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(Still a day or so behind on news, should be back to business as usual tomorrow) Another article from the Post ("Battle Brews for Control of Stadium Project") detailing the war of wills between the city and the new Nationals ownership group over the parking garages on the ballpark site. The most interesting part of the article is toward the end, a discussion of how Forest City Washington and Western Development Corporation have supposedly pledged $70 million to the city in return for development rights on the stadium property (this had been news a long time ago), but that according to Stan Kasten the city and the developers missed a deadline to produce funding guarantees. This still might not be over.... UPDATE: Here's a press release from Mayor Baseball reiterating his support for putting the parking garages underground. Also, the Washington Times reports that the city council is probably not going to fund the Office of Baseball (but apparently the Mayor will try to find monies for it from other agencies.)
More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

This is a couple of days old, apologies for being slow, I'm going to be a bit behind on the blog here until early next week. There were two stories from Thursday about the latest news on the new baseball stadium -- the Post's "Nationals Say No to Underground Parking," which not only gives the bad news that the Lerners have firmly said that the parking on the stadium site must be in above-ground garages in order to ensure that it is ready in time for the opening of the stadium in 2008, but also that nearly half of the construction contingencies fund has just been allocated--"The commission's board of directors voted to spend $2.9 million in contingencies to help remediate unexpected environmental problems at the site after workers found 53 unreported tanks of oil under the soil. The board also agreed to spend $6.5 million to help create retail space along First Street SE, a concept mandated by the D.C. Zoning Commission." I was glad, however, to see this emphasized in the article as well: "Bobb said that no final decision has been made and stressed that the ballpark entertainment district will extend far beyond the parking garages, so the city can benefit even if parking is built aboveground." (Some articles have left the impression that the parking garages would take up the entire "entertainment district", which isn't true.) The parking garage issue might not be 100% settled, especially with the looming June 26 Zoning Commission hearing on the stadium--although I don't know whether the ZC would have the power to scuttle the garages. As for the unexpected Hazmat expenses, see this WashTimes story for more detail.

 

A press release from the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development celebrates the city council's passing of the two bills requesting Pilot Funding for infrastructure at the Southeast Federal Center (PR16-0795 and PR16-0796). From the release: "The Council approved two resolutions authorizing $230 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) bond issuances to pay for critical infrastructure on the Anacostia River. Approval of the resolutions enables the District to issue and deliver bonds for the purpose of financing or reimbursing Forest City Washington for $88 million in infrastructure costs related to the Southeast Federal Center Development and provide infrastructure funds for Anacostia Waterfront Initiative projects."
 

ANC 6D's monthly meeting is coming up (Monday June 12), and although the agenda hasn't been posted on their web site yet, I've gotten a peek at it, and the main event is a presentation of the baseball stadium plan, in advance of it's June 26 Zoning Commission hearing. Like all ANC discussions, I'm sure this one will be calm and collegial and without incident. Speaking of which, the Hill Rag has the summary of last month's meeting, where the commission voted to oppose a both zoning special exception for the JPI residential project at 901 New Jersey Avenue as well as a public space permit application by the Courtyard by Marriott for an outdoor seating area. (Note that the JPI project received approval by the Bureau of Zoning Adjustment for its project, anyway.)
 

A lot of people have been waiting to see progress on Canal Park, the new park planned for the lots along 2nd Street between I and M now occupied by lots and lots of yellow schoolbuses. And now we have some movement forward: on Wednesday, June 7 there will be a meeting to solicit community input on the initial designs by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, the landscape architecture firm selected in 2004 to design the park. The meeting is at Van Ness Elementary School, 1150 5th Street, NE, from 6 to 8 pm. UPDATE: Here's the flyer announcing the meeting.

