DC NORTH

Ward 5 Reports

by: Elizabeth McGowan

McMillan advocates urge DC Council to intervene

Advocates for the McMillan Sand Filtration site continue urging DC Council members to make sure any development on the historic 25 acres is bid on competitively and not awarded to a pre-selected, favored builder.

“We want the council to go through the proper channels,” said attorney Tony Norman, longtime member of the community-based McMillan Park Committee. “The council should surplus the property, then they can vote to transfer it to the NCRC with stipulations. There should be a public hearing.”

Norman was reacting to a much-anticipated announcement by Mayor Anthony Williams in late March that the city had turned the land over to the National Capital Revitalization Corporation, the city’s quasi-public economic development arm. Read the fine print, Norman said, and it’s clear NCRC doesn’t yet have legal title to the property. NCRC was only granted control, maintenance and possession, he added.

The transfer—in the works for more than a year— is part of a land swap between DC and NCRC to spur revitalization of the Anacostia Waterfront. NCRC agreed to trade land along the Washington Channel’s Southwest Waterfront to the city in return for $25 million in cash, the McMillan site and an assortment of other city-owned properties.

“They don’t intend to take it to the council because they see it as an interagency transfer. But it isn’t,” Norman said, adding that a majority of council members and the attorney general’s office support the park committee’s requests. “This is a major piece of property for the nation and the city.”

NCRC president and chief executive officer Anthony Freeman promised Bloomingdale residents the property at North Capitol and Michigan avenues will be redeveloped in a way that respects the site’s historic character. It was designated a DC Historic Landmark in 1991. Development pressures prompted the DC Preservation League to rank it as a “Most Endangered Place” in 2002 and 2005. Lt. Col. Alexander M. Miller designed what became known as the McMillan Slow Sand Filter Plant, which opened as a public health and engineering marvel in 1905 and operated until 1986.

“NCRC will build on the community planning work that has already been done and that the corporation will communicate with the community throughout the development process,” Freeman said in a news release.

The federal government sold the McMillan site to the city in 1987 for $9 million. Advocates have labored for a decade-plus to convince the powers that be to preserve the site as a park, museum or memorial linking Ward 5 with the National Mall. They felt blindsided in November 2004 when Council member Vincent Orange, D-Ward 5, promoted development of McMillan at his annual economic summit.

The Greenvest Team of Vienna, Va., made up of 17 representatives of area businesses and organizations, presented a $400 million mixed-use proposal calling for 12 acres of open space; a 125-room hotel and meeting facility; a community center; 1,200 residences including two- and three-story townhouses and high-rise condominiums; a grocery store as an anchor for 100,000 square feet of retail shops; and displays linked to the broad theme of public health.

Drafting a Plan for Brookland

Several years ago Brooklanders reared up on their hind legs to challenge and eventually defeat a WMATA proposal heavy on residential development for 7.2 acres of gritty but prime real estate adjacent to the Metro Station.

This time around, authorities with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority are turning to the DC Office of Planning for guidance. The city is hiring a consultant—SmithGroup—to design the future of roughly a half-mile ring radiating from the Metro Station centerpiece. Approximate boundaries are Taylor Street to the north, 12th Street to the east, Franklin Street to the south and Seventh Street/John McCormack Drive to the west.

Neighborhood planning coordinator Deborah Crain is crisscrossing Ward 5, encouraging residents to participate in creating the blueprint. Residents will be notified via post card about the dates for community brainstorming sessions, Crain said.

“I want lots of community participation,” Crain told attendees at the April 4 Michigan Park Citizens Association meeting. “Come ready to roll up your sleeves and ready to work.”

Many residents fear the plan will translate into a strategy that invites luxury living and stamps out affordable housing, historic buildings and the funky appeal that makes Brookland appealing to a broad base of natives and newcomers.

But Crain tries to assuage those fears. She stresses that the community needs to take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with WMATA. She and her fellow planners want a holistic plan to emerge. That means looking at zoning, pedestrian- and bicycle-access, streetscapes, mixed-income housing and historic preservation, and considering cultural tourism and heritage. As well, residents need to be thinking about how to link the Metro Station to Brookland’s Main Street corridor (12th Street) and the decaying, mostly vacant strip mall on 10th Street.

