A Park in NoMa? Eventually

• December 12th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

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The redevelopment of NoMa has been successful in many ways, but walk amongst the shiny new high-rise residential and office buildings, and you may notice one glaring absence: parks. If you want to sit on a fountain with a cup of coffee or lie on the grass with a book, you’re out of luck.

Due to a rezoning tactic used during the rapid development — outlined here by Greater Greater Washington’s David Alpert — there was virtually no incentive for developers to include parks and public space in their plans.

Now the city is trying to rectify the situation. The NoMa Business Improvement District (BID), along with other stakeholders and city officials, have been staking out possible sites for public gathering places. In April, they released a rendering of a potential park, and revealed their hope to create a modern gateway at the intersection of New York Avenue, Florida Avenue and First Street NE (map).

In September, Mayor Gray threw support and money towards the project, allotting $490,000 towards the design and development of the parks.

UrbanTurf was interested in where the project stands now. We learned that it is still hypothetical.

“We still have to purchase land and/or work with property owners to get some spaces we can build and then manage,” Rachel Davis of NoMa BID told UrbanTurf. “I’m afraid there is nothing going up just yet.”

The BID is hoping to eventually create a series of parks. Readers, where do you think they should go?

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_park_in_noma_eventually/6430.