Neighbors persistence is starting to show an impact. Amazing what organized citizens can accomplish, yes you can fight City Hall and these developers that think they can violate our rights. We are still working on DCRA to do the right thing and come inspect the construction site as the work was done with no construction permits and all the necessary environmental impact studies. We have now established culpability. Should flooding to our basements happen due to water run off from this illegal project, we have a party to go after, including DC Government and DCRA if they fail to act accordingly.
InseCc: Anderson, Keith (DDOE); Besse, Sheila (DDOE); Randall-Thomas, Cheryl (DDOE) Subject: 1400 First Street NW parking lot
Dear Ms. Padilla,
DDOE investigated your complaint regarding the parking lot located at 1400 First Street NW. Our findings are below:
DDOE staff from the Watershed Protection Division visited the site on August 21st and August 22nd, 2013. Based on conversations with the contractor responsible for the paving, DDOE was informed that the existing lot was originally a gravel parking lot. The gravel was then removed and the lot was paved over with asphalt. DDOE was informed by the contractor that a building permit application was filed on August 20th, 2013. This was after the job had already been completed. DDOE informed the contractor that such an activity where gravel is removed and the area paved over typically involves land disturbance, therefore stormwater management is required. Generally, a permit must be obtained prior to the construction of such an activity. The total area that was paved is approximately 33,152 square feet, which far exceeds the 5,000 square feet land disturbance threshold that triggers stormwater management compliance. At a minimum, the owner of the property will be required to obtain a permit to provide stormwater management to control and treat the excess runoff that has resulted from the conversion of the gravel surface to an impervious asphalt surface. DDOE plans to issue a fine to the property owner for working without the necessary stormwater and erosion sediment controls.
Sincerely,
Adriana
Adriana Y. Hochberg
Chief of Staff
District Department of the Environment
rt from Email from DDOE to Ms. Padilla –
Bates Area Civic Association 
Fines? Fines are what developers pay as a matter of course to get what they want. Remediation, not to mention decency requires the blight be reversed, under supervision.
The Department’s Office of Enforcement and Environmental Justice is entitled to impose a DAILY fine as long as the violation is in place.
For a church that in 2009 claimed assets of nearly $50,000,000, and weekly donations of $88,000, the Department should calculate its fines accordingly.
Also not sure if they were aware but before it was a gravel parking lot it was a grass filled lot/park.
What would it take to return it to a playground/field like it was 4 years ago? Its a shame the school places more value on a parking lot for a tenant church than space for their own students to play.
I thought the parking lot was for parents to park and be able to walk our children into the school and not take up the neighborhood street parking space. My family has lived on 1st and P st NW for 40 years, I know the headache that comes with not being able to find parking on your own street or close to your house. Now that I’ve moved, but my son attends Capcs on first St, I was happy to see the parking lot.
Parking lot was for the church – the church made that clear on their newsletter. The parking lot was built illegally regardless of the purpose. Also 144 spots far excess the need for the school.
One certainly hopes that children from, say, Hyattsville (among the throngs of children dropped off from cars registered in PG County) aren’t inconvenienced getting into the PG County church that operates as a lower-tier, for-profit school during the week.
That is interesting because I am a Capcs parent that came from the butler campus. this is my first year at the 1st and p St Amos campus. At the parent orientation it was told to us that the parking lot was for the school, since it is now two separate campuses at one location. Meaning the amount of students have doubled. By the way our butler campus is a tier one school and not a lower tier for profit school and my car tags are DC.
From the website of another CACPS campus:
Children are reminded daily of the three school rules of Amos 1: always do your best; always respect yourself, others and the environment; and always exhibit pride, honor, and scholarship.
