Neighbors -- I recently learned of a community group you may want to consider joining, if you don't already belong:? the Eastern Market Metro Community Association (EMMCA).? There's no membership fee, and the group is active on matters affecting the community in the vicinity of the Eastern Market Metro Station, including the Hine School redevelopment project and the Hill Center.
To learn more about the group, please go to To join, please select the "EMMCA Members" link, and include your street address to qualify for membership.? The weekly e-mail update pasted below is an example of the information provided by the EMMCA.
Thanks!
Susan Eads Role
219 10th Street, SE
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From: EMMCA@... <EMMCA@...>
Subject: [EMMCA] Digest Number 311
To: EMMCA@...
Date: Friday, July 8, 2011, 3:23 AM
Hine - Hill Center - ANC
Posted by: "Barbara Riehle" Barbara@...???barbarariehle
Fri Jul 8, 2011 12:13 am (PDT)
Dear Neighbors
Hine
Last week, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved Stanton-Eastbanc' s conceptual designs for two of the four buildings planned for the Hine site. (The tall office building at Pennsylvania and 7th Street and the residential building that stretches from D to C along 8th Street.) HPRB's approval was disappointing but not unexpected. What was unexpected was the number of folks the developer turned out to support the project. During months of public meetings on Hine, supporters of the project have been pretty quiet. That was not the case at the HPRB hearing last week. Later this month, both ANC6B and HPRB will review the remaining two buildings as well as the Plaza for the weekend Flea Market. Revised plans will be submitted to HPRB on July 18 (and hopefully available on the developer's website, hineschool.com) and an ANC Special Call meeting on the plans is expected the next week. A 3D scale model will be displayed, but I have no details on
where it will be located.
The conceptual design phase is the first step in what is expected to be a pretty long process. Personally, I had hoped greater improvements in the designs would be achieved during this early phase, but the critical negotiating begins this Fall during the Planned Unit Development (PUD) process. At that point, the stakes are high and serious community engagement and coordination will be key.
Hill Center
Nearby neighbors of the Hill Center filed a formal protest with the City's alcoholic beverage regulatory body, ABRA, Tuesday. The protest triggers a hearing on July 18. The Hill Center applied for the maximum the law allows for a liquor license in terms of operating hours, capacity, and live entertainment. Neither the Hill Center nor ANC6b saw fit to meet with nearby neighbors about the application. I can't help wondering why Commissioner Kirsten Oldenburg, who represents the Hill Center area, didn't facilitate such a meeting. Doing so would have saved the Hill Center, the neighbors, the ANC, and ABRA a lot of time and effort, not to mention sore feelings.
ANC
During last week's HPRB hearing on Hine, Dave Garrison (ANC6B01 Commissioner) offered testimony for himself and cohorts, Commissioners Norm Metzger and Kirsten Oldenburg, saying that enough attention had been paid to nearby neighbors and calling for retail from 7th to 8th along D Street. Garrison falsely claims this would be historically compatible, seeming to forget this has been the site of a school since Civil War times. Here's what they said, "Similarly, we urge that the Board support design decisions for the D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue buildings that emphasize the provision of street level retail for this entire block face from 7th to 8th Street. Such street level retail is entirely appropriate and historically- compatible for Capitol Hill, a community that once had literally hundreds of corner businesses throughout its residential blocks. In addition, retail along the D Street portion will help draw pedestrians from 8th Street south of the
Metro plaza and better connect the new Hine development with established Barracks Row."
Best,
bsr
