Posts about Mcmillan Site

VMP's next step is to design the buildings themselves. They will hold a community meeting about preliminary building designs on Saturday, April 20, 10 am-noon at a location to be announced.

Under the Northeast Boundary Neighborhood Protection Project, developed by the Mayor's Task Force on the Prevention of Flooding, DC Water will store excess rainwater runoff in the two cells as a temporary remedy for flooding. In the long run, DC Water's Clean Rivers Project will build large underground sewers to store water by around 2022. When that is done, the two cells will be drained and will become available for use, potentially as unique public spaces.

The now larger park along Channing Street NW will feature an open grassy lawn. One of the filtration cells to store excess runoff will be underneath part of the park. The other cell lies at the site's northeast corner, and the original development plans already called for retaining it.

At the east end, next to the park's main entrance on North Capitol Street, will be a small pond that echoes the now-underground Tiber Creek which once flowed across the site. The pond will also serve as a reservoir for the site's stormwater runoff, allowing pollutants to settle out of it before it enters the combined sewer system.

Next to the pond will be an amphitheater and a community center with a green roof. The west end will feature a sculpture garden and plaza, with a spray jet fountain and smaller park spaces between the two, alongside the open grassy area. A tree-lined "Olmstead Walk" will surround the entire development, including the park.

The office and residential buildings with ground-floor retail on the north end will be fewer than under the original plan (5 instead of 9), but taller. Instead of being in a stand-alone building, the "premium" grocery store will be on the ground floor of a 6-story apartment building.

The plan won't set back the buildings along North Capitol Street as far as under the original plan. Much of the office space will remain devoted to medical offices.

There will be less public space in the non-park areas of the site. The North Service Court (one of the two rows of original sand towers and regulator houses that sit on the site today) will feature wider sidewalks, but there will also be more through roads. Douglas and Evarts Streets will extend across the site (Douglas using the South Service Court as its median), a new Middle Street NW will use the North Service Court as its median, and a new Half Street NW will run north-south from Michigan Avenue down to Douglas Street.

The new plan integrates affordable housing throughout the development, instead of having a particular apartment building dedicated to affordable senior housing.

On retail, for example, the report says that "Most interviewees stated that the District has great potential to become a model for the future: a vibrant and walkable city. The majority said traffic congestion will become less relevant to the retail sector in the future." (page 78)

This is a refreshing change from the tired trope from the economic development transition team, which we still hear today from some business groups, who say that one of the most important steps they want DC to take is to time all of the traffic lights to make streets high-speed for cars into the District in the morning and out at night.

Plan is sector-specific

Some jurisdictions try to build jobs by indiscriminately throwing money at any company in any sector that is willing to come into town for a tax break. It's far more effective to develop clusters of related companies. That makes the city a generally attractive place for someone in that field, and the strong supply of labor in the field then attracts employers in a mutually-reinforcing cycle.

This plan seriously analyses key clusters that DC can reasonably hope to developed: technology, hospitality and retail, professional services and government contracting, real estate and construction, higher education, and health care. It lays out strategies for each that consider the particular needs of that sector. We commended Gray's emphasis on sector-specific economic development in an article earlier this year.

For example, this plan envisions a world-class medical center at the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, which is right next to a cluster of hospitals. The job growth in health care and higher education has exceeded all other sectors in DC in the past decade.

Here are some of the many recommendations which jumped out:

Build a tech hub at Saint Elizabeths. The plan calls for creating a technology center at the Saint Elizabet's campus. It also recommends finding ways to offer tech startups lower-cost office space and connecting tech entrepreneurs with established leaders in their sector. These are all recommendations from the letter from tech executives, which we organized with InTheCapital.

Strategically relax height restrictions. While Mayor Gray emphasized at today's press conference that he's not counting on any changes to federal law, the plan contemplates raising height limits near the Anacostia River. This is similar to Paris's approach to their height limit, and is a good compromise between the economic value of more growth and federal aesthetic concerns.

