Tuesday, January 07, 2014

what are your preferences for the parkspace at McMillan: DPR or Business Improvement District (BID) ?

At last night's Eckington Civic Association meeting, Anne Corbett and Tania Jackson of the Vision McMillan Partners team spoke about the development plans for the McMillan Sand Filtration site.







One of the topics discussed was the responsibility for the maintenance of the parkspace on the lower tripartite section of the site.

The discussion centered upon having the DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) maintain the site vs. some other organization, like a Business Improvement District (BID).

There were doubts expressed having a "corporate" entity like a BID maintaining the parkspace.   
It was also noted that DPR has indicated that its plate is full and that it is not eager to take on any additional inventory.

Be advised that the idea of establishing a BID for some parts or all of the McMillan site is just an idea.  I am not sure at what point in the Planned Unit Development (PUD) process a more detailed discussion might occur -- how the BID would be formed and what its scope of responsibilities might be.

Is it premature to be having this discussion now?  I don't think so.

In any event  -- what might your preferences be regarding DPR vs. BID regarding parkspace maintenance, parkspace programming, etc.?



@ScottRobertsDC @McMillanPark would love to hear folks express their pref: BID or DC_DPR


2 comments:

Bloomingdale Resident said...

DPR does not want any more parks./work? Was that a quote or hearsay? That makes me a little sad. I think that philosophy should be addressed when the investigation into the expenses incurred on the recent conference trip are scrutinized.

Supposedly, this development will be raising beaucoup of tax revenue. Can't some of that money be funneled to DPR to maintain the new rec center?

Or would a BID do a better job at maintaining the rec center?

Do BIDs have a good track record in maintaining public rec centers? Any examples?

Shipsa01 said...

A more middle ground may be like what they have down in historic Mount Vernon Triangle where instead of a BID, they have a CID (Community Improvement District), which isn't a purely corporate body. The Board is comprised of businesses, but also residents, churches, etc: http://www.mountvernontriangle.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Board-List-2013-141.pdf