“Tariff-caused 50-Percent Reduction in Shaw Residential Project Endorsed by ANC Committee”

The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.

“The original proposal (left) and revision (right). From documents distributed at the committee meeting.”

A committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle has endorsed a dramatic downsizing of a planned new residential project at 1126 9th Street NW, across from the west side of Washington Convention Center. Representatives of the developers came before ANC2F’s Community Development Committee July 25 to request ANC endorsement of a revision to the project’s Planned Unit Development (PUD). The new plan, if approved, would reduce the number of new residential units from 33 to 15, and the height of the tallest part of the building from 10 floors to six floors.

As first reported in the real estate blog Urban Turf, representatives of the developers have said in publicly-available documents that new tariffs on imported steel are at least partially to blame for the reduction of the project. “Proposed tariffs have already had a dramatic impact, causing a previously unforeseen ten percent (10%) spike in the price of steel,” said two attorneys for the developers in a letter to DC zoning authorities. “Therefore, the proposed concrete and steel building was no longer financially viable to construct.”

Presenting to the committee, Kevin Brown of Montage Development Group said that “inefficiencies” in the original design also caused the developers to downsize the project. Brown also told the committee that both of the affordable housing units included in the original project would be retained in the scaled-back version.

Because the proposed change is a “modification of consequence” to a PUD, the developers must go back before DC’s zoning authorities for approval. Since there are no scheduled meetings in August, the developers anticipated that they would not be able to get on the calender for consideration of this PUD revision until mid-September. After zoning approval, the developers must start at the beginning and go through the whole process (including ANC endorsement) again for historic preservation aspects of the revised project, since the project is located in the Shaw Historic District.

The meeting was also attended by some residents of The Whitman, an adjoining condominium development at 910 M Street. Residents of The Whitman had been the most vocal opponents to the original proposal.

“The portion we got most resistance from is the portion we are now removing,” Brown said. He also noted that the footprint of the new building would be the same as the old one.

Still, some Whitman residents felt that they had not been properly consulted about the changes.

“We feel completely left out,” one said.

Representatives of the developers said the head of condominium board had been contacted about the changes and there were plans in the works to have meetings with residents of The Whitman.

Commissioner Kevin Slyvester (district 07), chairing the meeting, noted the applicants must come back to the ANC for historic preservation aspects and said: “There is still some time in the process.”

The committee approved the proposed change to the PUD unanimously.

This matter is on the agenda of the next meeting of the full ANC. See link here for the agenda and meeting location.