Holtzman, Steve (SMD 6B05)
Neighbors abutting Alley between 10th and 11th,
Just want to let you all know. On February 18th, I sent the following questions to the Mayor's office to request clarity on a few of the pivotal issues and expectations around the effort to name this alley. (Haley, if my email does not automatically go directly
to 10th and 11th St distribution lists, which it may not, please forward to all).
I received no substantive reply despite multiple follow ups. This morning, I got an answer that the questions have been submitted to their legal team. So, so far, no answer. But these are all questions that you should be aware of. When I get definitive answers,
I'll share them immediately.
If there are any further questions which you wish an answer for, moving forward, ask. If there's anything obvious missing now, let me know and I will send additional questions on so they can be reviewed.
Note I had advised Haley incorrectly early in the process and had said DC law required informing homeowners and majority of these agreed to naming and to the name chosen.
(As Susan Eades Role pointed out, the language of the law says "home owners and residents" which implies all residents abutting the alley, whether owning the property or renting, should be included in this process. I have independently already sent this question
to the Mayor's office legal team just to reconfirm. That question is not reflected in the list below.)
The questions I sent were the following:
I think I'm pretty clear on the procedure as per city regulations, but there are?three questions?I'm hoping you could help me clarify.?
I.?Procedures via petitions of property owners, notification, review by ANC, submission by Council, support by Mayor are clear. What's not clear to me is whether this is how it works in practice.?If
all property owners are duly notified, majority sign a petition in agreement, ANC endorses and Council votes to support, when it comes to the Mayor's office, is this a straightforward, pro forma thing or is it something which still has significant hurdles
on different signoffs, within DC govt? And more to the point,?is it generally likely to be approved?or is there a distinct case-by-case review?
II.?There is a distinction made in the Code that the official naming of an alley does not constitute a change in status and "shall not authorize the addition of any District services to the
alley..."?These residents are, I think, hoping that a name for the alley will result in those residences/tax lots in the alley can get?mail service?(obviously not DC but USPS issue), and at minimum a?dedicated
address with a house number?for their residences.?Do you know if it's fair for them to anticipate that??Or something else they'd need to do to get that additional element achieved?
(b)?The
designation of an alley with an official name or symbolic name shall not constitute a change to its status as an alley, and shall not authorize the addition of any District services to the alley or structures abutting the alley.
?
III. Should they expect some level of fees to be responsible for if, in the end, they do get this approved througth Council and it comes to the Mayor's office?? ¡ì 9¨C204.21. Para (h)?says
the following:
(h)?The
Mayor may establish, by rulemaking, fees to be paid by the initiator of a proposal to designate an official name of an alley or street, or portion thereof, to recoup costs associated with satisfying the requirements of this section, including obtaining consideration
of the proposal by the Council and implementation of the proposal by the Mayor; provided, that fees shall not be assessed pursuant to this subsection on an initiator that is a governmental entity, including an Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
?
In practice, is this something that I need to let these residents know about? Is there any practice or policy of charging a group of residents for the cost of this process,(putting up signs and whatever other
auxiliary costs are incurred in other ways) or?is this something which is waived when a situation like this arises??And, assuming they are successful, and?if there are fees associated with this, what kind of
magnitude of fees should they expect to have to be responsible for??Just a magnitude to give them an idea, as they start their petition, so they know what they would be possibly letting themselves in for. Or is it not a very big deal. I have
no idea.
best,
?Steve
Steve Holtzman, 6B05
From: Haley Huang <haley.huang.0329@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2021 8:43 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: 10th Street List <200-block-10th-st-se@...>; Allen, Charles (COUNCIL) <CAllen@...>; Holtzman, Steve (SMD 6B05) <6B05@...>
Subject: Re: [200block11thstSE] A Petition to Name Our Alley -- Becoming a Part of History!
?
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Happy Spring Everyone!
To keep the Name Our Alley initiative moving along, we've decided to set
March 7th as the deadline for submitting alley name suggestions! Email, text, letter, or in-person -- whatever is easiest for you.
Here's our plan for the alley name selection process: First, we will work with 211-REAR (the other alley house) to cross off any name suggestions that wouldn't work very well as a mailing address. Then, we will send the list to our ANC Steve Holtzman and
request that he help veto names that he believes wouldn't pass D.C. council approval. Finally, we will send out the remaining names to everyone on the block for a vote. It will be one vote per house (unless there are tenants, in which case homeowners and tenants
can cast separate votes). The vote will be "multiple choice" -- in other words, each house will be able to vote for as many of the names on the list as they'd like. The name with the most votes after 2 weeks wins!
Here's the link to currently suggested names for inspiration:
Sincerely,
Haley & Corey
P.S. We are VERY close to reaching the majority of household support we need for a successful petition! If you haven't already, please reach out to us so that we know we have the support we need. Thank you!
On Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 9:33 PM Haley Huang via
<Haley.huang.0329= [email protected]> wrote:
Good Evening Everyone --
Update! We've moved onto "Step 2: Attempt to reach all property owners to notify them of this initiative."
We've dropped off letters at all the homes on the 10th/11th/C/Independence square. If you've already contacted us, then you most likely did not receive a letter. If you did receive a letter, we would greatly appreciate it if you could let us know so that
we can fulfill our ANC's requirement about making contact with everyone on the block.
One important detail that was left off my initial email but was included in the letter:
Only property owners can sign the final petition. Therefore, if you are a tenant or visitor, please let the property owner know about this initiative!! And if possible, please also let us know if you are a renter so that we can track which property owners
will be more difficult to reach. We are trying our best to match everyone's names to those found on D.C. Tax Records to make sure that we have all households covered, but we suspect the owners' addresses that D.C. has on file are not completely up-to-date.
