Media release
March 21, 2021
Contact Nick DelleDonne
703-929-6656
The Peculiar Alliance between Mayor Bowser and Developers,
What the Lawsuit on the Masonic Temple Development Shows
Dupont East Civic Action Association (DECAA) was established in 2019 to promote the historic character of the neighborhood. One of our first acts was to apply for an extension of the historic landmark at the Masonic Temple at 16th and S Streets NW in an effort to stop the proposed Luxury Project, an oversized, inappropriate apartment development in an historic district.
On review, the Historic Preservation Office (HPO), a division of the Office of Planning, issued a public report on April 30, 2019, identifying the long-established boundary at 100’ east of the Temple wall which meant that the proposed development would be on top of an historic landmark, effectively killing the Luxury Project.
Immediately HPO was advised it could not proceed with the Project and a few days later HPO made an about face, issuing a second report, contradicting the first, establishing the boundary at the Temple wall, allowing for the Project clear of the Landmark.How did HPO come to issue an unprecedented second contradictory report in just a few days of one another?
To find the answer, having filed a lawsuit, DECAA deposed the HPO staff, and under oath, they disclosed how HPO came to issue an unprecedented second contradictory report. They told us that the developer had called HPO saying it needed a boundary line that would allow the proposed Luxury Project.
The call was immediately relayed to the head of the Office, the author of the first report was replaced, and, within a few days, HPO issued the second report, shamelessly kowtowing to the developer. That’s how it happened. So, if you want to know in the DC Planning Office how to change a pro-constituent outcome to a pro-developer outcome, you have the answer. Have the developer make a phone call.
We don’t know how kowtowing to the developer can be reconciled with the responsibilities and lofty goals under the Historic Preservation Act, to preserve precious resources, which HPO is set up to ensure? This shameful display is repeated by an administration that fights its own residents in development projects throughout the city, McMillan Park, 801 Monroe, Brookland Manor, Park Morton, Bruce Monroe, SunTrust Plaza, The Wharf, Greenleaf, Hill East, Barry Farm, NOMA, Crummell School, Ivy City. The Mayor calls us outside agitators and she changes the Comp Plan to defeat us. Developers are the outsiders, not us. We live here and we vote.
With the disgraceful departure of Jack Evans still in memory, we must question the peculiar alliance between this administration and developers, who walk off with taxpayer gifts and outrageous profits, devastating whole communities in their wake. There is no way the Mayor’s Comp Plan or her ambitious plans for affordable housing can ever be realized for those earning below 50% of Area Median Income, or for the homeless.
DECAA sees social housing as a real solution to the housing crisis. As advocated by Will Merrifield, the housing is built by the city, like roads and utilities, and the residents manage the property, thus avoiding the corrupting influence of developers. We ask you to consider social housing as a plan for affordable housing that works.
Recently the Wardman Park Hotel announced bankruptcy. It is prime real estate, near the Metro with job training facilities, and it is already built. DECAA asks the city to buy it and to work with us in the community to make it a model of social housing and, for once, make a plan that can meet the housing needs of residents of the city.
Taken from Testimony of Nick DelleDonne, Dupont East Civic Action Association, before Chair Phil Mendelson and The Committee of the Whole at the Office of Planning Oversight Hearing, March 18, 2021
Visit DECAA’s website and sign our petition. www.KeepDupontGreen.org