A Big Lots and Forman Mills currently sit on the huge swath of land on Rhode Island Avenue NE, next to the Metro station. Soon, that same land may be home to a 1,550-unit housing development with retail stores on the ground floor of all of its buildings.

Image from the development team.

MRP Realty, the developer, hopes to build seven residential buildings that will cover nearly six blocks and include approximately 2,000 parking spaces at the site of today’s Rhode Island Center shopping mall. Eight percent of the units will be designated as affordable.

Rhode Island Center today. Base image from Google Maps.

MRP filed for a planned unit development for the project last Wednesday. The PUD would mean some flexibility on what zoning will allow on things like height and density in exchange for more government review and providing public amenities like bike racks and gardens.

The proposed buildings’ locations. Image from the development team.

Housing at Rhode Island Center will benefit from transit, and vice versa

This project could be a great opportunity to take advantage of a transit-oriented site, replacing a car-oriented strip mall with a mixed-use urban neighborhood.

The Metropolitan Branch Trail sits just east of the Rhode Island Center. New housing next to the trail would mean more users, making it safer and likely driving new amenities in turn. In this specific case, it’d also mean an easier connection to Rhode Island Avenue.

Cross the trail, and you’re at the Metro station. It’s logical to think a number of Rhode Island Center residents would use Metro.

The current plan could limit walkability and drive up congestion

The current design has retail that faces away from Rhode Island Avenue. That’s due in part to the site’s steep slope, as well as the location of Mount Calvary Holy Church, which on the southern end of the site, up next to the street.

But inwardly-focused design can seal development off from the existing neighborhood, discouraging people from walking or biking since they have to travel farther to visit the site. That happened with Rhode Island Row, which recently went in just across the railroad tracks, and it’d be a shame for the same thing to happen with this project.

Image from the development team.

There are also concerns about how the number of parking spaces MRP is proposing— the plan includes more spaces than it does housing units— could encourage more car use and, in turn, drive up congestion.

The parking figures are likely flexible, and tied to what retailers want. Some retailers, particularly national chains and grocery stores, won’t sign a lease unless a building has a certain number of corresponding spaces.

A redeeming quality of the site’s slope is that it should allow architects to design tuck-under parking, which is a lot cheaper than building parking underground.