The Chicago-based nonprofit group, which represents some 157,000 members, is buying a four-bedroom home near the Library of Congress and will convert it into a private club that will have to operate under the same zoning restrictions as others in the District of Columbia, which prohibit using clubs as a group’s headquarters or for lobbying functions.
The American Dental Association (ADA) is going “clubbing” in the nation’s capital, reports the Washington (D.C.) Business Journal
The Chicago-based nonprofit, which represents some 157,000 members, is under contract to acquire a four-bedroom Victorian home located steps from the Library of Congress in the District of Columbia’s Capitol Hill district, the Business Journal reported. The property, currently owned by the National Prayer Center Inc., will be converted into a private club.
The organization intends to use the home, which has an assessed value of $1.6 million, for meetings between members and guests, socializing, networking, educational sessions, conferences and dining, the Business Journal reported. It may also on occasion be used for overnight stays, but those will be limited to members and guests, and there will be no direct fees or other payment.
Private clubs in the District of Columbia, the Business Journal reported, are subject to very specific zoning regulations applied to buildings or facilities used or operated by nonprofit organizations or associations for a common avocational purpose, such as fraternal, social, educational or recreational. The regulations, which apply to existing private clubs such as The Cosmos Club and The University Club of Washington D.C., in addition to the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, the National Democratic Club, the Woman’s National Democratic Club and the City Tavern Club, were created to ensure that a private club’s facilities would not be used as a lobbying group’s headquarters or for administrative or lobbying functions. The ADA operates administratively in Washington, D.C., out of a separate location, where it will remain, the Business Journal reported.
The Business Journal‘s report included a letter that Washington D.C.’s Zoning Administrator, Matthew Le Grant, wrote to the ADA’s attorney to confirm that the group’s plan for the club would comply with current regulations. That letter, which includes specific dos and don’ts for a private club in the District, can be read here: http://dcra.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcra/release_content/attachments/Det%20Let%20re%20137%20C%20St%20SE%20to%20Sullivan%203-24-15.pdf
The Capitol Hill home that the ADA is acquiring features three full bathrooms, a spacious family room, an “Embassy-sized” living room and a formal dining room, the Business Journal reported. It may come in handy, the Journal noted, when some 40,000 dental-association members arrive in Washington in November 2015 for the organization’s annual conference.
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