More posts: Canal Park
 

The agenda for the City Council's June 6 session has been updated, and the votes are now officially scheduled for the two resolutions having to do with the Pilot Funding for infrastructure at the Southeast Federal Center (PR16-0795 and PR16-0796). And I see now that the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation voted on a resolution about this funding at its May board meeting--my eyes glazed over when I tried to digest the draft resolution, but I did pick out that as part of this resolution there is supposed to be delivery by Forest City Washington of a design for the planned 5.5-acre Waterfront Park by Jan. 1, 2007, with completion of the park required by January 1, 2010. (The park is a big part of this Pilot funding initiative.) If you're interested in this, I suggest you read all these documents more closely than I have, I'm just skimming.
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More posts: The Yards
 

Took a new pile of pictures, and have updated the stadium construction gallery. The last buildings on the site are now almost completely gone, just some final clean-up work along Half Street south of N. Now interest will shift to actual construction, which is starting along 1st Street near (what used to be) O Street.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

A small brief in Sunday's Post talks to Ken Wyban, the only person who owned and lived in a home on the stadium site, now that his house has been demolished.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

This week's Washington Business Journal has an article on a proposal for a $230 million bond package to help prod along development at the Southeast Federal Center. The mayor and the two developers of the 55-acre site--Forest City Washington and JBG (which is building the new US Department of Transportation HQ on 11 acres of the SEFC)--are proposing two "payment in lieu of taxes" (aka Pilot) financing plans "for the roads, parks, and sewers." Because the Southeast Federal Center is currently federal property, the developers are not paying property taxes to the city--so the city would sell the $230 million in bonds and then "use a portion of the future payments in lieu of property taxes to cover the debt service for up to 15 years." The Pilot programs would then generate about $88 million, which would be used to cover the costs of roads and sidewalks and the 5.5-acre waterfront park that Forest City envisions. Forest City is saying that this infrastructure deal must be in place by June 15 to honor their agreement with GSA, and that city subsidies are "absolutely necessary" to ensure that the SFC is developed as a mixed-use project, according to the Office of Planning. The Pilot packages also include about $75 million for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation's infrastructure projects--the AWC says specific projects "are not really well defined at this point" (but gee, aren't folks looking for a couple million to pay for those underground stadium parking garages? Just a thought.) WBJ says that the DC Council is expected to vote on the legislation (PR 16-796) on June 6 (although this is not yet on the Council calendar). (UPDATED to add link to article, now online.)
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More posts: The Yards
 

From the Associated Press, news that the National Capital Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the first phase of the new baseball stadium. From the story: "Still, some board members remain concerned the project could obstruct views of the Capitol. The board voted to approve a measure calling for further review of any future changes to the stadium's design. The planning commission wasn't asked to approve a second phase plan for retail and entertainment facilities, which are still being worked on. The panel also reserves the right to review plans for lighting, scoreboards and other signage as they become available."
UPDATE: Link added for story, and text changed because AP edited their wording of the quoted section.
UPDATE II: Here's WTOP's version of the story, with a bit of extra information. (But somehow I don't think the news that Ted Lerner is the developer of a building near the stadium was exactly broken by WTOP....) And once again the stadium is incorrectly referred to as a "waterfront" project, when it's actually one block north of the Anacostia River.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

A new DC Wire blog post gives more detail on the Office of Baseball, to be chaired by Stephen Goldsmith (who is also chair of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation). The money to fund the office, and the consultants (!), would still have to be approved by the DC Council. I do note that the statement from Stephen Goldsmith ("The Office of Baseball will serve as a single, coordinating point of contact for development on the ballpark site and in the surrounding district") is a bit odd, since I always thought that was what the AWC was going to be doing, given its work on the Ballpark District (the AWC Master Plan for the ballpark environs was supposed to be unveiled in mid-April, now they're talking late summer). And to have the AWC chairman also chair this new office.... I imagine the back-and-forth on this is not done yet.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Grrr, I hate when I don't know about a meeting until a few hours beforehand! (Didn't get the normal notification e-mail.) Anyway, the National Capital Planning Commission has its June meeting today, which includes a request for "approval of preliminary and final site and building plans" for the baseball stadium; the meeting will be at 401 9th Street, NW at 12:30 pm.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Because I've been writing about Near Southeast for 3 1/2 years now, I admit to not always explaining every item in minute detail--I work under the assumption that everyone's been reading along from the beginning and has committed every iota of my prose to memory. (It's not at all a wise strategy, but you have to admit it saves space.) Anyway, I made mentions over the past few weeks of the demolition of the one nice structure on the ballpark site, which I referred to as the Ken Wyban house (after it's last owner). I didn't give much additional background, but you can go to Douglas Willinger's South Capitol Street Frederick Douglass Mall blog to get a bit more detail--it was actually the Alfred Richards House, built in the 1840s and named after it's original owner. (You'll recognize a lot of familiar verbage and photos in the entry, as Willinger quotes from my site--thanks for the hat tip.) The blog itself discusses the fate of South Capitol Street, which in 1990s planning documents was going to be transformed into a grand boulevard/promenade--the stadium has changed those plans, and Willinger is not happy...

