Horses Ass Award Nominee – 431 Quincy St NW

“Dear PoPville,

This house at 431 Quincy St NW is an abandoned property, purchased by a developer, gutted, and received a stop-work order for an illegal pop-up.

There has been no work on the house for over a year. The blue construction tarp at the top of the building ripped and has been littering the entire block for months. Strips of blue plastic tarp are entangled in bushes, gardens, and trees. I have found bits on my porch and inside my house. It is everywhere, and it continues down the block and around the corner onto Rock Creek Church Road (see my attached pictures). No doubt, the plastic is making its way into the Anacostia. There are also mounds of excavated debris that wash across the sidewalk with every rain.

A vacancy notice is posted on the property, but it is not currently listed on the city’s vacant property list or the blighted property list. The completely gutted house is listed for sale on Redfin as a 6 bedroom, 4 bath house with gourmet kitchen for $750,000.

We’ve contacted our Council Member (Brandon Todd) and DCRA about the property and have received emails that DCRA would deliver a notice to abate the construction debris, but we’ve seen no movement on the property while the problem continues to worsen. I’ve even written back and forth with the listing agent at Re/Max to no avail.

At a minimum, the owners need to clean up the mess created by the construction debris.”

Yesterday on the Petworth Listserv a neighbor wrote:

“For the last year, me and my neighbors have been dealing with the after-effects and continual problems associated with a rogue developer and illegal construction on our block (431 Quincy Street NW). The short and sweet – a developer came in and essentially tore down a house in the middle of our “row” and erected the shell of a “pop up” without any the proper permits or procedures, continued construction after one stop work permit, and was finally shut down after a second stop work order. The property has now sat vacant for more than a year (it is listed for sale) and has caused significant damage to both bordering houses. Because of an annoying little loophole, the vacant tax rates don’t apply to the property because it has “active permits.” DCRA has been wholly unhelpful and unresponsive.

Council-member Todd and Orange are both aware of the property and Dolly Turner (Deputy Chief of Staff) from Todd’s office has asked that I develop a list of other problem properties in the area.

If you are aware of other properties in Ward 4 that should be included in this roundup of trouble properties (i.e. illegal construction or vacant, deteriorating structures) please email me with the address of the property and a brief paragraph description of the problems. I will consolidate and work with Todd’s office to address.”