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| | | H Street Connection developers near accord with commission | | October 28, 2009 | | | | Voice Correspondent | | The H Street Connection development — which will replace a rundown strip mall on H Street NE — appears to be on track for support from the Near Northeast advisory neighborhood commission, though some details have yet to be hammered out.
The 433,000-square-foot building, which will span H Street from 8th to 10th streets, will include 52,000 square feet of retail space and 381,000 square feet of residential space — a sizeable complex, but one that is smaller than the initial proposal the commission rejected last year.
The commission’s various committees have been meeting with developer The Rappaport Companies to negotiate the reduced project’s details. Omar Mahmud, chair of the commission’s transportation and public space committee, said a September meeting with the McLean, Va.-based developer was the first “real meeting” the committee had and consisted of sketches of the development, but not as much information as the commission wanted.
Chip Glasgow, the attorney for developer, recently said it has more work to do with the community and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development before it files its final proposal.
Issues such as traffic control, community amenities, and building materials for the complex at the corner of 8th and H streets have yet to be completely settled.
Glasgow said the developer’s latest proposal includes adding 100 parking spaces to the H Street complex’s garage that could be used by businesses on H Street.
Mahmud said he also expects there to be more discussion about adding an entrance to the complex on H Street. Mahmud said residents are concerned that the original plans, which did not provide an H Street entrance to the building, would force traffic onto side streets. Mahmud said a similar mixed-use development planned for the 600 block of H Street, which is awaiting construction, will have a side entrance.
Community amenities, which could include options such as planting trees, an increased number of affordable rental apartments, a park or a supermarket are all possibilities, according to neighborhood commissioner David Holmes. The project must include community amenities because it is being built as a planned-unit development, a zoning classification in which developers receive more building density in exchange for providing community benefits.
Holmes said the Capitol Hill Restoration Society and Stanton Park Neighborhood Association will also weigh in on the options. Holmes said the developer has made an effort to fulfill the neighborhood’s requests. “They’ve given us a lot,” he said.
Economic development and zoning committee chair Drew Ronneberg attributed the pace of the project’s approval, which is now moving relatively rapidly, to the community’s experiences with other big developments, such as the recently approved one in the 600 block of H Street.
“Instead of starting from opposite places [with the developer] and working towards a compromise we started very close to the initial answer,” he said.
Ronneberg’s committee is meeting with the developer again Oct. 28 to discuss more details. The committee meeting will be at the Sherwood Recreation Center, 640 10th St. NE.
The full commission will meet to review or complete its recommendations at its regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 12 at Miner Elementary School, 601 15th St. NE.
All meetings begin at 7 p.m. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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