By Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006

Several residents in upper Northwest Washington want the District to demolish two new $1 million houses being built across from Rock Creek Park because the permits were improperly issued.

The houses, in the 1700 block of North Portal Drive NW, are in an affluent neighborhood where residents are upset because one of the houses, a large Cape Cod/Tudor, is sandwiched between the back yards of two other houses. The front door of the two-story, five-bedroom house faces the back patio doors of a 5,000-square-foot, red-brick colonial. The back door of the tan, shingled house looks out on the back yard of another red-brick house, with a pool and Japanese pond.

The houses are only weeks from completion. Last month, a city official revoked the building permits after his office failed to submit the plans for review by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, as federal law requires.

The construction has sparked a literal not-in-my-back-yard fight between the old neighbors and the new property owners. It has embarrassed city officials who erroneously issued the permits, and united a community of activists who are signing petitions and planting yard signs: "No illegal new houses in our back yards."

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that those houses are outside the standards of this neighborhood," said Deborah Royster, whose back yard bounds the new house. "We do not have houses built in the back yards of other houses."

Before issuing permits, city officials are required to submit plans for changes to private buildings that bound public spaces, including Rock Creek Park, to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

Lennox Douglas of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs notified the commission in December that the city had mistakenly neglected to send the plans for review. He revoked the building permits last month, saying they were "issued in error." The owners appealed and have been allowed to continue building.

Thomas Luebke, secretary of the commission, said this is not the first time the city has allowed construction to proceed without its review. In other cases, the commission has stopped construction and forced significant design changes.

"While we hesitate to punish the property owners for your agency's mistake, we need to express to you how unacceptable we find this circumventing of the regulatory process," Luebke wrote Douglas in December. "Although we will allow the construction of these projects to continue at this time, we may be forced to pursue stronger actions with the District of Columbia if errors similar to this one continue to occur."

In a telephone interview, Luebke said the commission will review the houses May 18. It could recommend demolition, but the city would have to enforce it.

The neighborhood is home to numerous community leaders. Among them are D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby and former city administrator John A. Koskinen. Royster, a Pepco lawyer, is married to Robert A. Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association. Royster and Malson, along with several members of the North Portal Civic Association, hope to influence the commission's decision.

Almost 40 residents, double the usual turnout, attended a civic association meeting last month. All were critical of the construction. Many properties have double lots. As aging residents sell, developers might divide the land into smaller lots, neighbors say.

"If we put two or more houses where one house is allowed, you change the whole tenor and flavor of the neighborhood," said Jerome Paige, president of the civic association, who called the new houses McMansions.

The owners say their houses meet the city's zoning requirements. They said they met with officials of the Fine Arts Commission in December and were assured that the city's error would not affect the construction of their houses.

Minh Vu, who owns the house wedged between the two back yards, said that she and her husband originally intended to live there but that the dispute has soured her opinion of the neighbors. Now, she said, she would not be comfortable living among them. She said they hope to sell the house, which cost them more than $1 million so far.

"People are trying to make this appear that there are more defects in the process than there really are," she said. "The only problem that the neighbors can hang their hats on is the approval by the Fine Arts Commission."

The other owner, developer Hashim Hassan, said that he was to deliver the house to a buyer by late May and that he will have to foot the cost of the delay caused by the city's mistake. "I'm disappointed," he said. "If we can't trust the government, who can we trust?"