Reservation 13/Hill East Development Meeting- Tues. May 21, 2013 @6:30pm

Kingman Park, Please attend this meeting about Reservation 13/Hill East Development.

It will inform us of the new developments happening in our community.

Best,

Lisa White, ANC Commissioner SMD 7D01 Kingman Park

 

 

*Please join us…*

*ANC 7F Monthly Meeting*

* *

*Presentation: *

*Deputy Mayor’s Office*

*Planning and Economic Development: *

* *

*Reservation 13/Hill East Development*

* *

*Tuesday*

*May 21st*

*6:30 pm*

* *

*Washington Tennis and Education Foundation*

*200 Stoddert Pl SE*

* *

*Reservation 13 became a part of Ward 7 through the most recent
redistricting process. It is over 57 acres of land which include the DC
Jail and the former DC General. Please come out to learn more about the
potential for development. Two acres have already gone out for bids and are
slated for mixed-use development. This is an opportunity to become involved
in bring much needed retail and services closer to home. We hope to see
you in attendance.*

Friends of Kingman Park February 2013 Meeting Pictures

Request for Expressions of Interest for Reservation 13

The office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) issued a new Request for Expressions of Interest for parcels F1 and G1 on Reservation 13-Waterfront. You can read the RFEI at:
 
http://dmped. dc.gov/DC/ DMPED/Opportunit ies/Development+ Opportunities+ and+Solicitation s?nav=3&vgnextre fresh=1#0
 
Parcels F1 and G1 are the two parcels of land closest to the Stadium-Armory Metro entrance at 19th Street SE and C Street SE. Note that development teams are required to submit proposals by January 7, 2013. 
 
I will keep everyone updated on upcoming meetings and events surrounding Reservation 13. .

Best,

Lisa White ANC Commissioner SMD 7D01 Kingman Park

Kingman Park…….I need your support!

For the past two years it has been my great honor to represent my neighbors in the Kingman Park Neighborhood, ANC 7D01. Once again, I need your support.

During my tenure as ANC Commissioner I have worked extremely hard to improve the quality of life in Kingman Park. Together we have made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go.

Here is a list of some of our recent accomplishments:

• Restarted the Orange Hat Patrol with the Metropolitan Police Department
• Organized the Thanksgiving Basket Project with Apple Tree PC School, which fed over 20 needy families in Kingman Park
• Sponsored several Community Clean ups
• Sponsored MLK Days of Service in Kingman Park
• Sponsored Easter Egg  Hunts for Kingman Park Children
• Sponsored Halloween Parties for Kingman Park Children
• Advocated for Ward 6 zone parking
• Organized, planned and designed the Triangle Panda Park at 21^st Street, D Street, and Oklahoma Avenue
• Advocated for Kingman Park to return to Ward 6 during the redistricting process
• Help develop the Community Blog
• Organized Kingman Park Email and Telephone Communication Trees
• Reorganized Block Captains in the community

This reelection campaign is about all of you – the amazing residents of Kingman Park who I have worked with over the years to make Kingman Park as great as possible for us all. Please stand alongside me in this journey.

I am running for re-election, and I hope I can count on your support.

Warm Regards,

Lisa White

(202) 706-4713

dc500blkof25th@yahoo.com

lisa.white7d01@gmail.com

anc7d01@wordpress.com

Redskins Plan to Expand Current Training Facility

Several sources are reporting that the Redskins are expanding their current training facility and moving their preseason training camp to Richmond, which means they are not moving to Reservation 13 or the Northern RFK lots in the near future.

• http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/story/2012-06-06/redskins-training-camp-richmond/55419716/1
• http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/19279542/source-redskins-moving-training-camp-to-richmond
• http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/capital-games/Redskins-To-Move-Training-Camp-To-Richmond-In-2013-Report-157481785.html

Hat tip to resident Rainer Kulenkampff for alerting us to the story.

Review of Reservation 13 Last Night Meeting

Hello Kingman Park,

Last night I attended the Reservation 13 meeting with serveral other community members. It was an interesting meeting to say the least. I left the meeting feeling that the Mayor Gray and CMs Alexander, Evans and Brown really want the Redskins back here in Washington, DC. I feel that Reservation 13 should be  a mixed use development that would benefit the Hill East, Kingman Park and Surrounding Communities. What do you think? Leave your comment!

Below is the article from the City Paper by Lydia D.