The Office of Contracting and Procurement is responsible for hiring the consultant. SmithGroup, a 153-year-old architectural company with roots in Detroit, was selected from a pool of 14 applicants responding to a request for proposals. Recent projects handled by the firm’s DC office include the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, and the business school buildings at George Washington University and the National Academies Building in DC. A draft plan for Brookland could be available as soon as early next year, though the schedule is subject to change because of a delayed start.

“We’re already a year behind in where I wanted to be with this,” Crain said. “Developments in Ward 5 are coming along so fast. What we want to do is to get ahead of the curve and have a plan we can present to WMATA.”

Call Deborah Crain at 442-7615 for more information.

Cherry Trees Now Grace Michigan Avenue Pocket Park

Their parents call it community building. But to 4-year-old Nicholas Sanker and his 3-year-old brother Jonas it was all about digging in the dirt and squirting water from a hose.

The Sankers joined 20-plus others at a triangle of green space bordering the Brookland/Michigan Park neighborhoods to plant three kwanzan cherry blossom trees on a balmy, slightly overcast April 1 morning.

“This is a great gift from the Cherry Blossom Festival,” Liz Tylander, community outreach coordinator for DC Greenworks, told an enthusiastic crew wielding pickaxes, shovels and rakes. “It’s their way of spreading the Tidal Basin beauty throughout the city’s neighborhoods. You should be proud of these cherry trees.”

After about two hours of sod-busting, dragging, measuring, mulching and watering, a trio of sturdy, 7-year-old trees stood at attention near the intersection of 12th Street and Michigan Avenue NE. If they take root properly, their double blossoms will explode next spring, two weeks after the yoshino trees.

The pocket park has no water source other than rain clouds, but cooperative homeowners across 12th Street allowed the group to snake a hose from their outside faucet.

Jeannette and George Sanker, who moved to the neighborhood a year ago, had a full plate that morning monitoring not only Nicholas and Jonas, but also 4-month-old Lukas. As parents they are intent on teaching their sons about content, character and community. Those are the core values of the new Hope Community Charter School, where Gonzaga High School graduate George Sanker is principal and his two older sons are enrolled.

“If we want our children to adopt certain ideals, we need to set an example for them,” he said, adding that he’s moving the school to Brookland’s Eighth Street this fall after its inaugural season in Ward 3. “Those aren’t just words. They’re the reality of my life.”

The plantings were a joint effort of the Brookland Community Development Corp. and the Michigan Park Citizens Association. Since the 90th anniversary of the national festival in 2002, DC neighborhoods have been eligible to apply annually for a trio of trees. One neighborhood from each ward is selected.

DC Greenworks is a local urban forestry nonprofit organization that coordinates the tree giveaway. Applicants have to file five detailed pages of paperwork and find a stable of adults who will provide long-term tree care.

David Noonan, an eight-year resident of Brookland, is enthused about the improved view the cherry blossoms provide.

“It was all worth it,” Noonan said about the energy exerted wielding a shovel. “Every day when I’m driving down 12th Street I’m going to see these trees.”

Cajun Cuisine Comes to Rhode Island Avenue

Entrepreneurs Derek and JoAnne Taylor are participating in the rejuvenation of Woodridge’s Rhode Island Avenue corridor by opening a sit-down restaurant/jazz and blues club May 19.

Saint’s Bourbon Street, 1812 Hamlin St., will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an emphasis on the Cajun and Creole cuisine of New Orleans. The refurbished, trim brick building now features a snazzy sign, and a red and yellow trim. Long-time residents know it as the old home of the Pig Foot restaurant, which attracted all kinds of luminaries.

“We’re not having any rap or hip hop,” Derek Taylor told neighbors assembled for a March 30 Police Service Area 502 meeting at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center. “We’ll have a mix of blues and jazz.”

The new restaurant, licensed to sell alcohol, will close around midnight on weekdays but it will stay open until 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. JoAnne Taylor is a sergeant in the Fourth Police District. The Taylors, who also operate local real estate and lock shop businesses, have assured neighbors their newest venture won’t cause parking problems. They expect many of their patrons to be fellow police officers.