We will most likely be on this step for a while. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate your help if you can check with neighbors to see if they've heard about this "name our alley" initiative and let us know who you've touched base with.
Thanks again for everyone's support!
Haley & Corey
On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 4:38 PM Susan Eads Role < seadsrole@...> wrote:
Haley -- Please add the following names to your proposed name list.
River Rock: the natural material used in the construction of the half-alley on the 10th Street SE side. The alley's river rock composition was preserved through advocacy by neighbors and the assistance of Councilmember Allen.
Phaeton: a light, open four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage. In the late 19th century, the Herdic Phaeton Company's stables occupied the area south of the alley running between 10th and 11th Streets SE.
Thank you!
Susan
Susan Eads Role
238 10th St SE
202-905- 8016 (office/mobile)
Welcome to the neighborhood!? I love this idea, Mark and I are all in. We¡¯re at 255 11th, on the corner with the tall hedge. I¡¯m not sure if the small block of C st between 10th and 11th has a list serve, but we can share the info with our neighbors
behind us.?
Best,?
?
Everyone --
Thank you all so much for your support! In just a single evening we've heard back from 12 households and more seem to be joining in as the morning moves along. We're also trying to also reach out to the C and Independence St through their listservs, so
if anyone has any insight into how to get on them, please let me know!
Since everyone's excited about potential names, I've created a Google Doc of all the suggestions we've received thus far and will continue to update it as more names come in (I will be watching and adding names from this thread, texts/emails, word of mouth,
and FB group posts). We will determine a way to narrow them down as we move on to later steps:
Let's keep up the momentum!!
Sincerely,
Haley & Corey
210-REAR
On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 9:10 AM Kyle Nicholls Cobb < kenicholls@...>
wrote:
Riverstone Court???
On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 8:57 AM Dan Kolker < dakolker@...>
wrote:
One of our neighbors suggested Riverstone Alley to refer to those stones on the western side of it that make everyone drive slower.
-Dan (224 10th)
On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 11:13 PM Susan Eads Role < seadsrole@...>
wrote:
Haley and Corey -- Welcome neighbors! My husband Jerry and I look forward to meeting you, and we support your project to name our alley.
In the event residents are interested in looking to history to select a name, the following information may be of interest.
The author of the blog post immediately above is neighbor Robert S. Pohl. Robert also is the author of several books regarding DC, including one about his family's home, which abuts the alley:?A House on the Hill: The History of 219 11th St
SE.
You also may want to consult with Sandy Harrelson, whom I believe is on the 200 block of 10th Street SE distribution list, regarding her knowledge of the history of the people and the properties served by the alley.
Regarding the modern alley, it was resurfaced a few years ago. Neighbors worked to preserve the historic river rock portion of the half-alley on the 10th Street SE side, with the assistance of Councilmember Charles Allen.
Best of luck with your project, and please let me know whether I can be of assistance.
Susan
Susan Eads Role
238 10th St SE
202-905-8016 (office/mobile)
Thanks for initiating this Haley & Corey and welcome again to the neighborhood. Adding in the listserv for the 200 block of 10th Street as well for folks whose properties abut the alley.?
Thanks again and good luck!
Nick
242 10th
Dear
Friends & Neighbors,
Our
names are Haley and Corey, and we are the new owners of alley house 210-REAR. We moved in a couple months ago and have since learned quite a lot about being the owners of a historic alley home. The most amazing thing we learned, however, was that we (as a
block) have
the opportunity to name our alley!
Because
there are a couple independent homes (210-REAR and 211-REAR) whose primary access is through the alley, we are able to petition the city to give our alley a name.* Not only would this be an amazing chance to cement our alley in D.C. history but also offer
some practical benefits such as traffic control signs, GPS-discoverable/USPS-deliverable mailing addresses for all the alley homes, and increased property values.
In
pursuit of this opportunity, we reached out to our ANC Steve Holtzmann who kindly provided us a run-down of the actions we would have to take in order to gain his endorsement for this initiative:
Step
1:
Assess people¡¯s interest in naming the alley.
Step
2:
Attempt to reach all property owners to notify them of this initiative.
Step
3:
Put together a petition that is signed by a majority of property owners whose property abuts the alley. (There are 64 properties but 62 homeowners, so as of today, we would need 32 or more signatures.)
After
these steps are taken, the petition would go through various stages of procedural voting and eventually reach the Mayor for a final sign-off.** There are a couple fine-print details that we¡¯re still working out with Steve, but for the most part, that¡¯s it
-- in a couple months, a
signature on a petition is the only requirement we will need from you.
However,
to really forge ahead, we need your support.
As
we mentioned above, Step 1 is a general assessment of interest. Therefore, we¡¯ve created a Facebook Group for this Name Our Alley initiative:
.
Please join
the Facebook Group if
you are yea for a name! Or, feel free to call or text me at 678-523-4050, email me at
haley.huang.0329@...,
or respond to this thread to express your interest, convey your concerns, ask any questions, or offer your expertise. And of course, please
spread
the word!
Although we will be doing our best to reach out to as many people as we can through emails, letters, and social media, we can only do so much on our own. Once we've established that there is significant interest in this initiative, we will move on to Step
2.
We
understand that we¡¯re still in the middle of a pandemic and therefore haven¡¯t had the chance to meet everyone face-to-face, but we still hope that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to name a historical D.C. alley resonates with you as much as it does with
us!
Thank
you all for your time.
Sincerely,
Haley
& Corey
*
**
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