Change zoning to allow retail in more areas. Commercial space in most parts of the District is very limited. This makes retail space more expensive and contributes to "retail leakage" to the suburbs, which is where many residents leave the District to spend their shopping dollars.

The plan calls for expanding the supply of low-cost retail space while respecting residential impacts and allowing residents to walk for as many of their shopping needs as possible. In particular, it suggests making retail more continuous along commercial corridors. When there are gaps of residential zoning, especially at prominent corners, it stops many shoppers from continuing along the street.

Promote hospitality and tourism. The proposal for the hospitality sector is particularly thoughtful and detailed. The plan envisions "delivering the highest standards in hospitality and service," creating a Hospitality Program at DC Community College, setting up a culinary incubator, and expanding tourism. These will all grow service sector jobs, and good service sector jobs are one of the best paths to the middle class in today's economy.

On the other hand, a few elements of the plan miss the mark or could go farther.

No new workforce development initiatives. Who will fill these 100,000 new jobs? Only 27% of DC jobs go to by DC residents, so adding more jobs won't address the unemployment rate east of the Anacostia river, which is one of the plan's stated goals. There isn't much in the way of new workforce programs beyond the administration's existing initiatives, One City One Hire and the Workforce Intermediary.

The only new initiative in the plan is to post new university and health care jobs on the DOES web site. What the District needs to do is use data-driven methods to steer the $100 million that DC spends on job training where it will do the most good, at training providers that produce validated results.

Tech tax incentives still lack focus. The report continues to promote Gray's plan for broad tax breaks for tech investment. An incentive for new angel investors in technology is a good idea, but any tax break needs to specifically target the District's goals of building a strong base of tech firms that actually create new technology and workers with software development and other skills.

DMPED could work with all stakeholders to properly design this tax break, but instead is choosing to shut out discussions of how to best tailor it. On LivingSocial's $32 million tax break, DMPED and LivingSocial mutually agreed not to negotiate on any terms ahead of time, the Washington City Paper learned.

The mayor wants to pass a tax break for tech investors, which the Council removed from a recent bill. DMPED refused to negotiate with opponents on that bill as well. That left the tax break's primary Council advocate, David Catania, bewildered that there was no discussion of a smaller reduction, which he would have gladly agreed to.

If DMPED can seriously think about what it needs to achieve and tailor the break to those goals with a spirit of collaboration, instead of letting tech executives and investors design their own tax cuts, it should be able to devise something that can win broad support.

Hospitality job growth significantly underestimated. Hospitality jobs are the 2nd fastest growing job segment in the District, having grown at a 28% clip and added 14,200 new jobs in the past 10 years. But they are only a small fragment of the 100,000 new jobs projected in the plan, which forecasts only an 8% growth in hospitality jobs from 2008 to 2018.

That disconnect resulted from the misuse of DOES labor market data by the report's authors, according to DOES Chief Economist Dr James Moore. The labor market data and projections used by the report's authors are not meant for economic development analysis, as they fail to factor many drivers of job growth and thus understate job growth.

This plan includes some of the best initiatives for improving hospitality jobs and workforce readiness in the nation, but it must be grounded in accurate data on job growth in the sector and its sub-sectors.

There's much more in the 116-page document. It shows that, as with the sustainability strategy, one legacy of the Gray administration will be a set of excellent plans that can guide the District through the rest of his mayoralty and beyond.

Imagine the Flower: Dan Reed's charrette on the Flower Theatre, also in Silver Spring, is tomorrow. How can the theater bloom again into a space that serves the community? People will discuss this on Saturday from 10-1 at Fenton Street Market, in Veterans Plaza at the corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive in downtown Silver Spring.

Ride the Lion: Sunday is the Frederick Douglass Family Festival, at the historic site dedicated to the Lion of Anacostia. At 3 pm, WABA is organizing a leisurely bike ride through the neighborhood and along the river.

Be an activist: There are going to be a lot of big issues to decide this fall, including the zoning update and parking policies. Pro-DC is organizing an activism training for you to learn how to best testify at public meetings, recruit others and get involved.

