From ANC 6D: "There will be a special ANC meeting on Wednesday, July 5th to discuss the supplemental proposal submitted by the Sports and Entertainment Commission on the baseball stadium. The meeting will be at 7 pm at 65 I Street SW." The Zoning Commission has asked the applicants to answer specific questions, and to allow ANC 6D to comment on the submission--July 6 is the date of the next ZC hearing.

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.)

If I hadn't been at the ANC6D meeting last week, I wouldn't have known about this (because I can't find evidence of it anywhere else), but there is to be a Community Update Meeting about the ballpark on April 19 at 6:30 pm at the Friendship Baptist Church, 900 Delaware Ave., SW. It is being run by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, and apparently they plan on making these meetings a regular occurrence to keep the neighborhood updated. (But it'd sure be nice if they'd announce it on their web site!)

Yesterday I led a tour of the stadium site for the Nationals Fan Club, which was a good bit of fun. We did find out that there's now fences surrounding the southern two-thirds of the stadium site, from 1st to South Capitol to Potomac to O. (Those streets are all still open, but Half is now closed from O to Potomac.) The official start of construction is supposed to be May 1 or thereabouts, but at last week's ANC 6D meeting a representative of Clark/Hunt/Smoot did say that they are already doing some work on the southern portion of the site.

At tonight's ANC 6D meeting (you all owe me!), there was a presentation on the new baseball stadium, by a group including the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, Clark/Hunt/Smoot, and Marshall Purnell of Devrouax and Purnell, the local architects working with HOK Sport on the stadium design. Much of the time was spent going over the renderings (which of course you've already looked at a billion times here on my site!), but there were some items of interest, including a construction timeline of sorts (this is from my notes, apologies if I get any construction-speak wrong):

Also at the ANC meeting, I found out a bit more about some of the new projects in the Near Southeast pipeline: the JPI residential project at 901 New Jersey (which was called "Jefferson at New Jersey and K" on the display boards) will have 237ish units, a pool, fitness room, conference center, etc. The Preston Partnership is the architect (fun web site, guys!). This project was before the ANC to ask for support in advance of its BZA hearing on May 16; however, its requests for a special exception for roof requirements and also a lessening of the residential recreation space were referred to the ANC's development subcommittee, and the ANC voiced its concern about the lack of an affordable housing component within the project, which will probably be something that developers coming to Near Southeast will need to address. As for the Square 743N Faison/Opus East projects along 1st Street, the alley closings brouhaha over the past few months has been settled (the city council approved the bill on its final reading April 4), the developers were back again, now asking for the ANC's support in its hearing before the Zoning Commission on May 25 for approval of the plans for the office building portion of the project, at 100 M Street. The commission voted 4-0-1 to give its support. Finally, a request for closing a portion of an alley on Square 0697 as part of Lerner Enterprises's 1000 South Capitol Street project came before the commission, and after the requisite squabbling over payments to the community for the loss of "public space", this too was referred to the development subcommittee.

Also at the ANC meeting tonight, there was a discussion about the DC Public Schools' upcoming plan to close/repurpose as much as 3 million square feet of school space over the next two years. Van Ness Elementary at 5th and M is unofficially considered to be very high on the list--although it had 400 students a few years ago, with the closing of Capper/Carrollsburg it now services just 30 Headstart Pre-K students and 48 Special Ed students from around the city. However, as school board member Tommy Wells explained, the city won't be selling school properties, and the feeling is very strong that an elementary school must remain in Near Southeast. Given that Van Ness's M Street location could be enticing to developers, it's possible that the city would agree to a swap, to have a new Van Ness built somewhere else in the neighborhood in exchange for a developer getting rights to the 5th and M lot. A plan to identify 1 million square feet of DCPS space that could be closed/repurposed is due to the school board on May 17, after which there will be a 30-day period of public input meetings (there are also public forums on April 18 and 22). For more information, see the DC Board of Education web site, in particular the rightsizing criteria and calendar.

It's not posted yet, but I've gotten a peek at the agenda for the April ANC 6D meeting, this Monday the 10th, and it's chock full of Near Southeast goodness. There will be a presentation by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission on the immediate plans for the baseball stadium; then there are presentations on three projects in the pipeline: the Opus East 250,000-sq-ft office building at 100 M Street (the fractious debate at previous meetings over a request to close two alleys on the block for this project has really been jaw-dropping); the JPI project at New Jersey and I; and another request for alley closings (have fun with that, fellas!) for 1000 South Capitol Street. This project is a 320,000-sq-ft office building that Lerner Enterprises has had on the boards for a number of years, and so they appear to now be beginning to move forward with it. It's on the same block--and backs up to--Nation, where Potomac Investment Properties is also now moving on its long-planned 250,000-sq-ft office building at 1015 Half Street. UPDATE: The agenda is now posted.

Van Ness Elementary School, at 5th and M streets SE, is apparently on the city's list of approximately 30 schools it wishes to close by August 2008 as part of a financial restructuring of the DC Public Schools. I'm guessing that a developer or two might be willing to pay the city a tidy sum for the rights to that property on the southern edge of Capper/Carrollsburg.... Here's a Post story from a few days ago about the school closures initiative in general; and a Voice of the Hill blurb about Van Ness's principal going before ANC 6D looking for a letter of support for keeping the school open (the ANC wants more information before making a decision). The city is expected to make its decision in April.

It hasn't been posted on their web site yet, but the agenda for Tuesday's ANC 6D meeting has a couple Near Southeast-related items: recommendations by Development Committee on Closing Of Public Alleys In Square 743N, a presentation by the DC Preservation League on a possible Historic Designation of Navy Yard Car Barn, i.e., the "Blue Castle" (the case is coming before the DC Historic Preservation Review Board on March 23); and a presentation of the 11th Street Bridges study. It's at 7 pm Tuesday, at 65 I Street SW. UPDATE: I've been told that additional items have been added, both of which are Near Southeast-related: a request for support by the Van Ness Elementary principal to keep the school open (I've heard in the past that it would be closing, but that it would be temporary, maybe things have changed?), and an update from the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission about the new baseball stadium. Also, here are the minutes from the February meeting.