DC Attorney General Karl Racine announced that his office has filed a lawsuit against the owners and developers of several apartment buildings on Hawaii Avenue NE and Webster Street NE in ANC single member district (SMD) 5A06 that are proposed for redevelopment as condos (known as the 95 Hawaii Avenue NE project, BZA case number 20507). The complaint alleges that the developers neglected the buildings as a way to push out the tenants to make way for redevelopment. Attorney General Racine is requesting that the court appoint a receiver to make repairs to the buildings. Read the press release here and the complaint here.

We covered the proposed condo conversion project in these posts. Recall that ANC 5A submitted a resolution in support of the project to the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) after a few contentious meetings in which ANC Commissioner Derrick Holloway (5A06) did not present much for the ANC to consider. He insisted that he held SMD meetings and that the residents supported the project. Recall also that the ANC received a FOIA request regarding this project.

Listening to the BZA hearing on the project a few months ago, it was quite clear that many tenants were concerned about the project and the actions of the developer as well as the actions of Commissioner Holloway. I think it is safe to say that the BZA members were quite concerned about what they were hearing. At the request of the BZA, the developer submitted a “tenant equity plan” to address some of the tenants’ issues, such as lack of cleaning, trash, vermin, mold, lack of notification of tenant rights, and displacement.

The attorney general’s lawsuit follows the transfer of the OAG’s responsibilities as counsel for the DC Zoning Commission and BZA in October 2021. In December 2021, Attorney General Racine announced that his office would focus on “advocating for affordable housing, racial equity, and environmental justice in the zoning, land use, and related development processes.”