Best, Lisa White ANC Commissioner SMD 7D01 Kingman Park

(Almost) Nothing Is Happening At Reservation 13

Posted by Lydia DePillis on Mar. 23, 2012 at 8:08 am

The first thing to know about last night’s meeting with Mayor Vince Gray and the Hill East community on the future of Reservation 13 is that there is no news.

The Redskins haven’t indicated their willingness to move their training center from Ashburn, Va., to the area around RFK Stadium. Gray said he hasn’t even talked to the team much since going to explore a similar facility down in Tampa Bay, Fla., which he did because Maryland and Virginia had already made their own pitches for the team’s relocation. And in fact, Gray thinks it’s “unfortunate” that news of the trip came out at all.

“Nobody wants to bring out anything that is half baked to a community. I think the worst that you could ever do is bring out a proposal to somebody, and there are more questions than there are answers,” he told several hundred residents in the vast, echoing D.C. Armory space. “That’s one of the reasons why there was no community meeting around this, because there was nothing to present, and there still is nothing to present.”

What’s more, he said, even if there were solid interest from the Redskins, the 2003 master plan would have to be updated and the site would have to be rezoned in order for anything to actually get built.

Here’s what Gray has done: Told the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to ask the two developers that had responded to a request for proposals for their best and final offers on the site. But that doesn’t mean anything will happen, since the project needs something big to get it rolling. “We need a catalyst for development in Hill East,” Gray said. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s a training facility or what.”

That’s the inconvenient truth of this whole business: Reservation 13 currently houses uses that are very difficult to relocate, including the largest family shelter in the city, a meth clinic, and a jail. What’s more, out of the big six projects on D.C.’s to-do list, all of them—the Southwest Waterfront, McMillan, Walter Reed, and St. Elizabeths—are ahead of Hill East in the pipeline, with the exception of Poplar Point. Even with the interest of private developers, the site would likely need significant public investment for infrastructure, which the city isn’t ready to offer up right now. That’s why, as Gray put it, there is “little interest in moving forward with the entire site.” So as long as the city has other projects to work on, might as well keep the Redskins on the table for Hill East.

But there seems to be a fundamental disjuncture in Gray’s pitch. He and the three councilmembers on the stage with him—Jack Evans, Yvette Alexander, and Michael Brown—take as an article of faith that anybody else cares about bringing the Redskins to Washington (the councilmember who used to represent the site before redistricting, Ward 6′s Tommy Wells, couldn’t make the meeting after it was rescheduled). Over and over again, they professed their Skins fandom, and expressed indignation that the “Washington” Redskins never set foot in the District. “Nothing hurt me more than when the Washington Redskins moved to Landover, Maryland,” said Alexander. Gray appealed for unity: “If we banded together and said that we want our team back, and worked together I honestly believe that that would happen, rather than battling over a non-existent plan at this stage.”

Those lines fell flat.

Evans, who has been the most vocal in his desire to lure the franchise, tried to make a more substantive case for the scheme. He outlined his theory of the four things that make a successful city: Neighborhoods, arts, retail, and sports facilities (no mention of education, as Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7A chair Villareal Johnson noted later). He talked about the transit benefits of having a stadium on a Metro stop, rather than in a place only accessible by car. And he recalled opposition to the Verizon Center and Nationals Park, which he said have both generated tremendous returns.

But those arguments really only apply to a stadium that would draw crowds, which isn’t even in play at the moment, and wouldn’t be until 2027, when the Redskins’ lease expires at FedEx field.

So, what’s the benefit of a training facility? Brown, who had visited the one in Tampa, said it meshed really well with the surrounding neighborhood, and generated needed jobs. Gray even tried to argue that since professional athletes tend to live near where they practice, rather than where they play, the District might even recapture some income taxes from their multi-million-dollar salaries. (I’m pretty sure that building several hundred homes there has a more reliable return on investment).

Moreover, everybody said, bringing a training facility wouldn’t mean that other elements of the plans envisioned for Reservation 13—housing, retail, offices, a hospital—couldn’t happen. But as Mike DeBonis has outlined, there would sure be a lot less space for all that stuff.

