GDS development project -- under reconsideration?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Nice try. The project is too dense and too massive and too intense in its proposed usage. It is a unified whole and must stand or fall on that basis. GDS doesn't get to decide that---the city, with input from the community-- does. From start to finish it is a greedy development scheme with all sorts of undisclosed interests swirling around the development team and the school's Board. They MUST keep their school on the Safeway site and their tiny little existing campus. They don't want their school fronting along Wisconsin Avenue. They have bit off way, way more than they can chew on behalf of all their development friends and family.[/quote]

Well it is a whole hell of a lot better than what exists there now. It is the crappiest, ugliest, most blighted section of decent NWDC --- by far.

You people who live around there should be on your knees thanking GDS. My kids don't go there, they are on the Close, and I have no love for GDS as a school, but by God, they are doing Tenleytown a huge favor by buying those sites and developing them into a much nicer urban area than what exists now. That part of ate key town could be plunked down right in the middle of SE and it wouldn't look out of place. I get not wNting rental apartments, that's comp,Evelyn five but the rest, the retail and school and nice buildings? That's just cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[Anonymous]

Some of what you wrote appears to be intelligible. You seem to be saying that part of Tenleytown looks like a slum. Did you mean Le Chat Noir catty corner to the site? Maybe you meant Yosaku right next to the site?

The area is a bit of a hodgepodge, and good development could improve it. But advising neighbors to get down on their knees to thank GDS for expanding its school is odd. The students and their parents won't make much of a difference to most retail in the area. Carpooling parents are not likely to eat in local restaurants at 3 pm.


[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Nice try. The project is too dense and too massive and too intense in its proposed usage. It is a unified whole and must stand or fall on that basis. GDS doesn't get to decide that---the city, with input from the community-- does. From start to finish it is a greedy development scheme with all sorts of undisclosed interests swirling around the development team and the school's Board. They MUST keep their school on the Safeway site and their tiny little existing campus. They don't want their school fronting along Wisconsin Avenue. They have bit off way, way more than they can chew on behalf of all their development friends and family.[/quote]

Well it is a whole hell of a lot better than what exists there now. It is the crappiest, ugliest, most blighted section of decent NWDC --- by far.

You people who live around there should be on your knees thanking GDS. My kids don't go there, they are on the Close, and I have no love for GDS as a school, but by God, they are doing Tenleytown a huge favor by buying those sites and developing them into a much nicer urban area than what exists now. That part of ate key town could be plunked down right in the middle of SE and it wouldn't look out of place. I get not wNting rental apartments, that's comp,Evelyn five but the rest, the retail and school and nice buildings? That's just cutting off your nose to spite your face.[/quote]

[Anonymous]

"They are on the Close" says all that needs to be said about you and your views... Have a nice life.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]There are single family homes on River, Chesapeake, 43rd and Ellicott--surrounding the project site. The site needs to be---and has been presented by the school--as a unified whole and that is how it should be judged. AND.... your magical 200 feet within the ugly "high rise" has absolutely no legal significance whatsoever. Spending too much time looking at Google aerial views...."much"?[/quote]

The statement was that there needs to be a buffer between the high rises and the single family homes. The campus and 42nd Street provide the lower scale buffer.

You are an asshat.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Nice try. The project is too dense and too massive and too intense in its proposed usage. It is a unified whole and must stand or fall on that basis. GDS doesn't get to decide that---the city, with input from the community-- does. From start to finish it is a greedy development scheme with all sorts of undisclosed interests swirling around the development team and the school's Board. They MUST keep their school on the Safeway site and their tiny little existing campus. They don't want their school fronting along Wisconsin Avenue. They have bit off way, way more than they can chew on behalf of all their development friends and family.[/quote]

Then be prepared for GDS to develop its campus and sell the Wisconsin Avenue portion to a developer who is more in with Bowser than the GDS team and watch your precious used car lot turn into a 90 foot building like the one across the street.

[Anonymous]

You people who live around there should be on your knees thanking GDS.

