On Thursday, June 2, 2022, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) had a public meeting for an amendment to the Armed Forces Retirement Home’s (AFRH) Zone 1 development plan. Neighbors have long desired that any development at the AFRH would lead to increased access to green space. While Urban Turf has briefly covered this meeting, this is a good opportunity to share my thoughts on the develpment and next steps.

Overview

In short, I remain deeply disappointed and underwhelmed by the AFRH development plan and dispite the many successful community events that the Friends of the Soldiers Home has organized on their grounds, the AFRH leadership seems to be reverting to a position of resisting community access. In my assessment, this will only change with strong community involvement moving forward.

On June 2, 2022, the National Capital Planning Commission reviewed an amendement to the AFRH Zone A master plan. This is the large development that has been in the works for over a decade and is located near the cloverleaf at Irving and North Capital Street (see image above). Only three people testified before the NCPC: myself, ANC4C Commissioner Jonah Goodman, and John Hughes of the Friends of the Soldeirs Home. No one testified from Ward 5.

All three of us testified that a significant flaw in the development plan is the lack of community access to the neighborhoods to the west and north. While the AFRH has talked a good game about creating public green space as part of their development, I pointed out in particular that the development plan makes it clear that the green space is not designed as a benefit to the neighbors living here now, but instead as an amenity to residents they hope will move to their development. The configuration and massing of the planned buildings clearly convey that for all intents and purposes this is a “gated community” without the fence and gate.

Many of the NCPC Commissioners heard this position loud and clear. While they approved the amendment, the also included the following request in their report (read full report here).

“Requests: that AFRH re-engage with NCPC staff, the District of Columbia Office of Plannign, the National Park Service, and the community to evaluate the feasibility of possible public access through the western portion of the AFRH Zone (golf course and open space) as part of a future AFRH submission for the golf course and open space.”

It was clear at the hearing that AFRH leadership was disappointed that the issue of public access was raised and it was clear that they did not expect testimony criticising their development. It was also clear to me that the community needs to organize and mobilize to have a strong voice and push the needle on this.

Next Steps

While the NCPC voted to approve the Zone A amendment, there will be several key areas where community members can, and need to, be involved — these include Zoning and Historic Preservation approvals. Both will require public hearings where all interested neighbors can and need to engage. The development plan is not far enough along for hearings to be scheduled for either yet, so this is something that we all need to monitor.

While the AFRH leadership clearly doesn’t see how “their development” concerns the greater community, they are mistaken. By designing a car-centric, disconnected neighborhood in an area with poor access to public transportation, the 3,000+ residential units they hope to construct will have a significant negative impact on general quality of life, especially with traffic and polution. It is in their best interest to create stronger pedistrian and bike connections to Park View and Petworth to mitigate those impacts. This is a win/win approach that not only would provide neighbors with better access to green space, but also meet the future demand of the over 3,000 residents that  AFRH hopes to bring to the area. 

I believe the time has come for neighbors to again re-engage and push back. I will be working with my ANC collegues and other community leaders to determine the timeline for engagement and opportunities for feedback. I’ll repost again when I have more information to share on this front.

DDOT is currently wrapping up their 30% plan design, with the project projected to be at the 60% design phase in late spring or early summer. DDOT hopes to have the plan 100% completed by next winter. Their goal is to begin work on the project as soon as weather permits in the spring of 2022.

Based on the updated plans that were shared, DDOT is planning to incorporate strategic bulb outs along Park Place to improve intersection safety at several locations, including Park Place minor, Otis Place, Newton Place, and Luray Place. They also are planning to include about 10 new street trees on both Park Place and Warder Street, though specific locations have not yet been selected.

For Park Place, there was some conversation on whether or not the east side of the street should be a protected bike lane and include additional parking, or if instead of parking it should have an on-grade walking path. While there is interest in the walking path option, DDOT was clear that they are still exploring this option and not certain that they could do it.

Lastly, DDOT is agreeable to making Park Road a one-way street. Based on the conversation it appears that the street would be one-way east-bound. This would also allow for double-sided on-street parking along Park Road between Georgia Avenue and Park Place. A contraflow bike lane would also be a part of this configuration.

Residents who have specific questions about this project are requested to communicate to DDOT through their ANC commissions as the fastest way to receive feedback.