I live directly across the street from the lot and was happy to see it go in over the gravel. It makes the community look much better. I’m also not at all worried about the forthcoming lights that will point straight down on the lot. They will likely be turned off by 10PM, if not earlier, as are the soccer field lights over at Bundy Park. I get that the kids may be slighted by not having a yard for recess, but do they even have recess anymore? From what I recall, wasn’t it more of a half dirt/half grass lot? Not sure kids are playing on that any more than they will be on the asphalt. They’re kids – they play everywhere.
It’s a delight to see how the Shaw, Truxton Circle, and Bloomingdale community has come along due to owners caring about their property and community. Caring about the community is the reason for this issue, so I completely get that. However, before we all go placing blame, there are a few items to observe.
First, I believe Dunbar staff is also using the parking lot, so taking the stand that it was only for CAPCS and the church may be a stretch. Second, during the Dunbar celebrations, it was noted by community leaders that the lot was paved for the weeklong activities. Third, If you ask the staff at CAPCS, I’m sure their newsletter says the lot was constructed for them too. So, let’s stop blaming the church group that uses the building one day a week.
The property owner and whichever community leaders he worked with to accomplish the paving are the ones you should be lobbying and asking for resolution to this matter. In reality, removal of the asphalt isn’t going to happen. I could see some stormwater management actions, but, in DC, it will likely just be fines.
@CAPCS Neighbor:
Everyone has their own stance on how valuable the asphalt parking lot is to the community. The issue here is that there are regulations in DC for installing asphalt paving in flood zones, and in general (for such a large area). No permits were obtained, no environmental impact assessments were conducted, and community members were not asked for opinions/approval. I think a happy medium could have been reached, but CAPCS completely disregarded the law, and the community.
I agree with you Olivia, which is why I think attention should be on the building owner and community leaders that helped push this through without permits. I don’t personally know if there is a requirement to engage the community on this type of project. Although, as a “good neighbor”, it was probably warranted.
8/28/2013
@11:06AM
I live directly across from CAPCS and has been an owner occupant for 33+ years. The parking lot in question was first a green spaced for which CAPCS demolished, without notification, approval from the community or the necessary permits, beginning in 2004. Shorty thereafter the once green space became a gravel over parking lot to accommodate Metropolitan Baptist Church[MBC]. This church moved to CAPCS after much community pressure from their previous location and at no time was the community given formal notification. When questioning that CAPCS was acquired for the use of a charter school and not a charter school and a church we were assured that [MBA] was only going to be there for two [2] years. Well it is almost five [5] years. Try sleeping on a Sunday morning it is a nightmare to say the least. Now it is the illegal black tar parking lot, again without community notifiction, input, environmental impact study, storm drains or required permits. I take pride in my community and where I live. Unfortunately CAPCS has continued to show blatant disrespect for the community and do as they please. I am not a paid lobbyist but my quality of life, safety and property value are issues that are of utmost importance. To say that removal of the illegal black tar parking lot is not going to happen is very disturbing but I would hold further comments for later. Yes everyone has their opinion and I will exercise my rights as a property owner. Have a good day.I
Sleeping in on Sunday morning with the gravel was terrible. It was like a crackling alarm clock. However, this past week, I slept like a baby!
The issue of parking has been a long standing problem, since many construction projects are going on in our neighborhood. Every month since February, ANC5E SMD-05 has held meetings, which the topic of parking and traffic was discussed and several ideas have come from the constituents, stakeholders and our government. DDOT came out and listened to residents at the meeting and agreed to have contractors remove signs, where no construction was planned for months and considered all our complaints.
There was tremendous concern about traffic and parking during the week long activities at Dunbar and CAPCS was gracious enough to be a good neighbor and provide 140 parking spaces. This has relieved our precious curb side parking near our homes. All of this community have used CAPCS for many FREE community meetings and events and will in the future. If there was a mistake made, let’s acknowledge it and move on. The owner, Kent Amos is doing a great job in this community and we should be happy to have a great neighbor among us.
