Fighting to keep a field inside an alley from becoming row homes
/A field in the middle of an alley has become a fight for residents, again. (photo: Google Maps)
by Yuliya Panfil
Step out of Upshur Pool, cross 14th Street between Varnum and Webster Streets, duck onto a narrow path between two row homes, keep walking and you’ll emerge onto what appears to be a typical Petworth alley bordered by trash cans and tiny, fenced back yards. But this isn’t a typical alley, it’s pretty unique. At one end of the alley is a small parking lot, and next to that, tucked inside the square-shaped alley with the back of row houses surrounding it, is a large tree-filled, grassy field.
The field is modest in size — about a quarter of an acre — and empty, except on the periphery where four apple trees were planted more than twenty years ago, each growing a different type of apple.
If you ignore the fact that the field is inside an alley, there’s nothing particularly special about the field, except that it's a quiet green space, hidden from the streets on all sides, and acts as a place that neighbors say adds charm to the neighborhood and gives their kids a place to play.
A view of the alley field.
The parking lot next to the field inside the square-shaped alley.
But the field’s owner may have other plans.
FSP-Arkansas LLC is the current owner of the lot, and is in discussions to sell the field to developer Newmark Knight Frank for the construction of 9 new rowhouses. The houses will be entirely surrounded by the alley on all sides — picture a row home development in the middle of Blagden Alley, except the alley here is narrower and the neighborhood is more residential. (According to Saving Places from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, there’s a long, controversial history of alley-facing construction in DC, going back to the early 1800s.)
Newmark Knight Frank is proposing building 9 three-level units with the bottom two levels used as living space on the 11,741 square foot lot, similar, they say, to a five unit development in Bloomingdale called Beale Square that was built in a small alley. Access to the homes would be from alley entrances on Webster and 15th Streets. (The development is called “Arkansas Avenue.”)
Neighbors who live on the blocks surrounding the little park have begun mounting a defense, arguing that a 16-year old agreement prohibits FSP-Arkansas or Newmark Knight Frank from converting the field into housing.
Back in 2004, the property owner of the grassy lot had wanted to develop what was then a larger field. The neighbors resisted and eventually entered into an agreement with the property owner: the owner could develop part of the space into a parking lot, but in exchange would promise to keep the remaining green space in its current condition.
Fast forward 16 years, and the current neighbors (some of whom were around for the 2004 fight) are arguing that the restrictions run with the lot, even if it changes ownership.
“We would like to remind you… we agreed that the existing green space is to be used exclusively as a green space,” the neighbors wrote in a June 19th letter to the property owner, referencing the 2004 agreement. “We expect that the property will continue to remain an open and well-maintained green space.”
Alberto Rivera, who recently moved to a nearby home with his family, said he has no bone to pick with neighborhood redevelopment or density. He pointed to other vacant properties on the block that could be revitalized. But Rivera, who is leading efforts to preserve the field, says his issue is with losing the valuable and rare green space, an attribute of the area he had used when deciding to purchase his home.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but to my knowledge it's not opposition to development per se,” he said. “But by the terms of the agreement as written in 2004 and established by the DC Zoning Board, this is something that’s expected to run with the land, it's expected to remain a green space, we think it’s a community draw.”
A planned June 10th hearing about the development was postponed, and has not yet been rescheduled. Neighbors are hoping that in the meantime, their efforts will make FSP-Arkansas LLC and Newmark Knight Frank think twice about the infill development.
Neighbors continue to meet and explore their options to oppose the development in their unique Petworth alley.
Update…