The training is on Wednesday, August 15 at Laughing Man Tavern, 1306 G Street, NW near Metro Center Metro. Doors open at 6 and the workshop runs from 6:30-7:30. RSVP here.

Scope the NEC: Do you care about Amtrak's Northeast Corridor or any of the commuter railroads that ply its length? The Federal Railroad Administration is doing a comprehensive study of the corridor and what capital investments will help it continue to grow, serve more passengers, and serve existing passengers better.

There is a series of public meetings along the corridor, from Boston to DC, in coming weeks. DC's is on Tuesday, August 21 at the Council of Governments, 777 North Capitol St near Union Station. Baltimore's is Wednesday, August 15 at the University of Baltimore's Thumel Conference Facilities. Each has an open house from 4:30-7:30 pm and a presentation at 5:30. You can also send comments electronically.

Learn about McMillan: One of DC's biggest development proposals, and controversies, involves the McMillan San Filtration Site by North Capitol and Michigan Avenue. The master planner, a development partner, ANC Commissioner, and the Coalition for Smarter Growth will show you the site and the plans on Saturday, August 25, from 10 am to noon. Meet at First and Channing, NW, accessible by the H3/H4 and 80 buses. RSVP here.

These and other events are on the Greater Greater Washington calendar. Got an event we should include? Let us know at events@ggwash.org.

Residents in these camps concerned about development at the site have organized two groups, Friends of McMillan Park and Sustainable McMillan. The groups' leaders claim that Envision McMillan virtually ignored the ideas community members presented in the various public listening sessions.

In fact, the team has significantly altered the plan based on community feedback. It now has much more open space, with 13.55 acres overall, including a 4-acre central park and 8 acres of large, public, open spaces. The team also added a grocery store, a library and a community center.

The plan mixes preservation and growth

Envision McMillan comprises 9 architecture, design, landscape architecture, and consulting firms selected as the site's developer by the DC Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. The District government bought the site from the federal government in 1987 and has sought to develop it ever since.

The majority of the existing above-ground structures on the site would be retained and repurposed. The plan calls for preserving more than one of the underground sand filtration cells for visitors to explore. The historic McMillan Fountain, currently in storage at the adjacent federally-owned McMillan Reservoir, would sit in a prominent location in a public plaza on the site.

The southern row of cylindrical sand silos would form the border between the project's central park and a cluster of row houses, which would match the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood. Stormwater runoff from the site would be completely captured on site by using state-of-the-art runoff management techniques.

Envision McMillan seeks to draw a grocery store and an eclectic mix of local retailers. Developers hope to create approximately 4,000 jobs at all levels as part of new healthcare office space on the northern end (adjacent to the VA hospital and Washington Hospital Center).

Additionally, the city plans to sponsor job-training programs to help District residents qualify for these jobs. 100 housing units will be designated as "affordable senior housing," and a mix of workforce and market-rate housing will be available throughout the site.

The team responds to community concerns

The next step for Envision McMillan and project supporters is to win the public-relations battle by convincing residents of the area, and the entire city, that the current plans represent the most appropriate balance of competing community needs and desires.

Traffic has been a central area of concern for nearby residents. First Street NW, in particular, is often bumper-to-bumper at rush hours between Michigan and New York Avenues, and Bloomingdale residents fear this will get worse once new homes, offices, and shops open up at McMillan. Envision McMillan analyzed current traffic to help create a plan to efficiently move people to and from the site, both by car and by other modes.

The study showed that there are no safe pedestrian crossings of North Capitol Street between Michigan Avenue and Channing Street. The restrictions on left turns from North Capitol onto Michigan from both directions cause more traffic to flow onto neighborhood streets. Cut-through traffic also overtaxes the alleys in the neighboring Stronghold neighborhood.

Envision McMillan's traffic plan calls for building 2 new through streets across the site from North Capitol to First NW, reducing traffic flow on existing neighborhood streets. It also recommends 2 new signalized intersections along North Capitol, and widening the North Capitol and Michigan Avenue intersection. Almost all of the parking on the site would be below ground.

