[project] maybe in my neighborhood

I predict the D.C. Marriott-Schrager Edition hotel will move forward despite some neighborhood opposition. I live two blocks away from the site, and almost daily walk or drive past the church that is going to be transformed into a ballroom and restaurant. Interestingly, the church has not been designated a landmark so the D.C. bodies that govern preservation decisions technically do not have jurisdiction over the project. Though their opinion holds sway. Here are details from an article in TheInTowner, a neighborhood weekly that covers development projects in great detail.

Ironically, an earlier proposal for restoration and redevelopment of the church site that called for simply extending the rear of the building into and over the church’s adjacent surface parking lot and recasting the resultant structure as a condominium with townhouse residences facing Champlain Street was rejected by the historic preservation process because — it is asserted by the developer — the expansion structure looked too much like the old church building and DC building code required punching windows on the two rear sides of the church. The height of the expansion structure would have followed that of the existing church building — which would have been proposed for inclusion in the Reed Cooke Zoning Overlay.

Even more startling to note, neither HPRB [Historic Preservation Review Board] nor HPO [Historic Preservation Office] has any legal jurisdiction over this site — no part of which is in an historic district. Moreover, the church building itself has yet to be designated or declared an historic landmark. Thus, federal tax credits and façade tax easements, as well as property tax relief, remain hypothetical benefits to the project. More importantly still is the fact that the hotel project requires approval by the DC Zoning Commission of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) that would serve to override the restrictive Reed-Cooke Zoning Overlay and the site’s underlying zoning regulations.

Unfortunately the hotel is not slated to open until 2012. I hate to wish away the years, but this is something I'm really looking forward to seeing happen, espcially since it's practically in my front yard.

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