Another gas station defeat in the H Street neighborhood

shell letter
Originally uploaded by inked78

Letter signed by Councilmembers Tommy Wells, Kwame Brown, and Mary Cheh on the Shell gas station matter. Flickr images by Inked78.

-- Shell Letter page two

Greater Greater Washington reports, in "Public Space Committee says Shell, No," that the neighborhood quest against the construction of a new gas station at 14th Street and Maryland Avenue NE has been successful.

As many people know, the L'Enfant Plan was designed with an interesting perspective and legalities concerning public space, so that most of the "yards" in front of buildings are technically publicly-owned. So for a business to incorporate these public spaces into their business use, there has to be permission granted (public space permits, variances and special exceptions from zoning regulations if needed, etc.).

The organized residents fought the project by focusing on the need for the applicant for public space permits.

Separately, ANC6A has commented on the building permit application process, in part as a result of this process, where applicants can game the system. Many projects require three separate approvals from the Public Space Committee (DC Department of Transportation), Historic Preservation Office (Office of Planning), and the Office of Zoning, before permitted projects move to the next stage of design, permitting, and construction (DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs/Building and Land Regulation Administration).

ANC6A suggests that one single "business process" be designed to structure this process. I think they would argue that public space and design matters be addressed before going forward with hearings by the Zoning Commission/Board of Zoning Adjustment.

I don't think that the ANC's letter on the matter is up on their website quite yet.


Oh, and this was another matter involving former Councilmember John Ray, who seems to be the go-to zoning lawyer for odious matters.

This is interesting for another reason. Starting in 2000, residents on the west side of the neighborhood organized against a massive increase in size for the BP station (then Amoco) then located on the 300 block of H Street. For decades, it was a scourge on the neighborhood, and hotspot for crime. I would argue the business was managed badly to drive out adjoining businesses, so that Amoco could acquire the other sites for expansion (I call this the creation of noxious uses).

This was one of the first times that the neighborhood came together despite the fact that H Street was and still is somewhat, a barrier between the north and south sides of the neighborhoods. Historically, south of H Street had been more white, and north of H Street more black, to work on fighting this expansion, which was eventually successful.

This set the stage for neighborhood revitalization, as neighbors and merchants came together to work on this and other projects.

Heretofore, the neighborhood had been warehoused by the H Street Urban Renewal Plan, which mostly called for destruction of eligible for designation historic buildings and the creation of automobile-oriented office buildings, garden apartments, and strip shopping centers in their place. (Of course, the destruction of buildings during the riots didn't help.)

The effort against the gas station helped to reverse that process, which before, mostly the Stanton Park Neighborhood Association had been fighting alone.

Of course, I would argue also that the creation of the New York Avenue Metro station, an infill station on the red line between the Union Station and Rhode Island Avenue stations, was also essential because improved transit access meant improved locational advantages north of H Street, which significantly improved demand for housing in this area.

To improve neighborhoods, you need people with income... You can call this gentrification, but the failure of center cities has more to do with the failure to maintain local economies within the metropolitan context.

In the 8 or 9 years I've worked on these kinds of issues, I guess I'd say it's easier to bring people together to fight something they don't want (gas stations and car dealerships) than it is to get them to work together and create a common vision to work toward and achieve.