But perhaps more importantly, the plan would enhance access to the site by non-automobile modes, thereby reducing the number of cars that will have to move through the surrounding neighborhoods. It proposes a transit hub on the north end with frequent Circulator buses connecting to the Brookland Metro station, a hiker-biker trail along North Capitol for the length of the site, several new sidewalks, and two Capital Bikeshare stations on the site—one near the grocery store and one in the middle of the mixed-use medical office/retail complex.

Yes, the surrounding neighborhood will feel growing pains as new residents, shoppers, and medical clinic patients move in. But maintaining the site as it is, empty and off-limits to the public, benefits nobody.

The only viable alternative to the status quo is some form of development. Putting this residential and business development in an urban neighborhood where people can take advantage of existing infrastructure at modest incremental cost makes the most economic and environmental sense. The long-term benefits to the region of developing the site in a conscientious way far outweigh the short-term costs.

Envision McMillan has proposed a plan for intelligent development and adapted it around reasonable concerns from the community. The plan will create a desirable place to live, work, and shop that retains both the character of the neighborhood and the uniqueness of this historic site.

DC's Home Rule Charter states that each SMD should contain approximately 2,000 people, recognizing that it's impossible to reach that number exactly. This plan has so many SMDs that aren't even close. Thomas' plan appears to reduce the SMD containing McMillan to about 30% below standard.

It's impossible to precisely quantify that population would be, because its lines split up a block, and the Census doesn't report population in more detail than an individual block. Therefore, potentially as few as 1,399 (and as many as over 2,200) live in the critical SMD where this development is proposed.

It also carves McMillan away from the rest of Bloomingdale (its home neighborhood), Eckington, Truxton Circle, and Hanover-Bates. This will dilute the ability of these residents to make their voices heard regarding the largest development project in their immediate area.

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but the clearest and most defined opposition to the proposed McMillan development has coalesced in these neighborhoods, which the latest Thomas plan now puts in a separate ANC.

The latest Thomas plan moves the McMillan Sand Filtration Site into an ANC consisting in large part of the Armed Forces Retirement Home and the Catholic University of America. That is, McMillan will be in an ANC that is less-densely populated, with much of its population in essentially gated, private communities that lie relatively far geographically from the McMillan site and that will likely have less concern for the direct effects of what happens at McMillan.

Single member district size is another critical shortcoming in this plan. There are 38 SMDs in the plan, and more than half of them (20) have populations more than 10% above or below the ideal size of 2,000 people. The largest, in Carver Langston, is nearly 40% larger, with a population of 2,796. Meanwhile, the smallest, containing the Armed Forces Retirement Home, has a population nearly 55% smaller (917 people). These numbers make it impossible for an individual's vote to carry equal weight in the political process as every other vote in the ward.

Both Thomas' and the task force's plans fail to link communities with common goals and interests and distort voter power. Tomorrow, we'll present a neighborhood-centered alternative.

Meanwhile, if you want to weigh in on redistricting, the Bloomingdale Civic Association is holding a meeting on the issue tonight, November 1, 7:00 pm at St. George's Episcopal Church, 2nd & U Streets NW.

Charlie Richman of the Office of Planning sent us a clarification:

We think it's important for your readers to understand that redistricting plans aren't considered by the DC Office of Planning at all. That is for Council to do. Our role in this is purely technical. We review proposed legislative language provided by the Task Forces (or Council) and verify that the lines on the maps we use reflect that language accurately. Often we discover that this can't be done because the language isn't clear or consistent, and we work with the authors of that language to help make it clear and consistent. Once the lines are drawn, we report to Council on how many residents would be included in each proposed SMD and ANC. Ultimately final SMD and ANC boundaries are the Council's decision. OP's role is to provide technical support to Council in arriving at whatever decisions they deem best.

Though the top of the McMillan Fountain had been restored to the reservoir grounds, a Bloomingdale ANC commissioner told me the base of the fountain was in the woods in Fort Washington along with the remains of the fountain that stood at the center of the now-razed Truxton Circle.