Hill Easters may have been reassured that no deals had been made without their consent. But it’s safe to say that the folks who’ve organized around Reservation 13 for years were not reassured by the language coming out of the Councilmember who now has jurisdiction over the site. Even as Gray talked about avoiding a turf battle over the future of the site, Ward 7′s Alexander wasted no time in bringing up the still-raw memory of redistricting, noting that Ward 7 residents hadn’t cared much about gaining a piece of land that only had prison inmates for population.

“Oh, how the tables turn,” she gloated. “Now Reservation 13 is being pulled and tugged among both Ward 6 and Ward 7, because everyone realizes now what a great opportunity it is….So I’m very pleased to see Ward 6 and Ward 7 together. But let me be perfectly clear, that now that Reservation 13 is in Ward 7, I will wholeheartedly listen, first and foremost, to the residents of Ward 7.”

“You can clap for that, Ward 7,” Alexander said, to almost inaudible applause. That kind of pandering is to be expected from someone in a fight to keep her job, I suppose.

All in all, a frustrating evening for Hill East. A couple of times, Gray tried to throw them a bone by talking about revitalizing the Eastern Branch Boys and Girls Club, which has sat vacant for three years. It may be all that he’s able to offer.

Anacostia River and Surrounding Area Development Ideas

Below is an interesting article by Richard Layman you can read the whole article and visit his blog: here . I have read many articles posted on Mr. Layman blog and some I agree with and some I do not. Seeing another person perceptions is always worth while. Read and share your thoughts! 

Best, Lisa White

 

Wanted: A comprehensive plan for the “Anacostia River East” corridor

 

The map above shows that corridor, with various “separate” areas indicated that should be included in a more “comprehensive” planning effort.

Outside of the part that abuts Capitol Hill, the so-called “Capitol Riverfront” business improvement district, the Anacostia River isn’t seen as the kind of incredible civic asset that it ought to be, considering how many communities make recapturing river and waterfront assets a fundamental element of revitalization planning. It’s time to capture the opportunity of the Anacostia River beyond the area of the Washington Nationals stadium.

Page from the Fall River plan, Massachusetts Urban River Visions program.

Note that a good example of such a planning effort is the Massachusetts Urban River Visions project, not that DC didn’t get started with the Anacostia Waterfront revitalization program, late in the tenure of Mayor Williams. I’d argue that the planning didn’t go far enough.

 

——-

Update: The Housing Complex blog of the Washington City Paper made a similar point about Anacostia River planning in an entry last year, “A Design Contest for the Anacostia Waterfront,” which called attention to a new comprehensive river planning initiative in Minneapolis, likely sparking in part by the Mississippi River National Recreation Area and planning around it, which has tended to focus on St. Paul and its Riverfront Corporation.

——-(Note that the links in the right sidebar under “Parks, Waterfronts, & Rivers Planning” list other good resources.) Also see the Maryland state heritage area, the Maryland Milestones program (formerly called the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area) in Prince George’s County, as a heritage and revitalization planning program that can be leveraged and linked to as well.

A heritage and wayfinding interpretation sign for the “Maryland Milestones” area, located at the College Park Metro Station.I’ve indicated these areas as needing to be components in such a plan, but you can extend this idea further east and include the Minnesota Avenue corridor and the proposed revitalization of the Skyland Shopping Center as well.The red line is the streetcar line, the blue line is the Anacostia River, and the black line is a proposed continuation of Massachusetts Avenue across the Anacostia River.Land Use

A. The Hill East area — which frankly has already been planned. It’s just Mayor Gray, CM Jack Evans, and others want to give half the land to the Washington Redskins, in hopes they’ll relocate their stadium–used fewer than 20 times each year–back to DC. See “Unstrategy for Economic Development in DC.”

Original diagram from the Reservation 13 Master Plan.

B. The RFK Stadium area. This area is a dump. It should be re-planned and re-used. People say “DC only has the privilege to use this National Park Service land as a stadium.” Well, agreements can be changed.

Postcard, date unknown, but before 1969 when the stadium was renamed. Note all the parking lots. Caption: D.C. Stadium located at 22nd Street, N.E. and Capitol Street Bridge. In season, the Washington Redskins and Washington Senators play home games here. Stadium features parking for 12,00 automobiles and has a seating capacity of 43,500 for baseball games and 50,000 for football games.

C. The Spingarn campus. This educational campus, with a high school, vocational education high school, junior high, and elementary school, did go through a planning exercise around 2003, conducted by the urban design studio of the University of Michigan architecture school. Of course, in the frequent changes in administration of the DC Public Schools, those plans are probably lost. One of the scenarios was to add mixed use housing development to the area, because the campus has much more space than is necessary to support all the education functions.

