Reply to Wisconsin avenue Giant development shut down again

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[quote=Anonymous]There are a lot of urban myths about this store and the neighborhood, but here's some context:
--in 1999 Giant proposed to build a large supermarket with some other retail and an above-ground parking garage.  The proposal met with a mixed reaction in the community, but Giant withdrew it before ever seeking city approvals.
--in 2001 Giant proposed a modified grocery store plan that would have left a blank wall of several hundred feet facing Wisconsin Ave.  (like the Safeway in Tenleytown, but right along Wisconsin).  Supporters and opponents of the original plan thought this would deaden the Wisconsin streetscape.
--in 2002, Giant entered into a formal agreement, announced by Mayor Williams, with the Office of Planning and a neighborhood citizens group, to build a new store according to a defined plan, with entrances on Wisconsin Avenue.  An application to landmark the store was withdrawn as part of the agreement.  The expectation was that Giant would start construction of a new store very soon.  Then nothing happended.
--in 2004/05, the local ANC and the same neighborhood citizens group hired an architect and actually approached Giant with architectural sketches to get a modernized supermarket going.  After a seriies of meetings over many months with representatives of the ANC from Cleveland Park, McLean Gardens and Cathedral Heights and the neighborhood association Giant then proposed a plan that differed from the 2002 agreement, with a three story building on the north block it owns, and a new store and retail on the south block.  The plan met with widespread support from the representatives and in various public community meetings.  There was virtually no opposition, and, once again, people expected the project to move forward quickly.  Then Giant went radio silent for a year.  Again, nothing happened.
--When Giant came back more than a year later, they had changed the project yet again, upping its size significantly which greatlly increased the project's complexity and required all sorts of exceptions to the zoning.  In a particularly boneheaded move, they moved the loading dock complex to the far end of the site, as far away as possible from the new housing units Giant planned to build and next to existing residences on Idaho Ave., stirring up opposition.  Incredibly, they chose a regulatory end-run around the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment because their lawyer admitted the project was "too big, too dense, too much" to easily get an exception from the zoning overlay, a strategy will likely will result in the court of appeals invalidating their permits.  Most big development projects start off big and then modifications and compromises are made to address impacts and opposition.  This one could have been built easily in 2002 and again in 2004/05 when it had nearly universal support.  But then Giant got greedy and/or got bad advice from its advisors, and moved in the opposite direction.  Giant would be better off comproising or just selling the site to Traders Joes's.[/quote]

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