DC Council Enters the McMillan Redevelopment Debate
September 20, 2012
by Shilpi Paul
On
Wednesday, Councilmember Michael Brown held a five-hour roundtable discussion
about the McMillan redevelopment plan, hearing thoughts on the development from
community members, ANC commissioners, the development team and Deputy Mayor
Victor Hoskins. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and Brown questioned the
panelists.
The
McMillan Sand Filtration site on the northern edge of Bloomingdale (map) has
been closed off for several decades. The redevelopment plan, led by the
Envision McMillan team — made up of developers Jair Lynch and EYA, Trammell
Crow Company, architects Shalom Baranes — may be moving forward soon; the team
is hoping to break ground in 2013. The current plan for the 25-acre site
includes a mix of townhouses and multi-family residential (for a total of 800 new
households), office space, park space, a community center and retail (including
a grocery store). The team is currently preparing for the PUD and will need to
gain various approvals before then.
Since
we last wrote about the project, the team has made a couple changes: they added
one more acre of green space, moved the middle street of the redevelopment
farther north, and are working with landscape architects to better highlight
the sand filtration and underground cells to make them more of a historical
feature.
Both
supporters, including Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and
Ronnie Edwards representing ANC 5C, and opponents, like ANC 1B commissioner
Tony Norman and Bloomingdale Civic Association President Teri Quinn, spoke at
the hearing. Residents fell on both sides. Councilmember McDuffie came out in
support of the plan in advance of the roundtable.
Here
are several of the issues that emerged and the responses from the developers.
Park
Space
There
was a good deal of discussion from the crowd about parks, including a semantic
debate about parks vs. green space vs. open space. Currently, the plan includes
one 5.5-acre central park and several smaller green spaces scattered throughout
the site, totaling 8.7 acres. Residents were split on park space. Many
advocated for a larger central park, some wanted the entire site to be a park,
and others were worried that the small parks would be more symbolic than
usable. There was also a design debate — some wanted a more striking design,
while other panelists praised the design, but suggested that the adjacent
McMillan Reservoir be opened up to be usable park space. (Currently, it`s
closed off by fencing.)
In response to concerns, the development team noted that their chosen landscape architects, Nelson Byrd Woltz, recently designed St. Louis` Citygarden, which was recognized as the 2011 Urban Land Institute Park of the Year. They presented an updated version of McMillan`s central park, which has a greater emphasis on the history of the sand filtration sites than previous designs. They are also working the two-level nature of the site into the design, with bridges, hills and a view into the underground cells.
Flooding
Several
Bloomingdale residents came to the table worried that the development would
exacerbate the already bad flooding problem in Bloomingdale, urging the Council
to insure that DC Water had a voice in the development.
``No
one knows why the flooding is happening,`` ANC 5C Commissioner Mark Mueller
said. ``So the developers should stop telling the community that [the
redevelopment] will help.`` Many noted that the system was almost certainly
overwhelmed by the current population, and that added density would make things
worse.
Anne
Corbett of Vision McMillan Partners said that the team has hired civil
engineers to ensure that the development will be ``stormwater neutral`` at a
minimum.
``Right
now, it`s a 25-acre cement basement,`` said Corbett, noting that though there
is currently grass and soil over the cells, rainwater quickly hits cement and
likely runs south. The team will add underground cisterns to retain several
hundred gallons of stormwater, will create grassy open space ``with no basement
underneath`` and put green roofs on several of the buildings.
Affordable
Housing and Job Growth
The
developers said that 22 percent of the 800 new units will be allotted to senior
affordable or affordable housing, and 34 percent will be ``workforce housing.``
As
for jobs, the team hopes to bring 3,200 new permanent jobs to the neighborhood.
Councilmember Brown asked for specifics, and encouraged the team to think about
training residents for particular positions. The team noted that many jobs
would be in the healthcare field, and that they were in the process of
communicating with organizations that train such workers.
2 comments:
Does anyone know who the individual (or group representative) was who fell into this group - "some wanted the entire site to be a park"? I have only heard some of the testimony, but I didn't hear anyone say that. Thanks.
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