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Ward 5 Reports

by: Elizabeth McGowan
McMillan advocates urge DC Council to intervene Advocates for the McMillan Sand Filtration site continue urging DC Council members to make sure any development on the historic 25 acres is bid on competitively and not awarded to a pre-selected, favored builder. “We want the council to go through the proper channels,” said attorney Tony Norman, longtime member of the community-based McMillan Park Committee. “The council should surplus the property, then they can vote to transfer it to the NCRC with stipulations. There should be a public hearing.” Norman was reacting to a much-anticipated announcement by Mayor Anthony Williams in late March that the city had turned the land over to the National Capital Revitalization Corporation, the city’s quasi-public economic development arm. Read the fine print, Norman said, and it’s clear NCRC doesn’t yet have legal title to the property. NCRC was only granted control, maintenance and possession, he added. The transfer—in the works for more than a year— is part of a land swap between DC and NCRC to spur revitalization of the Anacostia Waterfront. NCRC agreed to trade land along the Washington Channel’s Southwest Waterfront to the city in return for $25 million in cash, the McMillan site and an assortment of other city-owned properties. “They don’t intend to take it to the council because they see it as an interagency transfer. But it isn’t,” Norman said, adding that a majority of council members and the attorney general’s office support the park committee’s requests. “This is a major piece of property for the nation and the city.” NCRC president and chief executive officer Anthony Freeman promised Bloomingdale residents the property at North Capitol and Michigan avenues will be redeveloped in a way that respects the site’s historic character. It was designated a DC Historic Landmark in 1991. Development pressures prompted the DC Preservation League to rank it as a “Most Endangered Place” in 2002 and 2005. Lt. Col. Alexander M. Miller designed what became known as the McMillan Slow Sand Filter Plant, which opened as a public health and engineering marvel in 1905 and operated until 1986. “NCRC will build on the community planning work that has already been done and that the corporation will communicate with the community throughout the development process,” Freeman said in a news release. The federal government sold the McMillan site to the city in 1987 for $9 million. Advocates have labored for a decade-plus to convince the powers that be to preserve the site as a park, museum or memorial linking Ward 5 with the National Mall. They felt blindsided in November 2004 when Council member Vincent Orange, D-Ward 5, promoted development of McMillan at his annual economic summit. The Greenvest Team of Vienna, Va., made up of 17 representatives of area businesses and organizations, presented a $400 million mixed-use proposal calling for 12 acres of open space; a 125-room hotel and meeting facility; a community center; 1,200 residences including two- and three-story townhouses and high-rise condominiums; a grocery store as an anchor for 100,000 square feet of retail shops; and displays linked to the broad theme of public health. Drafting a Plan for Brookland Several years ago Brooklanders reared up on their hind legs to challenge and eventually defeat a WMATA proposal heavy on residential development for 7.2 acres of gritty but prime real estate adjacent to the Metro Station. This time around, authorities with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority are turning to the DC Office of Planning for guidance. The city is hiring a consultant—SmithGroup—to design the future of roughly a half-mile ring radiating from the Metro Station centerpiece. Approximate boundaries are Taylor Street to the north, 12th Street to the east, Franklin Street to the south and Seventh Street/John McCormack Drive to the west. Neighborhood planning coordinator Deborah Crain is crisscrossing Ward 5, encouraging residents to participate in creating the blueprint. Residents will be notified via post card about the dates for community brainstorming sessions, Crain said. “I want lots of community participation,” Crain told attendees at the April 4 Michigan Park Citizens Association meeting. “Come ready to roll up your sleeves and ready to work.” Many residents fear the plan will translate into a strategy that invites luxury living and stamps out affordable housing, historic buildings and the funky appeal that makes Brookland appealing to a broad base of natives and newcomers. But Crain tries to assuage those fears. She stresses that the community needs to take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with WMATA. She and her fellow planners want a holistic plan to emerge. That means looking at zoning, pedestrian- and bicycle-access, streetscapes, mixed-income housing and historic preservation, and considering cultural tourism and