D. Langston Golf Course. Interest in golf is declining (witness the failure of public golf courses in Montgomery County) but the historical connections with the course and African-Americans mean that the course likely will remain in use. Still, it can probably be improved.

E. The former Pepco power generating plant. It’s big, it’s mostly empty. It’s an opportunity, as Geoff Hatchard pointed out in this GGW post, “Pepco Benning Road site is perfect for the NFL or FBI,” even if I think that neither of his proposed uses is “perfect” for that site.

The Dominion Energy power plant next to Alexandria is being decommissioned and the site will be adaptively reused. Why not the same for the site in DC–granted there will be big remediation issues, but if they can build housing on the site of a former chromium plant in Baltimore’s harbor, they can fix this site too.

F. Hatchard’s entry also pointed out that the area north of the Pepco plant is a National Park Service maintenance yard. Maybe it’s being underutilized too and could be redeveloped as part of a more comprehensive plan.

G. The Mayfair Mansions-Parkside neighborhoods. This GGW piece, “Little-known Kenilworth-Parkside is neighborhood to watch,” discusses a revitalization effort there.

I’d bet good money that this planning initiative will fail, because “planning” for the improvement of this comparatively small place without working to connect the efforts to a more comprehensive plan for the entire area isn’t likely to succeed.

No, I’m not being mean, it’s an assessment (granted I’d have to learn a lot more about the specific initiative) based on a lot of study of various revitalization projects in the city and elsewhere that have been attempted over the past few decades.

And speaking of connection, the fact that the neighborhood is isolated–blocked off by the freeway and the site of Pepco’s former generating plant makes successful revitalization that much harder.

Transportation

Then there are these transportation ideas, recognizing that the area is already served by the Stadium Armory Station (blue and orange lines) and the Minnesota Avenue Station (orange line), the Anacostia River, and there are plans for a continuous walking and biking trail, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail from the Southwest Waterfront up to the Bladensburg Waterfront Park in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

W. The “H Street-Benning Road” streetcar. All of us smart growth types talk up the impact of the streetcar on H Street, but service on Benning Road allows us to reconceptualize how these large properties abutting Benning Road–the Spingarn campus, the RFK Stadium parking lots, the Pepco site–can be energized by resuse and reconnection and the streetcar can help realize this.

X. I’ve written before about putting in an infill subway station at Benning Road, a kind of bringing back of the proposed but defeated “Oklahoma Avenue Station” as conceptualized in the original plan for the subway system. See “Update: Bring back the Oklahoma Avenue Metro Station (but at Benning Road).” (The station was opposed by residents because it was designed to serve commuters, who would park in the otherwise empty stadium parking lots.)

Y. Maybe it’s crazy, but consider putting in two stations, one to reposition the use of the RFK parking lots and Spingarn, the other for the Pepco/NPS yard/Mayfair area.

Z/1. Last September, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago proposed a series of boathouses along the Chicago River, in order to reconnect residents to the River and to help make the River “get used.” Maybe we need a similar kind of program here. See “Rahm Emanuel: City to build boathouses on Chicago River” from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan learn adaptive kayaking on the Chicago River at the 2011 Wounded Warrior Adventure Sports Camp. Friday, August 19, 2011 |Brian Jackson~Sun-Times

Z/2. While the Hill East planning process proposed building an extension of Massachusetts Avenue SE with a bridge over the Anacostia River, Capitol Hill residents forced the removal of that item from the final plan. Maybe that decision needs to be reconsidered. While I understand legitimate concerns about traffic, at the same time, more connectedness is better than less connectedness. The reason the area is derelict now is that the River acts as a barrier and without the continuation of Massachusetts Avenue, the area is further disconnected.

If you don’t want Reservation 13 to be “a dumping ground,” make sure it’s connected to the city beyond its borders, rather than acting as an edge. (cf. Kevin Lynch, Image of the City)

Page from the book, Image of the City, explaining how district “edges” serve as barriers.

Conclusion

If the DC Office of Planning can weigh in on the appropriateness of food trucks having access to the National Mall (“Food trucks could bring more flavor to National Mall” from the Washington Examiner, and of course, I agree), certainly it should step up and push a far more comprehensive planning effort for these key parcels than is capable of being envisioned by people like Vincent Gray and Jack Evans.

