Dear All:
In the past few days several questions have been posted on the
Cleveland Park listserv regarding CPCA's decision declining the
National Cathedral School's recent request to increase the hours and
intensity of use of its athletic facilities. The Executive Committee of
the CPCA and I would like to answer member’s questions and give
you some additional information.
There is an existing Usage Agreement between NCS and CPCA that
addresses, quite specifically, the extent to which NCS can rent out its
athletic facilities for outside use. When NCS unveiled its plans for
new athletic facilities in 1998, there was considerable citizen concern
that the school had designed a building which far exceeded the school's
own programmatic needs and that its intent was to use the facility as a
revenue producing source. NCS denied this accusation and stated that
the facility was indeed designed to meet its own needs. Neighbors were
fearful extensive outside use would disrupt the balance of tolerable
impact. In order to resolve the conflict, NCS and CPCA each assigned
three representatives to negotiate an agreement. The agreement took
several months to hammer out. Ultimately a contract, named the
“Usage Agreement”, was produced that all parties agreed
adequately reflected their needs, rights and concerns. This Agreement
was incorporated into and made a part of the August 1999 Board of
Zoning Adjustment’s Order granting NCS permission to build the
building. The Agreement focuses on restriction of outside, that is to
say non-foundation, related use. It contains no language allowing for
future incremental expansion of use. Restricting NCS's use of the
facility as a revenue source is precisely the purpose of the Agreement.
As stated in the Zoning Order:
“In order to ensure that the
proposed facility will not adversely affect the neighborhood, the
Board's approval is made subject to the terms of the usage agreement
between the Applicant and the CPCA and the conditions in ANC 3C's April
26, 1999 revision of its February 22. 1999 resolution (including the
conditions of the attached "Construction and Operation Conditions").
The usage agreement and ANC resolution are incorporated in this order
as Appendix A and B, respectively…….In addition, the
liaison committee to be established under the agreements will serve as
a vehicle through which future citizen requests and concerns may be
addressed,”
Late last December, NCS made a verbal request to modify the agreement
so it could increase use of its facilities. I subsequently spoke with
representatives of the school, immediate NCS neighbors, and those with
expertise on this matter who were involved on both sides in drafting
the original agreement. Members of the Executive Committee received
written and verbal input from NCS neighbors about the proposed changes.
Every one opposed the expansion and cited examples of adverse
conditions for their opposition.
Additionally, the CPCA Executive Committee learned that the Agreement,
and therefore the Zoning Order, stipulated the formation of a liaison
committee composed of “NCS, NCS/Foundation, CPCA, Cleveland Park
Historical Society, ANC 3C, National Cathedral Neighborhood
Association, and adjacent property owners”. The purpose of the
committee is, “to oversee and coordinate implementation of (the)
Agreement”. For various reasons, this liaison committee had not
met in some time. The CPCA Executive Committee insisted that a meeting
take place before making a decision on NCS’s request.
The Liaison Committee met on March 8th during which NCS gave a power
point presentation outlining the specifics of its request. The
presentation emphasized economic challenges faced by the school and its
desire to create additional revenue sources. The request for expanded
use included some requests for minor expanded use, such as weekday
access to the building beginning at 6:00 AM as opposed to 7. But it
also included requests for significant expanded use by
outsiders: an increase from 50 people using the building to 200, an
increase from 40 people using the outdoor fields to 100, an increase in
campers from 180 to 325 and the ability to start outdoor field activity
at 9:00 AM on Sundays instead of 12:00 PM. It did not include opening
up the facility for a neighborhood gym concept.
The CPCA Executive Committee concluded that given the uniform
opposition to these proposed changes expressed by affected neighbors,
NCS’s desire to expand commercial use of the facilities in order
to raise revenue, and the lack of data for measuring current usage and
impacts, there was no basis for revisiting the Agreement, and
consequently the Order, at this time.
This topic and our decision were included and discussed as an agenda
item at the March 16th CPCA membership meeting. But we are happy to
include this topic again at the April 20th membership meeting if
members so desire.
We are also happy to discuss with anyone both NCS's goals and the needs
of our neighbors; we invite anyone with an interest to directly contact
any of us or to come to one of our meetings and raise any matters you
think are important. You can find our email addresses, and the full
text of our response to NCS, on our website:
http://www.cleveandparkisus.org .
Respectfully,
Susie Taylor, President
And the Executive Committee