A Decision on McMillan Redevelopment Delayed Until September

• July 29, 2014

by Lark Turner

In a Zoning Commission hearing on Monday night about the plan to develop DC’s McMillan Sand Filtration Site, commissioners delayed a decision on the massive project until late September — but at least one commissioner indicated support for the plan as a whole.

The redevelopment plan for the 25-acre filtration site on the northern edge of Bloomingdale (map) includes a mix of townhouses and multi-family residential, office space, park space, a community center and retail, including a grocery store. The development team of Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) is made up of Jair Lynch, EYA, Trammell Crow, and architect Shalom Baranes.

Commissioner Peter May wants to see the height of one of the project’s medical office buildings, which nears 130 feet tall, dropped to a more comfortable height of 110-115 feet, but expressed approval for the overall plan.

“It’s still going to be quite substantial. It’s not going to address the members of the neighborhood who are really concerned about the density of this project,” May said of the medical building. “If I understand them correctly, they’d like to see almost no development there, maybe a few townhouses at most. But that’s not really — I don’t think there’s a reason for us to decide that that very low level of density is the appropriate approach here. I think there are some really remarkable, wonderful things about this plan, and I think that overall the density makes sense.”

Commissioners also expressed concerns about what they said was Vision McMillan Partners’ nonspecific transportation plan, which needs to be expanded and detailed; its community benefits package; and the loading dock at the grocery store that’s planned for the development. Chairman Anthony Hood scheduled a limited hearing for the fall to give VMP time to respond to the commission’s requests. Hood was more cautious than May in his assessment of the project’s latest iteration, but much more positive than he was in the last hearing, when he told VMP he’d have no problem turning down the PUD.

“Our goal is to make it right,” Hood said last night.

The next hearing is scheduled for September 29.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/zoning_commission_delays_mcmillan_decision_until_september/8794