PRESS RELEASE: McMillan Park Town Hall: Community, Elected Officials to Hear Objections, Alternatives to Gray Administration Plan

From: Erin Fairbanks <erinwhite@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 12:16 PM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: McMillan Park Town Hall: Community, Elected Officials to Hear Objections, Alternatives to Gray Administration Plan

Press Release

 

McMillan Park Town Hall:

Community, Elected Officials to Hear Objections, Alternatives to Gray Administration Plan

On Saturday, September 14^th, from 3 to 5pm, Friends of McMillan Park will host a town hall meeting at Saint Martin’s Catholic Church at 1908 North Capitol St. NW, (Pioneer Room). The meeting will be an opportunity for the community and invited elected officials (Gray, all DC Council Members including mayoral candidates; Evans, Bower, and Wells) to educate themselves about the site’s history, Mayor Gray’s development plans, and the objections and alternatives to those plans for the McMillan Sand Filtration Site.

              

Speakers at the meeting will address McMillan Park’s rich history dating back to the turn of the 20^th Century, explain in detail the administration’s development proposal and its negative impacts and highlight creative alternatives that the Mayor has yet to consider.  The event will also include a focused discussion of the issues, followed by an opportunity for questions from the community during the second half of the meeting.

        

FOM, in close collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers, had planned to host a tour of the Reservoir side of McMillan Park the morning before the Town Hall meeting to familiarize the community with the beauty and historical significance of the site's structures. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts postponed those plans until later this fall.

   

“Our goal for the town hall meeting is to help educate every concerned citizen who will be affected by whatever happens at McMillan Park about the negative impacts. We want every resident of the surrounding neighborhoods to be fully informed about the Mayor’s plan, and we want them to know that there are many other options for developing the site beyond what the Mayor proposes. A broad array of adaptive reuse projects from around the globe serve as examples of creative alternatives for transforming McMillan Park into a world-class destination,” said Hugh Youngblood, a member FOM and a former ANC commissioner southern Bloomingdale.

                  

The Friends of McMillan oppose the City’s plans for the site because they call for over-development, high-rise buildings, and will create grid-lock traffic for the area.

    

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