Dupont Circle residents are planning a protest Tuesday over what they call an embassy’s illegal move to pave over the front yard of its historic 16th Street mansion. The property’s sovereign status, though, likely leaves them with little legal recourse.
The Republic of Congo bought the property, known as the Toutorsky Mansion, from a private owner who unsuccessfully tried to turn it into a bed and breakfast. The Congolese government received zoning approval in March to operate the 1890s mansion as an embassy, but only after the republic withdrew its request to turn the front yard into a half-circle driveway.
Then residents said they discovered one morning in September that the yard, which had been grass bordered by low shrubs and a wrought-iron fence, had been paved over anyway.
“I remember walking by in August or September and we see these contractors out front … but we thought it was just for [repointing the] mansion brick,” said Charles Ellis, chairman of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association‘s historic preservation committee. “Then all of a sudden there’s no yard.”
But Congolese Ambassador to the United States Serge Mombouli told The Washington Examiner that the zoning approval did not say anything about paving the yard. Nor did preserving the greenery even come up.
“We had requested a driveway and that was not approved, [so] we came to the decision we should pave the front because anyway there was not really a yard there,” Mombouli said. “It was just a lot of mud and a lot of mosquitoes.”
And now that the property is foreign land, District zoning laws don’t mean much.
“Nobody can stop us to do that driveway … although that is not our intention,” Mombouli said.
Ellis said he’s worried about what might happen down the road. Though not on a historic register, the mansion is part of the city’s 16th Street Historic District, which means properties must fit in with certain guidelines to preserve the area’s historic feel.
“If they’re going to do this, what else are they doing?” Ellis said.
But Mombouli said his office spent $2 million to renovate the property and respects its character. He added that across the street from the Congolese embassy, the Scottish Rite Supreme Council has a completely paved front entrance too.
Residents want the yard turned back into green space to match the other historic mansions along 16th Street.
