By John E. Tyrell, Esq. and Joyce Adelugba, Esq of Ricci Tyrell Johnson & Grey
The baseball game refrain reminds us to, “Root! for the home team, if they don’t win it’s a shame.” The lines between home and away blur when the surrounding neighborhood housing the home team is not supportive of its growth and expansion. When the interest of the home team and its neighbors collide, what is in the best interest of the community at large? Apparently, it is a balancing test between community comfort and an existing private school’s plan to expand its grounds to include an athletic facility.
In the matter of Friends of the Field v. District of Columbia. Board of Zoning Adjustment 2024 D.C. App Lexis 329*, the appellate court balanced competing statutory interpretations concerning the application of a non-conforming use grant initially to the Episcopal Center for Children in 1930. The Parochial education institution owned the property and used it as a playing field and open space for students attending its’ day school for over eighty years. Id at 333*. In 2021, the Episcopal Center entered into an agreement with Maret School, a private school serving 650 students between kindergarten and twelfth grade. The agreement included a leasehold of the property for up to fifty years and the right to develop athletic facilities on site. The proposed athletic facilities development plan included an outdoor baseball diamond and indoor multipurpose athletic building for football, soccer, and lacrosse. Maret requested a special exception from the zoning board to construct the athletic Regulation title 11-B sect. 200.2 (k)(1), and a balancing test between the harmony with the general purpose and intent of the zoning regulation. According to the statute, the zoning board is bound by District of Columbia, Municipal Regulation Title 11-X section 901.2, which states an applicant has the burden of proving its entitlement to a special exception. Under District of Columbia, Municipal Regulation, Title 11-B, section 200.2(k)(1), athletics are a form of education when athletics facilities are operated as an integral component of a principal private school use. The Appellate Court considered each statutory issue separately, finding in its overall analysis to affirm the zoning board’s decision granting Maret’s special exception request.
First, the Court addressed District of Columbia Municipal Regulation Title 11-B, section 200.2(k)(1), that an athletic facility constitutes a principal private school use. District of Columbia Municipal Regulation Title 11-X, section 104.2, permits special exceptions for private educational uses in areas otherwise zoned for residential housing. Educational uses may include but are not limited to accessory play and athletic areas, dormitories, cafeterias, recreational use or sports. As applied to the facts, Maret’s special application to develop the athletic facilities was primarily an educational use by the private school. Moreover, the statute directly extended educational use to include athletic facilities. An exclusion of the athletic facilities from the education use non-conforming use exception would contravene the purpose and intent of the zoning regulation statutory extension. Thus, the appellate court rejected the assertion that athletic facilities exceed the scope of the education use as suggested by Friends of the Field.
Next, the Court addressed the absence of any objectionable conditions which adversely impact the surrounding facilities and parking lot for private school use. The District of Columbia Office of Planning recommended the approval of Maret’s application, subject to conditions that would require green space surrounding the parking lot to minimize the visual impact, along with a prohibition on sound amplification devices and other sound related nuisance. Maret submitted a memo to its application adopting the conditions proposed by the Office of Planning. Subsequently, The Advisory Neighborhood Commission adopted Maret’s application reflecting Maret’s agreement to implement the aforementioned conditions.
However, The District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General vehemently opposed the construction of a multipurpose athletic facility. The Attorney General argued that the commercial scale of the athletic facility would negatively impact the surrounding neighborhood’s traffic, noise and appearance. Friends of the Field joined the Attorney General’s opposition and suggested that the multi-sports complex did not support academic development, and as such exceeded the initial non-conforming use grant extended to academic facilities. Id at *335. The zoning board heard testimony from Maret’s School leadership, and Friends of the Field’s traffic expert, and acoustics expert. While the zoning board accepted that Friend of the Field’s argument that an athletic facility and potential third-party use of the athletic facilities exceeds the scope of the non-conforming academic use granted in 1930, ultimately the zoning board found Maret’s planned use did not create any objectionable impacts to the surrounding neighborhood, and as such Maret’s special exception application was granted. Friends of the Field appealed the decision to the District of Columbia’s Court of Appeals.
At the heart of the issue before the Court of Appeals was statutory interpretation of D.C Code Municipal community. Absent an adverse impact or violative condition which disrupts the harmony or general purpose of the zoning regulation, a denial of a special application would be deemed arbitrary and capricious. According to the zoning board summary of the testimony heard from experts and the community there was no such adverse impact found in Maret’s planned development of the sporting facility. Thus, the grant of Maret’s special exception application was valid according to the statute.
Ultimately, the Appellate Court found the expansion to be harmonious with the zoning regulation purpose and intent. Athletic pursuits and the facilities which house them remain protected under the educational use exception and the Appellate Courts’ statutory interpretation.
