Jack Evans, Sherri Kimbell, Tom Lipinsky

Memo to

Jack Evans, Sherri Kimbell, Tom Lipinsky

from Abigail Nichols Oct 2, 2014

An ANC’s Commissioner’s Request to Delay today’s HPRB hearing.

Dear Councilman Evans,

I support residents’ call for a delay in today’s HPRB review. The community needs breathing space. Would one month give you the time you need to bring the parties together?

Although I have not wanted to delay St. Thomas’ project (while working simultaneously to find an alternative public/private purchase that could preserve open space and still meet the needs of the church for money and safety), the situation was left in a very bad way Monday night.

You are, no doubt, concerned to read in resident e-mails that it appeared to them that the ANC Commission was not listening. Because so many wanted to speak, towards the end of the meeting, the ANC ended up cutting off the representative of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association after about 30 seconds when others had spoken for a full two minutes. The church’s statements against thinking about any alternatives were strong in the context of the many different kinds of resident concerns that were voiced. (Tom Lipinsky can describe his own sense of this to you.) Will HPRB and the Board of Zoning Adjustment be listening?

It’s not good for our community to have so many people opposed to what is going on (a very big number that goes beyond the immediate neighbors and a high percentage of those with any opinion). I grieve that the situation has come to this because of lapses in communication a year ago, i.e. the interested community could not find out about new plans after St. Thomas’ withdrawal of their 2010 plan – which did have good neighborhood support. Neither St. Thomas nor their ANC Commissioner who apparently knew about the plans months before the plan was made public communicated in a way that it could have been used to work on alternatives before the Church became so invested in the current project.

I am a longtime friend of St. Thomas Church (I’ve given money most years since 1983 although I am not a member. My name is on the plaque in the park for a donation to the last park renovation.) I want St. Thomas to build a new church, and I want them to get top dollar for any land they sell. However, is not the duty of the ANC or HPRB to maximize the price of the St. Thomas land by ignoring DC law. The developer stated Monday night that removing a story of the 7 story residential building would scuttle the project. No wonder people are mad, they feel backed into a corner where they can only let St. Thomas do what it wants or look like they are opposed to the Church and any change. Those are not the only alternatives, but St. Thomas is taking a very hard stand. Moreover, the community knows little about what St. Thomas feels it needs in addition to a new church.

I was the one ANC Commissioner who voted against ANC2B’s September 29, 2014, advising the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board of the ANC’s general support for the project. I did so because I think the project is too big for its location. I am much concerned about the effects of this project and about the accumulating effects of several such projects on Dupont Circle. Four hundred new residential units are online in Dupont – more than 300 in 2B05 alone. I support the new 70 unit condominium project at 1745 N Street NW and additions to the Planned Parenthood Building at 1108 16th Street NW that will allow seventeen new residential units as well as the Patterson House conversion (92 units) . These two projects add to the housing stock without the same apparent effects on infrastructure (street and alley congestion, lack of parks, reduction in light and air) that I see from the Drake (218 units for rent right now at 17th and O and the proposed the St. Thomas project whose location on a narrow street and alley creates special challenges. No wonder DC residents including immediate neighbors are concerned from so many perspectives.

Thank you for your willingness to lead a community/church communication-reconciliation-adjustment process that will lead to an appropriate review of this project by DC government review structures.

Thank you for your consideration of this difficult situation.

Abigail C. Nichols