More on the Hine Development (Capitol Hill, DC)

Correction -- from a comment to the blog:

That turns out to be incorrect. The Deputy Mayor’s office will take the next step in the evaluation phase (not the selection phase) early next week, likely issuing a request for Best and Final Offers (BAFO) to more than one of the bidders. The BAFO process is expected to take a few weeks, after which the Deputy Mayor’s office will review and evaluate the revised proposals, before announcing a final selection."

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Therefore this is revised...
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This morning there was a presentation of the various Hine School site redevelopment proposals to "business and professional groups" on Capitol Hill, at a meeting sponsored by the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District, the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS) and Barracks Row Main Street.

The presentations of the four finalists are online (listed alphabetically) here:

- DSF/StreetSense/Menkiti Group
- National Leadership Campus/Western Development Group
- Seven Penn Partners
- Stanton-EastBanc Part I, Part II

Note that public comments are due by the close of business on Friday June 10th.

Now 3 of the 4 proposals are in my opinion, fine -- DFS, 7 Penn Partners, and Stanton-Eastbanc all have decent proposals, while I believe that the DFS and Stanton proposals are better than the 7 Penn proposal, any one of the proposals will do well by the neighborhood, the business community, and Eastern Market.

The National Leadership Campus is an interesting idea, but is more focused on city-national interests in supporting nonprofit development, and not so much on Capitol Hill. It would be a fine addition to the city, but in a different location. At another public meeting, Washcycle and I were kicking around ideas from mine (on the parking lots at Fort Totten or at the Armed Forces Retirement Home campus, post streetcar or separated yellow line transit service) or his, on the land that Catholic University owns west of Harewood Road adjacent to their campus, or somehow closer to the Brookland Metro Station.

It would be worrisome if this plan were picked.

My general problem with the process is that it has proceeded without a master plan for the Eastern Market area, and so some "bad ideas" got included as part of the required conditions for the RFP. Here's something that I wrote as part of an email:

My biggest problem with the whole process has been centered on the reality that "an RFP isn't a plan." There needs to be a master plan for the area, and while Councilmember Wells' process for developing a community vision was very good, it was still ultimately limited, and missed key factors.

E.g., why there is to be public open space on this site makes little sense to me, given that there are four underfunctioning public spaces within 1.5 blocks of the site--the Metro Plaza across the street, the allied green space between 8th and 9th north of Pennsylvania Ave., Turtle Park, and Seward Square. This will merely create a well programmed public space that will compete with and trounce the other spaces.

While it is great that Stanton proposes extensive space for Shakespeare Theater, I wish that a master plan would have determined the best way to meet cultural needs overall and set community priorities. E.g., I advocate that arts uses should be re-sited away from North Hall and that North Hall should be converted to food uses, in order to extend the variety of foods available at Eastern Market, and allow its competitive position to be shaped to better meet demands for greater variety as well as new competition (i.e., Harris Teeter, etc.).

And I think there should have been more direction and a better plan for realizing parking on this site. I am well aware of the Lexington market allied parking structure in Baltimore and there are a variety of parking scenarios that could have been developed but won't be because there is no master plan.

Furthermore, a transportation management district should be created in Capitol Hill in order to reconcile and make congruent all the various mobility issues, which include the matter of parking, but should not be limited to the consideration of parking, nor the use of parking as the lens within which to view all possible mobility issues.
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And so, a once in a generation opportunity will not be fully realized...