CM Charles Allen Stakes Out His Position on Commercial Use of Residential Properties

ANC6B Commissioner Jerry Sroufe (at left) reported last week – following a conversation with CM Charles Allen at the councilmember’s Hype Café community office hours – that Allen said it will take a cultural change at DOB to affect commercialization of residences.  Now Allen says, Brian Hanlon, the new Acting Director of DOB will make it a priority. 

The new Acting Director of DOB Brian Hanlon is a registered architect with more than 35 years of private and public sector experience.  He worked in District government as the Executive Program Manager at the Department of Real Estate and was the first permanent Director of the Department of General Services (DGS).  He was responsible for $2.3 billion in new construction, renovation, and other capital projects including schools, parks, recreation facilities, office buildings, laboratories, senior centers, police stations, fire stations, and residential shelter facilities during his tenure.   He lives on Capitol Hill not far from Eastern Market. (In an earlier post, CHC mis-identified Hanlon. CHC regrets the error.)

CM Charles Allen Stakes Out His Position on Commercial Use of Residential Properties https://bit.ly/3ryBxIA

by Larry Janezich

Posted July 18, 2023

On Tuesday afternoon, CM Charles Allen said new Department of Buildings Director Brian Hanlon had committed to him that he would make the issue of commercial use of residential properties a priority. 

The statement came in response to an email from Valerie Jablow, community activist and education blogger, who earlier in the day had sent Allen an email signed by ten neighbors who are concerned about the effects on the community when corporations and non-profits buy residential properties and use them for commercial purposes. 

The text of Allen’s email is as follows: 

“I share the frustration of neighbors with the inaction from several of the agencies.  We’ve brought properties up repeatedly to DOB and others with little or no action taken.  Recently, with the appointment of Brian Hanlon as the new DOB Director, I sat down with him to talk about his priorities. I’ve known Mr. Hanlon for a number of years and think very highly of him.  He lives on Capitol Hill and I pressed him on this issue of residential buildings being used illegally.  As a neighbor close to this issue, I urged him to see this as a more serious problem that needs action from DOB.  He committed to me that as the DOB Director, he would make this a priority and I’m going to work with him to ensure that …. I want to hold him to this commitment and I trust that I’ll be able to work in partnership with the ANC on this well.”

In her email earlier Tuesday to Allen, Jablow asked him to “demand DLCP, DOB, and OTR enforce zoning, building, and business regulations and proper taxation for properties reported to them as being used solely for corporate events.”

Adding, “Without your urgent action, we fear businesses will continue to be incentivized to use our neighborhood’s residential properties for corporate activities because it is cheaper than using commercial space in our Capitol-adjacent neighborhood and, as we have seen, there is no effective oversight.” 

That email followed a statement Jablow delivered last week to ANC6C in which she appealed to the ANC to join with ANC6B to “ensure our neighborhood houses are not used illegally as offices or corporate event spaces.” 

Part of her statement follows: 

“Earlier this year, I told you about several houses in our ANC apparently used solely for corporate functions—despite their tax coding as primarily residences.

The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) only cared whether the properties were rented out for corporate functions – but they aren’t, because the businesses that use them thusly own them.  The Department of Buildings (DOB) only cared whether the houses were vacant – which is not exactly true, because they are used for corporate events regularly.  And the office of tax and revenue appeared uninterested in possible tax fraud, despite the clear violation of tax coding.

But those properties are hardly the only ones in our ANC that are … inappropriately used by way of exploiting ineffective DLCP and DOB oversight.  So I am here to ask, again, for you to work with ANC6B in demanding that those same agencies define how a corporation “resides” in a house and in ensuring our neighborhood houses are not used illegally as offices or corporate event spaces.

One path forward may be pressing both DLCP and DOB to work with the office of tax and revenue to ensure that tax coding for a property matches its main use – i.e., changing the coding to a more expensive commercial rate….

In response, ANC6C Chair Mark Eckenwiler noted that he had had a number of exchanges with Ms. Jablow about this and said that if there’s unlicensed activity going on that should be addressed. 

Commissioner Joel Kelty said that he thought the issue should be discussed at the committee level, adding that he was “somewhat sympathetic to (Jablow’s) concerns…I feel that many of these uses are potentially running afoul of the zoning regulations and I do actually … understand and agree with her comments on properties being used for commercial use but being taxed as residential property.…” He said he would encourage putting this on the agenda for the next Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development committee at the next meeting.   Eckenweiler, who chairs the Committee, supported Kelty’s suggestion.