From: <the1617project@savedcpublicland.org>
Date: Mon, Jan 8, 2024 at 12:11 AM
Subject: <News Update> 17U, ZC Public Participation Breakdown
To: <the1617project@savedcpublicland.org>
Public Participation Breakdown at DC Zoning Commission
Access Denied for DMPED U St. Upzoning Request
Washington, DC — Members of the public have been cut off from accessing the DC Office of Zoning web site to submit testimony and/or signup to testify for the hearing to take place, at 4pm today, Monday, January 8, 2024.
The city's Deputy Mayor's Office for Planning & Economic Development (DMPED) is seeking to upzone and surplus the DC Fire & EMS firehouse and District 3 MPD Station at 17 &U Streets, NW.
“This is clearly wrong” says Attorney Edward Hanlon, in a letter submitted to the Zoning Commission Chair, Anthony Hood on Sunday. Hanlon represents individuals and community groups who oppose the rezoning.
“The Office of Zoning website and the Public Notice in this case state the public [can] submit written testimony [and] is allowed to sign up to testify…up to 24 hours before the start of the hearing, as Ms. [Sharon] Schellin Secretary to the Commission, has also previously confirmed.”
The cutoff of written and public testimony is just another instance of the the city's planning agencies shrugging off its responsibilities to the public.
Zoning Commission rules require individual notice-of-hearing letters go from the Commission to property owners within 200 feet of the 17 & U site. At least 40 nearby property owners plus the Embassy of Angola never received such a notice, with half of those signing sworn affidavits.
In a January 4 email to the Zoning Commission, Attorney Hanlon asks what does it mean for the them to “attest” that it did such a mailing, including in envelopes without addresses. “These problems…raise questions about whether property owners in other Zoning Commission cases are being properly notified.”
Zoning Commission Chair, Anthony Hood, has stated his objective to engage as many residents as possible, but the mechanics of how that happens is severely lacking in this case to date.
“It appears that the 'independent' Zoning Commission is rushing-to-judgement to rule in favor of DMPED's upzoning request,” said a nearby neighbor.
The Hanlon letters (one, two, three) are copied to the DC Attorney General, Office of Open Government, Office of Government Ethics, the Auditor for the District of Columbia, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, DC Office of Planning.
The three letters follow a motion submitted on Friday asking the Commission to postpone the hearing to allow for proper notice.
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