This is Bardo's second attempt at the ABC process for this site (the first placard having been rescinded just a few weeks after a filing in August), and is now technically the fourth time that the notion of a large outdoor activity/party/drinking/whatever space has been attempted at this spot across from Nats Park.

This application is for a Retailer's Class D Tavern license (as opposed to a Class C Tavern license last time), and is described thusly: "Outdoor Beer Garden. Beer made on premise. Food Trucks to supply food. Total number of Summer Garden seats: 700. Total Occupancy Load: 750. Brew Pub Endorsement."

As to why Bardo's application earlier in 2015 never made it all the way through after being announced back in March, one might want to read this transcript from the April hearing at the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to see the many (many) concerns raised by the board and by MPD, which clearly is not supportive of any venture of this type in this location. (And I can't not highlight the comments from Commander Jeff Brown of MPD about how the "applicant here says it's going to be cornhole bean-bag toss, which I'm not even going to pretend to know what that is, but I think I'll be safe to say that it's not very popular.")

* DOCK 79 FLOOR PLANS: While the potential Bardo Riverfront footprint is on the western, later-phase portion of the Florida Rock site, construction is progressing on Dock 79, the 320ish-unit residential building at the east end of the property (seen above from across the Anacostia River at Poplar Point). The project's web site and Facebook/Twitter accounts having been active for a while, and there are now virtual tours available of studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom units, as well as the roof.

* JUST BECAUSE: Like that photo up top? Here's the same spot, more than 10 years ago.

* TREES: It's reported that 176 trees have been cut down as part of the tunnel construction, and that there will be approximately 305 new trees planted once the work is done. DDOT's preferred species include oaks, elms, and honey locust, and the planting scheme is such that it is expected to provide 50 percent "canopy coverage" after 20 years, 10 percentage points higher than the required minimum.

* PARKING: "The design team recognizes that parking is a critical issue for the neighborhood, and will ensure that the number of parking spaces in the neighborhood remains the same. DDOT will explore the possibility of providing additional parking."

* I STREET: Plans to have the 400 block of I Street end in a stub east of the church have apparently been shelved: "Based on community feedback, the connection of I Street to the 400 block of Virginia Avenue has been restored." As seen in this revised image.

* MORE VIRGINIA!: My personal favorite out of all of this: "The Architect of the Capitol will complete their construction project in 2018, and has indicated willingness to reopen Virginia Avenue between South Capitol Street and 2nd Street SE." This would also "enhance" connections to Garfield Park, allowing for passage in locations other than just the skate park-area under the freeway.

* TWO-WAY: Once construction is over, the 800 blocks of both Virginia Avenue and L Street SE will be converted to two-way traffic.

* LIGHTING: Replacement streetlights will be LEDs, which emit a whiter light than the current streetlights. There are apparently LED streetlights now installed on 1st Street near the ballpark as a test case for the city, and the "fixtures specified for Virginia Avenue will be similar to the first series of lights on the right hand side of First Street moving away from M Street."

* VIRGINIA AVE. PARK: The final post-construction design of Virginia Avenue Park is actually the responsibility of the Department of Parks and Recreation, and there will be a "design charrette" to discuss the park's future on Oct. 15 at 7 pm at the Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE.

Go ahead and read the notes for more details (and you can even see all the comment sheets handed in by the attendees). And the most recent designs for the streetscapes are here, plus you can check out my look at the initial designs.

I'm also hearing that the new section of I Street at the north end of this block could be opening by the end of the year, but, ahem, We Shall See.

This block, for those of you just joining us, is actually part of the Capper redevelopment footprint, and there are eventually plans for a 320ish-unit mixed income residential building there, along with ground-floor retail. There is currently no timeline for that, however.

(I had originally thought that perhaps a parking lot was going in, but I should have remembered that parking lots on any of the Capper redevelopment footprint actually require zoning approval first.)

And so since this post is so boring, how about taking the few extra minutes you might have used to ponder it to fill out the reader poll?

On-site work is set to begin within the next few weeks, with completion expected in spring 2016. (Fabrication of some of the marina's components has apparently been underway off-site for a few months now.)

There will be approximately 50 slips, half of which will be "designated for short-term transient use" (i.e., less than 10 days), and the other half will be for long-term use on a seasonal contract basis. As for sizes, Forest City says that most slips will be able to handle boats up to 60 feet long, but that "there will also be limited dockage for boats up to 125 feet in length." Slips will have electrical outlets and water supply hookups.

