ANC 5A held a special meeting on October 12, 2022, to take a final vote on the Kennedy School/801 Buchanan Street NE townhome project that will be developed in ANC 5A03.

Commissioners present: Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) – Secretary; Ronnie Edwards (5A05) – Chair; Derrick Holloway (5A06); Sandi Washington (5A07) – Treasurer; Gordon Fletcher (5A08) – Vice Chair.

The ANC voted to support the project to rebuild the Kennedy School and build approximately 80 townhomes at 801 Buchanan Street NE. The Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) hearing on the project is scheduled for October 19, 2022.

See ANC 5A letter in support of the Kennedy School – BZA case no. 20749 (agency reports can be found on DC Zoning’s website).

See ANC 5A letter in support of 801 Buchanan Street NE townhome development – BZA case no. 20751 (agency reports can be found on DC Zoning’s website).

Recall, the ANC tabled a vote at its September 28th meeting in order to give the development team time to make additional presentations to the North Michigan Park Civic Association (NMPCA) and the Michigan Park Citizens Association (MPCA). The proposed project sits in Michigan Park; North Michigan Park is across the street from the project. The developer met with North Michigan Park on October 5 and with Michigan Park on October 11.

At NMPCA’s meeting, the developer agreed to the civic association’s request for a $5,000 scholarship contribution. At the special meeting, ANC Commissioner Sandi Washington (5A07) asked why it was not more and NMPCA president Carmen Williams and the developer both stated that NMPCA only asked for $5,000. The developer said they would raise the scholarship contribution to $10,000. In addition, the developer stated they would contribute $25,000 to DC’s Housing Production Trust Fund to benefit projects in Ward 5. This is on top of the community benefits that the developer had already negotiated with ANC Commissioner Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) and residents that were discussed in previous ANC 5A meetings (preserving publicly accessible green space for future tot lot and dog park; RPP restrictions for HOA; vibration monitoring; and contribution to housing property tax relief fund).

A resident from Michigan Park noted that MPCA did not ask for more benefits because the townhomes are being developed in order to generate funds for the reconstruction of the school, which serves children with disabilities. He said the school has been in the neighborhood a long time and serves children and young adults of DC needing those specialized services.

This is a BZA project, for which technically the developer does not have to offer or provide these kind of benefits. Typically these kinds of benefits are offered with planned unit developments (PUDs), which are approved by the Zoning Commission.

There was also some discussion about building triplexes versus rowhomes. Apparently, DC Office of Planning and residents asked the developer to consider building triplexes for the row of homes facing the existing neighborhood homes. The developer responded that they thought triplexes were less than ideal because then people would see the rear of the second row of homes through the gap in the triplexes. Or something like that.

I think there was discussion of other things like making sure there were any necessary easements to access the future public green space so that it would in fact be publicly accessible.

After a very very long discussion and lots of grumbles, the ANC finally voted to support the project. The BZA hearing is scheduled for October 19, 2022.

(Aside: There was more prolonged discussion of whether Commissioner Lucio had done adequate outreach regarding this project. A reminder that residents should sign up for email distributions from ANC 5A by filling out the contact form on ANC 5A’s website or emailing Commissioner Lucio at 5A03@anc.dc.gov. Commissioner Lucio distributes meeting notices at least 7 days in advance and she typically puts her SMD meeting minutes and presentations on ANC 5A’s website. The presentation for this project can be found at https://anc5a.org/documents/#presentations in the “September 2022” folder. Also, Commissioner Lucio is one of the more reasonable commissioners on ANC 5A. I have reached out to her about projects in her SMD that are close to Riggs Park to offer what I think are helpful suggestions and she was always open to listening. People living within 200 feet of a project (so-called 200 footers) get hard copy notices of hearings, so they should be aware of what is happening. If people think hard copies of ANC meeting notices should be distributed to nearby residents, they can certainly suggest that and maybe even volunteer to help distribute them.)