McMillan Redevelopment Team Disappointed but Optimistic

• December 12, 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

An updated rendering of the McMillan Reservoir redevelopment

Last week, the DC Court of Appeals vacated the Zoning Commission’s approval of the McMillan Reservoir redevelopment one day after Mayor Bowser led a ceremonial groundbreaking on the site. However, the city and development team Vision McMillan Partners are not discouraged.

“We are disappointed with some aspects of the Court’s ruling for the McMillan site, yet significantly encouraged by its agreement with the Zoning Commission that our project is consistent with the District’s Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use Map,” Vision McMillan responded in a statement released on Friday. “This is a clear validation of our development plan. Our team echo’s [sic] the sentiments of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development [(DMPED)] and shares the belief that we can and will address with urgency the issues outlined in the Court’s order.”

The Washington Business Journal reported on Friday that DMPED will address the Court’s concerns in early 2017.

A joint venture of Trammell Crow, EYA and Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners has spent years planning a redevelopment of the city’s formerly-operational sand filtration site at North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue NW (map). As shown in designs from architects Shalom Baranes and Perkins Eastman, the proposed redevelopment would eventually deliver 146 townhomes, 531 apartments, medical office buildings, and a variety of community-serving retail adjacent to public parkland, including a grocery store.

A prospective redevelopment of this site has been highly watched and debated citywide for years, and Friends of McMillan Park (FOMP) led the charge to halt the development. FOMP called the court’s decision “a great victory for our long efforts to try to get our city to observe its own rules and regulations as they pertain to this lovely historic park.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/mcmillan_redevelopment_team_disappointed_but_optimistic/11977