On Nov. 26, the D.C. Council conducted an additional legislative meeting that focused on a bevy of topics, including economic development, archaic religious exemptions, housing and how best to advance racial equity in a changing city.
As previously reported, D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray will be absent for the rest of the council term.
That left a dozen other council members, whether in person or virtually, to weigh in on legislation about: reparations, the future of Gallery Place-Chinatown, a long delayed Park Morton redevelopment, and the District’s liability in the face of an appellate court decision.
You can read all about that in this edition of The Collins Council Report.
The Council Inches Closer to Gallery Place-Chinatown Revitalization
On the first reading, the council unanimously approved the Downtown Arena Revitalization Act of 2024, which gives the green light for an agreement that the Bowser administration entered with Monumental Sports & Entertainment for the purchase, sale, redevelopment and leasing of Capital One Arena.
This vote, the first of two, follows months of negotiations between the Bowser administration and Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
Earlier this year, after celebrating Leonsis’ decision to stay in Gallery Place-Chinatown, the council approved a $515 million allocation toward the renovation and modernization of Capital One Arena. Out of that amount, $87.5 million will go toward the purchase of Capital One Arena, which will then be reinvested in the three-year project.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment has committed to spending at least $372.5 million on the renovation, which brings the total direct and public investment in construction to $800 million.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Oct. 18 letter to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) cited an economic impact study estimating the total economic activity of the project at more than $1 billion, along with 4,900 construction jobs and $21 million in new tax revenue.
On Nov. 26, D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie expressed his support for the legislation, particularly as it relates to economic development and public safety. This came two weeks after a Committee of the Whole hearing that focused on, among other topics, the availability of job opportunities and contracts for certified business enterprises (CBE).
“Our sports economy supports good-paying jobs that go to residents across our city and around our regions in our front office, but also jobs in ticket sales, jobs in customer service,” McDuffie said during the council’s Committee of the Whole hearing that preceded the legislative meeting. “A project like this with $800 million of investment, there will be temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs once construction is complete. Sports are [also] a critical opportunity to give young people what they need…. To keep them away from the challenges we see playing out in communities plagued by violence.”
The Council Changes the Law in Response to Talbert Street Appellate Court Decision
Weeks after an appellate court judge ruled that the District cannot escape liability sought by a group of displaced homeowners, the council overwhelmingly approved the Consumer Protection Clarification Emergency Declaration Resolution.
The emergency legislation, introduced by D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson at the urging of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and Attorney General Brian Schwalb, clarified that the District, in executing its governmental duties, cannot be designated as a merchant in its dealings with constituents.
D.C. Councilmembers Robert White (D-At large) and Trayon White (D-Ward 8) voted in opposition to the emergency bill. They expressed solidarity with the 46 homeowners who, since involuntarily leaving their structurally unsound condominiums on Talbert Street in Southeast, have struggled to maintain stable housing while paying a mortgage for a property they no longer occupy.
“The executive branch has made some concessions, but the residents feel like they haven’t gone far, “Ward 8 Councilmember White said on the dais on Nov. 26. “What was lost in the conversation about making residents whole is that what was affordable four or five years ago isn’t affordable now. While we’re talking about [Home Purchase Assistance Program] and giving them the ability to move, some of them can’t move with simply this.”
These homeowners, 46 in total, entered the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) and later purchased condos at the East at Grandview Estates. These condos were developed with money borrowed against the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF), and purchased with dollars the owners secured from HPAP.
In its September ruling, the D.C. Court of Appeals cited the Consumer Protection Procedures Act in its designation of the D.C. government as a merchant that can be sued. In their Nov. 26 letter to Mendelson, Bowser and Schwalb argued that the court decision doesn’t align with the intent of the law, as seen in 2022, when the council identified D.C. Housing Authority, in its role as a landlord, as the sole D.C. government entity subject to liability.
For both officials, the inclusion of the District’s “everyday governmental functions” in the law could pose dangerous consequences.
“The D.C. government could be exposed to broad liability beyond its role as a governmental entity with grantmaking and lending authorities, which could significantly blunt the District’s participation in the affordable housing marketplace, leaving the private marketplace to fund projects without support from the government,” Bowser and Schwalb’s letter said.
In the hours leading up to the council vote, At-large Councilmember White cautioned his colleagues against supporting the emergency bill without a deeper, empirical explanation from Schwalb about liabilities.
The council ultimately supported the emergency bill, all while striking down At-large Councilmember White’s amendment exempting all 46 East at Grandview Estates homeowners from the emergency legislation and holding the D.C. government liable for up to $400,000 in damages per owner.
