The Mormon church’s claim of religious discrimination from residents of 16th Street Heights who are bucking plans for a three-story meeting house and 105-foot spire has been rebuffed by planning officials.
But the church is not abandoning plans for the controversial facility.
Neighbors say they simply want to safeguard the residential nature of their community by prohibiting new nonresidential construction.
“It has nothing to do with [discrimination],” said Doreen Thompson, who lives across from the now-vacant church parcel at 16th and Emerson streets Northwest. “These are structures with traffic. It has nothing to do with the church. It has nothing to do with their religion or them.”
Jeffrey Holmstead, an environmental lawyer and senior member of the lay ministry, said the Mormons are ready to take the District to court. The church bought the property, once home to a convent, three years ago for $4 million.
“We’ve been looking for years and years to try and find an appropriate site,” Holmstead said. “They just don’t come along very often. If we need to litigate, we certainly will.”
The D.C. Zoning Commission agreed in October to extend the existing 16th Street Heights zoning “overlay district” south to include Emerson Street. The overlay bars nonresidential construction without a special exception issued by the Board of Zoning Adjustments, a hurdle that could take months to clear — and may ultimately be insurmountable.
The church has already petitioned the BZA. A hearing is scheduled for March.
On Thursday, the National Capital Planning Commission declined to get involved. The church asked the NCPC to block the overlay, arguing the expanded zoning restrictions violate two federal statutes barring the city from imposing a “substantial burden” on the free exercise of religion.
The overlay expansion was “motivated to prevent religious land use” and “unquestionably arose” from an attempt to stop construction of the Mormon church, said Carolyn Brown, an attorney with Holland & Knight who represents the church.
The NCPC disagreed, with the exception of Commissioner Herbert F. Ames.
“That sounds like discrimination to me,” Ames said.
With the new boundary extending south to Decatur Street, the 16th Street Heights overlay will include 10 religious organizations and two educational institutions. Ronald Bland, who sits on the area’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission, said the Mormons’ plan was the “tipping point.”
“Really what was driving it was that the church, without the overlay, as a matter of right could do what they wanted,” Bland said. “The fact that it’s a church had nothing to do with it.”
