Charter schools have the “right of first offer” on any surplus public property according to federal law, so what happens to the newly closed public schools may seem at least partly decided as a matter of law.

But neighbors living near the public schools slated to be closed under the mayor’s plan are getting organized to help decide the fate of the buildings, setting up what could become a battle over the future use of the facilities.

Charter schools themselves are controversial in parts of Ward 5, where charters moving into the Brookland neighborhood have met steep resistance from neighbors over traffic and safety concerns. The neighbors also at least partially blame the 23 pubic school closings across the District on the rise of charter schools. But charter schools must be treated as public schools under the law, receiving equal funding from the city on a per-student basis.

In addition, charter schools must be given the right of first offer to lease or purchase newly closed public school buildings, according to the School Reform Act.

“It makes everything more complicated,” Victoria Leonard-Chambers of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr.’s office said. “But there are so many schools being closed, I doubt all of them will be become charters.”

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education sent out a “request for qualifications,” or RFQ, March 17 to public charter schools, entitled “Leasing of Public School Facilities and Property to D.C. Public Charter Schools.” It lays out the range of potential uses the office sees for the closed schools.

“It is the priority of the ODME to use Public Education Facilities for public schools ([DC Public Schools], charter, community college or university), educational support (such as adult education, including adult literacy; early childhood education; specialty educational programs, including art or music programs; workforce development; health and family support service providers), co-located non-educational uses that benefit the community (such as community center/recreation space, housing, retail, commercial), and District of Columbia agency use,” the RFQ says.

The Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood Schools, a group of residents opposed to the school closings plan, has sent a request to the deputy mayor asking for an explanation of the apparent conflict between the RFQ and the “school reuse” community meetings held March 20 and 24 to discuss what happens to the facilities.

“Citizens are under the impression their voices will be heard prior to Administration's decisions about public school building use,” the letter says, citing the tight April 4 deadline for charter schools to respond to the RFQ.

“This is the same approach used by your Office involving mass DCPS school closings: make decisions impacting public first, notify citizens (and elected body) later - or not at all,” says the March 24 letter signed by Ward 5 resident Carolyn Steptoe.

Robert Crane of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, or FOCUS, an advocacy group for charter schools, says the District government has rarely followed the law when it comes to offering surplus public property first to charter schools, and he doubts it will happen in this case.

“I don’t think the city really intends to follow the law. It intends to offer the closed schools to charters, but it will select which to hold for other uses. “They are going to offer a number to charter schools, but naturally they want to offer those that are best suited,” Crane said. Whatever facilities charter schools don’t want can then go to other uses, according to Crane.

Fort Totten Area Development Moving Ahead
by Jenny Johnson

The Riggs Road and South Dakota Avenue development plan is set to be revealed in draft form this spring, when the Office of Planning will be seeking public approval of a final version that will guide new building starts in the area for many years to come.

The Office of Planning area plan is in addition to the planned Art Place site floated by the Cafritz Foundation, which includes plans to build a performance space for the Washington opera along with residential housing units. The city will also soon begin its plan to widen Riggs Road and South Dakota Avenue and straighten out the intersection of the two roads.

The plan will include five different focus areas to be developed along different timelines, with the goal of bringing more people to the area with new housing and retail and redeveloping some existing housing in the area around the Fort Totten Metro stop.

The planners used redevelopment in downtown Silver Spring as a model for what the Riggs Road/South Dakota area could become. The plan to increase the density of the area envisions broad, tree-lined sidewalks with cafes and shops fronting condominiums with underground parking and easy accessibility to Metro.

While the slow down in the housing market “creates challenges” for the development plans becoming a reality, Aaron Smith of Economic Research Associates is predicting long-term growth of about 100 households per year in the area, he told residents attending a March 11 meeting at LaSalle Elementary.

Residents at the meeting had a mixed reaction to the dramatic changes planned for their neighborhood. One resident said she did not want the area to become crowded, preferring the area’s current quiet, more suburban feel. Another resident looked forward to being able to walk from her home to shop and get a cup of coffee. Easier walkability to and from the metro stop has been a key demand of residents.

Riggs Plaza is the site included in the area plan with the earliest start date. A mixed-use residential and retail development is planned on nearly five acres that was a strip shopping mall until recently. The proposed development includes 1,200 residential units and 72,000 square feet of retail and community space.

“This will help provide critical mass to spur development near the Fort Totten Metro Station,” Office of Planning meeting materials say. The project has a timeline of 0-10 years for start and completion.

Other sites in the plan include currently industrial-zoned areas that have timelines for development of mixed-use, office and commercial space in the 10 to 20-year range.

The area plan is not legally binding for developers, but serves as set of strong recommendations that reflect the will of the city and the public. If a developer wants to deviate from the plan, the city will negotiate “planned unit developments,” or community benefits, that will also be part of the final area plan.

The PUDs reflect extra services the public says it would like in place of not getting exactly what it wants in a development project. In the Riggs Road plan, some of these may include transportation services for seniors, parks and day care services.

In other development plans for the area, the Office of Planning recently met for the first time with Cafritz about their plans for Art Place, which still needs zoning approval before it can move forward, according to Ward 5 Planner Deborah Crain. The city met with the developer to help make their plan practical and more able to get zoning approval. “We are the first line to get them through the zoning process,” Crain said.

Also at Fort Totten, Clark Realty and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority recently completed phase 1 of its apartment development directly at the Metro stop. The $58 million project includes three buildings with a total of 308 units, a swimming pool, fitness center and lounge, according to a report from the DC Economic Partnership.

The Office of Planning will release its draft Riggs Road area development plan for public comment and approval in April. When the plan is finalized, it will then go to the mayor’s office for approval and then on to the city council for final signature before going into effect.