heritage. As well, residents need to be thinking about how to link the Metro Station to Brookland’s Main Street corridor (12th Street) and the decaying, mostly vacant strip mall on 10th Street. The Office of Contracting and Procurement is responsible for hiring the consultant. SmithGroup, a 153-year-old architectural company with roots in Detroit, was selected from a pool of 14 applicants responding to a request for proposals. Recent projects handled by the firm’s DC office include the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, and the business school buildings at George Washington University and the National Academies Building in DC. A draft plan for Brookland could be available as soon as early next year, though the schedule is subject to change because of a delayed start. “We’re already a year behind in where I wanted to be with this,” Crain said. “Developments in Ward 5 are coming along so fast. What we want to do is to get ahead of the curve and have a plan we can present to WMATA.” Call Deborah Crain at 442-7615 for more information. Cherry Trees Now Grace Michigan Avenue Pocket Park Their parents call it community building. But to 4-year-old Nicholas Sanker and his 3-year-old brother Jonas it was all about digging in the dirt and squirting water from a hose. The Sankers joined 20-plus others at a triangle of green space bordering the Brookland/Michigan Park neighborhoods to plant three kwanzan cherry blossom trees on a balmy, slightly overcast April 1 morning. “This is a great gift from the Cherry Blossom Festival,” Liz Tylander, community outreach coordinator for DC Greenworks, told an enthusiastic crew wielding pickaxes, shovels and rakes. “It’s their way of spreading the Tidal Basin beauty throughout the city’s neighborhoods. You should be proud of these cherry trees.” After about two hours of sod-busting, dragging, measuring, mulching and watering, a trio of sturdy, 7-year-old trees stood at attention near the intersection of 12th Street and Michigan Avenue NE. If they take root properly, their double blossoms will explode next spring, two weeks after the yoshino trees. The pocket park has no water source other than rain clouds, but cooperative homeowners across 12th Street allowed the group to snake a hose from their outside faucet. Jeannette and George Sanker, who moved to the neighborhood a year ago, had a full plate that morning monitoring not only Nicholas and Jonas, but also 4-month-old Lukas. As parents they are intent on teaching their sons about content, character and community. Those are the core values of the new Hope Community Charter School, where Gonzaga High School graduate George Sanker is principal and his two older sons are enrolled. “If we want our children to adopt certain ideals, we need to set an example for them,” he said, adding that he’s moving the school to Brookland’s Eighth Street this fall after its inaugural season in Ward 3. “Those aren’t just words. They’re the reality of my life.” The plantings were a joint effort of the Brookland Community Development Corp. and the Michigan Park Citizens Association. Since the 90th anniversary of the national festival in 2002, DC neighborhoods have been eligible to apply annually for a trio of trees. One neighborhood from each ward is selected. DC Greenworks is a local urban forestry nonprofit organization that coordinates the tree giveaway. Applicants have to file five detailed pages of paperwork and find a stable of adults who will provide long-term tree care. David Noonan, an eight-year resident of Brookland, is enthused about the improved view the cherry blossoms provide. “It was all worth it,” Noonan said about the energy exerted wielding a shovel. “Every day when I’m driving down 12th Street I’m going to see these trees.” Cajun Cuisine Comes to Rhode Island Avenue Entrepreneurs Derek and JoAnne Taylor are participating in the rejuvenation of Woodridge’s Rhode Island Avenue corridor by opening a sit-down restaurant/jazz and blues club May 19. Saint’s Bourbon Street, 1812 Hamlin St., will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an emphasis on the Cajun and Creole cuisine of New Orleans. The refurbished, trim brick building now features a snazzy sign, and a red and yellow trim. Long-time residents know it as the old home of the Pig Foot restaurant, which attracted all kinds of luminaries. “We’re not having any rap or hip hop,” Derek Taylor told neighbors assembled for a March 30 Police Service Area 502 meeting at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center. “We’ll have a mix of blues and jazz.” The new restaurant, licensed to sell alcohol, will close around midnight on weekdays but it will stay open until 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. JoAnne Taylor is a sergeant in the Fourth Police District. The Taylors, who also operate local real estate and lock shop businesses, have assured neighbors their newest venture won’t cause parking problems. They expect many of their patrons to be fellow police officers.