Friends of McMillan Park and Kirby Vining: "D.C. Court of Appeals Grants Injunction Halting McMillan Demolition"

See this 01-16-2020 message:
      
From: HistoricWashington@groups.io
On Behalf Of Kirby Vining
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2020 6:23 PM
Subject: [HistoricWashingtonDC] D.C. Court of Appeals Grants Injunction Halting McMillan Demolition

A note from Friends of McMillan Park and Kirby Vining:

Today (Thursday, January 16, 2020), the D.C. Court of Appeals granted the injunction Friends of McMillan Park requested to halt demolition activity at McMillan until our appeals case is heard.  We are appealing the D.C. Superior Court January 10th decision that denied our injunction request but did find that the District has not complied with the Appeals Court’s 
May 2019 instructions to prove the financial ability to complete the entire project.
                
Today's court order, in case No. 20-AA-25, states, in part,                     

"...that to permit the court to consider these matters, an administrative injunction is hereby imposed on any demolitions permitted by the demolition permit issued for the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, including ((permits numbered)) D1600819 and F1800040, and no demolition shall occur until further order of this court." 

We filed an appeal with the Appeals Court immediately after the ruling by the Superior Court on January 10th denying our request for an injunction, and we included a request for an injunction from the Appeals Court pending ruling by that court.   

In earlier emails we identified the specific language in the May 2019 Appeals Court's decision prohibiting demolition or the issuance of a demolition permit until the specified financial conditions had been presented and independently verified by DCRA -- which, we contend (and the Superior Court agrees) has not been done.  

So we're back before the same court that issued the instructions (that have been ignored) requiring proof of the financial ability to complete the entire project.  Recall that we tried to appeal the August 16, 2019 issuance of the demolition permit to the Appeals Court, but Appeals sent us down to Superior Court.  So we’re back where we originated this case, and that looks like a very good thing.        

There is no hearing date for Appeals Court arguments set yet, still a lot of briefings being submitted by the parties to the case, but we'll advise of any further progress.

Kirby Vining