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Green Renovation on the Hill

January 7th, 2010 by Nichole Remmert · 3 Comments · Capitol Hill

Earlier this week, Prince of Petworth had a great post on GreenSpur, Inc.‘s carbon-neutral redevelopment of this home on 4th Street NE.  The piece delves a bit into some of the trouble they had with DCRA’s permitting process.  You should definitely take a look at the piece, and read the comments where representatives from both GreenSpur and DCRA weigh in.

Most of us here on the Hill are no strangers to the difficulties of navigating the various city agencies, not to mention our own Capitol Hill Restoration Society when we wish to make changes to our homes.  In fact, when I first saw this project, my initial thought was, “Why on Earth would you undertake something like this – the first of its kind in the city – within the boundaries of the Capitol Hill Historic District?”  GreenSpur talks a little about why this location made perfect sense to them on their website and the outcome is absolutely gorgeous.

The location of this project fits well into the greater carbon question of choosing thoughtful site locations. The ability for people to live close to where they work and play is essential. Besides being steps from the Capitol, the East Capitol Neighborhood has many restaurants, bars, retail stores and parks to enjoy. The size of the house also fits well into the sustainability story. Despite having three bedrooms and 3 ½ baths, the completed home will still only be approximately 2400 square feet – proving you can live more with less.

Originally Uploaded to flickr by greenspur

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells had the opportunity to tour the property last month and was thrilled with the new technology. “Any time you do a renovation like this, with all of the exciting and progressive improvements, there will be challenges retrofitting them into a home in a historic district.  Fortunately, they had success meeting that challenge.  Hopefully, as more sustainable construction and renovation takes place in the District, DCRA will be better equipped to handle the special needs of this work.”

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  • Elizabeth Festa
  • http://imgoph.blogspot.com/ IMGoph

    would have been nice to see ch. 9 actually ask DCRA their side of the story. from what i understand, these guys aren’t exactly being forthright about how much of the delays were their fault.

  • http://www.greenspur.net Mark Turner

    Channel 9 news did ask to speak to DCRA and they declined an interview but did issue a statement. Our basic position is that we believe in the leadership of DC, but do believe there is a breakdown at the agency level when it comes to implementation of positive vision from the top. It actually took us 9 months to get all of our permits – this shouldn’t happen for a single family home – particularly a green one.

    We stand behind the story and its facts, and are not going to shy away from what we think is an important part of the story – getting through DCRA bureaucracy – which has been a long standing problem in the city. I do think there are very good well educated and informed people at DCRA (Micheal Rupert as one example) that are implementing positive change – but we are not quite there yet. Hopefully, with a well informed public and private sector we can continue down the path of improvement at all levels.

    All the specific timelines can be found at either DCRA website or at the responses in prince of petworth:

    http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2010/01/the-challenges-of-building-green-under-dcras-watchful-eye-by-michael-kiefer/#comment-159282

    We are also having the house open this weekend and would be happy to answer any questions in person today from 1-4 pm.

    Many thanks for everyone’s interest.