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Articles
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| Condo to rental shift raises questions on H Street |
VOICE writes, "BY JULIA O’DONOGHUE
Senate Square, a new H Street corridor development that was originally pitched as a 140-unit, high-end condominium complex, is now being marketed as a rental complex, raising concerns for the Near Northeast advisory neighborhood commission.
During its Nov. 12 meeting, the commission voted to send a letter to the D.C. Zoning Commission asking whether the building’s developer, Broadway I Associates LLC, has strayed from its agreement with the city to include affordable-housing condominiums, among other promises.
The Zoning Commission approved increased height and density for the Senate Square project in 2005 in exchange for a community amenity package that was partly predicated on attracting new homeowners to the neighborhood, the commissioners said. "
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“I don’t have a problem ultimately with rentals, but they are not complying with the zoning order,” said commissioner Alan Kimber.
The commissioners also had questions about whether the most prominent aspect of the amenity package -- the affordable housing component -- would change now that most of the units will be rented.
Advisory neighborhood commissioner Charles Doctor slightly dissented from the group, saying the city and the neighborhood should scare off developers from building more residential projects in the city.
“We have got to understand that we have got to keep the profit margin in the ballgame,” Doctor said.
According to the summary of the Zoning Commission’s 2005 decision, the commissioners approved the project in part because of the affordable housing.
The development’s affordable-housing plans originally called for approximately 12 units distributed through the building to be sold at 80 percent of the market price or below. In its decision, the Zoning Commission stated, “Any changes to the proposed unit types and locations must be approved by [the Office of Planning] and in no event shall the total amount of affordable housing be less than 9,120 square feet.”
The Zoning Commission also approved the project because it would bring new residents to the neighborhood that could provide stability to the area and promote growth on H Street, according to documents. In its decision, the Zoning Commission never mentioned whether it believed the building’s “homeowners” -- as opposed to building residents in general --- would bring more benefits to the area.
Even though it was not mentioned by the Zoning Commission, the project’s early developer, Jim Abdo, pushed the benefits of homeowners over renters very hard during a Jan. 27, 2005, hearing.
According to transcripts, Abdo said, “We are committed to bring new owner residents to the H Street corridor. Not an office building, not an apartment building. Apartment owners don’t really care about their neighborhoods too much. Resident owners do.”
He added, “We know that from our experience on the 14th Street corridor, that it is housing that turned it around, not the offices on K Street that were steps away. It wasn’t apartment buildings, super-scale apartment buildings that were there. None of that contributed to the revitalization of 14th Street. It was new owner residents that did that. And that is why we need a critical mass of new owner residents at this gateway project.”
The neighborhood commissioners said that its letter to the Zoning Commission should not be construed as “anti-renter.” Renters are a valuable part of the Near Northeast community, they said.
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Posted on Nov 30, 2007 18:23pm.
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