More Washington Redskins Articles on Reservation 13

Below are articles about the Washington Redskins and Reservation 13. Hopefully we will hear the Mayor’s vision/plan soon!

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-parcel-may-not-be-big-enough-for-plans-for-redskins-facility-and-redevelopment/2012/03/02/gIQArmUnnR_story.html

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/post/the-fuzzy-math-of-putting-the-redskins-at-hill-east/2012/03/02/gIQAlNkCnR_blog.html

Washington Post Opinions: http://www.washingt onpost.com/ opinions/ new-neighborhood s-and-not- redskins- practice- fields-are- the-districts- future/2012/ 03/01/gIQAtDPvmR _story.html

Washington Post Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-hopes-to-lure-redskins-back/2012/03/01/gIQA2EgklR_story_1.html

Greater Greater Washington Article: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/12669/

Information from CM Barry: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2012/02/24/marion-barry-on-redskins-return-thats-fantasyland/

Information from CM Wells: http://www.tommywells.org/2012/03/wells-comments-2.phpdc-is-better-off-without-redskins-stadium-or-practice-fields/

Washington Citypaper: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2012/03/02/jack-evans-to-redskins-haters-chillax/

What is going on with Reservation 13?

Interesting article from the Washington Post about Reservation 13:

It was called Reservation 13 years ago, but it was Hill East by the time former D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty began searching for a private development partnerfor 50 acres along the Anacostia River in 2008.

Since then, residents of the neighborhood haven’t seen much progress. Hill East, located at the eastern end of Massachusetts Avenue Southeast, is still home to a homeless shelter, a medical examiner’s office, former hospital and other social services facilities, even though it was once envisioned as  a “vibrant, mixed-use urban waterfront community” according to the city. In fact, the web site for the deputy mayor for planning and economic development still says it plans to pick a developer by “mid-2010.”

So…what’s going on with Hill East?

Despite Hill East’s attractive location between Capitol Hill and the riverfront, the real estate market was approaching panic mode when Fenty began his search for developers in 2008. Fenty narrowed his selection to two teams of developers, each of which proposed massive buildouts approaching 5 million square feet, but chose neither. Vincent Gray, after beating Fenty in the 2010 election, hasn’t selected a developer, either. Now the real estate market has changed so much that a new selection process may be required.

Meanwhile there are other moves afoot that are draped in burgundy and gold. In November, Gray and two members of the D.C. Council traveled to Tampa, Fla. to inspect an NFL training facility similar to one they might consider to build at Hill East for the Redskins. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said he doesn’t know what the facility would cost or if the Redksins are interested in it. “First of all we have to get a commitment that they want to get it done,” he said of the team. He will know more, he said, in a few weeks.

Not everyone is thrilled by the Redskins idea, namely residents nearby and Greater Greater Washington bloggers, because the Hill East project has been yanked from the deputy mayor’s office and moved to that of the city administrator while the Redskins idea is considered. Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins told the D.C. Council Thursday that the Redskins talks, “are really preliminary discussions right now.”

But for Hill East residents hoping for that vibrant, mixed-use community, the talks mean more waiting,  as even when a plan is decided on, major development will require moving the existing facilities somewhere else. Current vibrancy mostly stems from D.C. jail.

Articles about Reservation 13 and Redskin Training Facility

Articles from dcist.com and Greater Greater Washingtonblog about Reservation 13 and the Mayor’s Plan for the Redskins.

I will keep everyone posted about development on Reservation 13.

Best, Lisa White- ANC Commissioner SMD 7D01 Kingman Park

 

Article from dcist.com blog:

When Mayor Vince Gray and Councilmembers Michael Brown (I-At Large) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) visited Tampa late last year to take a look at the state-of-the-art training facility used by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it could have seemed like an ongoing exercise in wishful thinking to get the Redskins back to move their Ashburn-based training facility into the District. Maybe not.

On Monday, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Victor Hoskins met with a group of ANC commissioners from wards 6 and 7 to discuss stalled plans for Reservation 13, the 67-plot of land where RFK Stadium, the old D.C. General Hospital and the D.C. Jail are currently located. According to Lisa White, a Ward 7 ANC commissioner who attended the meeting, Hoskins told them that longstanding plans for the site’s redevelopment were on hold while Gray continues discussions with team officials over a possible Redskins training facility.

