From: 5E06@anc.dc.gov
Subject: Fwd: McMillan - Parcel 4 Update
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 13:50:01 +0000
Scott,
Here’s the latest news regarding the grocery store. Please share with the community.
Best,
Teri Janine Quinn
Chair, ANC 5E06
Begin forwarded message:
From: Anthony Startt <ajs@jairlynch.com>Subject: McMillan - Parcel 4 UpdateDate: August 27, 2015 at 9:42:26 AM EDTTo: "Dianne Barnes (5E09@anc.dc.gov)" , "Teri Janine Quinn (5E06@anc.dc.gov)"Cc: Jair Lynch <jkl@jairlynch.com>, "Stucker, Gilles (EOM)" <gilles.stucker@dc.gov>
Commissioners Barnes and Quinn,Jair asked that I forward the attached letter regarding recent discussions that you have had on the status of grocery leasing on Parcel 4 of McMillan and the forthcoming modifications to the PUD approval.Feel free to contact me with any questions.Thanks,Anthony J. Startt | Investment ManagerJair Lynch Real Estate Partners1508 U Street NW Washington, DC 20009
Glad to see tangible progress toward a grocery store there- and HT is a good one among those. I will feel better when we go from non binding to binding. :)
ReplyDeleteGrocery stores belong on the grid, not in historic greenspace. Condos don't belong in an Olmsted designed park. VMP receives biggest corporate welfare abuse. The last 25 acres of open space in DC. Biggest land ripoff since Manhattan. 20,000 auto tips daily, added to the existing 30,000 on N. Capitol where worst air pollution levels measured in DC.
ReplyDeleteMulti Billion Dollar Developers EYA, Jair Lynch and Trammel Crow comprise Vision McMillan Partners, used "fake" grass roots PR campaign, Jaimie Fontaine, to "neutralize opposition", provide "cover" to elected officials, have been given 25 acre McMillan Park.
The development will add 20,000 additional auto trips per day on N. Capitol and Michigan Ave. They plan 3000 asphalt parking spaces. They are negotiating with Harris Teeter, and I wonder if an ethical food chain
cares how their store space was developed?
The VMP plan requires the destruction of a historic and architectural treasure -- aspects that other cities worldwide are turning into award-winning destination sites;
The VMP design does not incorporate earth-friendly elements; instead it destroys a 25-acre greenroof, and replaces it with mostly impermeable surfaces;
The VMP plan, with ten-story buildings, obliterates view scapes, casts dark shadows, and dwarfs the surrounding residences;
The VMP plan will add thousands of car trips per day, creating untenable congestion and further polluting the air;
The VMP plan removes the opportunity for a large public green space for play, introspection and regeneration, which is sorely needed in that sector;
A growing body of study shows that green space, play, nature and clean air result in a healthier population -- and contribute to a reduction in crime;
Trees eat carbon dioxide; trees clean our air;
You, like the Mayor, dismiss the over 7,500 hand written petitions which seek to stop VMP and open the site for a design competition.
By any rational analysis, the destruction of an iconic site in favor of the dense, soulless development proposed by the VMP plan is a travesty that flies in the face of "smarter growth".
Please support: establishing a public conservancy to be privately funded; undertake a global design/ideas competition; get a competitive bid for the site development; and, TAKE DOWN THE FENCE.
Join www.friendsofmcmillanpark.org
Seeing the "you, like the Mayor, reject the over 7,500 hand written petitions" line, I suppose this is partially directed at me as preceding commenter. So I feel I should respond.
DeleteAs a fellow citizen with no other interest than being someone who lives in and loves Bloomingdale, I don't reject those petitions, I just disagree with them. And I actually thank and appreciate those who wrote them (more on that at end)
Why I disagree: I believe Bloomingdale and the other neighborhoods surrounding McMillan could benefit from greater density (a good thing to me, not to others) and amenities (like a full-service grocery store walkable for local families and seniors, along with the community center and everything else) that could make day to day life easier or enrich it. We are blessed in DC with many greenspaces... and we struggle as a city to maintain even all the ones we have. I do not believe any of the majority park or otherwise undeveloped space proposals (put up by way of example of what could come out of the design competition often referenced) would be financially viable or adequately resourced. We would likely wind up with ill - maintained / underutilized space that could foster more social ills / crime than benefits. Which is part of why I support the current VMP plan, as I believe 8 acres of greenspace, some programmed, some not, is much more sustainable for a combination of city, developer, and community maintenance and anticipated use over time.
Finally to the point of the petitions themselves, all of the above is why far from rejecting those petitions, I thank them even in disagreement. In that their voices and those of many McMillan development critics (along with especially MAG and BCA pushing community serving benefits package), were instrumental in getting VMP, EYA, Jair Lynch et al to up their game way above their initial proposals, which I did not support.
There are people among those 7,500 you cite who do not believe as I have that the progress has been sufficient and now support the plan-- or they believe that any VMP project at all should be rejected in the name of processes they do not approve of, even if that realistically means at least a decade of delay before any community use of McMillan. But I believe their work was not in vain: McMillan and Bloomingdale will be all the better for those petitions, that pressure, and continued scrutiny by them, MAG, BCA et al. I don't reject that at all!
Well said, Alexandra.
DeleteSo glad to see some progress being made. The FOM will probably still be standing out on N. Capitol with signs looking silly when we are all enjoying shopping there
ReplyDeleteYes and they will all be fading into the sunset when we get the first images of them coming out of the store with thier shoppnig bags. They came in like a lion and will out with lamb chops! LOL!
DeleteA comment from the Ward 5 list follows, and I second the ho-hum reaction to Harris Teeter.
ReplyDelete"This doesn't excite me at all. There's already a Harris Teeter near
enough to us in NoMa. And I sort of yawn over the selection at Harris
Teeter -- plus, I find their prices to be higher than their competition
for the same items."
To be honest, I share some relative ho hum in that I would have been much more excited about a Wegman's or a WF for selection/quality, but I figured that ship sailed when they announced the WF in Shaw.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm still glad for having an HT rather than nothing, in that the NoMa HT is not reasonable / time crunched walking distance from northern Bloomingdale with a toddler or two. Still useful to our family to have a short walking distance option to get items that we can't get at Windows, or when we have gone through the haul from the farmer's market early. I'm hoping the HT will be more like the one on the Adams Morgan / Columbia Heights cusp, which seems to have lower prices / better selection than NoMA.