that the proposed height of the hotel, 
“alleged . . . to be a minimum of not less than 90 feet is excessive.” 
The result would be, in the view of the RCNA, a building that would loom over the neighborhood and not be in keeping with those on 18th   Street and the interior streets of the Reed-Cooke neighborhood. Earlier, the 
Lanier Citizens Association called the gathering’s attention to its 
unanimous, 12-to-0, vote  endorsing the project at its first and only 
monthly membership meeting, which was held on October 12, 2011.
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