Jose Sousa, Hoskins’ spokesman, confirmed that the discussions were taking place. “There have been ongoing informal conversations between the Mayor and the team for some time,” wrote Sousa in an email.

Much to the chagrin of the commissioners who attended the meeting, though, Hoskins said he had no further information on any potential Redskins training facility or how it might impact existing plans for mixed-use development on the site. The most he could offer was that District would know whether a training facility is in the cards within 30 days.

Neil Glick, a Ward 6 ANC commissioner, said that while he wasn’t averse to the idea of a training facility, he and fellow neighborhood leaders were frustrated with the lack of communication or clarity from the city on how it planned to move forward — training facility or not.

“Reservation 13 is always on hold,” he said. “They just don’t have a plan. What’s something like this going to do for us?”, he asked of the training facility. (Glick’s colleague Brian Flahaven sounded a similarly frustrated tone in a blog post on the meeting.)

Gray’s overtures to Snyder haven’t gone unnoticed by officials in Loudoun County, who in January repeated an offer to build the team a Hall of Fame at the existing training facility. The potential for a bidding war between various jurisdictions over the Redskins’ training facility makes Glick nervous, he admitted.

“D.C. has a really bad history of doing nothing to help small business owners while offering oodles of tax breaks to corporations,” he said. Glick, who’s a realtor and real estate investor, also seemed miffed that the city would be stalling on building housing on a site that’s next to a Metro station and bordering the Anacostia River.

According to Sousa, Hoskins’ staff will be meeting with members of the community “in the next month” to discuss standing plans for Reservation 13, and Gray will follow up with a late-March meeting on whether or not a training facility will be coming to Capitol Hill.

Article from Greater Greater Washington:

Mayor Gray’s office is stalling any progress on a plan to build a new mixed-use neighborhood that has widespread community support, because they’d rather turn over the land to the Washington Redskins for a practice facility that won’t do anything for the community or DC.

7 ANC commissioners met last night with Victor Hoskins, DC’s Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to discuss “Hill East,” also known as Reservation 13. After a long process with thorough public participation, DC created a plan to build a “vibrant, mixed-use urban waterfront community” on 50 acres of the site.

Based on reports from ANC commissioner Brian Flahaven, it appears that vibrancy and tree-lined public streets are taking a back seat to large empty football field-sized spaces closed to the public:

The Mayor’s Office is continuing to negotiate with Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins to build a training facility at Reservation 13. Until the outcome of the negotiations is determined, any development plans for Reservation 13 remain on hold.

Commissioners strongly pushed back that the community must be involved in the decision about a training facility on the site and expressed frustration that the Mayor is not seeking feedback from residents. Deputy Mayor Hoskins said that his office is not involved in the negotiations. …

The Deputy Mayor said his office should know whether the city will pursue a training facility or continue with the current development plans in 30 days. If plans for a training facility do not move forward, he said that the city would return to development plans approved by the community. … The Deputy Mayor also said that any training facility proposal would have to be consistent with the zoning for the site. …

All 9 Commissioners, representing Wards 6 & 7, agreed that Mayor Gray needs to come out to the community and explain how a potential training facility fits into the master development plan agreed to by residents.

It’s possible to vaguely imagine a way that a practice facility could be part of a mixed-use neighborhood. For example, the Redskins could build practice fields and any necessary parking entirely underground, then put surface streets, parks, and buildings on top of them. Their offices could occupy a building with ground-floor retail that’s open to the public.

Dan Snyder could build all of this entirely with his own money, in this very urban way. But does anyone seriously believe that is possible? This is the guy who tried to charge people just to walk into his stadium instead of paying huge parking fees. Would he actually want to design practice fields that fit into a good neighborhood landscape when he has a perfectly good, entirely private facility in Ashburn?

Maybe if the District built the whole thing and gave it to him for free, he’d accept the deal, but it would be a terrible bargain for taxpayers. If he paid money for it, why would he want to spend extra money just to essentially make the facility invisible and unobtrusive?

Certain city leaders seem to believe that bringing the Redskins to DC is worth virtually any cost simply for the civic pride involved in having an NFL team inside one’s borders. We know Jack Evans has a massive blind spot for organized sports. He abhors spending government money on anything except sports facilities, where the sky’s the limit. We know that Michael Brown doesn’t know any better. We should expect better from Mayor Gray.