Opinion ID: 2202658
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Special Exception for Additional Parking

Text: There is, finally, the present case: an application for a special exception to permit additional, below grade parking spaces for the Westbridge residential development Carr eventually built. As noted earlier, CR zoning regulations require a developer to provide a minimum of one parking space for every six dwelling units and permit the developer to provide a maximum of two spaces for every three units. D.C. Zoning Regs. § 4505.1 (1982), supra note 22. The BZA may grant a special exception, permitting parking in excess of the maximum, if: (1) the proposed parking is indoor, id., § 4502.321; (2) the entrances and exits to the parking spaces are not within 25 feet of a street intersection or within 12 feet from the center line of an alley, id., §§ 4502.322, 7402.12; (3) [s]uch parking shall not result in dangerous or otherwise objectionable traffic conditions, and the present character and future development of the neighborhood will not be adversely affected, id., § 4502.323; and (4) [s]uch parking is reasonably necessary and convenient to uses on the same lot or in the vicinity. Id. § 4502.324. [25] The application before the BZA would allow Carr to add 45 below-grade parking spaces to the West End development, creating a one-to-one ratio of spaces and dwelling units. Unlike the height litigation with the resulting increase in FAR, the special exception proceeding cannot be characterized as an attempt to increase the rentable space on Carr's property. The FAR regulations do not restrict the amount of rentable space that may be added to a building below grade, see supra note 21; a builder may add as much space below grade as he or she chooses. Thus, the parking space exception, if granted, would not have affected the amount of rentable space available at the Westbridge; it only would have authorized Carr to use more of his rentable space below grade for parking. On remand of Brown I, the BZA found the regulations' criteria satisfied and granted the application in its order of May 17, 1978, concluding that additional below grade parking would ameliorate traffic conditions in the vicinity of the Westbridge. [26] As noted earlier, see supra note 19, the BZA expressly found that no facts or issues in this special exception case were in any way connected with the earlier building height and air rights condominium transactions, and that no information which may have been available to Mitchell and Murphy from these previous transactions would have aided Carr in the special exception case. Given the decidedly different legal issues in each transaction and the testimony and exhibits of record as to each, we conclude that substantial evidence of record supports these findings.