[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 55 (Friday, March 24, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


FEDERAL ACTION IS NEEDED TO ENFORCE FEDERAL BUILDING HEIGHT LIMITATIONS

                                 ______


                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 24, 1995
  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, Federal action is needed in order to preserve 
the letter and intent of Congress' Height of Buildings Act of 1910.
  In introducing this legislation, I have no intention of interfering 
with the district's zoning decisions, only to enforce Federal law. I do 
not relish having to take this action, but it is out of a necessity 
generated by the desire of some to circumvent Federal law.
  This legislation will simply enforce current law regulating the 
height of buildings constructed in the District of Columbia by 
prohibiting the District of Columbia from issuing any building or 
occupancy permit for a project located at 1328 G Street Northwest 
unless the project to be developed complies with the required building 
height limitation of 110 feet.
  In order to get around the law, the developers of this project have 
argued against not only Federal law, but the laws of physics. No matter 
how much a developer might wish it to be so, a property cannot be in 
two places at the same time.
  The plot of land in question is located in the middle of the 1300 
block of G Street. Nonetheless, the developers claim that it actually 
``fronts'' on 13th Street. As found by the National Trust for Historic 
Preservation, ``that is not the case here--1328 G Street is clearly a 
mid-block building separated from 13th Street by 75 feet, two lots, and 
a public alley. Any suggestion that 1328 G Street `fronts' on 13th 
Street is clearly an artifice, and would circumvent the requirements of 
the Building Height Act.''
  I am submitting for the Record a letter from the National Trust for 
Historic Preservation to the National Capital Planning Commission 
providing greater detail of the developer's shenanigans with this 
project.
  Again, taking this action is not something that I relish, but it is 
necessary. It is necessary in order to enforce existing law, to protect 
the Federal interest, and to preserve the unique skyline of the 
Nation's Capital.
                                                National Trust for


                                        Historic Preservation,

                                   Washington, DC, March 16, 1995.
     Re closing of a public alley and establishment of an easement 
         in square bounded by F, 13th, G, and 14th Streets, N.W. 
         (D.C. Council Act 10-295).
     Hon. Thomas M. Davis III,
     Chairman, District of Columbia Subcommittee,
     House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Washington, 
         DC.
       Dear Mr. Davis: On behalf of the National Trust for 
     Historic Preservation in the United States (the ``National 
     Trust''), I am writing to urge you to disapprove D.C. Council 
     Act 10-295, which permits the closing of the alley referenced 
     above. Allowing this alley closure to become effective would 
     violate the Building and Height Limitation Act of 1910, ch. 
     263, 36 Stat. 452 (1910), by permitting a building at 1328 G 
     Street to exceed the Act's height limitation. While we 
     strongly support the District of Columbia's right to self-
     government on matters of purely local concern, it is 
     appropriate for Congress to exercise its reserved oversight 
     authority under the D.C. Home Rule Act when federal 
     interests--such as upholding the integrity of the federal 
     Height Limitation Act--are at stake as they are here.
       The National Trust was chartered by Congress in 1949 as a 
     private nonprofit organization to facilitate public 
     participation in the preservation of our nation's historic 
     resources. 16 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 461, 468. The National Trust 
     has approximately 250,000 members nationwide, including 5,500 
     members in the District of Columbia. In addition to its 
     headquarters building off Dupont Circle, two of the National 
     Trust's eighteen historic house museums, Decatur House and 
     Woodrow Wilson House, are located in Washington, D.C. 
     [[Page E697]] Furthermore, the National Trust's Mid-Atlantic 
     Regional Office in Philadelphia is specifically responsive to 
     D.C. preservation concerns.
       The National Trust has a strong interest in protecting 
     important features of the Nation's Capital, including the 
     sense of scale and proportion necessary to preserve the 
     inspirational vistas of our historic national monuments and 
     landmark federal
      buildings. This interest is protected by federal law--the 
     Building and Height Limitation Act of 1910--as well as by 
     the Preservation and Historic Features Element of the 
     Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital.
       The building whose construction would be facilitated by the 
     D.C. Council's Act is 1328 G Street, N.W., which is located 
     mid-block. Under federal law, the height of 1328 G Street 
     should be limited to 110 feet, which is the width of the 
     widest street on which the building fronts (G Street) plus 20 
     feet. Under the D.C. Council's Act, however, the building 
     would be constructed to a height of 130 feet, based on the 
     width of 13th Street, exceeding by nearly 20 percent the 
     height limit for G Street. This is because the Council has 
     used an alley closure to pretend that the building would 
     front on 13th Street via a two-part artificial connection. 
     First, 1328 G Street would ``connect'' to an elevated walkway 
     to 1310 G Street, that already exceeds the G Street height 
     limit by 20 feet in violation of federal law. Compounding 
     this error, 1328 G Street would then, according to the City, 
     ``connect'' through 1310 to a 75 foot parking lot on the 
     corner of 13th and G streets. Because this parking lot could 
     contain a building 130 feet tall, the Council has justified 
     exceeding the height limit mid-block on G Street. The 
     Council's action, therefore, skirts the requirements of 
     federal law based on a loophole that could lead to a 
     wholesale erosion of the height limitation.
       In the National Trust's view, the D.C. Council's action in 
     attempting to circumvent the congressionally mandated 
     building height limitation raises serious legal questions. 
     Moreover, the hearing report of the House District of 
     Columbia Committee acknowledged that because ``[t]he city 
     accepts even fictitious buildings as the basis for exceeding 
     the height limit,'' the developer of 1328 G Street asserts 
     that it ``is entitled to the same height as the non-existent 
     [corner building].''
       The federally prescribed height limitation, which has 
     existed in some form since the founding of the Nation's 
     Capital itself, enhances the architectural character of the 
     capital city, and its nationally significant public buildings 
     and historic monuments. The height limitation for the 
     Nation's Capital is one of the important aesthetic features 
     that distinguishes the City of Washington from other major 
     cities and should be vigorously enforced. For this reason, we 
     urge the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on the 
     District of Columbia to act swiftly to disapprove D.C. 
     Council Act 10-295. Please feel free to contact me at 673-
     4255, if you have any questions.
           Sincerely,
                                            Edward M. Norton, Jr.,
                                 Vice President for Public Policy.
Vol. 141


WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1995

No. 55


House of Representatives