 

the Post's DC Wire blog reports today that Mayor Williams has proposed an Office of Baseball, at a cost of $750,000. Why? As DCist succinctly puts it, "Essentially, this new Office of Baseball will serve to mediate conflicts between the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, and the Lerner family." (The brewing battle over the stadium's parking garages shows that the three groups aren't exactly on the same page.) But, in a stunner, the DC Council appears uninterested in shelling out another batch of dough having to do with the stadium.
UPDATE: Speaking of the stadium, Clark/Hunt/Smoot has now posted the final version of the Project Labor Agreement, signed back in late March.
UPDATE II: Here's the Post's piece on the Office of Baseball, and the WashTimes piece, which seems to have the most information (including that Williams has already signed an executive order creating the office). It also includes some info on the parking garages debate: "City Administrator Robert Bobb said District officials planned to meet with the Lerners and officials from the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. yesterday and today to discuss possible solutions to the parking question. He said the groups would reach an agreement about the placement of the parking structure by this afternoon and that the plans would be complete when submitted to the National Capitol Planning Commission tomorrow." (Which tells me that NCPC didn't remind me to look at their agenda for today's meeting! Waah! There's a request for "approval of preliminary and final site and building plans" for the stadium.)
More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Both the office building at 20 M Street and the wraparound construction at Capper Seniors #2 are starting to become much more visible, so I've added new pictures to each of their pages.

 

The Naval Historical Center at the Navy Yard has released its list of June events, which I've added to my Neighborhood Calendar.
More posts: Navy Yard
 

The one structure on the stadium site that maybe should have been saved--the Victorian rowhouse at Van and N--was demolished late this week, leaving now just the buildings on the east side of Half Street between N and O as the only ones left to take down. I added a couple of new shots to the stadium construction gallery, although not a full complement (I'm being lazy this holiday weekend). I'll also note that the WashTimes ran its own piece on Saturday on the looming battle between the city and the Lerners over the parking garages....
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Without a shovel in the ground, EYA has raised the prices on the upcoming Capitol Quarter townhome development at Capper/Carrollsburg--their page now says "Townhomes from $500s" (up from $400s). Cha-ching! They still appear to be targeting Fall 2006 for the start of sales.
More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

In news from last night's Zoning Commission meeting (and thank the heavens that DCOZ has gotten its live webcast up and running again), the commission gave final approval to the office building proposed for 100 M Street, a 263,000-sq-ft tower being developed by Opus East. Opus is planning to do its construction contemporaneously with the Faison residential project just to its north, and indications are that they plan to start work by the end of this year. A side note--Opus was unable to procure lot 0800, a 1,485-sq-ft empty triangular lot that runs along the southeast portion of Opus's land, abutting the north-south alley at New Jersey Avenue. It makes no real difference in Opus's plans, but is another interesting example of people not selling to developers, which is a fine-enough stand except for when you have a lot that will then be unable to ever have anything built on it....

More posts: 100 M, Square 743N, zoning
 

Also from last night, the Zoning Commission worked on two Office of Planning proposed amendments to the Capitol Gateway Overlay, Case 05-10 (which was given first approval and will now enter a 30-day comment period), and Case 06-25, which was approved for setdown. Case 05-10 had its hearing in January (here's the transcript, as well as the draft of the changes requested), but has had a few deferrments. Case 06-25 is a proposed CG Overlay amendment to extend the CG boundaries to include properties on the west side of South Capitol Street from M Street south, so that the character of both sides of South Capitol Street matches.
Finally, they discussed Case 06-22, which is the baseball stadium--the hearing itself will be on June 26, this was just a session to allow the commissioners to make comments that the petitioners can then be ready to address at the hearing. Many concerns were expressed about the parking structures, and also about the South Plaza (why it's in a spot where there won't be many people), and about the "knife-edge" administration building. They are interested in finding out "best practices" from other stadiums in urban settings, how parking is handled in those situations. The June hearing should be interesting....
 
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