You can see the full plan sets presented at the meeting at the following links.

30% Park Place Plan set (January 2021)

30% Kenyon Street Plan set (January 2021)

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 12, beginning at 7 pm. There are three ways to join:

• Zoom webinar: bit.ly/anc1anov2020ddot
• Facebook livestream: facebook.com/anc1a
• Call in: 1-301-715-8592 , then: 821-9387-3303

Bicycle lanes were first installed on 5th Street NW/Park Place NW and 7th Street NW/Warder Street NW between 2006 and 2010. However, many in the community have requested protected bike lanes in this portion of the project. DDOT’s Crosstown project provides an opportunity to reassess the existing street design of Park Place NW, Warder Street NW, 7th Street NW, and 5th Street NW to examine design options for protected bicycle lanes.

In order to balance competing needs for public space and to address streetscape and safety issues, ANC1A has requested DDOT consider making Park Road a one-way street to allow for parking on both sides of the street and to consider strategic curb bulb outs for street trees and to improve crosswalk safety.

More information about this project is located at https://www.dccycletrack.com/crosstown

Last week, the District changed course and decided to instead move forward with leaf collection unchanged from previous years. Bags are no longer needed. As of October 31, residents are being asked to rake their
leaves and place them in the front of their residence at the curb or in the tree box for collection.

Below is the map that shows the four collection areas in Ward 1. Park View residents live in Zone C. The collection schedule for Zone C is as follows:

• Rake leaves out by November 22 for collection between November 23 to 28.
• Rake leaves out by December 27 for collection between December 28 to January 2, 2021.

Here’s how you  can make sure you are counted:

• ONLINE at 2020Census.gov by October 15, 2020 at 11:59 pm
• BY PHONE at 844-330-2020 (English) or 844-468-2020 (Spanish) through October 15
• PAPER census questionnaires must be postmarked by October 15
• OPEN your door to a US Census taker.

YOU MATTER, GET COUNTED

To get public feedback related to service reductions, WMATA has scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday, October 13th and is accepting writing feedback by 9 a.m. Monday, October 19, 2020. You can take a survey and provide written feedback here, and click here to learn about ways to participate in the public hearing.

While many of the changes have a limited impact on Park View residents, that can’t be said for the crosstown bus service.

The H2, H4, and H8 lines all have reduced weekday service adjustments, and the H8 also has reduced Saturday service. While these bus routes typically do not have the same high volume of ridership as the north-south routes on Georgia Avenue, 14^th Street, and 16^th Street, the crosstown travel has long been a challenge for many and those who rely on these routes really don’t have good alternatives to them.

The H8 connections Mt. Pleasant, Brookland and Rhode Island Avenue, and perhaps more critically the H2 & H4 routes connect Metrorail riders and various communities with the Washington Hospital Center. Below is a general map showing the H2, H4, & H8 routes.

You can also watch the 9 min. video below in addition to checking out the WMATA Website.

Wangari Gardens recently received two small grants to make improvements to the site and they are seeking community feedback on the future design of the gardens. You can see the four proposed designs here.

The gardeners have created a brief questionnaire and are seeking community input to ensure that changes to Wangari don’t just improve the gardens, but also serve the greater community.

Take the survey here! The survey will close on October 31, 2020.

Wangari Gardens is cared for entirely by residents. This past Spring they hosted a design workshop and online survey, with the support of landscape architecture students from the University of Maryland. Wangari received a dozen visualizations of those ideas and have selected four designs to serve as examples to present to all of the gardeners, neighbors, and the wider community for input.

The survey will ask you about your reactions to the four student designs. Based on the responses Wangari will prepare a formal open space plan for the site with funding from a Pepco Sustainable Communities grant and the help of a local professional.

The Bruce-Monroe Site

The development for the Bruce-Monroe Site as approved by the Zoning Commission.

As many may remember, the temporary park space that was once the site of the Bruce-Monroe Elementary School located on Georgia Avenue between Irving Street and Columbia Road was selected as the original “Build-First” site for the Park Morton redevelopment.

The Bruce Monroe portion of the project is particularly significant because it would provide 273 affordable units, including 189 in an apartment building, 76 in a senior building, and eight townhomes. Of the 273 units, 90 would be replacement apartments for Park Morton residents. The remaining 109 units would be affordable at 60 percent of the median family income, while 70 would be market-rate. The site would also create a permanent 1-acre park along Columbia Road.