I went to Fort Washington in search of these discarded works of art. I asked a park ranger where the fountain was and she drew me a map, saying that it stood in the park's "dump" and partly behind a fence.

I went to the picnic area nearest the site and walked into the woods a short distance where I found a fence. Behind it stood piles of bricks and other discarded building materials.

Beside the site is a dugout that serves as the back court to Battery Emory, a concrete gun battery built in 1898 to protect the capital city from enemy ships.

As I passed through the unfenced dugout, I immediately spotted few granite blocks that served as the cornerstones of the base bowl. Though they are strewn about the ground, a 1912 photograph can help us identify what pieces went where.

The elements of the fountain were stacked like totem pole. The bottom element features carved classical allegorical heads from whose mouths water gushed into the carved bowls below.

The next element of the stack is the fluted base to the top bowl.

Several other large granite stones are stacked and marked with numbers, presumably to help in reassembly.

The site also contains the rusting remains of the fountain that stood at Truxton Circle, which formed the intersection of North Capitol Street, Florida Avenue, Lincoln Road, and Q Street. The circle was built around 1901 and the fountain installed there originally stood at the triangle park at Pennsylvania Avenue and M Street in Georgetown.

A newspaper at the time described it as one of the largest fountains in the city. The circle was removed in 1940 to ease the flow of commuter traffic. At that time, the fountain, which may date to as early as the 1880s, made its way to Fort Washington to rust in the woods.

The fountain was also noted for the metal grates that stood near its base. Now these grates sit rusting in the woods.

If you want to see the fountain remains for yourself at Fort Washington National Park, go to picnic area C. Beyond the end of the parking lot is a restroom building and behind that is the fountain "graveyard." A fence encloses part of the site, but you can enter through the large gap down the hillside.

Rather than tossing aside our city's artistic patrimony, we should aim to restore these treasures to the neighborhoods from which they came. Public art is part of what differentiates cherished neighborhoods from unmemorable places.

These works remind us of the accomplishments and civic-mindedness of generations past and urge us to carry on the tradition of civic improvement for generations to come.

Cross-posted at Left for LeDroit.

Beneath the grassy fields visible from the surface there are 25 acres of underground concrete chambers, where the process of water purification was carried out.

Before water could be purified, it had to be delivered to the reservoir. It is still delivered in much the same way.

Water flows through aqueducts all the way from Great Falls to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, and then to the Georgetown Reservoir. From there water flows from the "castle" on McArthur Boulevard NW, at the reservoir's edge, through an arrow-straight tunnel to the pumping house on 4th Street at the McMillan Reservoir.

The reservoir, which is still active, opened in 1902 and is actually a dammed stream valley. The streams that used to flow here eventually formed Tiber Creek, which ran along what is now Constitution Avenue toward the Potomac.

Since the reservoir stores untreated river water, the water must be cleaned before it can be distributed to residents' taps.

At the turn of the 20th century a debate ensued regarding the best way to purify water, between proponents of chemical purification and slow sand filtration. Slow sand filtration won out, and Congress provided money to build a sand filtration plant for DC.

The process of slow sand filtration is pretty simple. Water fills a cell that contains 2 feet of sand sitting at the bottom. The water percolates through the sand, which traps contaminants. When the water reaches the floor under the sand, it is clean. The water then exits the cell and is distributed into the city's pipes.

The sand itself required routine cleaning to remove the contaminants. Clean sand was stored in the concrete silos that still stand in rows on the site, visible above ground.

Workers replenished the cells by dumping clean sand through access holes on the roof of each cell. You can still see the circular access covers from the street, and even from satellite photos.

This early photo shows fresh sand recently dumped into a cell.

Regulator houses such as this one contained valves for controlling the flow of water through each cell.

Senator James McMillan (R - Michigan), famous for his ambitious McMillan Plan to beautify Washington, proposed turning the ground level of the filtration site into a park. The idea found support, and a park was later designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

The park unfortunately closed to public access during World War II, but many of the original park lamps, walkways, and staircases remain.

