The CPHS board and staff have been following closely the conversations taking place in the neighborhood about the stresses on our Connecticut Avenue commercial district. We have been attending, and will continue to participate in, meetings with neighborhood organizations and merchants to explore ways to support neighborhood businesses and revitalize Connecticut Avenue.
Our Preservation Task Force (PTF), a newly-formed committee of the board, is studying the issues involved from a historic preservation perspective. The PTF’s mandate is to make recommendations to the board on preservation-related policies and advocacy. The PTF includes five members of the board, including two ARC members. Contact the PTF by email.
While discussions are ongoing, we wanted to share as much useful information as we can to help inform the conversation, including historical, historic preservation, and zoning information, and studies commissioned by neighborhood and DC organizations. We will continue to update this post with more resources.
MARKET STUDIES
The 2017 Neighborhood Profiles directory by the Washington, DC Economic Partnership provides demographic and economic data for 54 neighborhood commercial areas, including Cleveland Park, with a focus on population in the half-mile walkshed for each.
This Commercial Market Analysis and Enhancement Strategy for Cleveland Park (October 2016) was commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and shared with us by the Cleveland Park Business Association.
ZONING
The Neighborhood Mixed Use Zones subtitle of the current (2016) zoning code, which includes the Cleveland Park zone NC-3.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Understanding the Cleveland Park Historic District
This page has a map of the historic district showing contributing and noncontributing buildings, and links to our National Register of Historic Places nomination, which provides a detailed history of the Park & Shop and the Connecticut Avenue business district and the arguments for their significance on which our historic status is based.
This 1991 issue of our newsletter reports on the addition to the Park & Shop that was reviewed by HRPB and built that year. Other early issues of Voices provide perspective on 1980s activism to preserve the neighborhood-serving retail district on Connecticut Avenue.
DC Historic Preservation Law
DC’s preservation law and regulations are posted here: https://planning.dc.gov/page/hp-laws-and-regulations .
This Georgetown Law Library site (which originated with Tersh Boasberg’s preservation law seminar) aggregates all kinds of useful resources on DC preservation law: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/761426