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What you said about what we said last week
Andrew Giambrone’s piece on the fight over whether housing should be included in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s planned nine-story headquarters in Southwest had readers debating the merits of both sides’ arguments. Development commented, “I started reading this article ready to fire off my classic retort about neighbors not understanding zoning, comprehensive/small area plans, or the future land use map. Then we get to the point that this is zoned R-3 and not designated for this land use in the small area plan. Yeah, this was a stupid idea from STC to buy this land outright before going through the zoning process. So many of the other complaints are tired and misguided, but having to go through a PUD process is probably a step too far for this development and it’s going to get pared way down and STC/Erkiletian are going to lose money on this.” lives by theWharfDC was skeptical of a featured opponent’s position: “I find it ironic that the Ehrlichs’ were such HUGE proponents of all the 13 story buildings of theWharfdc project next to my home yet are now crying foul about a little 9 story building next to theirs. Funny how your perspective changes isn’t it? The STC/Erkliletian people have bent over backwards to accommodate the few neighbors crying foul. The article doesn’t mention the 5 story popup that is adjacent to the 3 story portion of the building that will be on the north side of the development. It also doesn’t mention the other developments in the pipeline for I street that will include several 9 story buildings.”
Payton Chung agreed: “I read and re-read this story, looking for a mention that this ‘multi-story building’ is surrounded not only by ‘dozens of two- to three-story townhouses’ but also by several other multi-story buildings — including Mr. Ehrlich’s very own Waterside Towers, *just across the corner.* The NIMBYs can whine all they want about ‘contextual disharmony,’ but towers + townhouses is exactly the urban pattern that defined Urban Renewal Southwest from the moment Capitol Park was built. Their 300 signatures mean little in the context of a neighborhood of over 10,000 residents.” Andrew Lightman, managing editor of Capital Community News, wrote in with concerns about our lack of coverage of ANC 6D’s efforts to find an alternate plan. Mea culpa: It was a definite oversight, but not an intentional one. This piece was just Act 1 in Giambrone’s coverage of the topic.
Department of Corrections
Due to a production error, last week’s food grazer stated that Mike Isabella’s Pepita will open in fall 2016. It’s not yet known when Pepita will open in 2016.