In the 1980s the US Army Corps of Engineers built a more modern rapid sand filter adjacent to the reservoir, west of 1st Street NW. With the new rapid filter in place, the old slow filters east of 1st Street became obsolete. The western section of the site still holds the active open-air reservoir and rapid sand filters that today supply clean water to much of Washington.

The western section containing the active reservoir and water treatment plant is closed to the public. What's most unfortunate is that the western section also contains the most notable feature of the old park.

Shortly after Senator McMillan's death in 1902, Congress and donors from his home state of Michigan honored the senator with an ornate fountain adorning the park that bears his name. The 1912 fountain, designed by Herbert Adams, contains a bronze sculpture of 3 nymphs on a pink granite base.

In 1941 the fountain was dismantled, left in storage, and mostly neglected. In 1983 the top portion of the fountain was moved to Bloomingdale's Crispus Attucks Park, and in 1992 that section was moved again to its current location at the active reservoir site, where it is locked away from public access.

One can still see the top portion of the fountain by glancing through the fence on 1st Street NW.

The base of the fountain is today somewhere in Fort Washington National Park, in Prince George's County. Perhaps someday the District, the federal government, and neighbors can raise the funds to reunite and restore the fountain for public enjoyment.

Cross-posted at Left for LeDroit.

The design team presented three very basic plans, all of which include a mix of retail, office, open space, row houses and multi-family residential (condos, apartments and/or senior living). Reflecting community feedback, the taller office buildings are located to the northwest corner of the site, near First Street, NW and Michigan Avenue. The plans call for lower buildings and setbacks in the east to match the row houses across North Capitol Street in Stronghold.

All plans include a grocery store, likely facing North Capitol with parking on the roof or below ground, as well as probably some protected angled or parallel parking, like on Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park. Developer Jair Lynch, however, offered some words of caution in his remarks on the grocery store. Comparing statistics of Bloomingdale and surrounding areas with Georgetown and Barracks Row, he made the case that the site is not yet at the point where locating a grocery store there would an obvious choice for a retailer based on include median income, dollars per mouth spent on groceries, and dollars spent dining out.

A representative of DC's Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development assured one group that there would be space for community activities in the site as well, probably located within the retail areas.

The southern half of the site will have approximately 150 row houses and open space, the configuration of which was the focus of much of the discussion. Residents voted with stickers on sheets of paper to indicate what they'd like to see reflected in the final design.

Popular choices included an "outdoor amphitheater, rain gardens/stormwater management, reuse of silos/cells, [and] relocation of [the] McMillan fountain, reported @evoque. One group, apparently unsatisfied with the choices, created an additional choice, "MUCH more open space," which received a good number of votes/stickers.

Talk of "daylighting" Tiber Creek, which runs dozens of feet below the southeast corner of the site, seems to have been deemed unworkable, although water features that recall the creek were discussed.

Area residents seemed split on how to configure the row houses and open space. Some prefer houses on the south portion of the site, in order to continue the Bloomingdale neighborhood, others would like to see the open space separate the new from the old, to delineate the difference between traditional Bloomingdale and the historic McMillan site.

The most iconic element of the McMillan site is the silos and the two brick "service courts" that surround them. All three designs seem to using the north court for a driveway, while keeping the silos. The south court seems to be destined to be more open, probably integrated with adjacent open space.

Again reflecting community feedback from prior meetings, of some of the underground historic cells that once housed sand that filtered DC's water will be preserved and possibly integrated with open space or used for retail.

Each cell is about an acre, or about twice the square footage of the entire Spy Museum. The general talk seemed to be around preserving two or three of the approximately 25 cells on the site.

Residents seemed to appreciate this open, collaborative process, but at times displayed disdain that so much of the site (approximately two-thirds) would be used for new buildings. Other lingering criticisms of redevelopment include the increased traffic the development is sure to bring and storm water runoff issues, because Bloomingdale has a history of flooding downstream of the site. It also remains to be seen what effect, if any, the transfer of power to Mayor-elect Gray would have on site plans.

The next and final community meeting is set for Saturday, December 4th where presumably more detailed plans will emerge.