And the marina won't be just for boat owners: there will also be a water taxi dock, a "paddler dock" for kayakers and other "human-powered watercraft," and an "education dock for use with river-focused experiential instruction." The walkways and dock surfaces will be floating concrete structures.

The marina was designed by Moffatt & Nichol and is being built by Bellingham Marine.

When plans to redevelop the old Southeast Federal Center into The Yards were unveiled, Building 202 was included in the lineup of the project's first phase, and was said to be on the boards to be redeveloped by PN Hoffman as a 270ish-unit condo building. But other than some very basic renderings and a few tentative dates that quietly came and went, the building has remain untouched.

But perhaps that is about to change, as the Washington Business Journal is reporting that "numerous developers have approached Forest City about buying and redeveloping" the 215,000-square-foot building, prompting the decision to now actually market the site for sale, with offers due on Oct. 15. ("Price not disclosed.")

The building is described as having potential "as an industrial loft-style office space, a boutique hotel, high quality condominium units or cultural use." The sales flyer also mentions the central atrium that "extends the full height of the building" and that 202 is part of the Washington Navy Yard Historic District, which means that any buyer will have quite the steeplechase of approvals to get before doing anything to the building. (One would also imagine that Forest City would want any future plans for the building to fit in with the rest of the tableau at the Yards.)

As for PN Hoffman, the developer did not forsake the Yards--the company purchased the "Parcel O" site at 4th and Tingey last year and is moving forward with a 130ish-unit condo building on that site, with a new Forest City rental building planned immediately to its south. Both buildings are expected to begin construction early in 2016, and in fact just today a reader alerted me to a new sign on the lot announcing "Condo Sales Spring 2016/PN Hoffman."

* GARBER GREET: DC council at-large candidate and neighborhood alumnus David Garber returns to #NavyYard today (Tuesday, Oct. 6) for a meet and greet at the Big Stick at 20 M St. SE starting at 6 pm.

* RIVER RIDE: As part of Mayor Bowser's FitDC health and wellness initiative, there will be an eight-mile bike ride through Anacostia Park on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 2 pm. If you haven't ventured across the way to use the eastern part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, this might be a nice introduction to it. (Those of us already familiar with it are now just tapping our toes waiting for the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens segment to open, hopefully next year, though I now see "Fall 2016" as the date.)

* AGUA ATTENTION: It isn't technically neighborhood news that Zest Bistro on 8th Street SE has apparently closed its doors, but within the statement about the closure is the tidbit that the owners "look forward to the opportunity to focus solely on our most recent venture, Agua 301."

* POLL PESTERING: C'mon, you know you'd rather click a few radio buttons and checkboxes on the JDLand Reader Poll than work! Plus there's at least one tight race in one of the Favorite Lunch/Dinner/Bar categories, so every vote counts.

PS: Take the JDLand reader poll!

So, of course, I've built a reader poll.

I last ran a poll in 2011, but while there are some similar questions, the neighborhood is a very different place from just four years ago--so I figured why not find out a little more about favorite haunts and activities while at the same time getting some sense of who exactly JDLand's readers are.

I often say that blogging can very much feel like whistling into the wind, or talking into a phone when you aren't 100 percent sure someone's on the other end of the line, so it really does help me to know who is out there--are you a bunch of millennials Bikesharing over to Sweetgreen for some healthy eats, or a bunch of commercial real estate workers lunching on the information I post, or a bunch of Nats fans who only visit the site during baseball season? (All that and more, I imagine.)

I also decided to use this poll to finally answer the question that has nagged at me for years--is it in fact true that every Near Southeast resident owns a dog?

And if just taking a couple minutes of your time to help me out isn't enough motivation, I'm going to give away JDLand t-shirts to two random poll respondents. That right there should really do the trick.

I'll leave it up for a few weeks, then crunch the numbers and post the results.

But don't wait until the last minute! Go ahead and fill it out right now. Pretty please. With sugar on top. (And no ballot-box stuffing!)

If you run into any errors, let me know.

* VAN NESS AND TEETER: If you'd like to support your old/new neighborhood elementary school while shopping at your still-sort-of-new neighborhood grocery store, you can participate in Harris Teeter's Together in Education program by linking your VIC card to Van Ness Elementary by using the account number 3472, either by telling a cashier or using an online Teeter account. Then shop for the various Teeter house brands and Van Ness will receive 5 percent of your purchase prices. (And you can link up to five schools to one VIC card if you have multiple loyalties.)

* NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDE: CSX announced late last week that it launched a Neighborhood Guide web site for the Barracks Row and Capitol Riverfront neighborhoods, in order to "promote area businesses to the hundreds of construction personnel and project staff who will be working in the neighborhood during the 30-42 month tunnel-reconstruction project."

* TRUCKEROO ENCORE: The Fairgrounds folks have added one more Truckeroo food truck festival to the 2015 calendar, on Friday, Oct. 9 from 11 am to 11 pm. Hopefully it will have stopped raining by then.

* CRIME FEEDS: You may have noticed that the crime reports on the JDLand home page have gone silent of late--MPD apparently transitioned to a new back end, which has resulted in reformattings of both the e-mailed and downloadable reports that I had spent numerous hours building parsers for, so now I have to rewrite those. At least I get three hours of most every day back after Sunday....

(Plus a reminder, as always, that the Twitter box on the JDLand home page is a good place to check and scroll through for up-to-the-minute tidbits.)

* SEPT. TUNNEL UPDATE: The slides from this morning's CSX "Coffee with Chuck" event have been posted, with photos showing the work being done along each block of the project (taken in locations that nosey neighborhood blogger cameras generally can't get to).

Slide 13 indicates the closure of the 300 block of Virginia Avenue is expected the week of Oct. 12, and that excavation for the tunnel in the 400 block should be getting underway right about now. Slides also show the temporary driveways and sidewalks in the 300 block of Virginia and at the Capper Seniors building east of 5th.

* DC VEGFEST: Saturday Oct. 3 is the scheduled DC VegFest from 11 am to 6 pm in the parking lots at the intersection of 1st and N SE (which, let's be honest, is a stretch to call a "Yards Park" location). There will be more than 130 vendors, cooking demos, free samples, a beer garden, a canine "barking lot" and activities for kids. It's a rain-or-shine event, but with the dicey forecast this weekend, a note on the web site does say that "severe weather conditions may result in a cancellation."

* MOPS GROUP: The Waterfront Church is organizing a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group for the neighborhood, with monthly meetings beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 7:30 to 9 pm at the Courtyard by Marriott at 140 L St. SE. The group's mission is to "connect moms all over the world to a community of women, in their own neighborhoods, who meet together to laugh, cry and embrace the journey of motherhood." Register here, noting that there is a $50 annual fee (or $25 if you don't require childcare at the meetings).

* ICE CREAM, FALL EDITION: In my quest to alert readers to important neighborhood news, I will pass along that Ice Cream Jubilee has announced its fall flavors: salty apple cinnamon, maple rye pecan, pumpkin honeycomb, and kiwi lemongrass. Also, eight-inch ice cream cakes are now available for custom orders, for $65.

* PARKTOBERFEST: The first hint of fall is in the air, so it's a great time to head to the Yards Park to drink beer and watch Dachshunds race. It's free to attend, and open to all (though unlike real Oktoberfests, you have to be 21 to buy and consume alcohol). If you think you have the fastest Dachshund in the land, sign up for the 4th annual Wiener 500 Dachshund Race The party runs from 1 pm to 5 pm.

* PUPS IN THE PARK: Perhaps some of those fast canines will race right over to Nats Park for the final Pups in the Park of the 2015 season. Game starts at 4:05 pm, and tickets for humans are $26 and $10 for pups (proceeds benefiting the Washington Humane Society) -- but there's no pricetag on crying in your beer as the season ends.

* BARRACKS ROW FALL FESTIVAL: Out of the jurisdiction slightly, but still worth noting that the 15th annual 8th Street party is on Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, with a slew of scheduled happenings (music, dance, illusions, and "donkey processions to center stage") in addition to the usual lineup of tents with offerings. And the Belga/Matchbox beer garden is returning again.

The menu shows a lineup of Indian food, with a buffet at all times as well as chicken tikka, kabobs, lamp chops, biryani, and karahi. And nan, of course.

I do not know the hours (not seeing a phone number to call on the menu posted in the window), so if anyone feels like heading over there for lunch and coming back with a report, you'll get a JDLand Gold Star. UPDATE: The BID says the hours are 10 am to 10 pm daily.

(I'll update here as I get more info, but didn't want this dish to be served cold, as it were. Also, the "Muy Pronto" sign in the Las Placitas window is pretty funny.)

If you never went to Levi's, you may not know that it's not exactly a spacious interior, so be prepared for more of a carryout option than fine sit-down dining.

