MidCity Businesses Upset Over DCRA Plan to Enforce Zoning Rules
For as long as the U Street corridor has been described as "up and coming" or "rapidly developing" or "almost totally gentrified," there's been hand wringing among neighborhood groups over whether it might ultimately turn into something as unwieldy as Adams Morgan's 18th Street. Everyone wants the area around where U and 14th streets NW intersect to be a vibrant business district, but hardly anyone wants drunk college students spilling off the sidewalks every weekend. And over the last five years, U Street has by any measure inched closer toward that reality. At the same time, there's still plenty of yet to be developed storefronts in the neighborhood, and local entrepreneurs are understandably drawn to the area's increasing density and commercial viability.
So it's unsurprising that a recent Dept. of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs measurement of what's called the Uptown Arts Overlay District, an area that runs along 14th Street NW from N to Florida Avenue and U Street from 9th to 15th (along with sections of 9th, 7th, P and Q streets) is drawing a lot of heated reactions. The office of the DCRA Zoning Administrator, the folks who are charged with enforcing the city's zoning regulations, recently went out on the street with their rulers and discovered that the area is just shy of surpassing its long-established limitation on eating and drinking establishments. Under current zoning rules, within the overlay, only 25 percent of the linear frontage may be taken up by bars or restaurants. And as of Monday, DCRA had determined that the percentage has now reached 24.88 percent.
That discovery led Zoning Administrator Matt Le Grant to declare that his office will not approve any new building permit or certificate of occupancy applications for additional eating and drinking establishments within the overlay. In other words, any new bars or restaurants looking to open up within the corridor will now be forced to appeal to the Board of Zoning Adjustments for a special exemption -- a process that can take months.
As Housing Complex reports, this revelation led the MidCity Business Association to fire off a letter to its members blasting DCRA for succumbing to pressure from a handful of "individuals" and describing the current zoning restrictions as "outdated and harmful to economic development."
Some context for all of this: at the end of 2009, ANC2F undertook to prepare a lengthy list of recommendations for changes to the existing overlay zoning, key among them a switch to allowing up to 40-50 percent of the linear frontage for bars or restaurants. The recommendations had a credible amount of support, including the blessing of the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association and most of the adjacent ANCs. DCRA hadn't taken an official measurement of the overlay for some time, and the hope was that the recommendations would be adopted by the Zoning Commission before they did. But, the commission hasn't yet done so. And in the meantime, DCRA was tasked with doing its job.
In reality, nothing has actually changed due to this decision. If DCRA had not completed its measurements and had instead continued to grant certificates of occupancy that surpassed the current limit, it's not hard to imagine how many lawsuits might have resulted as frustrated neighbors took the city to task for giving out illegal permits. And all existing bars and restaurants are in the clear.
Going forward, all eyes should be pointed toward the Zoning Commission. It is they who are tasked with amending the current overlay rules, and they hold the power to do something as simple as adopt a quickie amendment changing the percentage even before the entire rewrite is completed. The MidCity Business Association has pledged to kick up a fuss with letters to Jim Graham, Jack Evans, the commissioners, and other city officials in an effort to see that such an amendment is adopted.