This Wednesday, 9/9/2009, there will be a meeting on the development of the McMillan Sand Filtration site (and not the McMillan Reservoir site, which reporters consistently confuse!).Note that this meeting is NOT NOT NOT being coordinated by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development (DMPED) and the Vision McMillan Partners land development team which has put on the prior community meetings.
It should also be noted that the members of the McMillan Advisory Group (MAG) are not a sponsor of this event.
No agenda for this meeting has been provided.
(Photo of the McMillan sand filtration silos courtesy of hipchikindc: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hipchickindc/1556599315/)
Item #1) See this message from ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti:
A few weeks ago, I announced a community meeting about the McMillan Sand Filtration Site. But because a number of key people were not able to make that date, I postponed the meeting. But now with the help of a new host committee, the meeting has been rescheduled and revamped into a series of meetings.
So on behalf of the host committee consisting of several ANC commissioners, community associations, and residents, I invite you to the attend the first of these meetings to discuss the future of the Sand Filtration Site. This meeting is set for Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at St. George's Episcopal Church, at 2nd & U Streets, NW, starting at 7:00 p.m.
This first meeting will cover some history, the results of a previous community input process in 2000, a slide show of the site, the current development plan that has been discussed over the last year, and other options for developing such a site. While this meeting will mainly present broad information, it will lay the foundation for succeeding ones, which will cover more technical issues and offer ways for participants to develop a consensus for what they would like to see happen at the site.
Because the future of the Sand Filtration Site is complex issue and sometimes contentious, we will have a professional facilitator who will run the meetings.
Also, come early. St.George's only seats about 100 people!
If you have any questions, please let me know.
John
John T. Salatti
Commissioner, ANC 5C04
(202) 986- 2592
John.Salatti @ gmail.com
"Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale"
Item #2) I spotted a few fluorescent green leaflets blowing around some sidewalks in the neighborhood, announcing the Wednesday McMillan community meeting.
Here is the text from the leaflet:
ANC Commissioners Stuart Davenport, Ronnie Edwards, Myla Moss & John Salatti
Howard University Community Association
McMillan Park Committee
Our Community, Our Choice
My McMillan
Please become part of a community effort to shape the future of this national treasure in our own backyard.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
7 pm to 9 pm
St. George's Episcopal Church
160 U Street NW
info @ mymcmillan.com
202 - 986 - 2592
http://www.mymcmillan.com/
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And let’s review, once again, what the rules are for posting comments:
1) Identify yourself. A full name would be best, but at least include a first name.
2) Identify your neighborhood.
3) Totally anonymous posts will not be allowed and be deleted, regardless of the content of the comment.
BOTH name and neighborhood name are required! Thanks for honoring the rules.
15 comments:
Columbia Heights.
One glitch I've noticed when posting comments on this board is that the Captcha doesn't appear the first time I try to post.
After I select Post Comment the first time, I get this error message:
"Your request could not be processed. Please try again."
When I select Post comment the second time, the Captcha appears.
I have had the same issues with posting as Brandon.
It seems odd that the biggest 'players': the development team, DMPED & MAG aren't involved with this meeting. Does anyone know why? Maybe because this meeting is only informational? What about future meetings? I think it is paramount to have all involved parties attend and participate in these meetings - we can't create effective, influential community-based recommendations in a vacuum.
Bryan, Bloomingdale
Brandon of Columbia Heights: Sorry that you encountered an issue when attemtping to post. But I will admit that I have no idea what Catchpa is. -- moderator, Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale.
Scott, I applaud your efforts to have people identify themselves in some way.
Bryan, the way I understand this is that this is a forum not coordinated by the developers on purpose so that the community has control over the content and direction of the meeting. I'm interested to see if that produces a different kind of input.
Suzanne of Bloomingdale...
The developers were invited to attend the meeting and present their plan; for reasons best known to them they declined the invitation. The meeting was organized by local residents in order to inform the wider community about the history and possible future plans for those 25 acres.
Jonathan of Bloomingdale
The meeting was professionally moderated, well attended and overall a very informative. It was a good start to developing an alternative that preserves the parks awe inspiring features as well as maximum density and income for the city. The current plan appears to ignore the possibilities for this site.
Because the developer, ANC, Civic Assocations, historical assocations and key residents agreed to a process over three years ago.. It would be disrespectful not to continue with the well established balanced and equitable process than to allow Commissioner Salatti to circumvent the process because he doesn't have direct oversight of the outcome. The public meetings that have been held have been fair and balanced and it will show in the overall community that multiuse for McMillan is not only what the community wants but what makes sense and is the right thing to do for this citys future!
Sorry, but very few people are arguing against multiuse development of the site. There are, however, ways of doing that, and simply leveling the 25 acres and throwing up identikit boxes that could be anywhere USA without preserving important green space for the community.
There are many in the community who are against anything but open park space on this site. What the current plan calls for is almost 8 arces of open/public/hard scape/greenspace on the site plan. Also the current plan has taken I to consideration the historial preservation of cells, towers and pump houses; using some as an interactive exhibit others as theather space etc. Any plan must be balanced between open space, money and value for the community EYA was choosen from a RFP issued and if further input from others on those plans is totally encouraged and has been for three years now!
Hi All,
I've published the first of a series of articles on McMillan on Examiner.com tonight. Feedback is greatly welcome, as I believe greater transparency on this issue will result in the best possible outcome! Thanks, Em from Bloomingdale
Article at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18055-Bloomingdale-Examiner~y2009m9d11-McMillan-Part-1--The-Story-of-the-Sand
I have also heard many thoughtful and well given presentations from the city and its selected developer for the site plans that does include preservation. The Q&A type meetings were 3 or so years ago. The city and developer EYA took many, many heated questions and debates over several meetings in the process. The DC Preservation League or other preservation assocations will tell you that to preserve a site it is usually necessary to develop part of it so raise those funds. The early meetings told how expensive it was to stabilize, preserve and make the silos and surrounding areas safe. The site was never intended for upward development, so you cannot just build on the site. And if you've been one of the occassional city led tours - you would know its not safe for dogs or children to run.
Having said all that - I unfortunately missed this recent meeting. Did the alternative presentations give ways to fund the preservation of more than what EYA has planned?
Or how these alternatives can be real alternatives since the RFP and selection process was years ago?
Are there minutes or plans that can be posted? Sorry I missed the meeting - I'm very curious!
I think this is attempt to overthrow a public process of selecting a developer and providing community input to develop the best plan for progess that pleases everyone. It seems a few commisioners have their own thoughts in mind about what should happen and choose to hold neighborhood meetings without all parties included and by having professors with fantasy projects stir up emotions without commitment or means.
There is a process in place, EYA has been selected, any energies that our neighborhood commisioners can rally should be focused on getting the best community input to the selected developer instead of trying to delay the entire project by re-introducing conflicting plans...plans without a developer, without funding, without DC support.
I guess the plan is to just let the place sit and rot and continue to be a mosquito and rat breeding ground for the next century...or until we get new neighborhood commisioners who are more inclusive and less controlling???
Thank you Anonymous...I couldn't agree with you more...
A note to Anoymous above -- please include your name & neighborhood name in the future or I will be forced to delete your comment. Thanks.
-- Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale
"
I guess the plan is to just let the place sit and rot and continue to be a mosquito and rat breeding ground for the next century..."
Better that, than to have productive use of city resources. Have you noticed that "Productivity" and "DC" are not related concepts?
--Brinson
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