Maybe the "last" word on Skyland Center and redevelopment (Ward 7)

Skyland Shopping Center. Photo by Rich Lipski, The Washington Post.

GhettoBurbs offered a comment on Monday's blog entries about Skyland Center in Ward 7 and redevelopment there (See "Even more about eminent domain and the DC election" and "Even more on tomorrow's primary election in DC"). I think it is so trenchant that it deserves to be called out as a separate entry:

As a Hillcrest resident, I've had many experiences with the Skyland shopping center, and I can understand the concerns of the pro- and anti-eminent domain crowds. As the article states, the shopping center is fully occupied (or mostly so, as the boarded-up Blimpie in the photo shows), so Skyland is avoiding the underutilization blight to which many suburban shopping centers succumb.

However, the shopping center is *extremely* uninviting to casual shoppers. It's disjointed, dirty, and poorly lit. The portion that fronts Alabama Ave has metal garage-door shutters that prevents any sort of window shopping. Similar to the Penn-Branch shopping center, present-day Skyland just doesn't attract new customers, and therefore will not support higher rents (good for city's tax coffers) nor higher-end retail. This is the crux of the more affluent neighbors' arguments.

That being said, development of a Target-anchored suburban-style strip mall is completely misguided. Hillcrest residents decry the lack of rebirth in the downtown, U Street, and Columbia Heights fashion, but fail to realize what makes those locales work. People don't drive to CH to shop at a Target supercenter. It's antithetical to city living. Also, big-box shopping centers in mixed-class neighborhoods will have a hard time attracting affluent suburbanites, further hampering high-end retail development. Just look at the common perception of "Ghetto Target" in College Park for an example of this. Hillcrest residents looking for high-end conglomo retail will just have to deal with driving to the 'burbs to get it. This will always be the case as long as everything east of the river is regarded with trepidation as "Anacostia."

[Is "Ghetto Target" in College Park, or do you mean Prince George's Plaza in Hyattsville, I mean, The Mall at Prince Georges. It's funny that you use this as an example, because I have referred to PGP as the equivalent of an upscale, enclosed H Street...]

The only way Skyland stands a chance of sustaining high-end retail is through independent, though coordinated, development. As a first step, the entire area needs some cohesive plan for, to put it bluntly, looking less ghetto. This blog has emphasized the need for tidiness and a thorough cleanup would help Skyland tremendously. Whether this involves a complete or partial razing is a matter for debate, but at least remove those damn abandoned cars! Second, improve non-automobile access to Skyland. The shopping center is located at busy intersection and is completely cutoff from the North and East directions. Skyland could increase the median income of its shoppers by having a road/walkway connection directly to Hillcrest. Third, think outside the retail box. Provide space for artists, encourage alternative retail, etc., but do something to separate Skyland from the retail chaff. People don't visit downtown, CH, Barracks Row, etc. because of its familiarity, but because of its uniqeness.

And I will once again say that it is incumbent on neighborhoods to create their own revitalization plans, if the Office of Planning isn't doing so. One example are the Neighborhood Conservation Plans in Arlington County (although they are created by the government, with neighborhood associations, and they don't have the same "authority" as a Small Area Plan does in DC, provided it is passed by the City Council as a text amendment to the Comprehensive Plan).

But, you just need a well-connected Councilmember... Sharon Ambrose doesn't get much credit for it, but the H Street Strategic Development Plan--a revitalization plan--was initiated because of her efforts, and because she got the Council to go along and allocate money specifically for this plan. It was one of the first such efforts under the revitalized Office of Planning under the Williams Administration.

It strikes me that with the results of last night's primary election for the City Council Chair, that Ward 7 has a particularly well connected Councilmember. And I don't see a Skyland area revitalization plan in the listing of revitalization plans for Ward 7.

And, while I have expressed reservations, the mixed use plans including cultural elements for the Anacostia Waterfront, although under the auspices of a different agency, the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, could lead the National Capital Revitalization Corporation to be similarly forward-thinking at Skyland. With pressure from citizens...

You could create something great, or something like the Brentwood Shopping Center... but the inertia favors average.

At the very least Ward 7 citizens (and good government and pro-urban advocates from across the city) should be advocating that NCRC hold a similar open and transparent competition for the redevelopment of Skyland, including from the current owners, who could end up joining in with other more skillful groups such as Abdo or Streuver Brothers, Eccles, and Rouse, or PN Hoffman to do something great.

My sense is that such an open (transparent) and competitive competition hasn't happened.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization