{"id":63,"date":"2015-08-06T20:59:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T20:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/?p=63"},"modified":"2017-03-29T06:12:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T06:12:43","slug":"mcmillan-district-pays-developer-lawyers-to-oppose-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/dc\/citywide\/63","title":{"rendered":"McMillan: District Pays Developer Lawyers to Oppose Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE –Friends of McMillan Park<\/p>\n

FOR RELEASE: August 5, 2015<\/p>\n

CONTACT: Erin Fairbanks, erinwhite@yahoo.com<\/a>, 240-506-6777<\/a>, @czarinamaude<\/p>\n

\"Your<\/a><\/h4>\n

District Pays Developer Lawyers
\nto Oppose Residents<\/span><\/h2>\n

DC Court of Appeals to Hear McMillan Appeal:
\nWhat\u2019s Holland & Knight Afraid of?<\/h4>\n

District taxpayers are apparently paying the city\u2019s premier developer law firm to oppose a group of four District residents–the McMillan Four–from participating in the appeal of the DC Zoning Commission\u2019s approval of the development of McMillan Park.<\/a> *<\/strong><\/p>\n

The firm, Holland & Knight<\/a>, which has been paid more than a half million dollars by the District last year alon<\/strong>e, is asking the DC Court of Appeals, the District\u2019s highest court to not allow the McMillan Four– Andrea E. Rosen, Deborah Hanrahan, Keshini Ladduwahetty, Camille Bourguignon–to join the case because, Holland & Knight claims, their filing was untimely.<\/p>\n

Holland & Knight represents Vision McMillan Partners (VMP), which is a LLC that includes the Trammel Crow Company, \u201cone of the nation\u2019s leading developers and investors in commercial real estate,\u201d plus a number of local entities and the District government.\u00a0 Overall, according to The New York Times<\/a>, the city is paying \u201c$78 million in predevelopment costs, including fees to lawyers\u201d to turn McMillan into a mixed-use complex with over a million square feet of medical office buildings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The McMillan Four, proceeding without a lawyer (i.e. pro se), calculated the deadline to file their appeal from the date the zoning decision was published in the DC Register according to DC Zoning Commission rules.<\/p>\n

Holland & Knight, (which gave 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, the John A. Wilson Building, as its business address in their McMillan Subdivision Application **<\/strong>) contends that a ruling in a prior appeals case<\/a> means that they missed the filing deadline. However, as the Four point out in their brief, in that case the Court \u201csought to expand judicial inclusivity,\u201d not restrict it.<\/p>\n

Holland & Knight\u2019s argument on behalf of VMP seems to seek the same ends as VMP\u2019s previous documented partnership with Fontaine & Co, a Baltimore public relations firm, and VMP partner.\u00a0 Fontaine was hired to \u201cmaximize local support\/effort while effectively discrediting opposition,\u201d and to \u201c\u2026 provide continuous political cover to local elected officials.\u201d ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the Fontaine scheme was revealed via FOIA-obtained documents, it was condemned by several Councilmembers. \u00a0\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t look good to have a PR firm\u2026discredit the community,\u201d said Chairman Phil Mendelson while at-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman called the actions \u201cvery questionable.\u201d \u00a0Even Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, a VMP supporter, said the Fontaine campaign raised \u201cdeep concerns with me.\u201d \u00a0VMP was forced to disown its partner.<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cOnce again, it appears that District taxpayers are footing the bill for VMP to undermine us, the residents, first with Fontaine, now through high-priced lawyers, Holland & Knight,\u201d said Debby Hanrahan<\/strong>, a Ward 2 resident and supporter of keeping McMillan a park.<\/div>\n
“This is an all-too-typical example of the unholy collusion between this city government and favored developers to silence the voices of citizens. Our elected officials should tell VMP\/Holland & Knight to back off, and use District lawyers if they truly believe in this terrible deal. What are they afraid of?”<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Holland and Knight continues to bill the City hundreds of thousands of dollars, albeit circuitously through the front-group VMP LLC, to pay for services fighting District residents on all legal fronts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

VMP has also used City dollars to purchase experts, consultant reports, yard signs, and a variety of other technical and lobbying services to support their proposed project and to oppose on-the-ground facts and public outcry to the current McMillan deal. ****
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both the Mayor’s Agent and DC Court of Appeals should be issuing decisions about McMillan soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

See, The \u201cMcMillan Four\u2019s Response\u201d in\u00a0 *DC Court of Appeals Cases 15-AA-587, 588, 589, & 590\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

** See page 10 of McMillan Four\u2019s Response<\/p>\n

*** See page 19 of McMillan Four\u2019s Response<\/p>\n

**** See page 14 of McMillan Four\u2019s Response<\/p>\n

###<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE –Friends of McMillan Park FOR RELEASE: August 5, 2015 CONTACT: Erin Fairbanks, erinwhite@yahoo.com, 240-506-6777, @czarinamaude District Pays Developer Lawyers to Oppose Residents DC Court of Appeals to Hear McMillan Appeal: What\u2019s Holland & Knight Afraid of? District taxpayers are apparently paying the city\u2019s premier developer law firm to oppose a group of four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,13,49,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-citywide","category-historic-sites","category-mcmillan-park","category-public-property","category-w5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}