This is the sort of smug, arrogant attitude that earns Greedy Developer Scheme the title of most douchebag private school in DC.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Their project is WAY too dense and the usage too intense to be crammed up against single family homes. Period. Full stop. Anyone with any grasp of good zoning practices and that is not completely beholden to developers whose families are safely ensconced in Potomac or taken in by[b] the mystical mantra of "smart growth"[/b] would recognize that there need to be "buffer" zones when moving from heavy duty commercial to single family homes. If the city starts losing the families and tax base of AU Park to the suburbs, we will be right back to the 80s and 90s when people felt sorry for you if you lived in the District. The city should be very wary of throwing its lot in with the transiency of apartment buildings at the cost of losing the single family home tax base.[/quote]

Developers have twisted the concept of "smart growth" to rationalize thoughtless high-density, high-end retail franchise development in NW and close-in MoCo. "Smart growth" originally referred to walkable neighborhoods with commercial development that served residents' needs. Instead, in MoCo, we have "Bethesda-ization," facilitated by the County Council and Planning Board giving developers carte blanche to cloak their greed in their pseudo-environmental claims in behalf of "smart growth." It's great to see that Tenley and AU Park neighbors standing up to that in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You people who live around there should be on your knees thanking GDS.

This is the sort of smug, arrogant attitude that earns Greedy Developer Scheme the title of most douchebag private school in DC.

Except it is not from a gds parent.

[Anonymous]

You can use your own definition, or:

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/what-is-smart-growth

Using a transect and consolidating density on corridors is textbook smart growth. But you are selfish enough to have your own definitions, so whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can use your own definition, or:

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/what-is-smart-growth

Using a transect and consolidating density on corridors is textbook smart growth. But you are selfish enough to have your own definitions, so whatever.

Greedy Dreck School

[Anonymous]

There you go again, using your own definitions. This time for GDS.

[Anonymous]

Smart growth is great. It would be great if GDS or someone else built a smart growth project on the Martens site.

But smart growth is specifically not throwing out the zoning overlay. Houston is the best example of an urban area which does not zone -- and it is certainly not an example of smart growth.

Perhaps the zoning overlay does need to be changed. But I would argue that any development over current regulations should be forced to pay for improvements to the neighborhood to at least maintain current services. Just as a suburban developer must often pay for roads and schools, urban developers should not be able to free ride on the existing community. Janney/Deal/Wilson and the urban street grid are not infinite resources.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Nice try. The project is too dense and too massive and too intense in its proposed usage. It is a unified whole and must stand or fall on that basis. GDS doesn't get to decide that---the city, with input from the community-- does. From start to finish it is a greedy development scheme with all sorts of undisclosed interests swirling around the development team and the school's Board. They MUST keep their school on the Safeway site and their tiny little existing campus. They don't want their school fronting along Wisconsin Avenue. They have bit off way, way more than they can chew on behalf of all their development friends and family.[/quote]

Why isn't current zoning "input from the community" rather than ad hoc decisions?

The zoning for where the school is now is R-2, which the school could build to a height of 60 feet by right. The Safeway lot is C-2-A, which could be built to 50 feet. The Wisconsin lot is C-2-B, which could be build to 60 feet. What GDS was basically proposing was to shift its rights to build on those lots per zoning rules towards Wisconsin Avenue, so that there would be lower height on the SFH end of the school and more along the urban corridor. Sure - give community input. But recognize that if those plans get rejected someone, whether GDS or a subsequent purchaser, may just exercise its rights and build up to the lot limits on each of the parcels, which is likely to be worse for everyone.

[Anonymous]

I live in a single-family home one block from the proposed development site and while am not thrilled at the idea of a year or two of construction, am very excited about the prospect of more retail and development in the immediate neighborhood. Except for traffic at pick up and drop off times, I honestly do not understand the intense resistance I am seeing from some of my neighbors to this project.

I don't mean to be rude or judgemental, and I'm sure I will get some push back for this, but most of those who are resisting the development seem to be older residents who have been in the neighborhood for a long time. Other young families in the immediate vicinity are looking forward to more development in the area, and I'm wondering if there is just a difference in preference over what kind of neighborhood neighbors would like this pocket of Tenleytown/AU Park to be.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]

The zoning for where the school is now is R-2, which the school could build to a height of 60 feet by right. The Safeway lot is C-2-A, which could be built to 50 feet. The Wisconsin lot is C-2-B, which could be build to 60 feet. What GDS was basically proposing was to shift its rights to build on those lots per zoning rules towards Wisconsin Avenue, so that there would be lower height on the SFH end of the school and more along the urban corridor. Sure - give community input. But recognize that if those plans get rejected someone, whether GDS or a subsequent purchaser, may just exercise its rights and build up to the lot limits on each of the parcels, which is likely to be worse for everyone.[/quote]


The immediate neighbors seem to not understand that GDS could sell the parcels tomorrow, and someone else will maximize the property by matter of right and it WOULD be worse for everyone involved.