There is lots to do in this community and wish more focus was placed on making our community the best neighborhood in this city. We have a new pool that the community will soon use, we have the Historic Dunbar High school on line and functioning, we have 90 units of senior housing to open soon, plans to keep our number 2 boys and girls club open, a new track and field coming, a meeting place at the New York Avenue playground, condos on the unit block of N Street, NW coming, renovation of the Tyler House Apt. nearby and even a hotel. Growing pains is sometimes a pain in the neck, however the end result is fantastic. Can we just get along and work together.
ANC 5E-05 Commissioner Joyce Robinson-Paul
I’m sorry, “good neighbors” get permits and obey the law. Good neighbors don’t start building something they know would never be approved legally, then fix with only a mea culpa afterwards. Good neighbors don’t rent out their building thereby creating a parking problem in the first place. Good neighbors don’t run a school that’s continually a Tier III school since its opening. (ok, they appealed and barely scraped by into a T2 this past year).
If just supplying space for a monthly community meeting and parking space for a few days is all it takes to wash away past deeds, forgiveness is truly cheap in DC, accountability is meaningless and we deserve whatever gets dumped here.
This isn’t about stopping all/any development, everyone expects temporary inconvenience in the name of progress. It’s about making sure that we have a good neighborhood for the next 5, 10, or 20 years and stuff that we were forces to accept for no other reason than parking spaces for a week.
“Can we just get along and work together?” This goes both ways.
Here is what Henry Beecher Hicks Jr, printed in 2004, after the MBC had ruined, unrepentantly, another open space in Shaw through its worship of the parking idol:
The first real issue before us has little or nothing to do with parking or playgrounds. It has to do with a shift in our culture that attempts to demonize the sacred. We seem to have reached a point where God no longer has a place in our cities and communities. . . . [T]his generation is not concerned about God, Jesus, the church, or church folk. . . .
Second, this conflict involves a racial shift in the community that has been brought on by new residents who seem determined to take control of a community we have inhabited for more than one hundred years. Our new neighbors don’t seem to desire to collaborate, cooperate, or even converse.
Third, this conflict involves the status of longstanding community institutions within changing neighborhoods in Washington, DC. While the influx of affluent, mostly white people into inner-city communities may improve the community’s prominence and raise property values, the new residents do not appear to share the values, interests and concerns of their older, mostly African American neighbors.
Note:
1. MBC sold a string of properties at 12th and R Street for condominiums.
2. Those “older, mostly African American neighbors” mostly “inhabit” Maryland. Hicks resides in a 6,200 sf McMansion in Prince Georges County.
As a ANC Commissioner, I have watched many speakers, including myself be treated unfairly, disrespected, misquoted and hollered at by the officers and members of your group. This disrespect serves no useful purpose and I will continue to ask this community to move on and focus on all the positive things that are happening in this community. Many residents attend the church in the CAPCS building and enjoy and are inspired by the worship service. Children have received book bags, school supplies and other amenities that the church has shared with the community. For the resident that talked about the school, have you ever reached out to tutor a failing student from the school or neighborhood? Have you ever took a senior citizen to the store or ask how you could help them with their yard or even brought a flower for their yard. What happened to the village where neighbors look out for each other, This community can not prosper with constant bickering and hate, Make a positive difference in our community, there’s lots to do.
Commissioner – first and foremost, I will apologize if you ever felt disrespected or misquoted at a BACA meeting. I don’t recall an Officer being disrespectful to you at a meeting I have presided over. I personally have not misquoted you, but simply posted your direct emails or notifications word by word.
I can personally tell you that yes I have helped seniors in our neighborhood plant their garden, taken them to the store, shoveled their snow, and carried their bags.
I agree we have many positive things happening and that there will be issues that we may not agree on. As our ANC I hope you listen and represent those that do not share your views as you also represent those individuals. As I have not agreed with some resolutions passed by my association I still have to objectively support them.
I agree that we all have the right to voice our opinions in a respectful manner. I hope you also understand the environmental concerns being raised.
Respectfully,
Geovani Bonilla