Park View, D.C.

The Zoning Commission heard testimony on the effort to redevelop Park Morton this week, with an outcome likely at the end of January.

This week, the Zoning Commission heard testimony on the related Planned Unit Development cases for the Park Morton “Build First” site at the Bruce Monroe site (ZC16-11) and for the existing Park Morton site (ZC16-12). The hearings occurred on  Monday, December 5th and Thursday, December 8th, respectively with hearings on both nights beginning at 6:30 pm and running 4-5+ hours. In addition to the applicant and ANC1A, the Bruce Monroe Park Neighbors and Park Morton Residents Council were granted party status in Case 16-11 and the Park Morton Residents Council was granted party status in Case 16-12.

No votes were taken at either hearing. Testimony for ZC16-11 is closed, and submission for ZC16-12 will close at the end of business on December 12th. Additional details/information requested by the Zoning Commission needs to be filed by January 10th, parties will have until January 18th to respond, and January 30th has been scheduled for the Commission to take action on both cases.

While both cases are discrete, it was well understood that the two cases are closely linked and often times testimony in one case referenced the other. The testimony for both the Bruce Monroe case and the Park Morton case was strongly in favor. While there was no notable opposition to the redevelopment of the site on Morton Street, there was notable testimony in opposition to the development planned for the Bruce Monroe site including the aforementioned Bruce Monroe Park Neighbors which has party status in the case. Those wishing to watch the testimony in both cases can do so. Video for both cases is available (ZC16-11 opening statements and testimony here; closing arguments here — ZC16-12 here). Prior to the Commission making a decision on the Bruce Monroe site, they’ve requested that the development team meet with the Bruce Monroe Park Neighbors group and attempt to address their concerns.

Questions from Commissioners were encouraging, and seemed to drill down into details that would improve the project or provide better documentation so that the expected amenities would actually be provided. Perhaps the most important questions along these lines for community members had to do with the creation of the new 1 acre park at the Bruce Monroe site. While there was recognition that the park would be a significant amenity, the park itself is not included in the PUD application. To this end, the Commission has requested that appropriate language be included that documents as much detail as possible about the park such as size, location, and any other decisions that have been made. One Commissioner also suggested that perhaps language could be included that would require that the park be constructed and completed prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the buildings. There was also a request for more details on which entities would be responsible for creating and maintaining the park. At this time, the thoughts on this are that it would be a shared responsibility between the Department of General Services, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the developer.

Commissioner May, in particular, drilled down into the architectural details of both applications. Notably, May and other commissioners commented that they would like a different brick used at the Bruce Monroe site, as white brick tends to get dirty quickly and didn’t really relate to the surrounding community. Commissioner Miller suggested that red brick be considered instead. There was also a sense that the rowhouses planned for the Bruce Monroe site could be more architecturally compatible with the neighborhood, and requested that the developer respond to that.

Testimony in opposition to the development at the Bruce Monroe site ranged from requesting that the buildings be shorter, expressing dissatisfaction with the community engagement process, claiming a lack of ANC representation (Commissioners Brown and Nguyen recused themselves due to conflicts of interest), and advocating to use the entire site as a permanent park.

While the long term use of the Bruce Monroe site has been a hot button issue in the community since the Bruce Monroe School was razed in 2010, Zoning Commission Chair Anthony Hood summed it up succinctly. While questioning Buwa Binitie of Dantes Partners early in the evening on Monday, Hood stated:

I believe when Bruce Monroe [school] was torn down, that I think everyone in this city knew that there was some type of development [that] was going to happen there. So that’s no surprise. I’m sure that even the new neighbors, I think when you bought into the neighborhood you knew there was going to be some type of development in the area.

On May 13^th and 16^th, Park View Community Partners filed two zoning cases with their plans to redevelop the aging Park Morton Housing Complex as a new mixed-income community. These plans focus on two sites in the Park View neighborhood. The first is the existing Park Morton public housing site centered at the 600 block of Morton Street, NW. The second is the former Bruce Monroe School site at Georgia Avenue between Irving and Columbia Road which has served the community as a temporary park since 2010. After delays and uncertainty, the selection of Park View Community Partners as the new Park Morton development team in the fall of 2014, and months of community meetings beginning in the fall of 2015, the efforts to redevelop Park Morton has new life and strong promise.

(Rendering of proposed buildings at Georgia Avenue and Irving Street, from Zoning submission by Park View Community Partners.)

According to the zoning cases filed in May, the overall development plan is to replace the existing 174 public housing units at Park Morton with approximately 456 units of mixed income housing spread across the two sites – 273 units at the Georgia and Irving site and 183 at the existing Park Morton site. The replacement of the public housing units includes a commitment for current Park Morton residents to remain in the community by moving into new units across both sites as they are constructed in phases.

