As GM discussed yesterday, a mausoleum is being constructed in Oak Hill Cemetery for Ben Bradlee. This has alarmed preservationists, particularly those focused on landscape architecture. But was there anything to stop it?
Bureaucracy finds a way. After hearing some complaints about the construction, DCRA took a look and yesterday decided that a building permit is required after all.
For much of the city, that wouldn’t be a particularly big deal. Work would have to stop–perhaps for as little as a few hours–while someone ran down to the permitting office in SW and get the permit.
But in Georgetown it awakens a long, patient beast who will slowly sit up and squint his eyes, and stroke his chin, and perhaps go back to sleep for a few months, then wake up again, squint his eyes, and stroke his chin, and open his giant maw and announce “too big”, and go back to sleep.
The giant, in this tortured metaphor, is the Old Georgetown Board. And once a building permit is applied for that affects an external structure in Georgetown, the application is routed to the OGB for approval.
It is not a fast procedure.
The board only meets once a month. But not in August. And for all intents and purposes you need to get the board’s staff’s thumbs up before you even get on the agenda. (If you’re lucky you get on the consent calendar, which means the board will approve it without bothering to actually discuss it).
Of course, once you’re on the agenda, you’ll be put on the ANC’s agenda. And the Citizens Association of Georgetown might have a word (disclosure: GM’s on the board). Get their thumb’s up, then your time before the OGB should go smoothly, but that’s far from guaranteed.
Get the thumbs down and you’ve got to go back and do it all again.
Get the thumbs up from the OGB and then you can start building right away.
Just kidding! You’ve got to wait a couple more weeks until the full Commission of the Fine Arts reviews and approves the OGB’s recommendation.
And if it’s a significant project, you may only be getting “concept” approval. Which means that they’ve approved the broad strokes of the process, but you’ll have to go through the whole thing again with far more detail when you’re actually going for the permit. (Although, to be fair once you have concept approval, permit approval normally goes through without a hiccup).
Now you can finally go back to DCRA and get a building permit.
So that’s what awaits this mausoleum. And the fact that’s there’s already some controversy means every road stop mentioned above will get a long luxurious visit.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 