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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you look at an aerial map of Ward 3, in addition to the public courts (there are also a bunch of courts at UDC), there are also a ton of private courts at the various schools (which have private clubs etc).

Most of the courts sit unused for all but a few hours or days each year. Talk about wasted space.

[/quote]

Thank your zoning board for that.

For about a decade the policy of the DC Zoning Board has been to require that when private schools seek a zoning variance to build athletic facilities, one of the stipulations of the variance is that they can only be used by students and employees of the school. So we have massive duplication of facilities, and facilities that sit vacant just about all of the time.

The irony is that the schools are much better equipped to handle public use of their facilities than DPR is. The zoning board insists that schools have adequate parking, and traffic management plans -- neither of which are required of DPR. So not only do we have athletic facilities that are sitting unused, we also have huge parking lots and garages that are often unused as well. [/quote]

Not true.  Sidwell Friends, St Albans and other schools all run or host summer camps and weekend sports programs that make extensive use of tennis courts and other athletic facilities.  It's also worth pointing out that several area private schools, Beauvoir, St. Albans, have pools as do neighborhood associations like the Cleveland Park Club.  So the available private facilities argument goes two ways.[/quote]

You can go to http://dcoz.dc.gov and read the zoning decisions yourself, they have them all searchable.

Note that the Office of Zoning considers summer camps run by the school to be school activities and allowed (although still subject to the enrollment cap and limits on parking).

St. Albans is instructive. Their most recent zoning order is from 2005 (http://www.dcoz.dc.gov/Orders/17320_1944-25.pdf), since then the Zoning Board has gotten more restrictive. But they're pretty limited in what they can allow:

[quote]
Unaffiliated users shall not be permitted to use the athletic fields before or
after the school day, or on weekends, during the school year, except as follows:

Except as provided in Condition No. 12(c), the Applicant may choose to
provide a single field space for a single unaffiliated user on each weekend
day, if there is no scheduled St. Albans or Foundation activity on the fields on
that weekend day.

The Applicant may offer the use of its fields to unaffiliated users during the summer
when school is not in session as follows:

A single field may be used on a weekday when there is no summer camp
activity or St. Albans or Foundation activity on that day. The field may be
used for up to eleven hours, beginning no earlier than 9:00 a.m. and ending no
later than 6:00 p.m.

A single field may be used four weekday evenings per week; provided,
however, that the activity ends no later than 9:00 p.m.

A single field may be used each weekend day by a single user either during
the day or in the evening if there is no St. Albans or Foundation activity on the
weekend day. The field may be used for up to six hours, beginning no earlier
than 9:00 a.m. end ending no later than 9:00 p.m.

[/quote]

So on certain days they can rent one field to one group, provided no STA group used any of their fields any time during that day.

Keep in mind that their zoning order estimates a peak parking demand of 826 vehicles and requires that they provide parking for 835 vehicles.[/quote]

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