Evening star., 1958-05-11
zoning Code
Reaction Seen
As Favorable
BY GEORGE BEvERIDGE
star star writer

/ kCtlGIhlly lhNuIhuic EChCblot
TO the city's seeping new zoninS
code, but are prepared for ar
onslaught Of protests from own
ers whose individual properties
are adversely affected In value
This expectation. voiced By
Assistant Engineer Commits
sioner Thomas B. Hunter, wa;
borne out at least In part BY
the first limited reaction ex-
pressed last night by leaders OF
the business community.
James c. wilkes, attorney
and a leader OF the now-de-
funct Citizens Zoning Advisory
Committee. expressed both
praise and disappointment al
the new provisions.
Mr.. wilkes said that even
from a first reading Of the new
code and coming maps, for ex-
ample. II appeared to him that
the coming commission had
given full consideration" "a
the concerns Of many property
owners who appeared at pub
lie hearings on the coming re-
vision.
once Provisions Lauded
He praised decisions to in.
crease substantially the size Of
office buildings In downtown
Washington beyond levels pro-
posed by consultant Harold M
Lewis, and to eliminate any
requirement for off-street park
ing in downtown commercial
buildings.
At the same time. Mr.. Wilke;
voiced regret that the commits
sion failed to extend boundarie,
of the central business dis.
trict" zoning district farther
west and north than it did. HI
said that particularly in the
areas of Connecticut anc
Pennsylvania avenues there Il
a demand for larger building.
than the new code permits. anc
that these are the dominant
areas Of business growth.
He also criticized tight limit.
imposed on the size of new
apartment houses, which HI
predicted will rule out future
elevator apartments on choice
upper Connecticut avenue sites
and rigid of street parking re.
quirements both for apartments
and commercial buildings.
Source Of Major Blasts
The major blasts. however
are expected to generate from
isolated cases, once property
owners fully analyze the new
code. 1t was pointed out thai
in one instance. for example, {
large tract of land which haC
been zoned for apartment houst
development is restricted Il
single-family-home develop,
ment-a move which viii
greatly affect the lands value
Col. Hunter said machinery
has been set up for handling
complaints and added, II pre-,
dict there will be a goodly mum.
Der of coming map changes il
the next several months"
For the next several weeks
he said the District expects its
heavy work load to be in the
form of answering questions
about the new code and its ef-
feet on properties. He said ht
felt it would take architects ano
builders several months to fully
analyze the new code before
submitting major new projects
Robert o. Clouser, District
zoning officer, said it was "only
the very big jobs" however
which will slow up. He said he
expects a full work load of ap-
plications to process under the
new rules for smaller projects.
Tide Of Applications
On Friday. builders swamped
the District Building with more
than 100 new building permit
applications, in order to nave
them processed Under the old
zoning rules. All applications
filed after closing time last Fri
day must comply with the new
code.
Except for one, however,
81 million apartment project
most of the laSt-minute appli-
cations were for new homes
and other small residential
projects. according to j. p
Green, chief of the Districts
Permit Branch. He said he re-
called only one commercial
project being filed on Friday,
an addition to an existing
building.
Mr.. Green said he felt most
of the last-minute applications
were those which normally
would have been filed during
the summer months, but were
rushed through early. officials
said it was obvious that ad-
vance knowledge of the code
and its enactment provisions
had leaked out "in bits and
pieces" including Official an
nouncements. A surge of big
building projects were filed a
number of weeks ago. officials
said.
The new CODE. consisting OF
revised regulations and a series
of 10 zoning maps. establishes
new zoning classif1cations and
building restrictions on virtu-
ally all the Districts private
land. The provisions were made
public in full yesterday, to be-
come effective at 1901 am
tomorrow.
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