The planned buildings for the Bruce-Monroe site required zoning relief for greater density and were part of a Planned Unit Development (PUD). One reason many supported the PUD was that the larger building made it possible to create the park. As the property is District of Columbia property, far less zoning relief – if any – would have been needed if the entire site were developed for housing and included no public green space.

Despite opposition from residents surrounding the Bruce-Monroe site, the Planned Unit Development and Park Morton redevelopment was supported by local neighborhood associations, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions 1A and 1B, the Park Morton Resident Council, the Council of the District of Columbia, and ultimately it was approved by the Zoning Commission in March 2017.

To prevent the project from moving forward, three (originally four) neighbors challenged the Bruce-Monroe zoning order in court on May 30, 2017, arguing that the planned buildings were too large and that the Zoning Commission inappropriately interpreted many of the District’s land use documents in approving the projects.

The case was argued on February 14, 2019 and the judges finally decided the case on June 25, 2020, with the result being that the Court vacated the zoning order and remanded the case back to the Zoning Commission for reconsideration.

While the Court of Appeals dismissed all of the petitioners’ concerns, the Court was troubled by the degree to which the Zoning Commission’s order used the language in the documents submitted by the development team and defined seven areas that it wants the Zoning Commission to review and respond to.

The Zoning Commission is currently reviewing the remand and no date has currently been set for when the Commission will publicly deliberate and outline their next steps in the process.

In short, both the appeals and the remand have significantly delayed this phase of the original plan, resulting in the original Phase 2 of the redevelopment to now be the first phase of development.

The Park Morton Site

Based on information shared at the January 23, 2020, Park Morton Steering Committee Meeting, the plan to redevelop Park Morton has being adjusted to allow redevelopment to move forward while the Bruce-Monroe development effort is sorted out.

The most significant change from the original development plan is that the original Phase 2 of the development plan has become the Phase 1 of the plan (see the area outlined in orange below).

In order to keep the Park Morton redevelopment moving forward, the area of Park Morton along Park Road (outlined in orange), will now be the first phase of development

This area is the location of the planned larger apartment building on Park Road which would replace two currently empty Park Morton buildings on Park Road and other buildings which are still occupied. The construction timeline for this area is currently scheduled for the beginning of 2021 with completion by the end of 2022 or early 2023.

In order for construction to begin, housing needs to be coordinated for several Park Morton residents who live in impacted buildings and the DC Housing Authority has begun offering housing vouchers and is relocating residents who chose to move off-site. However, there is also an option for residents to move to vacant apartments at Park Morton in buildings that would not be affected by this construction. Based on a recent conversation with the DC Housing Authority, there are currently 17 empty apartments at Park Morton in buildings that would not be impacted by the Park Road development.

The changes to the phasing of the Park Morton development does not alter the overall plan and will not have an impact on the number of housing units produced. The development still plans to replace the remaining 147 units at Park Morton with 545 mixed-income units. Park Morton residents have a guaranteed right to return to the Park Morton and Bruce-Monroe sites in a new replacement apartment. There are also plans being reviewed to make home-ownership opportunities available for Park Morton residents – though the exact number has not yet been determined.

The Park Morton Equity Plan

With the delays caused by the Court challenge to the Bruce-Monroe site and the disruption and displacement caused by refocusing the start of development to the Park Morton footprint, there is little wonder that Park Morton Resident Council President Shonta High and other neighbors have rolled up their sleeves to find a solution. The outcome of their effort is called the Park Morton Equity Plan (PMEP).

According to information shared with ANC1A, Ms. High’s PMEP Objectives include:

• Equity At Least 15% Home ownership;
• Full Rights For ALL Residents To Return;
• Larger Unit Sizes to Accommodate Families;
• Build First;
• A Clear, Concise Resident Led Relocation Plan;
• Residents Need To Remain In Ward 1 (Look at other buildings like The Wren);
• LDA Negotiation To Include Park Morton Residents As Partners With A 30% Share In The Redevelopment (TOPA like rights ratified in an agreement);
• Create 133+ New Permanent Career Opportunities;
• Affordable Units Must Remain Affordable During the Life of The Project;
• The Return of 174 Low-Income – Affordable Units at The Park Morton Footprint;
• No Loss of Amenities;
• Redevelopment Must Be Consistent With The City’s Comprehensive Plan;
• Ensure That Any Relocation Plan Does Not Adversely Effect Park Morton Residents

Many neighbors and community leaders are in agreement that the aspirational goals of this plan are worthy of consideration in city-wide developments moving forward, and where possible need to be included in the Park Morton efforts as well. However, some of the details of the PMEP as presented are likely not achievable at Park Morton due to the late stage of the planning process, the approved zoning orders, and financing that is already in place.

