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Articles
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Latest News
| Hoffman-Struever to redevelop Southwest waterfront |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
Mayor Adrian Fenty announced today that the city reached a $1.1 billion agreement to redevelop part of the Southwest Waterfront in hopes of making it a regional destination.
Fenty will ask the D.C. Council to authorize giving Hoffman-Struever Waterfront LLC $200 million in financing and about 16 acres of waterfront land for the project, which last year was estimated to cost $800 million.
The redevelopment plan, for the area between the 14th Street Bridge and P Street SW, includes new public parks, recreational facilities, a promenade, retail and office space, a hotel and cultural attractions.
“This project has been promised to the residents of Southwest and the rest of the District for years,” Fenty said in a news release. “I am proud to say we've reached a true milestone today that will make this project a reality.”
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Posted on Jan 19, 2008 07:59am.
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| Federal commission rejects Randall School penthouse design |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
The National Capital Planning Commission last week voted to recommend scaling back Southwest’s Randall School makeover, saying aspects of the proposed renovation would adversely affect the city.
The commission -- central planning agency for the federal government -- will ask the city to require an increased setback for the school project’s penthouse level, because, they said, the current plans violate the 1910 Height of Buildings Act.
The proposed planned-unit development, which requires changes to the zoning map, would transform the former Randall Junior High School building, at 65 I St. SW, into a 500,000-square-foot residential development and Corcoran College of Art + Design facility.
The plans call for 16-f00t-tall penthouse units that would house mechanical systems atop the tallest section of the development. The commission said that because the penthouse level extends beyond what is allowed under federal rules for District buildings, it must be set back at least 16 feet from the building’s edge. The current plan calls for a 6.5-foot setback.
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Posted on Jan 19, 2008 07:48am.
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| Lincoln Park couple prevails in lawsuit against city |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
A Lincoln Park couple won a lawsuit against the city last month after successfully arguing that District officials improperly seized documents during a 2003 search of their 9th Street row house.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the city, by seizing documents related to disputed renovation plans for the couple’s row house, violated Laura Elkins and John Robbins’ Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
In an opinion issued Dec. 12, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer stated: “Because the warrant did not specify any documents to be seized, the seizure of the documents was outside the scope of the warrant and in violation of Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights.”
Collyer upheld a ruling from the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, finding the District’s search valid but the seizure of documents unwarranted.
In 2001, Elkins and Robbins applied for permits to build a sloped roof over the middle and rear of their house, which is in the Capitol Hill Historic District. The city approved the application, and the couple started construction before city officials “second-guessed the original approvals and sought to stop the project,” arguing that it violated historic preservation laws, according to Collyer’s opinion.
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Posted on Jan 19, 2008 07:47am.
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| Wells introduces stadium ‘performance parking’ legislation |
VOICE writes, "By Julie Westfall
Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells introduced legislation Tuesday to create a three-year pilot “performance parking” zone around the Nationals baseball stadium and Capitol Hill retail corridors in an effort to head off what many fear will be a parking crisis when the baseball team opens its season the end of March.
The legislation would authorize Wells to work with the District Department of Transportation to use “performance pricing” in zones around the park by charging adjustable rates based on time of day, location, game days and other events.
A public hearing on the legislation before the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, chaired by Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham, had not been scheduled by yesterday.
Wells’ spokesperson Charles Allen said yesterday that he expects the hearing will be scheduled in the evening late this month or early February.
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Posted on Jan 19, 2008 07:44am.
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| Floodplain extension too broad, planners say |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
Capital-area planners say the proposed new floodplain map for the District overstates storm-water dangers, and they want the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reevaluate its estimates.
Those planners also say that if published as is, the District floodplain map will discourage development in the new floodplain by saddling potential builders with mandatory flood insurance and inflated construction costs. The plan would push the flood zone several blocks outward from the Anacostia River into parts of downtown D.C.
The National Capital Planning Commission last week said the proposed flood zone is too broad because the estimates assume the Anacostia River levees do not exist.
The proposed District floodplain map, the first update since 1985, is part of a larger effort to reassess flood dangers countrywide. It incorporates new assessments from the Army Corps of Engineers, which adopted new certification standards for levees in response to Hurricane Katrina."
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Posted on Jan 19, 2008 07:43am.
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| Giving youth a place to call home |
VOICE writes, "By Joshua Gray
Will Cobb is leaving D.C. It might make him an unlikely community activist, but it highlights the depth of his commitment to Capitol Hill. Come spring, he’ll be leaving for a State Department job in Mexico, but that he hasn’t slowed his efforts to bring new life to the embattled Eastern Branch of the D.C. Boys and Girl’s Club at 261 17th St. SE.
Cobb has always been a rolling stone. His father was in the Air Force, and the litany of places he’s lived sounds like a Johnny Cash song. He’s been everywhere. Cobb and his wife, Pam, have called the Hill home since 2003, which is the longest he’s ever stayed in one place.
Cobb landed in D.C. by way of the Coast Guard, followed by a stint in business school and an early job working with a nonprofit in Ethiopia. Next came a private position based in Atlanta, for which he traveled 50 weeks a year. When he landed in D.C.— first with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and later with SRA International — he was ready to stay put for a while.
He was also ready to put something back into his new, more permanent home. After settling in, he found himself with a problem familiar to longtime Hill residents — local kids had little opportunity for structured recreation. The Eastern Branch, just two blocks from Cobb’s Hill East home, had already fallen on difficult times. Cobb volunteered his time and expertise at the club and came to know both the important personalities there and the texture of the neighborhood. "
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Posted on Jan 10, 2008 05:49am.
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| Lincoln Park couple prevails in lawsuit against city |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
A Lincoln Park couple won a lawsuit against the city last month after successfully arguing that District officials improperly seized documents during a 2003 search of their 9th Street row house.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the city, by seizing documents related to disputed renovation plans for the couple’s row house, violated Laura Elkins’s and John Robbins’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
In an opinion issued Dec. 12, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer stated: “Because the warrant did not specify any documents to be seized, the seizure of the documents was outside the scope of the warrant and in violation of Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights.”"
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Posted on Jan 04, 2008 19:22pm.
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