Owner of 304 Q Seeks Zoning Variance


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Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Anyone know what this is about?
I just noticed “Zoning Variance for Renovation of 304 Q Street, NW ……Jason Bonnet, owner (5c01)” as an agenda item on the ANC 5C agenda. If there is a zoning application it isn’t on the BZA schedule as far as I can tell. Good lord knows I don’t want to go to the ANC meeting just to find out. But on the other hand, if there is a plan to squeeze a bunch of people into a smaller space than is suitable for the neighborhood, then that needs to quashed asap.

Why I hate meetings

Location- All Nations Church
Event- ANC 5C monthly meeting
It’s 8:40 and we are just getting to the Cook School. It was scheduled to be approached at 7:25.
It is just 9:13 and I think Marshall Phillips is speechifying. Topic, LAYC. The topic has been beaten like a dead horse.
I’m going to type in earlier notes…. Richard Norwood is the new Alice Thompson, the new Outreach and Service Specialist for Ward 5 from the Mayor’s office. An angry Hanover resident complaint that there is little beautification. She was answered by Commissioner Pinkney who said the sidewalks are concrete and can’t have trees. The next Hanover meeting (to address this) is the 4th Thurs in Oct at the CAPS school.
Joyce Robinson mentioned the New York Ave playground and that it has gone down.
The angry Hanover resident said the drug boys are back. The next 501 PSA meeting is the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Harry Thomas Rec Center. The angry Hanover resident left unsatisfied with the responses provided by her ANC or the police.
She wasn’t the only one leaving unsatified. The neighbor fighting the variance at 1721 4th St wasn’t happy. Commissioner Anita Bonds, going on what she was told by the planning office believed the owners of 1421 could do what they wanted with adding the 4th floor by matter of right and the ANC should approve what is legally their right. The opposing neighbor tried to point out that it is not a matter of right because of the added density and the precedent. However it was well after 9:30 and the church was blinking the lights off and everyone wanted to go home and the argument was lost and the ANC approved the variance.
Side note- Harry Thomas is sporting what looks to be a beard.
Second note- I won’t go to another ANC 5C meeting unless forced to. With BACA you get kicked out around 9PM.
I hate meetings.

Back to the drawing board


1721 4 St NW
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

I’ve told a friend that if you want to get active in this neighborhood there are lots of fights to get involved with. There is the billboard fight, the dog park, the Cook school, and closer to me zoning issues. The poorly painted house is on next weeks’s ANC 5C’s agenda. The owner wants to add a fourth floor. At the last ANC meeting, where he, the owner, wasn’t listed on the agenda, he apparently agreed to keeping the mansard roof. However when appearing before the BZA (Board of Zoning Adjustment) the owner’s drawings had a gabled (think suburban house roof) roof. It will be interesting to see if the owner took the BZA’s recommendations to heart.
Also the Cook School is on the meeting’s agenda as well.

ANC 5C Meeting
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
7:00pm -9:00pm
All Nations Church
Rhode Island at North Capitol Street, NE

There’s ethnic pride and then there is something else

Last night the 5C meeting took place at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church. One of the presenters at the meeting was looking for approval for a modification, brought on by “suggestions” by the city government, for a hotel and conference center to be built over by the Children’s Hospital and Catholic U. There was the horse trading of what the developers could provide for the ‘community’ in return for support. You don’t ask, you don’t get, so you may as well ask. Most of the chatter was in regards to meeting space. One of commissioners, a flashy dressed and exceedingly verbose man, asked about jobs for the community, specifically for native born African-Americans; to the exclusion of African born, Latino, or any other non-white persons, as I understood what he was saying through all those words. Now, it’s fine to want to support your own ethnic group, however asking someone to give preference to your ethnic group over other minority ethnic groups, is somewhere in the land of wrong.

Locally….

Part of me is screaming and cursing.
Reason 1- Michael Brown has the majority of the non-Democratic vote for city council. I’m so unhappy about that.
Reason 2- I regret that Jessica Lanza was not able to secure the seat for ANC2C03 with only 40% of the vote, according to the unofficial results.

The results between Chapple vs Thorpe and Sule vs Curtis look good, close, but it appears that the puppet show may come to and end, Praise be to G-d. And of course Padro wins by a landslide.

Over in Ward 5, Anita Bonds wins over the tree killer Jerry Mack. Sadly Ted Mcginn is behind Sylvia Pinkney. And Mark Jones, who had no spelling errors on his signs, got the DC School Board seat for Ward 5.

New Bloomingdale blogger has 5C meeting notes

A new blog with the name of Bloomingdale (for now) has a review of the 5C meeting posted. A quick look at the notes show there is some desire for brick sidewalks by folks. Yeah, they look nice but they are a %$!@# to shovel when it snows and during icy weather I find them to be more slippery than concrete sidewalks. Also if they are not properly maintained, there are bricks jutting out, just so, to trip you up.

ANC 5C St. Martin’s

Okay I got three things about the ANC 5C meeting.
1. I wasn’t there.
2. I got a comparision report from a reader and posted it over at This Meeting Never Happened. (User: thismeeting password: neverhappened)
3. New Kid on the Eckington Block reported the St. Martin’s project discussed at the ANC meeting.

UPDATE: Scott Robert’s notes have been added to This Meeting Never Happened.