Evening star., 1944-01-07
Rezoning Plan
For Southeast
Given Study
Commission Hears
Bitter Opposition
To Apartments

The zoning Commission today
has under advisement the difficult
and bitterly contested problem Of
whether areas of land in Congress
Heights and Bradbury Heights in
Southeast Washington should be re-
zoned to prevent construction Of ad-
ditional multi-family dwellings.
Lengthy testimony, which started
Monday afternoon, was completed
late yesterday on the zonlng pro-
posals, which would have the imme-
diate effect of blocking construction
by Smith & Gottlieb of more than
700 low-cost Negro housing units in
the two areas.
Presenting the case for the Brad
bury Heights Citizens Association,
which backed the rezoning move,
Attorney John L. Fowler said that
1t made my blood boil" to have
people suggest that opposition to the
housing projects was based on "ra-
cial hatred" He said it was a ques-
ton of extending an already segre-
gated while district.
Alternative Suggested.
Witnesses for the Bradbury Asso-
ciation suggested that Negro hous-
Ing might be placed in the vicinity
OF Marshall Heights, which they
said already was Negro community
and had sewer and water facilities.
They contended that there was no
sewerage in the area where the con-
struct1on company hopes to build,
but admitted that there was a sewer
connection from Benning road, ad-
1acent to the property of Smith e.
Gottlieb.
Rlnggold Hart, attorney repre-
sentlng the construction firm, argued
that his client had the approval of
the Federal Housing Authority for
the project, that priorities had been
granted, and that priorities could not
be obtained for the detached and
semidetached dwellings which were
preferred by many spokesmen op-
posing the construction work.
During arguments on the Congress
Heights area, the Zoning Commits
sion heard charge from James
Turner, representing a group of Ne
gro home owners on Alabama ave-
nue. Sc. opposed to the multi family
units, that he was asked by an en-
ploye of the National Capital Hous-
ing Authority not to tell his neigh
bors that the authority intended to
take their land over. The NCHA
project was dropped later, however.
Mr.. Turner said his property had
been in the family since 1918.
Projects AssaiIed.
Though the rezoning of Congress
Heights and Bradbury Heights were
separate amendments and consid-
cred separately by the commission,
a number of the opposition spokes-
men lashed out at both of them at
the same time. Such spokesmen in
cluded Mrs. Helen Duey Hoffman of
the Washington Housing Associa-
tion, Mrs. Robert G. MCGUIRE of the
Emergency Committee on Housing
in Metropolitan Washington, Mrs.
Anita Sufrin of the WASHINGTON
League of Women Shoppers, the Rev.
Francis w. McPeek of the Fedora
ton of Churches and the Citizens
Committee on Race Relations.
Others who spoke in opposition to
rezoning in the Southeast were Roy
Garvin, secretary of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and president of the
Garfeld-Douglass Citizens Associa-
ton; Alfred Stein of the United
Federal Workers; Edgar G. Brown,
director of the National Negro
Council and president of the United
Government Employees, and Mrs.
Pauline Coggs, executive secretary of
the Washington Urban League, and
the Rev. R. w. Brooks of the board
of directors of the housing associa-
ton and representing the Interde-
nominational Ministerial Alliance.
From Mrs. Coggs came the warm
Ing that there is considerable
evidence that the difficulties en-
countered by public and private
agencies attempting to find sites
for the construction of Negro hous-
ing are resulting in INCREASED ra-
cial tensions in our community"
Overcrowding Cited.
ut is known fact" she told the
commission, that overcrowding and
insanitation such as that currently
being experienced within the Ne
gro communities produces a heavy
toll in juvenile delinquency. in
crease in crimes and disease. These
social disasters constitute a drain
en the financial and social resources
Of the entire community and men,
ace the health and well-being of
the total population"
Property owners in both Con-
gress and Bradbury Heights denied
that their opposition to the housing
units was based on racial prejudice,
contending that they considered low
cost, multi-family dwellings, wheth-
er for white or colored, detrimental
to the areas. Many property own
ers testified that when they pur-
chased their homes they did not
realize that the area was zoned for
apartments.
IF zoning is to be valuable it
must be to some degree reasonably
permanent and not suddenly
changed at the caprice of people
who did nothing about it (the zori-
ing) for over 20 years." declared
Roger j. Whiteford, attorney for
the construction firm.