The key hurdles that would need to be resolved for the PMEP to work at Park Morton include:

• The approved PUDs for The Wren, the Bruce-Monroe site, and Park Morton would all need to be renegotiated and go back to the Zoning Commission for approval – where PUDs have largely been challenged and held up in Court in recent years;
• TOPA rights for Park Morton residents currently do not exist and the DC Council does not have the authority to create them for Federally owned properties such as Park Morton; and,
• Revisiting and renegotiation the Land Disposition Agreement is not a simple process and, honestly, is something that the District Government is not interested in doing. While the District could technically do this, it is highly unlikely.

The empty, boarded up Park Road buildings at Park Morton are the focus of both the approved redevelopment plan and the Park Morton Equity Plan. Both see the redevelopment of these buildings as the best path forward.

Recognizing the challenges identified above to fully implementing the PMEP, it is also important to understand that the plan seeks to replace the large apartment building on Park Road with two smaller buildings. This, coupled with the PMEP’s need for new legislation, new zoning relief, and a new round of community engagement meetings would likely both reduce the number of new affordable apartments produced and delay the delivery of the new housing by years.

As delaying or reducing the production of affordable housing is not an option, the government partners and ANCs have focused instead on achieving as many of the PMEP’s goals as possible within the approved plan. This includes exploring the potential of creating a resident owned coop for additional ownership opportunities so Park Morton residents can build equity and not be priced out of their community.

Next Steps

Over the next several months, additional oversight and action will be required. The most significant actions that are currently being reviewed are:

• Council legislation needed to build a new road between Park Road and Morton Street. This is needed so that the Park Road apartment building can be constructed;
• Extending the disposition agreements for both the Bruce Monroe and Park Morton sites; and,
• Waiting for the Zoning Commission to determine the path forward for the Bruce-Monroe site, and engaging with the process as allowed.

While the work to redevelop Park Morton is far from over, all parties are committed to seeing it through for the best possible outcome.

Since the meetings with the community late last year, DPR has since decided to use an organic infill system called Brockfill. This infill system is an organic product, made with tree fibers, that provides a safe surface for both active adults and children in organized sports activities and unstructured play. According to DPR, the Brockfill infill system also absorbs rainwater and condensation, slowly releasing moisture over time for extended cooling properties.

It is hoped that the new field will be completed and back online by November 30th (weather permitting). The field was originally planned to be replace in the Spring of 2020, putting this replacement about six month later than planned.

The athletic field was closed on June 20, 2019, and unavailable for use following notice that DGS sent out that it was one of 13 fields that had failed their annual G-MAX testing. Over the past several months neighbors have slowly begun to use the field again.

(The Park View Athletic field is scheduled to be closed from September 21-November 30 for replacement)

Start of Pepco notice:

“As part of the Harvard Conversion Project, a multi-phased reliability project, Pepco has made upgrades to distribution feeders in the Park View and Columbia Heights neighborhoods in Ward 1. For the safety of residents and our employees as we perform this work, we must temporarily stop service to the following neighborhoods during these times:

• May 21, Thursday at 11p.m. – 5a.m.: 500 and 600 blocks of Park Road NW; 3000 and 3100 blocks of Park Place NW; 400 block of Irving Street NW; 700 block of Lamont NW; 600 block of Morton Street NW
• May 26, Tuesday at 11p.m. – 6a.m.: 400, 500, and 600 blocks Kenyon Street NW; 3100 & 3200 block of Warder Street NW

Both outages will be approximately 6 hours in duration. We have sent notices to the customers who will experience an outage on May 21. Customers on Kenyon Street and Warder Street area will receive notices on Thursday, May 21 to alert them of the outage on May 26. We appreciate your patience as we upgrade our system to continue to provide you with reliable service.”