Section 11-1551. SIXTEENTH STREET HEIGHTS OVERLAY DISTRICT (SSH)

 

1551.1The Sixteenth Street Heights (SSH) Overlay District is established to help accomplish several goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan, especially those land use objectives relating to housing supply, neighborhood quality and character, and policies relating to human services and private institutions, as applied to the 16th Street Heights neighborhood.

 

 

1551.2The purposes of the SSH Overlay District are to:

 

(a)Promote the conservation, enhancement, and stability of this low-density, single-family neighborhood for housing and neighborhood-related uses;

 

(b)Control the expansion of nonresidential uses, and/or further conversion of residential housing to nonresidential uses in order to maintain the housing supply and minimize the external negative impacts of new nonresidential uses that are permitted in the SSH/R-1-B District in order to preserve neighborhood quality; and

 

(c)Allow neighborhoods to continue to provide a range of health and social service facilities as well as private institutions that provide cultural and religious enrichment and economic vitality, but within the framework of improved public review and control over the external effects of nonresidential uses. The objective is to make more compatible the Comprehensive Plan's goals and policies for maintaining the quality and stability of residential neighborhoods with other policies related to the reasonable provision of human services throughout the District of Columbia.

 

1551.3The Sixteenth Street Heights (SSH) Overlay District is comprised of the SSH-1 and the SSH-2 Districts.

 

1551.4The SSH-1 Overlay District encompasses the geographic area in northwest Washington generally bounded by 16th Street and Rock Creek Park on the west, Military Road and Missouri Avenue on the north, and 14th Street on the east, and Colorado Avenue on the southeast.  This overlay zone is applied to properties zoned R-1-B in the following squares and portions of squares:  2718, 2719, 2720, 2720W, 2721, 2721W, 2722, 2722W, 2723, 2723W, 2724, 2724W, 2725, 2741, 2742, 2796, and 2799.

 

1551.5The provisions of the SSH-1 Overlay District shall be applied properties identified in § 1551.4 based on the following key findings:

 

(a)Over a period of years, approximately one in every ten (10) houses in the SSH-1 District has been converted to a nonresidential use, a much higher ratio than has been identified for any other R-1-zoned neighborhood in the District of Columbia; the neighborhood accommodates a significant number and range of human service facilities and private institutions to an extent that new and significantly expanded nonresidential use facilities should be governed by improved public review to ameliorate adverse impacts on immediate and nearby neighbors and preserve a predominantly single-family residential character;

 

(b)The SSH-1 neighborhood boundaries are well established and encompass a significant geographic area; and

 

(c)The District of Columbia executive branch and councilmembers have identified the number of nonresidential uses and the conversion of houses to these uses in this neighborhood as a serious planning and enforcement problem for more than ten (10) years, as reflected in the legislative history of adopted provisions in the Comprehensive Plan in effect on July 29, 1994.

 

1551.6The SSH-2 Overlay District encompasses the geographic area in northwest Washington generally bounded by 16th Street on the west, Colorado Avenue on the north, 14th Street on the east, and Decatur Street to the south.  This overlay zone is applied to properties zoned R-1-B in the following squares and portions of squares:  2708, 2709, 2710, 2711, 2712, 2713, 2714, 2715, and 2716.

 

1551.7 The provisions of the SSH-2 Overlay District shall be applied to the properties described in  1551.6 based on the following key findings:

 

More than 20% of the residentially zoned land is used for nonresidential purposes;

 

The neighborhood boundaries are well established and encompass a significant geographic area; and

 

The District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan has identified the number of nonresidential uses in the neighborhood as a problem.

 

source

Final Rulemaking published at 41 DCR 5045 (July 29, 1994); as amended by Final Rulemaking published at 47 DCR 9741-43 (December 8, 2000), incorporating by reference the text of Proposed Rulemaking published at 47 DCR 8335, 8464 (October 20, 2000).