Here is the latest news on McMillan from WBJ reporter Michael Neibauer:
Nov
26, 2013, 2:54pm EST UPDATED: Nov 26, 2013, 3:12pm EST
Michael
Neibauer, Staff Reporter- Washington Business Journal
Vision
McMillan Partners and the District have jointly submitted the rezoning
application required to jump-start redevelopment of the 25-acre McMillan Sand
Filtration site in Northwest Washington.
The
project is perhaps the District’s most controversial and divisive. The zoning plans,
the architecture, the history, the amount of green space allotted — they are
all the subject of great debate in neighboring communities.
Now
that debate moves to the Zoning Commission. The Historic Preservation Review
Board, after months of hearings, tossed its support to the plan last month.
VMP,
a team comprising the Trammell Crow Co., EYA and Jair Lynch Development
Partners, is proposing to zone McMillan for 2.1 million square feet of
development — 1 million square feet in a medical office and health care
facility, 94,717 square feet of retail, 566,930 square feet of multifamily
residential, 350,000 square feet of row houses and a 17,500-square-foot
community center. The team was selected as D.C.’s development partner in 2007.
Roughly
40 percent of the site would remain undeveloped and devoted to parks,
landscaping and open areas, according to the 41-page statement of justification
that accompanies the planned-unit development application.
“The
project will be an architecturally distinct, vibrant, mixed-use development
that will provide housing, employment, retail, cultural, healthcare, and
recreational opportunities for District residents,” the statement says.
The
plan consists of seven parcels:
- Parcel
1: an 860,000-square-foot healthcare facility with 15,000 square feet of ground
floor retail fronting Michigan Avenue, North Capitol Street and First Street.
- Parcel
2 (future): a 334,950-square-foot residential building with ground floor
retail.
- Parcel
3 (future): a 173,000-square-foot healthcare facility with ground floor retail.
- Parcel
4: a mixed-use building in the central portion of the site with a grocery store
and 280 residential units — 20 percent affordable.
- Parcel
5: 146 row houses spanning the full width of McMillan, toward the center of the
site. Ten percent of the homes will be set aside for households earning up to
80 percent of the area median income.
- Parcel
6: a community center and 6.2-acre park at the southern end of the site. The
community center will feature an indoor pool, outdoor sprayground and
playgrounds, a natural amphitheater and a “walking museum” that tells the
history of McMillan.
- Parcel
7: the North Service Court, which provides the principle access to the
healthcare facilities.
The
entire 92-acre McMillan facility, including the Sand Filtration complex and the
neighboring McMillan Reservoir, are listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic
Sites.
“The
McMillan site is one of several large underutilized parcels owned by the
District targeted for transformation into a new urban community,” the statement
says. “The site’s historic use as a slow sand water filtration plant, however,
presents unique challenges and opportunities for redevelopment.”
