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I try to keep up with my McMillan site news. But if I blogged about every twist regarding D.C.’s most famous, non-functioning water filtration system, the topic would be all-consuming.
If you’re new to the McMillan controversy, here’s a quickie review: The McMillan site is a 25-acre parcel of land located just west of North Capitol Street near Bloomingdale and Brookland. (See map below.)
Nearly a year ago (Dec. 2008), a team of developers led by EYA unveiled plans for a mixed-use community with housing, office, retail, and a few of those old towers—-“silos” is the proper terminology—-remaining at the site.*
Since then, a vocal group of neighbors has protested the lack of green space and general dearth of information coming from EYA about the land’s value, studies on traffic and transportation concerns, and storm drainage issues.
EYA hasn’t held a major meeting since February. (See “Saturday’s McMillan Meeting, All Hell Breaks Loose” for some more details on the tone of that gathering.)
But back in late September, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas hosted a meeting with EYA and some of the consultants hired to study the site. Attendees found it less than enlightening, according to ANC Commissioner John Salatti.
“The councilmember seemed to go out of his way to say there’s no plan,” says Salatti. The meeting, billed as “a status report,” was anything but: “They were there to take questions and write down community concerns, ” says Salatti. “You’re saying there’s no plan. There’s no concrete information. What are we doing here?”
Salatti says he’s seen no environmental impact studies, but that EYA representative Aakash Thakkar said that the development team would like to submit a PUD plan to the Zoning Commission in mid 2010.
I just bring all this up, because there’s another McMillan meeting tonight…but this blog post has gone on for so long, I’ll just post about that in the next one.
*Some might say the first meeting was held during the previous Spring, when community members reviewed very general, un-detailed initial plans of the development.