by Bradley A. Thomas, B.A.C.A. Board Member and former ANC5C01 Commissioner
If you have passed by the corner of First and P Streets, N.W., this week, you have no doubt seen the flurry of construction activity on what used to be a beautiful multi-acre grass field. That field was covered with dusty gravel over four years ago to accommodate parking for the staff of the Community Academy Public Charter School (CAPCS) on weekdays, and more importantly, parishioners of the Metropolitan Baptist Church who were supposed to be meeting there for two years while the church completed the building of its new facility in Prince George’s County. Construction of the new church faltered and Metropolitan seems to have taken up permanent residence at CAPCS.
Recently, as the new DunbarHigh School neared completion, Pepco started working on installing new fiber optic cables underground at First and P. Under cover of the Pepco construction activity, CAPCS has apparently hired Ft. Myers Construction Company to clear the gravel and install a permanent black top surface. Just last spring, CAPCS management approached me, as the ANC 5C Commissioner who had led the opposition to the expansion of the curb cut on P Street to give greater access to the “parking lot”, to ask me to give my consent, as the representative of the community, to CAPCS request to black top the lot. I absolutely refused. Now, more than a year later, it appears the school is moving ahead without community input or approval and, as far as we know, WITHOUT APPROVAL OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY! You try paving a driveway on your property without EPA approval and see how far you get.
We need to stand up, as a community, in unified opposition to the blatant disregard of the rights and sensitivities of residents. Why should we play by the rules but sit idly by while developers disregard them at will for their own pecuniary gain? CAPCS sits on a huge lot of formerly D.C. government owned property (the site of the historic ArmstrongHigh School) which its owners bought for a steal several years ago. That still does not give those owners the right to wreak havoc on the environmental stability of our neighborhood. Let’s come together to draw the line on this infringement today.
Bates Area Civic Association 
Yeah when I went to the zoning hearing 2 years ago they said that the Metro Baptists would be out of here by the time new Dunbar opened. We need to go to the zoning meetings. CAPCS needs to be blocked.
Thank you, Bradley, for speaking up on this issue. Please let us know what specific actions members of the community can take to oppose that area becoming a permanent parking lot.