7 April 2003 WCA Letter to County Board

7 April 2003

Mr. Paul Ferguson,
Chairman,
Arlington County Board

Mr. Ron Carlee,
Arlington County Manager

Re: Property Development at 6430 N. 27th Street

Dear Mr. Chairman, Members of the Board, and Mr. Carlee:

I am writing on behalf of the Williamsburg Civic Association. We understand that on March 14, 2003, the owner of the property at 6430 N. 27th Street filed a notice of appeal against the decision of the County Board of Zoning Appeals of February 12, 2003. We are writing to express our very strong opposition to this appeal. We urge the County to defend, with all due diligence, the most recent ruling of the BZA.

This property has been in a state of off-and-on construction and audacious overbuilding for more than four years. Williamsburg neighbors have expressed many times to the BZA through meetings and letters how completely out of character this property is for our neighborhood. Despite numerous requests for variances and extensions of time for compliance, the property today is not safe, is not complete, is not in compliance with zoning and building code requirements, and in its outrageous scale and design is in general just a hideous presence in the community. Sadly, the whole four years of development of this property has been a story of disregard for the special character of an older Arlington residential neighborhood and contempt for the zoning ordinance of the County and laws of the Commonwealth.

Special treatment and legal anomalies abound. The "no new structural exterior wall elements" conditions imposed by the BZA variance granted in 1999, were not adhered to. Building Permit No. 99147B0200 granted in 1999, a permit that has never been withdrawn or renewed, provided for an "addition and interior alteration" of just 2335 sq ft-a space that, incredibly, would be comfortably contained in just one of the big main rooms of the new structure, which has an overall total living area in excess of 10,000 sq ft! What was supposed to be a second-story addition on an existing 1940's wood-frame slab-foundation house turned out instead as a 12-foot deep-dug 3 story "Monster" house encroaching over the allowed variance setbacks from the adjacent neighbors in three different dimensions.

The adverse affects on the community by this construction have been considerable. Nearby property with full frontal view of the house now sits unsold, in an otherwise desirable neighborhood where current market conditions are considered extremely robust. On zoning considerations alone, this 7 bedroom, each with its own bathroom, multiple-unit residence should never have been approved in an R-6 (single family) district. There are incredible divergences between the plans submitted with the allowed February 1999 variance and the built-to specifications of the structure that happened more than 4 years later, all of which went on without notice for any new public hearings and without approval of any new variances.

A decisive November 14, 2001 BZA hearing - where a request for further variances was opposed by a petition of 150 neighborhood residents and more than a dozen speakers - resulted in a determination that the owner of this property was not entitled to further requested variances on the noncomplying as-built features that went beyond the allowed February 1999 variances. We are at a loss to understand why material breaches on the owner's part with respect to the conditions of the February 1999 BZA ruling have not resulted in cancellation of the 1999 building permit and forfeiture of his right to develop out to the "grandfathered" nonconforming dimensions of the now-demolished 1940's house. We are at a loss to understand how the County ever could have agreed, in May of 2002, to an out-of court Consent Decree making zoning compliance more lenient than it otherwise would have been. Finally, we are at a loss to understand why the provisions of the zoning ordinance that govern the rest of the R-6 district do not seem to apply to this property. This development has never demonstrated any hardship, nor was there ever the least good faith effort to build more in keeping with the normal scale and character of development of the surrounding neighborhood.

This property has become a legend in Arlington County, a monument to the County Zoning Office's sufferance of an outlaw development and indifference to community views.

The future of this property remains problematic. The house is on the market now, but saleability remains questionable in its current unfinished condition and with major nonconforming usage problems. We have noted that, in certain neighboring jurisdictions to Arlington, authorities have exercised a stricter control on nonconforming developments, resulting in some cases, to daily fines and ultimately in condemning and demolishing nonconforming buildings.

We do not hesitate in recommending to the County Administrator in this most extraordinary case, to prosecute, with all vigor, to the same end.

Sincerely yours,

On behalf of the Williamsburg Civic Association

Ellen Jones, President

cc. Mr. Stephen MacIsaac, County Attorney
Mr. Scott McGeary, Chairman, Board of Zoning Appeals

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