Brookland CDC’s Recommended Updates to the Comprehensive Plan
Last Monday January 4th, the Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association (BNCA) facilitated a community meeting to inform residents of new recommendations to the 2006 Comprehensive plan proposed by the Brookland Community Development Corporation (CDC) and local Brookland property owners Kilmurry Properties.
Caroline Petti president of the BNCA introduced the meeting by discussing the proposed recommendation to the Comprehensive Plan that was submitted by Brookland CDC and Kilmurry Properties that if it was approved by the Office of Planning it would have a significant effect on business and development on 12th Street and surrounding residential streets, Caroline invited the Brookland CDC to present their recommendations and give the rational behind the proposed changes to the zoning around 12th Street.
Lavinia Wohlfarth from the Brookland CDC spoke next for a very short bit about the Brookland CDC an eleven year old organization that is now focuses on grassroots projects and invited anyone to contact her for more information. Lavinia stated that she felt the Brookland Small Area Plan kicked 12th Street to the curb in favor of other recommendations.
One interesting item of note Lavinia mentioned “the Brookland Farmer’s Market is questionable this year. “ The Brookland CDC manages the Brookland Farmer’s Market and there has been some controversy around the market over the last few years.
Lavinia introduced Joe Bender a Brookland property owner from Kilmurry Properties who presented the recommended amendments the Comprehensive Plan around 12th Street. Kilmurry Properties own multiple properties in the Brookland area including six properties that are included in the proposed area for the zoning change that would increase what could be built on these properties.
Basically the CDC and Kilmurry Properties’ recommendations are to change the zoning of entire strip of the retail core of 12th Street between Lawrence St and Michigan Ave as well as the adjacent cross streets of Lawrence Street, Monroe Street, Newton Street, Otis Street, Perry Street, etc between 10th Street and 12th Street to C-2-A. Where is right now 12th is combination C-2-A and C-1, where the residential side streets are zoned R-2 and R-5-A.
The thought is these changes would help to connect 12th Street better with the Brookland Metro Station site and the Abdo/CUA south campus project which would create better synergy with those developments and help to resolve some of their issues with the Brookland SAP, which focused more on the metro site.
Kilmurry Properties stated that C-1 zoning in a low density area is unworkable for development. Their proposed recommendation would change the zoning into a “matter of right” instead of using the Planned Unit Development (PUD) mechanism. Mr Bender stated the PUD process is difficult for smaller land owners to develop their properties and by changing the zoning to C-2-A it would give them.
As a way to try to mitigate the effects on current residents and homeowners Kilmurry is proposing having a Transferrable Development Rights (TRD) and other tax incentives so home owners/investors can sell development rights and keep some of the character of the neighborhood rather than develop a property. TRDs have been used elsewhere in the district including downtown and the U Street area.
However this would most certainly affect homeowners of the residential streets that Kilmurry and the CDC want to rezone. Mr Bender stated that the homes on the residential streets affected by this proposed change has a about 80% of investor and institutional owners, while this may be true, a good amount of blocks in Brookland have a similar ratio of properties but that is what gives Brookland its unique character. If a R-1 zone residential street is changed to a C-2-A there is nothing to stop investors/developers from tearing down houses and developing on residential streets. One example is the 1000 block of Newton Street where in the past the residents had fought a property owner who wanted to build a multiple unit building previously. If the zoning is changed to C-2-A as a matter of right, the residents would most likely would not have a leg to stand on. This type of proposal would change the neighborhood dynamic and not for the better.
There are certainly compelling reasons to save 12th Street and possibly even change it’s zoning, but changing zoning for adjacent residential blocks like Newton and Otis to C-2-A is not a good way to retain neighborhood character.
These recommendations made by the Brookland CDC and Kilmurry Properties came out of the blue with no real community involvement other than meeting with a couple of business owners, having this meeting after the proposal was already submitted is a little to late, the community should have been involved before the proposal was submitted. Secondly the Office of Planning already rejected similar requests during the SAP process. Mr Bender claimed they wanted “another bite at the apple” when the requests were not recommend as part of the SAP.
The Office of Planning discusses the Comprehensive Plan Amendemnt Process and states
The Interagency Evaluation Team reviewed the amendment proposals based on four evaluation criteria:
- Error in text or map (corrects mistake or inconsistency); or
- New policy or change to map that reflects an approved Small Area Plan; or
- New policy initiatives (e.g. transportation, sustainability, adaptive reuse) or action items that make a substantive difference in policy application or action; and
- Change to existing policy wording that makes a substantive difference (i.e., not wordsmithing)
Most of the zoning changes being proposed by Kilmurry and the Brookland CDC is currently not being recommended by the Office of Planning as amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, additionally ANC 5A submitted their recommendations to the Office of Planning and do not recommend these proposals.
The good news is its unlikely that this zoning proposal will be implemented as-is. Hopefully some sort of community backed plan can be developed to preserve 12th Street so the Abdo and Metro development will not kill 12th Street and we are able to preserve businesses such as Brookland Hardware.
View all the Comprehensive Plan 2009 Amendment Cycle Draft Recommendations
Related posts:
- ANC 5A Recommended Amendments to the Comprehensive Plan As part of the amendment process for the Comprehensive Plan...
- BNCA: Letter to Harry Thomas Regarding Comprehensive Plan Amendments Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association (BNCA) president Caroline Petti’s letter to...
- Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association Comprehensive Plan Amendment Meeting – 01/04/2010 Brookland Neighborhood Civic Association is hosting a meeting tomorrow 1/4/2010...
- Brookland: Store Updates Wednesday 02/10/2010 Some stores are still opened in Brookland and on 12th...
- ANC 5A: Planned Unit Development and Brookland Small Area Plan Implementation Discussion ANC 5A is sponsoring a community discussion this Saturday March...
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