It all started in 2018 when Lisa Kays and her husband, David Barth, decided to get a new oven. Along with the new appliance came a discussion about remodeling their kitchen, and it snowballed from there: They talked about expanding the bottom level into the backyard, moving the kitchen up to the second floor, and adding a third bedroom on the third floor.
:snip:
In emails, tweets, and testimony at nearly a dozen public meetings spanning at least three different government bodies, the couple traded barbs with their neighbors on both sides of their rowhouse—Britt and Peter Bepler and Sarah and Taylor Nickel—with whom they share walls.
Kays and Barth are accused of “weaponizing their children” to justify their addition. They accuse the Beplers and Nickels of being unreasonable in their demands and spreading false information to drum up opposition.
:snip:
Kays and Barth got a late night alley visit from their advisory neighborhood commissioner, Ed Hanlon.
“What’s weird about this case is Ed managed to round up 30 other people to oppose it,” Sullivan says. “People who live in a condo building four blocks away. What do they care about a 13-foot addition? It was unusual to say the least.”
:snip:
Hanlon, who works as a bankruptcy attorney and has lived in his home for 25 years, has a reputation as an opponent of home renovations in his neighborhood. He’s challenged two other sets of neighbors’ efforts to build decks on their homes on Swann and T streets NW, respectively. One case dragged on for years and ended with a civil protection order against Hanlon for stalking, as well as a $30,000 judgment under D.C.’s anti-SLAPP law, which protects defendants in lawsuits against frivolous claims. Hanlon is still fighting the civil protection order in the D.C. Court of Appeals, despite the fact that it expired.
:snip:
Ultimately, the BZA approved the 13.25-foot expansion on Feb. 12.
[Aaron] Landry, the commissioner for 2B04, has watched the back-and-forth for the past year.
“Instead of neighbors coming to a mutual understanding, they were fueled into thinking that going to war was the right idea when going to war against your neighbor doesn’t help anybody,” he says. “I don’t know where they got that idea. I don’t know when Hanlon got involved, but neighbors don’t come up with this on their own.”
For her part, Britt Bepler says she appreciates Hanlon’s assistance.
“He’s been litigious in other ways, and I think that maybe affected how other commissioners wanted to deal with him,” she says. “He means really well. He was trying to be very diplomatic.”
As Kays and Barth wait for a possible appeal of the BZA’s decision, she says construction will likely start this summer or fall.
“It’s just bizarre to me how hostile it got,” she says.
