Brian Flahaven

During a Sept. 24 Council hearing on major economic development projects, Ketan Gada of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development announced that DMPED has decided to move forward with the Donatelli/Blue Skye plans for parcels F1 & G1 at Reservation 13.

This is really good news for the neighborhood and will hopefully be the first step in the realization of the community supported Reservation 13 Master Plan. Over the next 120 days, DMPED and Donatelli/Blue Skye will negotiate an agreement that will allow the project to begin (transfer of land, etc.). This agreement will need to be approved by the DC Council prior to construction. Both affected ANCs – ANC 6B and 7F – will have an opportunity to weigh in on the negotiations and the agreement.

During the hearing, Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, chair of the Committee on Economic Development, suggested the creation of a community task force to focus on the project. I plan to work with my ANC 6B colleagues to determine whether the commission’s existing Hill East Task Force or a new task force should take on Reservation 13/Hill East.

We also need to continue to push the city to take action immediately on preparing the remaining parcels at Reservation 13 for development. While DMPED answered my question on the status of the Donatelli/Blue Skye proposal, they have not fully answered the other three questions I posed in my testimony (pdf).

Please post any comments/reactions/questions below.

Updated 10/4/13 – Video from the Sept. 24 hearing is now posted on DC’s Office of Cable Television website. Just click on the third “View Meeting” link and fast forward to 1 hour 26 minutes to see testimony on Hill East.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Development, 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.