Only At-large and Ward 8 Councilmembers White voted in support of the amendment.
“This catastrophe happened on our watch and our job is to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” At-large Councilmember White told his council colleagues, during the breakfast that preceded the legislative meeting, as he defended his amendment. “The Office of the Attorney General is more concerned with broad liability but has provided nothing to indicate that this narrow carveout would result in liability or a damaging precedent for District government.”
By now, most of the 46 condominium owners have received mortgage relief, thanks to negotiations facilitated by housing counseling entity NACA.
Per Bowser and Schwalb’s letter, the District has also spent $6.4 million in assistance to the condominium owners, five of whom have since purchased another home. There’s also a deal on the table for a $30,000 buyout, which Mendelson told council members he’s negotiating to increase to $50,000.
Other resources that have been provided for condominium owners, via council legislation shepherded by At-large Councilmember White, include housing counseling services, affordable mortgage options despite lowered credit scores, future property tax relief, and mayoral authority to forgive condominium owners’ HPTF and HPAP loans.
Even with all of the aforementioned, at least one homeowner by the name of Terri Wright said that the D.C. government still needs to be held liable in the manner that the D.C. Council attempted to prevent.
Wright, an OAG employee, said her crusade for recompense has soured her relationship with her employer. Even so, she pledged to keep fighting, especially since she’s far from being able to purchase another home in the District.
“We talked to the mayor face to face but nothing changed,” said Wright, who currently lives in Suitland, Maryland. “We’re still fighting for our homes. I never thought I would buy a new development with three years of uncertainty. None of us want to be renters. We’re trying to build wealth.”
Reparations by Another Name
On the first reading, the council unanimously approved the Insurance Database Amendment Act, the legislation originally known as the Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act.
This bill, introduced by D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large), establishes a nine-member reparations task force to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans who suffered chattel slavery, Jim Crow and structural and institutional racism.
It would also require the commissioner of the D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking to establish a slaveholding database that the task force will use to shape reparations proposals. Another provision of the bill facilitates the payment of reparations via a program established from the task force’s findings and recommendations.
Earlier this year, McDuffie secured an allocation of $500,000 toward the bill for Fiscal Year 2025. With that amount, the District stands to follow in the footsteps of Evanston, Illinois, Philadelphia and other jurisdictions that have launched a reparations task force.
Despite President Donald Trump’s impending second occupation of the White House, McDuffie, a staunch proponent of racial equity, remains intent on seeing the task force, and other elements of the legislation, come to fruition.
“The timeline hasn’t changed and local support hasn’t diminished,” McDuffie told The Informer days before the Nov. 26 legislative meeting.
“The work that the commission would do is critical notwithstanding who’s occupying the White House,” McDuffie continued. “There have been other jurisdictions that have passed similar legislation and seen progress on this front, so it’s not necessarily a case of first impression.”
Park Morton Redevelopment Project Chugs Along
On its final reading, the council unanimously passed the Bruce Monroe Disposition Extension Approval Act of 2023.
The vote marks another milestone in the endeavor to fully convert the Northwest public housing community known as “640” into a mixed-used development that provides affordable housing, market-rate housing and amenities for community members’ use.
While the District originally received disposition authority in 2016, proceedings in the lower and appeals courts, and the D.C. Zoning Commission, have delayed the project. With the bill’s passage, the D.C. government has until December 20, 2026 to dispose of vacated public housing to make way for mixed-use development.
For years, Park Morton residents have argued that the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) and developers didn’t engage in good faith discussions with the resident council about an equity plan and the allocation of larger units to returning families.
A committee print coming out of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development details strong opposition to the legislation, on the grounds previously mentioned as well as witnesses’ concerns about green space.
The report mentioned “inconsistent community engagement,” which compelled dialogue between the D.C. Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development and DMPED about helping the resident council leadership contact displaced Park Morton residents.
A staff member in D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau’s office told The Informer that the Ward 1 council member recently engaged the Park Morton community during a turkey giveaway that took place less than a week before the council’s legislative meeting.
While they acknowledged the apprehensions that former Park Morton residents and others have about the redevelopment, they said that the Bruce Monroe Disposition Extension Approval Act of 2023 wasn’t intended to rectify issues they said Nadeau and The Community Builders, the housing developer contracted by the D.C. Housing Authority, have been focused on with residents.
“There have been and will be lots of venues for discussion about how Bruce Monroe looks in the end but this legislation is just the logistical piece. It’s not appropriate to disrupt that process,” the Nadeau staffer said.
“Former residents have a legal right to return if they want. A number of them will move in December or January. The council member and agencies have been committed and are required to allow folks who’ve been displaced to come back.”