Shiv Newaldass clarifies the McMillan property surplus process (and addresses the request to cancel the 06-06-2013 McMillan surplus hearing)

From: "Newaldass, Shiv (EOM)" <shiv.newaldass@dc.gov>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 7:03 PM
Subject: Fwd: Request to Cancel McMillan Park Surplus Hearing Scheduled for Thursday, 6 June 2013

Dianne and Scott,

We've responded to a request by Mr. Youngblood and it adds further clarity on the Surplus process, in case you all or others are interested. Thanks much.

Shiv

Shiv Newaldass | Project Manager

Government of the District of Columbia

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development 

1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 317 | Washington, DC 20004

| W 202.674.2336 | F 202.727.6703 |Shiv.Newaldass@dc.gov

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Newaldass, Shiv (EOM)" <shiv.newaldass@dc.gov>
Date: May 31, 2013, 7:00:18 PM EDT
To: McMillan Park <friendsofmcmillanpark@gmail.com>
Cc: "Gray, Vincent (EOM)" <Vincent.Gray@dc.gov>, "McDuffie, Kenyan (Council)" <kmcduffie@dccouncil.us>, "Mendelson, Phil (COUNCIL)" <PMENDELSON@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Graham, Jim (COUNCIL)" <JGRAHAM@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Catania, David A. (COUNCIL)" <DCATANIA@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "vorange@dccouncil.us" <vorange@dccouncil.us>, "dgrosso@dccouncil.us" <dgrosso@dccouncil.us>, "abonds@dccouncil.us" <abonds@dccouncil.us>, "Evans, Jack (COUNCIL)" <JACKEVANS@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Cheh, Mary (COUNCIL)" <MCheh@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Bowser, Muriel (COUNCIL)" <MBowser@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Wells, Thomas (COUNCIL)" <TWells@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Alexander, Yvette (COUNCIL)" <YAlexander@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Barry, Marion (COUNCIL)" <MBarry@DCCOUNCIL.US>, "Hoskins, Victor (EOM)" <victor.hoskins@dc.gov>, "Tregoning, Harriet (OP)" <harriet.tregoning@dc.gov>, "Miller, Jeff (EOM)" <jeff.miller@dc.gov>, "Abbasi, Ayesha (EOM)" <ayesha.abbasi@dc.gov>
Subject: Re: Request to Cancel McMillan Park Surplus Hearing Scheduled for Thursday, 6 June 2013
Mr. Youngblood,

I am responding to you on behalf of the Mayor.  Thank you for your recent email regarding your request to cancel the public meeting on the proposed surplus of the McMillan Sand Filtration site. 

As you stated, District Code §10-801 requires the Mayor to submit legislation to DC Council with several supporting documents in order to declare a property surplus and approve the disposition of the property for non-public purposes.  It is important to note that the surplus and disposition processes are bifurcated processes, as required by §10-801.  Therefore, the legislation needed for each process is separate and requires a different set of supporting documents to be submitted to Council and approved before any property can be transferred to a development team.

More specifically, the surplus legislation requires an analysis of why the Mayor has determined that the property is no longer required for a public purpose.  The meeting that is scheduled for June 6, 2013 will be held in order to receive feedback from the community on the District’s finding that the property is not required for public purposes. Comments collected at the public meeting will be submitted to the D.C. Council for their review as part of the aforementioned surplus analysis. The Council conducts a public hearing to receive additional feedback from residents about the proposed surplus before approval of the legislation.

Please note that this meeting is only to discuss the proposed surplus of the property and this meeting is not a discussion about the redevelopment plan. The redevelopment of the site is approved by Council through the disposition legislation.  The disposition legislation requires, as you have stated, an analysis of the economic factors and benefits to the District.  This disposition analysis is one of the documents that will be submitted to Council for review and approval with a Land Disposition Agreement.  The Council conducts a public hearing to receive additional feedback from residents on the Mayor’s proposed redevelopment before approval of the legislation.

The Mayor may elect to move forward with both processes in parallel, depending on the needs of the project.  Additionally, Council may conduct a joint hearing on both pieces of legislation in order to approve the surplus designation and approve the disposition concurrently.   

As a reminder, the public surplus meeting, which is required by §10-801(a-1)(4) of the D.C. Official Code, does not preclude other public meetings about the redevelopment from being held going forward.  The Deputy Mayor’s Office will continue to hold public meetings to receive feedback about the redevelopment plans for the project.  We look forward to seeing you on June 6^th, 2013 at All Nations Baptist Church and receiving your comments.

Additionally, as per a FOIA request, we will have the requested documents available to the public prior to this hearing on the 6th.    

As always, thank you for your commitment to this site and do please free to contact me at your convenience with any further questions or concerns. 

Keep well,

Shiv

Shiv Newaldass | Project Manager

Government of the District of Columbia

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development 

1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 317 | Washington, DC 20004

| W 202.674.2336 | F 202.727.6703 |Shiv.Newaldass@dc.gov

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CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and contains information which may be confidential, legally privileged, proprietary in nature, or otherwise protected by law from disclosure.  If you received this message in error, you are hereby notified that reading, sharing, copying, or distributing this message, or its contents, is prohibited.  If you have received this message in error, please telephone or reply to me immediately and delete all copies of the message.

On May 28, 2013, at 11:42 PM, "McMillan Park" <friendsofmcmillanpark@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mayor Gray,

Friends of McMillan Park respectfully requests that you cancel the hearing scheduled for Thursday, 6 June 2013, to be convened by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) to discuss the proposal to declare the McMillan Sand Filtration Site (2501 1st Street NW) as surplus public property.  We make this appeal because DMPED has yet to make available many of the legally required public documents and information needed to fully and meaningfully evaluate and comment on the proposal.  To wit:


·         DC Code § 10-801 requires that the Mayor present analysis explaining:


o   Whether the land has any necessary use by the District and why, including economic factors and policy objectives which serve as the basis for this decision and a description of how competition for the land may be maximized, as well as a description of how the economic and policy objectives will be weighted and evaluated in the disposition process, and,


o   What public benefit would obtain by selling, or keeping, the land.


·         DMPED has an “Exclusive Rights Agreement” with Vision McMillan Partners (VMP), the consultant that DMPED intends to use as the vertical developer for the site.  That agreement has been the subject of a FOIA request filed on 17 October 2012 and again on 11 May 2013.  To date, DMPED has yet to respond to these FOIA requests and has yet to produce the requested public documents for public inspection. Both the Exclusive Rights Agreement and the reports required by DC Code § 10-801 should be made available for public examination prior to any hearing on the proposed surplus declaration for the McMillan Sand Filtration Site.


·         DMPED has yet to update the Fiscal and Economic Impact Analysis for the McMillan Park project since June 2011 to reflect the changes to the deal structure resulting from the addition of the DC Water infrastructure project in late 2012.

Thus, we request that you cancel the McMillan Sand Filtration Site surplus hearing scheduled for 6 June 2013 until all the relevant documents are made publicly available, including those subject to our FOIA request, and the public has adequate time to review these documents and provide substantive comments.  Without these key documents, the public is unable to meaningfully evaluate your intentions and decisions and to respond to the proposed decision in a rational, meaningful way.

We should avoid rushing to judgment on McMillan Park, which represents one of the last remaining large tracts of finite public land in the District of Columbia.

Thank you for your attention to our request.

Sincerely,

Hugh Youngblood
Friends of McMillan Park
202.630.2262
friendsofmcmillanpark@gmail.com