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There will be a Community Update meeting about the new baseball stadium on Nov. 1 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Southeastern University. (I found out about this from an ad in November's Southwester--the ad is from the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, so you'd think that they'd mention the meeting somewhere on their own web site, which I check religiously, but alas, there's no mention of it there as yet.) [bumped up as a reminder]
More posts: Nationals Park
 

There will be a DC Ballpark Business and Economic Opportunity Conference on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to "bring together contractors and subcontractors with public, private, and non-profit organizations that have responsibility for LSDBE business development, apprenticeship programs, and employment of District residents for a day-long conference on subcontracting and apprenticeship opportunities associated with construction of the new baseball stadium."  Also on Wednesday, Nov. 2., a WASA public meeting on their river cleanup efforts, Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th Street, SE, 7:00-8:15 pm. Remember to look at my Upcoming Events Calendar to see what's on the Near Southeast agenda.... 
More posts: Nationals Park
 

It isn't just the White Sox being in the World Series that's holding up the lease negotiations between the city and MLB over the new baseball stadium--it's worries over hurricanes and terrorism (according to the WashTimes), and whether the city should be guaranteed a rent payment under those circumstances.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

The DC government has filed court papers to seize the properties of 16 landowners in the footprint of the new baseball stadium, according to Wednesday's Post. The owners have 20 days to challenge the constitutionality of the takeover; if the courts do not block the city's takeover, the properties must be vacated within three months, and juries may ultimately have to decide what the owners get paid if no agreements can be reached. Seven other owners have agreed to sell their land.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

I've added a graphic to my Capper/Carrollsburg page that shows the general outline of the plans for the area. (I realized that while I know what's going where, and have mentioned it from time to time on my site, perhaps not everyone can read my mind and so might prefer an easy-to-read image that lays out the concepts of this 33-acre revitalization, rather than having to sift through piles of zoning documents or waiting for EYA to add a real "Site Plan" link to their Capitol Quarter page.) I also added a similar graphic and some detail to the Ballpark District page, while we wait to find out what the AWC has up its sleeve.
 

It's become a busy time, with all sorts of Near Southeast-related events coming up, so I've created a Calendar of Events on the Near Southeast home page (at right, under the map) to better keep track of what's on the docket.
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Nine bids to become the "master developer" that will oversee the mixed-use development of the roughly 13 acres of land surrounding the new baseball stadium have been received by the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in response to its Request for Expressions of Interest for Ballpark District Development, from the following companies: Monument Realty and Federal Realty Investment Trust, AkridgeLNR Property Corp., Trammell Crow Residential, Triden Development Group LLC, Forest City Enterprises Inc. and Western Development Corp., the Franklin L. Haney Co., and the DSG Capital Group. The Post's "Firms Bid on Land by Stadium" and the WashTimes's "Group Pitches 'Ballpark District'" both contain details on some of the bids. The AWC is hoping to select the lead developer by early December.
 

Only one of the 23 land owners in the footprint of the new baseball stadium has agreed to accept the city's offer for their property, according to "Stadium Property Owners Balking" in Saturday's Post. From the article: "To gain control of the land for the $535 million stadium project, the D.C. attorney general's office will go to D.C. Superior Court as early as Monday to begin eminent domain proceedings to seize the properties that have not been sold. By going to court, D.C. officials plan to control the entire 21-acre stadium site within 90 days, they said. That will put them on schedule to clear the land, remediate minor environmental contamination and complete the Washington Nationals' ballpark by Major League Baseball's March 2008 deadline." Some of the landowners are complaining that the city is doing nothing to help them relocate, although other owners have said they feel the city is dealing with them in good faith. Again from the article: "[U]nder the "quick take" provision in the eminent domain law, the District will assume title to the properties once it deposits the money into a court-controlled account. Unless a judge stops the action on constitutional grounds, owners will have 90 days to vacate, and a jury eventually will determine the sale price unless an agreement is reached. As long as the city can show that the stadium will serve a significant public purpose, the court will allow the takeover, land use lawyers said." To see the 2005 assessed values for the properties, along with what the city has offered, see my Stadium Offers chart.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

I've made some major changes to my Florida Rock page, with much more detailed information about this planned 5.8-acre mixed-use project along the Anacostia River. Also included are some fabulous renderings of what the development will look like. Many thanks go to Davis Buckley Architects for providing me with the information and images. ANC 6D will be voting on the project at its November 14 meeting, and the second-stage PUD will be before the DC Zoning Commission on Dec. 8.
 

As part of the Great Streets Initiatve, the District Department of Transportation will be holding public workshops to help plan and design over $100 million in transportation for seven corridors, including South Capitol Street. The workshop that will include South Capitol Street (along with MLK Jr. Avenue and Minnesota Avenue) will be held Wednesday, October 26 at 6 pm at Thurgood Marshall Academy.
More posts: South Capitol St.
 

