Opinion ID: 2111774
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the advisory neighborhood commission

Text: Petitioners' last contention is that the Commission failed to give great weight to the issues and concerns of ANC, as D.C.Code 1978 Supp., § 1-171i(d) requires. Again, we disagree. Section 1-171i(d) provides in pertinent part: Each [Advisory Neighborhood] Commission so notified ... shall forward its written recommendations .. [to] the appropriate agency.... The issues and concerns raised in the recommendations of the Commission shall be given great weight during the deliberations by the governmental agency and those issues shall be discussed in the written rationale for the governmental decision taken. In Kopff v. D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, D.C.App., 381 A.2d 1372 (1977), this court, interpreting the great weight provision of the statute, imposed a strict requirement that the agency elaborate, with precision, its response to the ANC issues and concerns.... to deal with it in detail, without slippage.... That is, the agency must articulate why the particular ANC ... does not  offer persuasive advice under the circumstances. [ Id. at 1384.] Petitioners urge us to overturn the Commission's order because it does not meet with the Kopff standard. However, as we recently held in Wheeler v. Board of Zoning Adjustment, supra at 91, the Kopff standard does not apply to administrative determinations rendered by agencies prior to our decision in Kopff. In that opinion, we went on to say that we will not reverse agency determinations made pre- Kopff if the record reveals that the agency was cognizant of and paid attention to the pertinent and specific neighborhood issues and concerns raised by the ANC's. Id. at 91. The pre- Kopff standard applies here since the Commission's order in this case was handed down prior to this court's decision in Kopff. Since we have affirmed the ruling of the Commission, except for the failure to make a finding on the issue of parking, we remand this case for that reason alone. So Ordered.