Oct. 7, 2003

DC Court of Appeals Rules on Campus Plan

University Gains Time to Complete Projects, Meet Housing Targets

By Thomas Kohout

The DC Court of Appeals recently gave the University a partial victory on its challenge of the BZA campus plan, granting GW three additional years to meet the board’s restrictive student housing conditions. The move clears the way for the University to begin construction on the new business school building, Duqués Hall, which had been held up on the basis of noncompliance with some of the campus plan housing conditions.

“We’re gratified that this gives us the opportunity to build the new business school building,” said Charles Barber, senior counsel, GW’s Office of the Vice President and General Counsel. “The campus plan calls for the University to house more students on campus, and we’re building additional residence hall space. As a matter of principle we never objected to providing more housing.”

The appellate court struck down the first phase of the BZA’s housing condition requiring GW to house 70 percent of its full-time undergraduate students on campus or outside the Foggy Bottom/West End community starting in 2002. The decision eliminates this condition, giving the University until Aug. 31, 2006, to house 70 percent of undergraduates, plus one bed for each undergraduate the University admits over 8,000, in on-campus facilities.

“GW has demonstrated its commitment in this area by engaging in aggressive actions to provide more housing on campus,” said Interim Director of Media Relations Bob Ludwig in a statement following the court’s decision. He added, “Within the past two years the University has added 537 beds and by fall 2004 that number will increase by 728 when the Ivory Towers open.

“[T]he court struck down the BZA condition that could have blocked all permits for non-residential projects on GW’s campus if a court found invalid any part of the board’s housing condition,” Ludwig said. “The court said that this condition was an ‘extraordinary provision’ that on its face chills the exercise by the University of its fundamental right to seek judicial redress against allegedly arbitrary agency action.”

On Sept. 25 the University filed a request for the courts to reconsider two aspects of the BZA decision. The first is whether or not the University may count its off-campus beds — in such facilities as HOVA, City Hall, the Aspen, and Pennsylvania House — after 2006.

The condition would require freshmen and sophomores — with certain exclusions for commuter students, married students and students whose religious views prevented them from living in a residence hall — to be housed on campus rather than in GW residence halls on and off campus.

The court upheld that part of the order, but “stayed its effect,” Barber explained. “We opposed that condition because it required the University to house freshmen and sophomores ‘on campus’ rather than in ‘University housing’.”

GW also has asked the courts to take a second look at the application of the DC Human Rights Act (DCHRA) to these housing restrictions. In its decision the appellate court acknowledged that the DCHRA did apply to the zoning actions and that the BZA conditions were intentionally aimed at GW undergraduates specifically because of their status as students. However, the court also determined the provisions of the DC Comprehensive Plan and District zoning regulations “permit the BZA to consider the number of students when fashioning its orders.”

“We challenged the ruling based on the DC Human Rights Act,” explained Barber, “because this act establishes several protected groups who cannot be discriminated against in terms of access to housing. Students are one of these protected groups. We want the court to take another look at that issue to see if these BZA conditions are legal.”

Even as it continues work on the Ivory Towers, the University is proposing to build a new on-campus residence hall. On Oct. 16, GW will make a second presentation to the Commission on Fine Arts on the newly proposed on-campus facility. The Zoning Commission is scheduled to review the University’s application to build the residence hall on Oct. 20 in order to set a date for a hearing on the application.

“If we are allowed to build all 530 beds in the proposed Square 103 residence hall, we certainly will have well over 5,600 beds on campus, so we would be very close to the BZA housing requirement by 2006,” Barber said. “It’s too early to say whether we will be able to meet the BZA requirement. We can say that we are doing everything we can to increase student housing on campus.”

The most immediate effect of the court ruling is the decision to begin construction of the business school along 22nd Street. According to Barber, a notice to proceed will be sent to the contractor in early October.

“We are thrilled to get Duques Hall underway,” said School of Business and Public Management Dean Susan Phillips about the impact of the appellate decision. “A new building will help GW achieve its rightful place among the world’s best business schools. It will enhance the educational experience we provide, and further the richness of our community.”

The $50 million, 167,000 square-foot building, to be named Ric and Dawn Duqués Hall, will connect with space to be renovated in the adjoining Funger Hall to create a 270,000-square-foot complex. The business complex will include high-tech classrooms, team rooms, a career center and computer labs.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu