Shiloh Baptist Church made two presentations regarding their vacant properties in Shaw, and their plans for the same, this week: one at the CCCA meeting on Tuesday and one at last night's ANC2C meeting. Unfortunately, I missed both presentations, so I am scouring the blogosphere for summaries of the same.Apparently the church will submit its plans for a renovation and addition to 1533 9th Street, Northwest (pictured left in March 2007) to the Historic Preservation Review Board later this month. An email from ANC2C Commissioner Padro yesterday revealed the following and attached the below rendering of the planned renovation and addition at 1531 and 1533 9th Street, NW:
Shiloh Baptist Church has announced that they will present their current plans for all their vacant properties, not just request support for their proposed renovation of 1533 9th Street, NW and infill building at 1531 9th Street, NW, at Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2C's meeting on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at 6:30 PM at the Kennedy Recreation Center, 1401 7th Street, NW.
It is important to note that Shiloh's pastor, Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, at last night's Convention Center Community Association meeting, stated that financing was not yet in place for the renovation and new construction at 1531-33 9th Street, NW, much less for the more ambitious redevelopment of the church's buildings on the west side of the 1500 block of 9th Street, which include ground floor retail as well as affordable housing. Specifically, the project for the buildings north of the Henry C. Gregory, III Family Life Center will not move forward without District of Columbia subsidies, which Smith said were not presently forthcoming.
This community has seen a number of renderings for proposed redevelopment of Shiloh's buildings along Woodson Row over the past decade, and perhaps even before. It seems unlikely that these latest plans will move forward anytime soon. But the plans for 1531-33 9th Street, NW are moving to the Historic Preservation Review Board this month, and with minor modifications, should receive approval. If Shiloh is able to complete this project, it would certainly be a demonstration of good faith on Shiloh's part after so many years of lack of progress. Floor plans and several elevations of the 1531-33 9th Street project are attached for your reference.
Residents of the 1500 block of 8th Street, NW, will be glad to hear that Shiloh committed last night to erecting a fence around the long vacant 1543 8th Street, NW, which has been a significant nuisance for decades. Shiloh trustee Ralph Lee acknowledged that a black steel fence is required, rather than a chain link fence, due to the building's location in the Shaw Historic District. This fence will help control the negative activities and trash accumulation that have been a problem at this corner for as long as neighbors can remember.
13 comments:
thanks for posting on this. though completely unofficial and riddled with typos, i did live-tweet last night's meeting on twitter. it's also interesting to note that HPRB rejected the design you posted here for being "too historicist," so the plans we saw were altered considerably.
let's start a campaign for the city to take Shiloh's properties by eminent domain.
i can't believe the nerve of this church -- desiring city funds to pay for their vision for shaw?! when so many license plates say Maryland on them? h#$% no.
Great Twittering, Jamie! Thanks for the update!
i took a photo of the updated plans for 1531 9th street last night. i'll get it online this evening. they changed the look of the proposed new facade quite drastically since this drawing was sent around.
What I don't understand is why they don't sell some of their real estate holdings to fund this project and others, and alleviate their debt.????!!!
By their own admission, they can not afford any of the projects they are proposing - 1531/1533 9th, or larger projects targeted at the nuisance properties farther up the west side of 9th - without significant hand-outs from the city that are not forthcoming. And they are still paying on huge amounts borrowed to build the main church building and community life center next door.
I can't tell if they really think these plans have a chance, or are just trying to project good will or intent (or hopefully not, a means to duck their considerable class 3 vacant/nuisance property tax bill), but without funding it's just talk and doesn't change their status in the community as slumlords.
Selling some of their properties would reduce their significant vacant/nuisance property tax burden and could help fund some of these projects. It would also help move them forward in part of their organizational mission - helping the community of Shaw. Not to mention allow others to step in and put empty/nuisance buildings back to productive use.
On another note, I really did not appreciate, and took offense to Reverend Smith's speech at the beginning of the Shiloh CCCA presentation. You cannot appeal to the people who live in this community today by trying to give people yet another 'history lesson,' once again trying to use longevity in Shaw as some sort of excuse for something - in this case for being slumlords. And you need to stop referring to 'you new people' as a problem (in this case as a source for affordable housing wows) and expect to make any headway. After all, it's these same 'new people' who are making many of the significant investments in Shaw today to build the community back up. And it's the same 'new people' who are living here 7 days a week - not just on Sundays blocking traffic on 9th Street - helping to build stronger community.
Well said, Uncle. Before I had to duck out, I did get to hear most of Rev. Smith's speach on Shiloh's history in Shaw. I find it offensive that Shiloh seeks a handout from the city to finance the development of its properties when it has considerable untapped wealth in its vacant property portfolio. Its two properties at 8th and Q in particular could be sold without affecting their big plans for 9th Street.
uncle jessie and shaw rez: the selling of some property to help finance the rest of their plans was brought up repeatedly at the ANC2C meeting last night, and was rejected by the presenter from shiloh. while he said he couldn't promise 100% that shiloh would never sell off properties to finance their plans, he said that's a scenario that they'd rather avoid.
Thanks for the update IMGoph. I look forward to your report on the meeting. Certainly makes me that much more of a supporter of the class 3 vacant property tax, ESPECIALLY if they want the city to help, in any way, finance their development plans.
If they are not willing to sell any of their property to provide their own financing this just seems more and more like a scam to avoid the Class 3 rate and ultimately to have a parking lot on 9th Street...
Thanks for keeping up on this!
What chain link isn't allowed in HDs? Chain link dates back to the 19th cenutry (ok my info is from Wikipedia, so take with grain of salt)! And I've seen some 'old' bar and wire fencing. Elitist and classist revision of history is just wrong.
(1) are we getting confirmation that the class 3 rate will be applied, and retroactively so; and
(2) are we getting a commitment from the DCRA and the Council that they will explain exactly how the de-classification happened.
These are the two salient points which we need confirmed. any ideas on how to get accomplish these goals?
mari: it's not revisionism. read this article from the hill rag. i think there are some instances where people are just not using the right terminology. there are standards, though, and they should be followed.
here's the picture that i promised earlier.
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