WaPo Opinion by Stronghold resident Kirby Vining: "A chance to get McMillan development right"

Click on the link to read the entire Washington Post opinion piece from Stronghold resident Kirby Vining.

I have been asked to include this Friends of McMillan Park new link to the FOMP petition.

Opinions

A chance to get McMillan development right

By Kirby Vining

Opinions
January 13 at 5:00 PM

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) recently held a “groundbreaking” ceremony for the long-embattled development of the 25-acre parcel of land known as McMillan Park, a historic location in the heart of the District along North Capitol Street that should be an inspiring, world-class public space that would make us proud. But the District’s handling of the development of McMillan Park has been a slow-motion train wreck.

One day after the groundbreaking, the D.C. Court of Appeals issued a unanimous decision overturning the District’s zoning and historic preservation approvals for the project at the old McMillan sand filtration site. The court’s resounding rejection of the agency approvals sends the entire process back to D.C. officials to reconsider how to proceed with the project.

The court’s decision vindicates the arguments of the community that the approvals “failed to adequately explain why it was necessary to disregard” certain key policies in the Comprehensive Plan, which should “guide executive and legislative decisions.” The court also found that agency approvals failed to comply with D.C.’s historic preservation law, which prohibits harming landmark sites such as McMillan except under very limited circumstances.

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