Big GDS news
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Anonymous
You can say that, but where's your support? Under a matter of right plan, the buildings would be shorter and would not extend into the current public right of way. Most of the neighbors with whom I've spoken believe that would be a good thing. I get that the school, which is trying to maximize the $$ that it and its insider-developer partners realize, believes that matter of right is "worse" than what they are trying to get with a PUD. |
Anonymous
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It is worse for the pedestrian to have a large block building as opposed to two buildings with a central plaza and easier access to 42nd Street.
It is also better for the potential retailers to have open spaces. It is critical for the health of the commercial strip to have successful retail here. Places like HTO and Murasaki closing and being replaced by more quick food and fast food is not a good mix for the residents (though it is great for the Wilson and AU students) |
Anonymous
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Except it isn't a fact that GDS is entitled to the same density or that they could or would build it if they were held to matter of right. Note that Safeway itself needed upzoning to add fewer apartments than what GDS is proposing. And that it would make no economic sense for the school or the developer to build upscale high density residential in the midst of school facilities, to tear down existing school buildings, or to replace the very limited outdoor athletic space on campus with condos.
PUD applications are written by RE lawyers to advance their clients' interests. They're advocacy -- not an objective analysis of what can/should/would be done at a site. |
Anonymous
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GDS could scrap the idea of moving the lower/middle school to Tenley and just sell the land to a developer and let them build matter of right on all three parcels. Of course, that would not make the 43rd Place residents happy - they fought to get the density away from their back yards and supported more density on Wisconsin Avenue, for both Safeway and GDS.
So using the school as a buffer and putting the density on Wisconsin Avenue was the solution. But now, GDS is hearing t from the residents at Tenley Hill and Chesapeake Street. So which residents "lose"? |
Anonymous
| None if everyone were to build matter-of-right. That's the function of zoning laws -- they strike a balance among the rights of nearby property-owners and provide advance notice of what type and intensity of development is authorized nearby. But they don't work if you don't enforce them. And DC rarely does. It shouldn't be a question of which homeowners get screwed so a developer can have higher profits. |
Anonymous
The neighborhood would be better off with matter-of-right development on Wisconsin Ave. The rest is an empty threat. GD$ is not going to close its Tenleytown campus. |
Anonymous
| No, but it could build in such a way that some residents are negatively impact. That was the impetus for that density to be located on Wisconsin Avenue in the first place. |
Anonymous
| No, the impetus for density on Wisconsin Ave is GDS's desire for a revenue stream and a developer's desire to have GDS assume all the costs and risks associated with land assembly and permitting. GDS isn't doing any of this for the neighbors. |
Anonymous
Yes, ridiculous to suggest GDS is doing this for the neighbors. It obviously wants a unified campus, without having its students have to cross a busy street to get between buildings, and without having apartments over the school buildings.
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Anonymous
Right. The expanded property (including the Safeway site) will already be tight enough with 2-3 story school buildings and no extra green space. It's hard to imagine that GDS would also put mixed use on that site. This is a silly scare tactic to try to pressure some in the community into supporting the GDS Commons project. |
Anonymous
| I looked at the latest plans and drawings on the GDS website. I hope that GDS lowers the PUD buildings’ height a bit, but overall the proposed design and materials appear to be of decent quality. The landscaping and “green” treatment of sidewalks and streetscapes are creative. It seems unfair to compare it to Cathedral Commons, which turned out to be uninspired and generic, some might say even ugly, with all its concrete. |
Anonymous
| They already lowered the height. |
Anonymous
It's still taller than what zoning and the DC Comprehensive Plan allow, and much higher than anything along 42nd St. |
Anonymous
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GDS's development on the three parcels together, including the land transfer, is less dense than the total that could be built by right on all three parcels. Period.
It's a bit taller, but not any taller on the avenue. Recall that one thing Safeway wanted for its deal was extra height to move the building mass away from the neighbors. I thought that was an OK outcome too, but the design was huuurrrble. |
Anonymous
This is all a bit, er, academic. GDS wants to redevelop the Safeway site for its lower and middle school. With that, the site will be so crowded that play space for the younger kids has to be built at the periphery of the property and the playing field put three stories up in the air. GDS is not going to add mixed-use to its immediate campus. It's also beside the point, because GDS is not only adding hundreds of students and staff to the campus, but it's building dense mixed use right across 42nd St. So it's not just a reshuffling of what Safeway originally proposed, but with the added double whammy of a much larger school. At first, when GDS first announced its campus consolidation, many neighbors were neutral to supportive. GDS at least was a known commodity in the neighborhood, and the purchase of the Safeway precluded the PUD that Safeway had proposed for the site. Some thought that the school plan would mean more actual green space. As a result, neighbors were willing to accept the tradeoff of additional additional traffic and other impacts caused by adding the hundreds of additional students and staff to the site. Others lamented the loss of Safeway, a middle market grocery store in the neighborhood. Then GDS announced its plans for 42nd. So now the neighborhood has essentially the worst of all alternatives: a much larger school that will occupy its site nearly completely, with all of the associated traffic and other impacts; the loss of Safeway; AND tall, dense mixed-use development. |