Reservation 13/Hill East Waterfront Update: DMPED Response

Last week, ANC 6B received a formal response (pdf) to our May 15 resolution (pdf) on Reservation 13 from the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED). My thoughts on the response:

  • Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins is apparently no longer willing to share the written legal opinion his office received from the Attorney General’s Office, despite explicitly stating he would do so at the May 15 meeting. If he couldn’t share the opinion, why did he promise he would do so? Extremely frustrating. Without the opinion, I remain skeptical that the city would be in legal jeopardy if they selected one of the two developers who bid in 2010 on F1 and G1. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do at this point but encourage DMPED to proceed expeditiously with the new request for proposals (RFP).
  • Not sure why DMPED is confused at why ANC 6B wants the “right of first refusal” to remain in the RFP. We said numerous times that the “right of first refusal” is an incentive for developers to bid on a much smaller project. In addition, it sends a signal to development teams that the city is serious about developing the entire site. And the language will help ensure that the first portion of the site is designed with the remaining parcels in mind. Essentially, the “right of first refusal” offers an opportunity for the city and neighborhood to work with one development team on the entire site…as close to a master developer for the site as we are going to get at this point.
  • I’m pleased that DMPED recognizes the need to develop phased plans to deal with infrastructure and social services on the site. The city needs to start putting plans in place now so that the entire vision of the Reservation 13 master plan can be realized.
  • I’m also pleased that DMPED plans to abide by the Reservation 13 master plan when considering development proposals for F1 and G1. Last week’s Redskins announcement sure helps.
  • I plan to work with my ANC 6B colleagues and DMPED to keep the mid-July timeframe for releasing the RFP on track. DMPED still has to hold a Reservation 13 special call meeting with ANC 7A. There is no reason to delay the RFP past July.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2012 at 9:12 am and is filed under Reservation 13/Hill East Waterfront. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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