Be careful when you create "temporary park uses" on sites slated for development, because people will end up advocating against development

Photo from the ParkView DC blog.

In 2009, DC demolished the Bruce-Monroe Elementary School, with plans to redevelop the site, at the key intersection of Georgia Avenue and Irving Street, into some sort of mixed use project, mostly housing.

To revitalize in a post-streetcar world, the Georgia Avenue corridor needs more population to enliven the otherwise disinvested retail buildings that line the Avenue.

 While parks are a fine use, they aren't categorically the "highest and best use" everywhere and in every situation, including at key intersections along corridors.

In the interim the then City Councilmember got the city to make over the site into a "temporary" park.

At the time, I was skeptical, because like with how trails advocates tend to be against attempts to revert what were once rails back to transit, such as in Chevy Chase, Maryland vis a vis the Purple Line Light Rail project, years later when the development is ready to move forward, people will instead advocate for the continuation of the park use.

That's been happening with the Bruce-Monroe site for quite awhile.  I wrote about it in 2015, "Predictable outcome: people want to make a temporary park permanent as a foil to development," but it's come up again.

The lessons are obvious.  And it makes you realize why developers leave sites boarded up for long periods, because it's ultimately easier and less problematic than if you offer temporary uses.

This is an email from the Columbia_Heights e-list:

Friends, Allies, and Neighbors,

If you are opposed to the deeply flawed and illegal giveaway of public land and the destructive over-development planned for Bruce Monroe Community Park, please consider the following:

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We ask you to make your voice heard. Tell the DC Council that you oppose the destruction of Bruce Monroe Community Park. Tell them that it’s not okay to violate DC zoning laws and give away public land to enrich developers at the expense of our community. Please take 3 minutes before 10/18/18 to email DC Council to save our community. Use this link to send them an email:

DC Council has scheduled a hearing on 10/22/18. We need you to tell the DC Council that you remain in opposition to the development and that you want them to postpone any decision to extend the Bruce Monroe Disposition agreement until the Court of Appeals makes a decision. The irrevocably-flawed development plan is currently under review by the Court of Appeals because the development plan violates the city’s own zoning rules. We support affordable housing, but with smart development that fulfills the needs of the community.

Where things stand:

Two years ago, neighbors like you fought the plan by testifying in front of the City Council and the Zoning Commission. Despite this large-scale opposition, the Council and the Zoning Commission voted to move the plan forward. Since that time a group of neighbors petitioned the DC Court of Appeals to Review the Zoning Commission order to develop the Bruce Monroe site according to the plans outlined in Zoning Order ZC16-11. They filed a pro se brief in February 2018 by making the following main points:

• The Zoning Commission’s decision was fatally flawed–it completely disregards the input from community groups and neighbors, and violated the City’s own policy.
• The proposed buildings are way too big for this community, and the Zoning Commission’s order is inconsistent with the law. 
• The impacts of the development were never studied, as required by Urban Planning best practices and the law. The development team and city officials declined to consider the impacts on public safety, infrastructure, and other city services and utilities. These failures are a disservice to our community AND to the Public Housing residents whom the project claims to benefit. 
• The Zoning Commission claims that the benefits of the project outweigh the impacts- but how can that be, when they never even studied those impacts!

The developer’s and other’s responses to these indisputable arguments fall well short of explaining away the Zoning Commissions failures. Instead they fall back on their old tired arguments: that the neighbors who want to have a reasonably-sized development that preserves irreplaceable and much needed green space in the city are against affordable housing. As you know, this is a false argument. We support truly affordable housing that fulfills all the needs of all of the members of our community which includes our neighbors and friends at Park Morton. We believe that a smart development plan that actually adheres to the City’s own rules AND takes input from the community– rather than blindly agreeing to developers– is the way to proceed. The DC Council needs to know that letting developers push through their own profit-driven ideas against the wishes of the community is not okay!

Our case is strong, and it is our hope that the City Council knows this too. The issue of the Bruce Monroe site will come before them again in a few weeks as they have to make a decision on whether to extend the Bruce Monroe Disposition agreement. Please use this link to make your voice heard!

Thank you for your help.
The neighbors of Bruce Monroe Community Park
Thank you,
David Bobeck
700 Block Irving
Friends of Bruce Monroe Park

Our Appeals Court Brief Opposing the Destruction of Bruce Monroe Park
Our Reply Brief to the Developers and the Zoning Commission
Our Joint Appendix (all the documents referred to in the briefs)