The Washington Post is reporting that city leaders are looking to give the entire northern half of the 67-acre Reservation 13 site to Dan Snyder for a training facility. My initial thoughts:
- For those of us who would like to see mixed-use development on Reservation 13, this is the worst possible location on the site for the training facility. The facility would essentially gut the community-supported Reservation 13 master plan and would give the portion of the site most attractive to potential developers to Dan Snyder.
- Forget new jobs, housing and retail development. The training facility, which would take up 30 acres, would leave little area remaining for mixed-use development. And the area remaining would be closest to the DC Jail and thus, less attractive for residential and retail development. The beauty of the Res. 13 master plan is that it envisioned a corridor of office/municipal buildings that would separate residential/retail areas from the jail.
- As many of us suspected, the training facility would continue to keep surrounding neighborhoods separate from the waterfront.
- While city leaders have bemoaned the District’s tough fiscal situation, here they are ready to give Dan Snyder some of DC’s most valuable land for free! They are apparently ready to trade away development that will lead to new residents, more jobs, additional housing and increased tax base for a private training facility for millionaires.
- Finally, I’m particularly frustrated that we had to learn about the location of the training facility through the media. Mayor Gray should have involved the community in this process from the beginning, particularly given all time and effort that residents put into the master plan.
I remain strongly opposed to a training facility at Reservation 13 and will continue to work with my ANC colleagues to make sure the community is heard in this process. I encourage you to mark your calendars and plan to attend the Reservation 13 community meeting with Mayor Gray on Monday, March 26, 7pm at Eastern High School (1700 East Capitol Street NE). I also encourage you to learn more about the history of the site and the master plan at an informational meeting on Thurs., March 22, 7 pm at St. Coletta of Greater Washington (1901 Independence Ave. SE).
More information to come.
Brian Flahaven 
No mention of a DC United stadium? DCU has done more for the city than the R******* ever have or will! Plus, United have a better record, don’t have a racist mascot, and are champions! I hope someone asks Gray why the favoritism.
Obviously this is a terrible setback overall, but as for location, it appears that least some of the mixed-use development would still abut the South metro entrance and I’d also hate to see the facility eat up that sliver of riverfront access at the end of Mass Ave. Perhaps it’s just me and I know the jail is unpleasant, but I’d rather live/work between a jail and the river than between Independence Ave and a Stadium/DPW Parking Lot. Let’s see what we can do to push the idea of locating just the buildings on Reservation 13 with the training fields on Lot 8. (Or ship the whole thing off to the closing Pepco plant site in River Terrace). I look forward to your guidance…
Why, oh why, the knee jerk reaction to the simple IDEA of such a plan. DC can be so…DC. Even the so-called progressives are so extreme in their thoughts and views that we can’t even bring this up without everyone screaming that the sky is falling.
Whether this happens or not (and I think it would be great for our hood), I would at least hope we can have an honest conversation about the pros and cons, without the Dave Alpert types getting their blood pressure all out of whack.
It’s hard for me to think of a worse use of public space. Seriously — a waste disposal site would bring more to the city than this would.
Today I walked the Anacostia River Trail behind DC General, DC Water has a HUGE infrastructure in progress detail flyer available at work site and online here:
Click to access LTCP-Division-C.pdf
The RFK Access road + Trail have been relocated, huge pile of dirt there, also there’s 2 existing buildings there to hold sewer oveflows. Project started 09/2011 expected completion is 08/2013. These are FIXED facilities, not relocatable to another location and exist right in the middle of proposed training facility space. The smell in that area might not be so nice after heavy rains. Reservation 13 plan does incorporate the overflow structures / buildings. This training facility proposal is a half baked pipe dream and offically nixed.
[…] a resolution (pdf) urging Mayor Gray and the DC Council to support mixed-use development at Reservation 13. I also announced that the Reservation 13 community meeting with Mayor Gray would be on Thursday, […]