September 22, 2008
Private Dog Park Developer Hounded
Make sure you don't miss this hilarious story from the Post's Paul Schwartzman, who chronicles one local developer's plan to turn a parcel of land he owns into a private dog park that would be run by his teenage daughter as a hobby. We haven't been following the story of this particular, apparently controversial plot of land in Chevy Chase, and we know, dog park politics is serious business in this town, but check this out. Jack Merwin apparently bought a small parcel of land two years ago, intending to build a house on it. His neighbors wanted to keep the green space, and Merwin was denied the permits he needs to develop the land. So now, he and his 13-year-old daughter are proposing charging $10 an hour to anyone who'd like to avail themselves of the fenced-in space and the services of Paige Merwin as a dog sitter/excerciser. But wait, that's not the hilarious part: Merwin had been trying to sell the green space to the neighbors, but at a price they say is far too steep. So the news of the dog park plans finds some of them so deeply suspicious of Merwin's intentions that advisory neighborhood commissioner Cris Fromboluti actually called him a "monster," and not in the at least slightly vague, Samantha Power way. Gotta love those moments when keepin' it real in neighborhood politics goes way, way wrong.
Photo by Kevin H.
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SERIOUSLY??? If the land parcel meets zoning restrictions, is large enough for a house, etc. what the hell business do the neighbors have dictating that the owner can't build a house there? What's next, I can't watch television in my living room?
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Normally I wouldn't say this, but this guy should do whatever is necessary to build something on that land that pisses the neighbors off, hopefully incurring the maximum legal costs possible to the neighbors.
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I love the typical NIMBY attitude: I don't own your property and don't want to buy your property. But I want to dictate to you what you can do on your property.
Two words: Poop. Trebuchet.
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Old-n-Cranky: I personally like referring to them as BANANAS: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody. It's an oldie but a goodie!
The hell with the dog park. If he really wants the neighbors to let him build a McMansion so gaudy a Saudi prince would blush, I'd suggest using the property as a 2-cycle engine go-kart track during the week and a flea market site on the weekends.
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If it was me .. i'ld stockpile enough grain in the lot to feed all of the pigeons in chevy chase this winter.
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I only support leash-free cat parks. take your sexist dog parks elsewhere!
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I suggest that if neighbors (especially in DC) are being particularly dick-headed about your building plans then you go ahead and circulate a petition asking for neighborhood support for the homeless shelter you'd like to build, since you can't build anything else.
In DC homeless shelters and various treatment centers are allowed in pretty much any zoning, under pretty much any circumstance.
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The dog in the picture is Chewie, my friends' mini Aussie shepherd. If you'd like to know more about him, my friends have a photo-a-day type blog chronicling their trials and tribulations with Chewie: http://thelittlestwookie.blogspot.com/
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Hillman, yep, there's gotta be a halfway house somewhere that needs a new home.
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I did a little poking around, and the site is essentially un-buildable by-right, except for garages or the like. The lot has no street frontage and the alley is too narrow for residential use, so the Applicant, Mr Merwin, had an uphill climb with his variance request. It's BZA case 17656 if you want to look it up. It's a weird triangular lot in the middle of the square, with alleys on three sides.
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Thanks, ledroitist, it's nice to see someone actually check out the details of the situation instead of just accepting the obviously spun developer's version as fact. Basically it's a small piece of open space INSIDE a block, one that no one in the neighborhood ever though would be built on, and when he requested special variances to get permission to build a house on it he was denied. That's not at all the same thing as the poor oppressed property owner being told what he can and cannot do with his property, or rude neighbors intervening in what would otherwise be an easy permitting decision.
My guess is that this "dog park" proposal is really just a pretext for fencing off the entire area to make it off limits to the neighbors. Sure, it has the added advantage of giving his teenage daughters something to do with their afternoons, but that's really just an added bonus. Just look at the smug grin on his face in the lead picture accompanying the Post's article ... to me that looks like the face of a man who is pretty sure he just got away with something.
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the thing is, this is an example of where we should be building housing. close in, in the city, not out in the suburbs. this could be one more house that's not built out near frederick or leesburg, with one more car not clogging up those roads coming into town.
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Sounds like a good location for the new Zei Club / Zei Alley.
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ledroitist,
Thanks. Where did you find that information? I would like to check it out also.
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Okay having now done a little research I can now say that this Merwin just seems to be pissed that he bought some property that he wanted to flip for a profit and cant do it. He has bought properties around the city it seems to do the exact same thing. It is not as he didn’t know there was a chance this wouldn’t fly. He took a chance and lost. Tough titty. It also isn’t as he lives in the neighborhood. His address is blocks away. Some one please correct me if I am wrong.
I also think his making it into a "private" dog park is a hollow threat. It’s going to cost him more then the 25,000 dollars that is the difference between his asking price and the 50,000 dollars the neighbors say then can raise.
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will585, you can look up BZA case 17656, go to http://dcoz.dc.gov. You can read the transcripts of the hearings if you want. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... Yes, he had to know that it would be stretch. He is not a wide-eyed innocent caught up in the bureaucratic meat-grinder. But for the legal and architectural fees spent on this quixotic project, he could sell now for what the neighbors are offering and still make a tidy profit.
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ledroitist,
Hell just the cost of the below grade storm lines and "bay area management tank" to handle the run off alone is going to cost him the 25,000. If the city requires one and I would bet they would.
There is NO WAY the city is going to allow his daughter to set up a business using this land as a dog park. At least not without the proper fees being paid.