* DC STATE RAIL PLAN OPEN HOUSE: The project to create an official "State Rail Plan" (ahem) for DC is kicking off, and DDOT is holding an open house on Monday, Sept. 28 to "introduce the plan to the community." This rail plan is a requirement for any state (again, ahem) wishing to be eligible for grants and other federal financial assistance, and is going to focus on "passenger and freight rail infrastructure shared by CSX, VRE, MARC, Amtrak, and Norfolk Southern." The intent is to have a completed plan that will provide a high-level strategic framework, goals, and objectives to leverage the District’s rail network for continuing economic competitiveness and quality-of-life investments while also addressing ongoing concerns about rail safety and oversight."

The open house will run from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at Friendship Public Charter School-Chamberlain Campus, 1345 Potomac Avenue, SE. This start time is 30 minutes earlier than originally announced, because....:

* VIRGINIA AVE. STREETSCAPE RESTORATION REVIEW MEETING: Also on Monday, Sept. 28, beginning at 6:30 pm at 200 I St. SE, a joint meeting by DDOT and ANCs 6B and 6D will go over CSX's draft plans for rebuilding Virginia Avenue once construction is complete on the Virginia Avenue Tunnel. The first 30 minutes will be an open house, and then presentations and discussions will begin at 7 pm. There will also be a special public meeting of DDOT's Public Space Committee about the plans on Nov. 12.

(And then maybe for Christmas we can pitch in and get DDOT a group calendar, to perhaps avoid in the future scheduling two meetings with a very similar audience on the same night at nearly the same time in not-particularly-adjoining locations.)

* CIRCULATOR STOP CONSOLIDATION MEETING: On Wednesday, Sept. 30, DDOT is having a public meeting to talk about possibly consolidating some stops on the Union Station-Navy Yard line "to improve on-time performance and reliability." The only south-of-the-freeway stops on the potential chopping block are the ones at 4th and M SE in both directions, with the 6th and M stops being the closet ones to use instead. (The announcement gives the full lineup.) The meeting is from 6pm to 8pm at the Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th Street SE.

* CSX'S "COFFEE WITH CHUCK": If you want to go for the 72-hour quadfecta of transportation sessions, there's also the next edition of CSX's monthly meetings with the community to discuss the Virginia Avenue Tunnel project, on Wednesday, Sept. 30 from 8 to 9 am at the Courtyard by Marriott at 140 L St. SE. Items that might be up for discussion include the coming closure of the 300 block of Virginia Ave. (in "early October") and also the temporary closures of 4th Street SE from just north of the I-695 underpass down to I Street from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm this week and probably into next week.

It will be named District Winery, and is to "feature the most popular components" of the Brooklyn version--it will be a full-service restaurant, and will also have a wine tasting area, a private events space with an open-air terrace, and, "of course, an impressive collection of wines, crafted and aged onsite." The Brooklyn operation is also apparently a quite popular venue for weddings.

The new pavilion's design will apparently be quite a wood-and-glass look that will echo the nearby Lumber Shed and the Yards Park itself. When I wrote about the rumors back in May, I included some 2009-era imaginings of what the pavilion could look like from when the Yards Park was going through its approvals process, but my understanding is that the design has evolved considerably, with District Winery's input. (No new renderings are being made available just yet, however.)

Forest City says it expects to start construction in the spring of 2016 and that the winery would open in the fall of 2017.

With a theme of "Neighbors No Longer Strangers," the Navy Yard Neighborhood Association is having a combination community picnic and fundraising flea market from noon to 5 pm at the Joy Evans Park, 555 L St., SE, just behind Van Ness Elementary.

Co-sponsored with the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Village Timebanks and Capitol Quarter Community Associations I and II, paper plates, utensils, beverages and much of the food will be provided, and while grilling won't be allowed (or dogs), attendees are welcome to bring along "food offerings" to share.

Flea market donations such as books, toys, games, and small appliances in good condition (but no clothes) will be accepted.

See the NYNA's Facebook page for more details about the picnic and the group.

(The first bad weather in weeks has prompted the organizers to postpone the picnic from its original Sept. 12 date.)

There will be a whole lot of swag for CaBi members, with your key fob getting you $1 off a regular cone at Ice Cream Jubilee, $1 off pints of Forbidden Planet at Bluejacket, 10% off all food orders, and 20% off drink orders at the bar at Osteria Morini, 10% off all food orders and Happy Hour pricing on drinks at Agua 301, and giveaways of Capital Bikeshare blankets and tote bags to early arriving members. (Founding members get special reserved VIP seating with their black fobs--like mine, still going!)

