BZA Grants Parking Variance for 3619 Georgia Project
Princeton Place elevation from BZA application for 3619 Georgia Avenue.
Yesterday, at their November 5, 2014, hearing the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) approved Warrenton Group’s request for a parking variance related to the planned project at 3619 Georgia Avenue. While a scheduling conflict prevented a representative from ANC 1A from attending the hearing personally, the Commission was able to review the project at their October 8th meeting, and the Commission did properly file their resolution opposing the variance request in a timely manner. The Commission’s concerns were primarily related to parking mitigation concerns in the immediate area.
Marcus Hedrick, president of the Park View United Neighborhood Commission which had voted unanimously to oppose the parking variance request at their October 1st meeting, was in attendance at the hearing and expertly presented the community’s concerns in his testimony before the BZA. The ANC and UNC concerns were essentially identical.
The Office of Planning filed their report with the BZA on October 29th, well after both the ANC and Park View UNC’s consideration of the issue, and supported the parking variance due to Warrenton Group’s proposal to develop a “Transportation Demand Management” (TDM) program and Warrenton’s proposed initiatives to mitigation the parking demands on the immediate neighborhood.
The support of the parking variance from the Office of Planning, along with the BZA’s approval of similar variance requests recently, was a strong indication that the request for 3619 Georgia would ultimately be approved. However, the concerns that both the ANC and UNC raised with the BZA regarding the variance’s impact on the community were not in vain and did lead to some strengthening of the terms leading to the BZA approval.
While a final version of the TDM measures is not yet available, the changes included requiring that the developer provide both bike-share and car-share to residents (rather than one or the other), that the property not participate in the city’s RPP parking program, that the parking restrictions be incorporated into the building’s covenant, that each resident get a $50 SmarTrip card to encourage Metro ridership (rather than $10), and that the measures be tied to the living units rather than building residents.
The hearing, for those interested in watching it, is available at the link below.
(Click for video of BZA hearing)
Tags: Development, Georgia Avenue corridor, Park View
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Park View, D.C. 
November 8, 2014 at 11:16 am
I hope this moves forward with the parking variance. It is always interesting to see residents stand up for their entitled parking on public streets, when many have alleys with private parking. It should also be noted that this building will probably actually improve traffic around this spot, given there no longer will be cars coming and going constantly in this tiny parking lot.