Georgetown: housing as religion

[marite]

<p>File under: My father’s house has many mansions.</p>

<p>For Georgetown ‘Apostles,’ A Rowhouse Rebellion
Religious Immunity to Zoning Laws Cited</p>

<p>

They live on quiet 35th Street NW, in a stately section of Georgetown, where Brian O’Neill Jr., 20, and his roommates moved in August and promptly held pool parties so loud the university and police were called.</p>

<p>This is where your classic town-gown dispute gets weird. The $2.4 million house that J. Brian O’Neill Sr. bought for his son is allowed only six unrelated residents under zoning laws. But if it’s a residence for a “religious community,” the number jumps to 15.</p>

<p>The solution? The Apostles of O’Neill. That’s the name the young men used Oct. 2 when they filed paperwork to incorporate as a nonprofit religious organization. In an e-mail statement, the group says that it has donated to charities and that its mission is “to be active and positive members of our community.”</p>

<p>The neighbors call it blasphemy and a possible precedent-setting threat to property values. It has impressed some of the young men’s parents, including one who called it “ingenious” and another who said they were defending American property rights in the face of fuddy-duddy Georgetowners.

<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001978.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001978.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[cheers]

<p>Laughing out loud out here, marite. Revenge of the boys?</p>

[sjmom2329]

<p>Well, while I admire their creativity, my sympathies are with the neighbors.</p>

[sax]

<p>After reading the article I am disgusted with the students and even more disgusted with their parents. These same people would have you in court in a nonosecond if the tables were turned.</p>

[cheers]

<p>Hey, I live in a mixed neighborhood and we have a student house across the street. Who knows HOW many kids live in there. In five years, we’ve had a variety of groups, some louder than the others. Even the loudest are only loud on the weekends and they aren’t loud every weekend.</p>

<p>That’s urban living. If I needed quiet I would have moved to the burbs.</p>

[sax]

<p>If they had 9 guys in there like the zoning states then who cares. They knew the zoning laws and went out of their way to skirt them by lying. They figure they can do anything they want because they are spoiled and have the money to fight it. People like this make me sick. The law is for everybody else but them.</p>

[ebeeeee]

<p>So they are skirting the zoning law by lying. Additionally, the kid whose Father bought the house is 20 so they are breaking the law by having alcohol served to persons underage. Glad I don’t live next door.</p>