As for Breaking Away, it warms my heart to see this choice, because it is one of my all-time favorite movies, and is highly recommended to anyone who's never seen it. (The word "REFUND?!" is legendary in my family thanks to Paul Dooley.)

UPDATE: And I should have looked around a bit more before posting this, because it's a movie weekend at Yards Park, with Guardians of the Galaxy at 7 pm on Friday night (Sept. 18) and Romeo + Juliet on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 7 pm.

The new project, designed by Gensler and which is Monument is "contemplating" as a condo building while still "keeping all options on the table," will have a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units as well as multi-level two-bedroom townhouses facing both Van and South Capitol.

In the renderings provided by Monument, you can see the red-and-black-and-glass 10 Van paired with the more beige One M (and also the Self Storage building and JBG's 1244 South Capitol at the far end of the Van Street rendering below). The townhouse portions are visible as the areas with the dark "glazed brick material" at street level. In the rendering at below right, you can see the building from above South Capitol Street and how it is paired with the NAB HQ and also its west-facing courtyard that will front South Capitol.

It's expected to be built concurrently with NAB/One M beginning next spring, with completion in 2018. The project will need to complete this Capital Gateway Overlay Review first.

* After a private opening party Thursday night, Due South is now in full operating mode, open in its Lumber Shed spot at 301 Water St. SE for dinner seven days a week plus lunch on weekdays and brunch on weekends. Its complete menu is now in place (which is also available for carryout). The restaurant's web site is now fully formed as well, if you want additional information. Plus, here's Tom Sietsema's review. Hours are 11 am to 10 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11 am to 11 pm Friday and Saturday.

* Right this very minute the doors are opening on the last Truckeroo food truck festival of 2015, at the Fairgrounds at Half and M Streets SE. Free admission, live music, "plenty of shade and picnic tables," and a whole lot of different trucks. And some pretty nice weather for that 12 hours of corn hole the kids will all be playing.

And if I had just walked on that side of the street during a long photo-taking excursion on Sunday that included multiple shots at 8th and L, I would have seen the signs in the window, but at least the high resolution of my camera can now confirm that the signs were/are there.

This spot is one block south of the freeway, and let's call it three blocks south of Las Placitas's existing home, which will eventually become expansion space for Matchbox.

CSX is in charge of this streetscape-and-landscaping upgrade and has submitted draft plans to various groups for review, and has posted some big (BIG) PDFs on the project web site. Meanwhile, ANC 6D commissioner Meredith Fascett put out the call last week looking for volunteers to join a neighborhood working group on the restoration plans.

But for those who don't want to wade through the PDFs, here are some partial screen grabs of CSX's submittals for the new Virginia Avenue, and I'm sure the bike/ped paths (both shared and separate) will be of interest, along with the plans to perk up Virginia Avenue Park.

These first two screen grabs show the general landscape and "roadway" plans from 2nd to 4th Street, and from 4th to 5th (click to enlarge):

For the westernmost blocks, there will be a shared porous asphalt path on the street's south side. Then, starting at 4th Street, there will be separate asphalt bike path and a companion walking path with permeable pavers. The second image also shows the expanded pocket park between 4th and 5th that will be created thanks to the planned realignment of Virginia. Note that it also has a bike path that runs down to the I Street stub--which will make for a decent cut-over to I and its bike lanes from 3rd St. SE all the way into Southwest (well, once that little part between 2nd and New Jersey opens!).

The split paths continue from 5th Street to 9th Street, as you see below (once you click to enlarge, that is):

East of 9th, into Virginia Avenue Park, the path being built by CSX disappears, but the park design seen at right shows a path that runs along the north end of the park to 11th Street, where we can all dream of a day that it hooks up with the path that is supposed to be built alongside Southeast Blvd. to Barney Circle, making for an alternate route to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail near RFK without having to go along M Street SE.

As for the park itself, the current dog park will be reconfigured, with both "large dog" and "small dog" areas. Some of the original paving stones recently uncovered will be placed in the park as well.

A public meeting to receive resident comments and feedback is expected to be happening soon, which I'm sure will be announced two minutes after I finish this post. UPDATE: Yup, less than 24 hours later, I'm seeing that the public meeting will be on Monday, Sept. 28 at 6:30, at a location to be determined.

Take a look at the full lineup of PDFs for better detail.

UPDATE, 10/7: After the meeting, updated block-by-block designs were made available (including a revision to reestablish the connection between the 400 block of I Street and Virginia Avenue), along with notes from the meeting.