The Hill Center on July 29, 2011
Site of the Center's Summer Garden
Hill Center Refuses to Negotiate With Protestors on Voluntary Agreement -Hours of Operation and Liquor Sales “Non-negotiable”
by Larry Janezich
Representatives of some 150 neighbors protesting Hill Center’s application for a liquor license met with Hill Center attorney Paul Pascal and Foundation Chair Nicki Cymrot on Thursday, July 28 for a mediation session. The protest representatives, Pope Barrow, Barbara Eck, and Jill I. Lawrence, hoped the meeting with the Hill Center would result in a new Voluntary Agreement to reduce noise and related issues associated with indoor and outdoor alcohol service events late at night at the soon-to-open Center.
On the key issue of closing hours, the protestants asked that the Hill Center close at the times specified on the Hill Center’s Web site and other publicity instead of the later hours agreed to in the Voluntary Agreement with ANC 6B. The protestors want a new agreement that puts the Hill Center’s self commitment in writing.
According to Barrow, after an initial discussion about minor issues not within the jurisdiction of the Alcoholic Beverage Review Board, the attorney for the Hill Center announced that hours of alcohol service and hours of operation inside and outside the building were non-negotiable. In addition, he said that the Hill Center would refuse to enter into any voluntary agreement with citizens dealing with any issue whatsoever.
The neighbors’ representatives felt they had no choice but to adjourn the meeting. Barrow said it was unclear what the next step would be.
A comparison of the hours in the original application, the ANC Voluntary Agreement, the Hill Center Web site, and the protestants’ request follows:
House of sales and service:
Inside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 1am Sun-Thurs 2am Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 11pm Sun-Thurs 11pm Friday & Sat
Protester’s request: 11pm Sun-Thurs 11pm Friday & Sat
Outside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 9pm Sun-Thurs 10pm Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 8pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
Protester’s request: 8pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
Hours of Operation:
Inside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 11pm all days
Protester’s request: 11pm all days
Outside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 10pm Sun-Thurs 10pm Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 9pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
Protester’s request: 9pm Sun-Thurs 10pm Fri& Sat
Entertainment hours:
Inside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 9pm Sun-Thurs 10pm Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 11pm Sun-Thurs 11pm Friday & Sat
Protester’s request: 11pm Sun-Thurs 11pm Friday & Sat
Outside:
Original application: 2am Sun-Thurs 3am Friday & Sat
ANC VA: 8pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
Hill Center Publicity 8pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
Protester’s request: 8pm Sun-Thurs 9pm Friday & Sat
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
The comparison of hours above is difficult to understand; can it be formatted in a table instead?
As I read this report, we have:
Entertainment: The VA meets of exceeds the Protester’s request.
Operation: Inside – large disagreement. Outside-1 Hour Difference (9PM vs. 10PM)
Sales & Service: Inside – large disagreement. Outside-1 Hour Difference (9PM vs. 10PM)
Frankly, I don’t understand why a community organization sees a need to operate to 2 or 3 AM but the disagreement seems primarily over inside issues.
However, shades of Capitol Hill – “We’re willing to compromise as long as you don’t want us to change our position.”
What issues were determined to be outside the scope? The refusal to negotiate by the Center speaks for itself. If this is how they are going to act where is ther any evidence they will be a good neighbor? Remember, the Board members are not neighbors.
They’re following the rules as the city outlines. The hours have been approved already. Why should they bow down to a group of 100 ‘concerned citizens’? I’m sure you could get more signatures than that in support of the Hill Center on this. As far as the hours, remember that it’s not a bar exactly, most of it will be events such as corporate parties and weddings. Some of which MAY go that late and some of which won’t. Also, don’t forget that if they weren’t doing this, the taxpayers would end up paying for the operating costs.
Note: I’m close enough (11th and K) that I walk by the Hill Center all of the time but admit that I’d never be able to hear noise nor be affected by parking issues.
Mr. Mitchell. I wouldn’t be so confident that you won’t be affected by parking issues. Over the past few years of change, we have seen lack of adequate parking for the stadium, for Barracks Row, for H Street NE, and other infusions of visitors to the Hill have a ripple effect. For those neighbors who live nearer the Eastern Market Metro than you do, parking is even more of an issue all day and all night – commuters during the day, restaurant patrons and others at night.
There were at least 125 protestants who filed with the ABC Board – I challenge you, or anyone else, to find a similar group of NEIGHBORS within, say, a 5-block radius of the Center to find support for the operating hours demanded by the Hill Center Board. I was a supporter of the concept of the Hill Center until I learned about the plan to have events involving large crowds, alcohol, and music until 3 am on weekends. Most of the restaurants on Barracks Row cannot operate that late – courtesy of the SAME ANC who have been so understanding of their friends on the Hill Center Board. I for one would be more than willing to pay, either as a taxpayer or as a member of the Hill Center, to avoid having events run as late as 3 AM.
It’s time to face the fact that whatever the plans might originally have been for the Hill Center, under the Board’s current proposal, it will not be a community center at all, but a venue available for rental, much like the business run by the classy family on the “Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
It’s a city. Parking isn’t supposed to be easy. Nor are residents entitled to on-street parking.
There’s a simple solution, too – parking is in short supply because the price is too low and isn’t commensurate with demand.
Yes, it will have areas available for rental, but comparing Capitol Hill to a crappy television show on Bravo isn’t really an argument in your favor.
