Park View, D.C.

Revised design for the Park Morton apartment building at the Bruce Monroe site.

On Monday evening January 30th, the Zoning Commission voted unanimously in support of both Zoning Cases related to the redevelopment of Park Morton (cases 16-11 and 16-12 (watch video of meetings here)). The National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) will now have 30 days to review and comment on the Planned Unit Development package, and following the NCPC the projects will go back to the Zoning Commission for final action. This is expected to occur in early March.

The projects the Commissioners approved on January 30th incorporate some revisions and clarifications that were a result of the hearings held on December 5th and 8th. Two of the more important changes for the Bruce Monroe site were:

• Revised architectural design motif for the townhomes to better integrate them into the existing architectural context. The revised design elements include revised materials and materials palatte that incorporate a warmer color scheme; further defined brick detailing that includes brick banding and brick soldier courses; revised window mullion design that creates windows of a vertical proportion for a more residential character; and revised window panel material to brick with banding; and,
• Prior to the issuance of a Building Permit for the multi-family building, the Applicant shall demonstrate to the Zoning Administrator that DMPED will convey the PUD Site to Park View Community Partners pursuant to a 99 year ground lease. The ground lease will contain a provision wherein DMPED agrees that a minimum of 44,000 square feet of land area in Square 2890 identified as a public park shown on Sheet G10 of the Architectural Plans and Elevations, dated January 9, 2017, will only be used for park and recreation uses for the term of the ground lease. The Applicant shall have the right to use a portion of the park area as a temporary staging area during construction of the Project.

The changes listed above addressed the concern that the land set aside for the park will actually be improved as a park, and the concern by the Commission that the color of brick originally chosen didn’t compliment the existing neighborhood well and would be difficult to keep clean.

Below are renderings showing the new (approved) brick color for the buildings to be built at the Bruce Monroe site compared to the original proposal.

(Renderings showing approved (above) and original (below) brick choices for the buildings designed for the Bruce Monroe site.)

This entry was posted on February 1, 2017 at 7:01 am and is filed under Development, Housing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Affordable housing, Development, Georgia Avenue corridor, housing, Park View