Proposed gas station fuels fight near H Street

By Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer 9/2/08

A group of people talk at the corner of 14th Street and Maryland Avenue NE in Washington, DC on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 where a Shell gasoline station is scheduled to be built amidst protests from the neighbors. Emily J. Reynolds/for the Examiner Emily J. Reynolds/for the Examiner

» More Photos Neighbors of a proposed Shell gas station on the north end of the H Street Northeast corridor have launched a campaign to stop the project, which they say is wholly unfit for a community undergoing resurrection.

On one side of 1400 Maryland Avenue, a block south of H Street, is a Checkers, the doors of which have been boarded up since a sport utility vehicle barreled through them in May. Across the street is the site of Springfield-based DAG Petroleum’s proposed Shell station and convenience store, on a parcel that once housed a used-car lot.

“That’s the gateway to the neighborhood, to H Street” said Bill Schultheiss, who represents the area on the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission. “A Shell station and a Checkers. Welcome.”

DAG Petroleum leases a 6,398-square-foot parcel at the 14th Street and Maryland Avenue intersection, which comprises only a small percentage of the land it will need for the station. The rest is public space that must be paved over, spurring a hearing next month before the Department of Transportation’s Public Space Committee.

Foes of the project created a Web site, Shell-No.com, to spell out why that location deserves restaurants, retail stores, offices or housing — anything but a gas station. The corridor is the subject of a $50 million overhaul, they say: The last thing it needs is a new business that attracts loiterers and panhandlers, degrades the environment, and “does not contribute positively to a ‘rebranded’ H Street.”

“We would like to see virtually anything that is consistent with the emerging character of the neighborhood,” said Aryeh Fishman, a neighbor of the site.

Richard Aguglia, an attorney for DAG, said in an e-mail that the proposed Shell location was a gas station from 1969 to 1995 and is an “ideal location” for another. The company faces fights on several fronts, however: In addition to the Public Space Committee hearing on Sept. 24, DAG also must earn a special exemption from the Board of Zoning Adjustments.

The project does not require D.C. Council approval, but DAG has nevertheless contributed to the re-election campaigns of Council Members Kwame Brown, $9,000, Jack Evans, $1,500 and Muriel Bowser, $250.

Michael Price, Brown’s campaign manager, said the council member backs neighbors. Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who represents H Street, also opposes the station, which he described as an effort to “cash in on the commuters that come through there.”

“It’s not quality development for the neighborhood,” Wells said. “The gas station really adds nothing.”

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