Due to the complexity and scale of the development effort – and the filing of two separate zoning cases – this post will focus on the redevelopment of the property at Georgia and Irving Street with a follow up post on the plans for the Park Morton site.

Efforts to redevelop the Park Morton housing community date to 2005, when it was identified as one of four communities that would be rebuilt as part of the New Communities Initiative – a District effort to convert public-housing developments into larger, mixed-income communities. Since then, moving the redevelopment effort forward has had its challenges. The first Park Morton development team – Landex Corporation and its District-based development partner the Warrenton Group – was successful in building The Avenue, which was completed in 2012 and contains 83 affordable housing units including 27 replacement units for Park Morton residents. Yet Landex’s inability to secure additional “build first” development sites resulted in the District terminating their agreement with Landex in early 2014 as the Park Morton developer, leaving the future in limbo.

In two separate meetings I held with Landex Corp. in January and October of 2013, I learned first-hand about the difficulties they were facing in securing property to continue the Park Morton development effort, and the District’s lack of support to assist in solving the problem of identifying development sites. With the change in developers the District also has changed their approach to site selection and identified the former Bruce-Monroe school site as the Park Morton “build first” site after a New Communities Initiative (NCI) review of available parcels near Park Morton in the summer of 2015. NCI’s selection of the temporary park at Georgia and Irving is not surprising. I came to a similar conclusion in November 2013 after my meetings with Landex earlier that year.

Some of the factors that make the Georgia Avenue site an attractive “build-first” site include:

• The site is already owned by the District;
• No District agency has expressed an interest in using it;
• The site is in close proximity to the existing Park Morton site;
• The site is 77,531 sq. ft., or approximately 1.8 acres, making it one of the largest available sites in the area; and,
• The Georgia Avenue half of the site is zoned C-2-A (commercial) which allows and encourages higher density. This is unlike the existing Park Morton site which is zoned for three story rowhouse development.

Not surprisingly, the selection of the Georgia Avenue parcel has not been without its critics. Among the concerns expressed during the community engagement process are:

• The proposed development will be too dense;
• The proposed development will be too tall;
• The development will destroy the green space/park/community garden;
• The development will have a negative impact on traffic; and,
• The development will have too much affordable housing, especially at the lower end of the range.

After months of community/ANC/Steering Committee meetings and planning workshops, the development plan for the site at Georgia and Irving as submitted to Zoning is planned to contain 273 residential units — 189 apartment units, 76 senior apartment units, and 8 townhouses. Of the 273 units, 94 will be replacement units for Park Morton residents. 108 units will be for moderate income households earning up to 60% AMI leaving 71 units that will be available at market rate. An interesting and unique feature of this plan is that it preserves public space by creating a new, large, and permanent park on the southern half of the site.

(Site plan of the development proposed for the former Bruce Monroe school site, from Zoning documents.)

The large apartment building on the northern half of the site is divided into two sections — a larger section the fronts Georgia Avenue and a smaller section that connects to it on the west that will be reserved for seniors. Eight rowhouses will also be constructed at the far west of the parcel.

The plans show the larger of the buildings at 90′ in height, not counting the penthouse structure. This is taller than other recently completed developments on Georgia Avenue but not out of keeping. 32 Thirty Two Apartments (#2 below) was built at 80′ and the new Safeway was built at 85′. Additionally, of the Planned Unit Developments that have already been approved but not broken ground, the PUD for 3212-3216 Georgia (#1 below) has been approved at 87′ and the PUD for the Vue (#3 below) is approved for 90′.

(Corridor massing illustration from Zoning documents. The buildings in yellow represent those in the Park Morton development.)

The development plan also includes 99 underground parking spaces and 6 on-street parking paces that will be located on a new privately maintained street at the rear of the parcel. The new street will not only allow the garage entrance to be located off of Irving Street, but it will also connect with the alley, providing far more access to residents living there now.

While the overall plan is a good one, there are still details that need to be worked out — the chief of these being the programming of the park space. During the public meetings it was noted that all of the uses that are currently on the site could be accommodated in the new park. As noted when looking at the plan above, the programming of the site has not been finalized. This should not be perceived as suggesting that dedicated uses and programming do not exist, but rather that the locations and configurations for how the park will serve the community is still somewhat flexible and will be further refined as part of the public dialogue and review by the ANCs as they consider the public amenities agreement that is part of the PUD process. Both Advisory Neighborhood Commissions 1A and 1B have standing with the former school site and both have been actively engaged to date. Both ANCs 1A & 1B voted to support the surplus and disposition of the former school site (at their April and May meetings respectively), and will consider the zoning case at a future meeting.

(Rendering of the development proposed for the Bruce Monroe site. View from the southeast from Zoning documents.)