This is straight up ridiculous:

Late last month, Washington DC’s Historic Preservation Review Board voted down a motion for the protection of Meads Row – a series of nearly century-old structures at 1305-1311 H Street, NE that owners Tae and Sang Ryu plan to demolish to make way for a new Atlas District parking lot, much to the dismay of the ANC 6A. With no recourse now left to the ANC, the owners are free to pursue a raze for the property, although, in the view of some city officials, the Ryu’s new pay-to-park will have anything but a positive effect on the increasingly developed H Street corridor.

Yeah, you think?

Today, most of the Meads Row properties in are in functional, though somewhat degraded, condition. 1311 H St. has been condemned by District authorities and currently boasts boarded-up windows and a damaged roof. Despite attempts from the ANC to facilitate historic restoration tax credits for the buildings, which directly neighbor the Atlas Performing Arts Center, the owners have expressed interest in no development scheme for the site other than asphalt.

In my view, it takes a particularly unimaginative, short-sighted, and careless sort of person to see a piece of property in this location and determine that the best and most profitable use for it is a surface parking lot (particularly since street parking near H Street isn’t exactly difficult to find). But the main thing is that this neighborhood is not out in the distant burbs somewhere. It’s in the heart of the city and part of a developing, walkable commercial corridor. Making unnecessary room for several tens of cars by creating a big gap in the streetscape and removing valuable land from productive use is a serious net negative for the neighborhood, for other businesses, and for pedestrians.

Have to hate this, that’s all I can say.