Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-28
BUILDERS PROTEST
TR|-YEARLY MEETS
FOR zON|NG: BODY
Rufus S. Lusk, in Letter to
Commission, Outlines Rea-
sons for Opposition.
DECLARES NEW PLAN
WOULD WORK HARDSHIP.
Five or Six Day Sessions Required.
Under Proposed Change Are
Held Unnecessary.

A strong protest against the an
nounced decision of the zoning Conf
mission to meet but three times year
after January l, next, gas filed today
with Mai Donald A. DAWSON. executive
head of the commission. by Rufus S.
Lusk. representing the Operative
Builders Association, which consists OF
about score of active building organl'
cations of Washington.
The letter of the Operative Builders
Association contends that such 1nfre-
ouent meetings of the commission to
consider proposed coming changes would
work severe and unnecessary hardship
on property owners in many instanc1 IS.
It is pointed out that the Zonlng
Commission here must consider all IN
dividual cases as we'll as general Zonlng
area matters, and that If the COM
mission met but three times year, the
number of cases presented would be so
great as to consume five or six days at
one time. The association questions
the advantage to the city OF thus nav
ing the services of District Commits
sioners. members of the coming body,
confined for so long period at one
time to coming.
Lusk Outlines Opposition.
DECLARING IIldI UleIIlDelS Va piiS
builders organization are almost ur1-
animously opposed to the new plan for
infreouent meetings of the commission.
MFR. Lusk assigns the following reasons
for their opposition to the plan:
The zoning Commission as set up
in washington must not only concern
itself with general coming charges, but
with any specific case that may come
before it, In consequence, 1t mas
great deal more work to do than the
average coming commission, which con-
Germs itself only with coming changes
and not with specific cases.
In many of these specific cases IT Is
desirable and often of vital Importance
that reasonably prompt decision be
rendered Under the proposed system
of meetings it might be necessary to
wait four months to get an interprsta-
ton of the regulations or to have
hearing on some specific case, which,
while of no concern to the vast ma
ioritv, is of importance to one indi-
vidual and he should. we think. have
an opportunity for prompt hearing.
ION any important change, part1c-
ularIy changes in regulations, 1t has
been the custom of the commission
often to postpone final decision in
order to get more expression of various
viewpoints. When a semi-restricted
dlStrlcC' was SET up InTee years
ago, three hearings were held before
proper regulation was phrased. This
took three months and caused GER
tain amount of hardship; under the
new plan of meeting, it might have
taken almost year to have gotten
that matter decided.
Predicts Undue Delay.
eff the hearings occur once every
four months they will take almost two
solid weeks of the full time Of the Dis
trict Commissioners who are members
of the zoning Commission. At the
present time it takes at least two days,
including the hearing, the executive
session and visits to the properties each
month. and when the number of cases
has been heavy, five or six days in one
month have been consumed. 1t is
doubtful if it would react to the adj
vantage of our city government to have
it deprived of the services Of its three
Commissioners for almost ten days or
two weeks. There are a multitude OF
matters which they can decide and we
doubt the wisdom of depriving the clti-'
zens of Washington of the services
IF all of them for so long period.
even though hearings are held but
three times year. this will not lessen
the number of cases that reoccur an
nlally and which require the attendance
Of many interested parties who seek
to protect their property rights"