This is not the sort of thing I normally would post about here, but I've been giggling about it all morning, so.... I dreamt last night that I was driving around Near Southeast, and suddenly at N Street I saw a big brick building that I knew hadn't been there just a few days earlier. I went to investigate, and it was a "model" of the new baseball stadium, about three stories high and two blocks long, that the city had built so that residents could get a feel for what the new stadium was going to look like. It was a Camden Yards-looking design (so of course I told everyone in earshot "no, the architects have said they'd be using glass and stone as their major materials!"), and there were tons of people milling around looking at it, getting very excited about seeing the "real" stadium built. If I had to ask Dr. Freud, I think he'd tell me that I'm at the end of my rope waiting for the design to be unveiled!
More posts: Nationals Park
 

News from Zoning Commission land: at Monday's meeting, the text amendment to the Capitol Gateway Overlay about the stadium was finally approved. As soon as it gets posted in the DC Municipal Regulations, I'll post it here, although in the meantime you can read the text of the amendment from the July 29 DC Register. In other DCOZ news, there will be a hearing on Dec. 19 on Capper/Carrollsburg, to consider Phase I Final Approval and modifications to the consolidated and prelimary PUD. Phase I final approval references the land between 3rd and 4th and K and M Streets, where they are proposing to build 91 3- to 4-story residential units (note that the existing private homes in these blocks will not be demolished); this application also addresses the plans to build a new community center on 5th Street between K and L Streets. At the ANC 6D meeting on Oct. 17, it was indicated that the breakdown of the 91 units would be: 51 units would be 3-4 bedroom townhouses sold at market rate or moderate (80%-120% median income), 11 would be section 8 ownership units, and 29 would be public housing rental units. These units are in addition to the ones already in the pipeline for the blocks between 4th and 5th and Virginia and M--there will be a total of 208 market-rate townhouse units in these first two phases. The community center will include a daycare facility for 66 children, a rec center, a computer lab, a gym, a game room, and meeting/classrooms. AND 6D will be voting on this at their Nov. 14 meeting.

 

The 11th Street Bridges Environmental Impact Statement project has released its first newsletter, which contains a lot of really useful information about what exactly the project is, and how it's going to work. There will be two more public scoping meetings on Dec. 13 and 14. The newsletter also notes that construction on new ramps could begin as early as Fall 2007.

More posts: 11th Street Bridges
 

DC Council Chair Linda Cropp has signaled that she will block any attempts at significant alternations to the baseball stadium financing package, reports Tuesday's Post. She will introduce as "technical" the amendments necessary to amend the financing package on Nov. 1, which limits the amount of changes that can be made. While councilmembers such as David Catania, Kwame Brown, and Vincent Orange have hinted that they would like to reopen the financing package, the article notes that two council members who voted against the package last year--Kathy Patterson and Adrian Fenty--have indicated they would probably vote to approve the amendments. Says Patterson: "The District is at some risk of not being taken seriously as a government if we renege on the deal we have. That said, we negotiated a lousy deal."

More posts: Nationals Park
 

The DC Zoning Commission will be taking up the stadium text amendment to the Capitol Gateway Overlay District at tonight's meeting. This should be when they vote for final approval--although with the discussions these days about building heights near the stadium, I wonder if there will be some revisions in the works.

 

According to the Washington Business Journal, owners of land north of the new stadium site recently met with DC council members Cropp, Evans, and Ambrose to discuss limiting the heights of their future developments in order to preserve views of the US Capitol dome, with buildings being able to get progressively taller as they near the Capitol. Russell Hines of Monument Realty is quoted as saying that they're willing to work with the city on this point. (A WBJ editorial supports this idea.)
 

Sunday's Post reports that Linda Cropp says she is committed to the Near Southeast location for the new baseball stadium, with aides for Mayor Williams saying that the council chair's support is crucial, given that she has power to limit changes to the original legislation if she brings forward the necessary revisions as "technical changes." UPDATE: in "If It Doesn't Come, Will They Still Build?" in Monday's Post, developers weigh in on how their plans for development around the stadium site would change if the stadium weren't put there after all. Some say it would slow down their plans, others say that the area is still ripe for new offerings. And one more article from the weekend deluge of Nats/stadium pieces, Saturday's piece on which groups appear to be the leading bids to buy the team also mentions the issues the council is having with the stadium lease agreement, and how the choice of a non-DC-based owner could impact those negotiations.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Once again proving that nothing can ever be considered "done" in DC government, Vincent Orange's attempt to force Major League Baseball to pick an owner before a stadium lease agreement is in place, plus some technical errors in the baseball stadium financing agreement completed in late 2004, may be giving the DC Council an opening to revisit the terms, perhaps even taking another shot a trying to build the stadium at the RFK site instead of the site chosen in Near Southeast. Reps from the city's executive branch are trying to indicate that this is no big deal, and MLB is gently reminding the council that a deal's a deal, but who knows what will transpire. Read the Post and the WashTimes articles for more details.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

In case you don't have enough Near Southeast items on your calendar:
· The October meeting of ANC 6D (which includes about 85% of Near Southeast in its borders) will be held Monday, Oct. 17. The agenda includes two presentations of Near Southeast interest: one on the Capper/Carrollsburg Second Stage PUD, and one on the Florida Rock PUD. [entry repeated from a few days ago as a reminder]
· The Capitol Hill Restoration Society will be hosting a forum about the Anacostia Waterfront Initiatve on October 25. In addition to outlining the framework of the redevelopment plans (from the South Capitol Street corridor to the new stadium (!) through the Navy Yard up through Reservation 13 and RFK), the presentation will highlight how the initiative will relate to Capitol Hill in terms of business opportunities, urban density, and historic preservation. 
· The small mixed-use project at 801 Virginia Avenue winds its way through the bureaucracy with a hearing in front of the Historic Preservation Review Board on October 27. The developer wishes to demolish the auto repair shop and replace it with a four-story building with 17 residences and ground-floor retail.
 

Today's DC Register has published an ever-so-slightly corrected version of the Capper/Carrollsburg first-stage PUD approval from 2004. Since the second-stage PUD should be coming before the zoning board in the near future (and is being discussed at the ANC 6D meeting on Monday 10/17), perhaps printing this is one of those arcane zoning rules I'm unaware of. Anyway, anyone interested in the plans for the Capper/Carrollsburg site should take the time to plow through these 40 pages.
 
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