WHEREAS, the Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance, on March 9, 2001, filed a comprehensive application for designation of the two-acre site of the Owl's Nest, 3031 Gates Road, N.W., Square 2263, Lot 867 ("the Site") as an Historic Landmark, and the application was accepted for filing and assigned Designation Case No.01-7; and

WHEREAS, the Site is located within the boundaries of ANC 3F which is the affected ANC; and

WHEREAS, the Historic Preservation Office, by letter dated March 12, 2001, invited ANC3F to testify on April 26, 2001 at a hearing of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) on Designation Case No. 01-7; and

WHEREAS, the Owl's Nest was constructed on the Site in or about 1897 on a high knoll  overlooking Rock Creek to the east, Soapstone Creek to the south, Connecticut Avenue to the west and located at the convergence of two early country roads, Grant Road (sometimes called Military Road) on the north and Gates Road on the west and south, segments which still abut the property (all being within ANC 3F); and

WHEREAS, the stone residence is a scarce and intact vestige of a late-nineteenth-century transitional period in the development of upper northwest Washington, D.C., and

WHEREAS, the house is significant as a distinctive example of the work of Appleton P. Clark, Jr., one of Washington’s most prominent architects of the period, and

WHEREAS, an abundance of native and planted trees of up to 50 caliper-inches diameter, adorn the Site and City-owned right-of-way lands adjacent to the Site (including majestic oaks, American beech, and hickory) – some native trees quite likely pre-dating the Owl's Nest construction (and larger slower growing white oaks probably existing before the American Civil War) and other trees quite possibly part of the landscape architecture for the Owl's Nest; and

WHEREAS, this Commission has carefully reviewed the  application for designation submitted by the Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance to the Historic Preservation Office; and

WHEREAS, the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital (JPDS-NC) filed an application, on or about March 1, 2001, for a permit to raze the Owl’s Nest

WHEREAS, the D.C. Building Code provides for Interior Demolition Permits, Partial Demolition Permits and Raze [i.e., total demolition] Permits –  a Raze Permit being required to secure the right to remove a building or structure down to the ground.  (DCMR Title12A, Section 107.2.4; included in DC Register of November 19, 1999 at page 9429); and

WHEREAS, the ANC Reform Act provides that, "The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs [DCRA] shall insure that each ANC is provided at least twice a month by first class mail with a current list of applications for construction and demolition permits within the boundaries of that ANC." (DC Register of April 21, 2000, ANC Reform Act, Section 3 amending Section 13(c)(3) of the 1975 ANC law); and

WHEREAS, Confirming the 1975 law on February 9, 2000, the Office of the Corporation Counsel advised ANC3F that “DCRA is required to provide notice to an ANC of applications for construction and demolition permits within the boundaries of the ANC by regularly mailing a list of such applications to the affected ANC.”  A copy of that letter was furnished by Corporation Counsel to the Administrator of the Building and Land Regulation Administration in DCRA and copies were widely circulated by ANC3F among other ANCs.

WHEREAS,  DCRA failed to mail notice of that application to ANC3F (as required by the law) and not until the April 6, 2001 monthly listing in the DC Register did the DCRA publish notice (at page 3164) of having received an application for a permit to raze on or about March 2, 2001;  and

WHEREAS, without any notice to ANC3F the DCRA issued Building Permit, Type Raze,  Permit No. B435333 to JPDS-NC; and

WHEREAS, JPDS-NC began to remove exterior finish from a portion of a building at the Site; and

WHEREAS, a DCRA stop-work order is posted at the site pending the outcome of the landmark designation proceedings before the HPRB; and

WHEREAS, if the HPRB designates the Site as an Historic Landmark, the historic protection laws and regulations of the District of Columbia provide a procedure (which is not yet applicable) for considering any request to demolish all or part of an Historic Landmark; and
 
WHEREAS,  Commissioners of ANC3F have considered the written and oral views of members of the community and others and are familiar with the site;

NOW, THEREFORE, ANC3F:

1. Recommends that the HPRB designate Lot 867 in Square 2263, as described in the application, an Historic Landmark.

2. Calls upon the DCRA to adhere to and enforce its stop-work order.

3. Recommends that the DCRA rescind or declare null and void Permit No. B435333 because its issuance violated the notification provisions of the ANC Reform Act.

4. Designates Commissioner Robert V. Maudlin to represent ANC 3F before the HPRB and any related proceedings.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Approved by a vote of 5-2-0 at a duly noticed meeting on April 16, 2001 with a quorum present.

/S/ David J. Bardin____                                        /S/ Robert V. Maudlin____
Chair                                                                      Secretary