As far as the argument about 8th street, I believe that the wrong decision was made. Those few blocks of 8th that are basically an entertainment district should in fact be allowed to operate later. There are many weekends where I have to venture to other areas of the city or VA instead of just walking a few blocks to frequent the locally-owned businesses that I enjoy.
And Alex makes an excellent point. There’s all of that parking available beneath the overpass and along I Street. If we just increase the cost of that as well as along 8th and restrict the parking rules along the rest of the side streets then a lot of the parking issues go away (except for the fact that if you don’t have an alley there will NOT be enough space for 2 vehicles in front of every house).
In all reality, the Hill Center will be an ideal location for a lot of people because of easy Metro access and quick cab rides to hotels for those from out of town. Both of those do not have an impact on parking.
“And Alex makes an excellent point.” Umm… no he didn’t.
Alex works at the downtown BID and probably follows this forum, and hectors reasonable residents, as part of his job. And as sobering as that is, that would be better than him doing it for fun. There is a lot of name-calling, sophistry, and sloganeering from you supposed “smart growth” people. You have made unnecessary enemies and raised a lot of skepticism about who you all are and what you are really about (Chamber of Commerce, anyone? corporate stooges with environmental fig leaf?).
This is a residential neighborhood. People purchased houses with parking as an expectation–not a hassle-free one, but a viable one. End of discussion.
The Hill Center people can negotiate or not. That’s their decision. The nearby neighbors are asking only to preserve the quality of life. My advice to them is to ignore the comments posted here or anywhere else from those people who say things like, “it’s a city, no one should expect to park here.” Those people have nothing to do with building a great city, and you guys have your sleeves rolled up and are busy doing that very thing.
The Hill Center will open soon and personally I am thinking it will be a great addition to the neighborhood. I’m also thinking that they really mishandled the issues with the neighbors. These things are not a big deal, and they are fixable. I am also thinking that the fine folks from GGW should stick to their own blog, because it’s a distinct possibility that they make situations worse, not better, when they roam the web with their bizarre ideology and jihad-like approach to civic discourse.
Kathleen,
I live in the neighborhood. Any postings here are my opinions alone, and no one else’s.
My read is that Hill Center is just opting for mediation/arbitration rather than negotiating any further with the protesters. They can decline to enter into a VA with the protesters, but ironically they’ll be somewhat obligated to enter into a VA after arbitration.
They may feel they’ve offered sufficient level of compromise to satisfy their position. I don’t get why they won’t establish their policies in the VA. It sounds disingenuous and gives the appearance of maintaining a backdoor option to renege. I can understand why the protesters would question whether or not this represents a ‘good faith’ position.
The real question the Hill Center needs to ask — who do you expect will support this endeavor? If it is really a community venture, why are you so actively pissing off the community which you expect to support the center?
Kthleen, I could not agree more! For several years now our neighborhood has been INVADED! It feels like an invasion of people and cars. There is metro stop at the very corner of 8th street, still Kathleen I could not agree more! It’s been several terrible years since our neighborhood have been INVADED by milions of people and cars! There is a metro stop at the very corner of 8th Street and still tourists and people from other parts of the area arrive with their cars!
Every night I am being waken up by loud brawls and quareling by drunk patrons of 8th street.
I find this neighborhood transforming itself very fast into the worst version of Adams Morgan which is now the biggest security problem for the city of Washington.
I do not go to any of thoes restaurants. I boycot them and take my own guests to Shirlington, Old Town Alexandria and in underground
parkings over there.
Oh, yes! And I loved that ” corporate stooges with environmental fig leaf”!
The real question the Hill Center needs to ask — who do you expect will support this endeavor? If it is really a community venture, why are you so actively pissing off the community which you expect to support the center?
My guess is that they have a lot of community support. I certainly support it, and I’m part of the community. The problem is that your definition of “community” is far, far too narrow. The problem is that the handful of protesters are far too close to the matter–literally and figuratively. The fact that the new community center may occasionally adversely impact parking is something that’s obviously quite relevant to a very small number of people: those who live within a block or two, and who rely on on-street parking. It goes without saying that that’s an infinitesimal portion of the “community”.
The bottom line is, the center is going to be a fantastic community resource. It shouldn’t be held hostage to the unreasonable demands of a very small number of folks whose major issue with it is that it may or may not impact their access to ample on-street parking.
Wow . . . a silent majority argument. How Nixon era!
I have concerns about HC and parking is the least of them. Some people have voiced this as a major concern (they’re entitled to their opinion too), but the protesters did manage to gather a large number of signatures from a relatively small canvassing in a short period of time. There are obviously concerns that go well beyond the parking impact.
But if you’d prefer to dismiss anyone who disagrees with your little story and tout some unspoken wellspring of support for forcing neighbors to eat the HC externalities, you’re entitlled to your opinion too.
I’ll second Oboe. I support HC. Anon doens’t voice his gripes other than to say they aren’t parking. I would like to hear what they are, then maybe Oboe, me, others will have a better understanding. Perhaps the “silent majority” should canvas all of capitol hill/hill east and see if people are for it or against it. Oboe made some great points, one being those closest to the center may feel like the should have more of a say, and maybe they should-thats another argument, but the community that Hill Center will support is much larger than the two or three blocks around…and to totally discount their voice is wrong.