ANC6B Committee Clears Razing of Miles Glass, VA Avenue Auto Shop -Temporary Parking Lot and Community Green Space Planned

ANC6B Committee Clears Razing of Miles Glass, VA Avenue Auto Shop -Temporary Parking Lot and Community Green Space Planned

by Larry Janezich

Last night, at ANC6B’s Planning and Zoning Committee meeting chaired by Commissioner Francis Campbell, Jim Tanious, representing the National Community Church (NCC), presented the church’s request to demolish the former Miles Glass Company Building at 733 Virginia Avenue, SE, and the former auto repair shop at 701 Virginia Avenue, SE.  The church hopes the work will be completed by March.  NCC will then move to establish a temporary parking lot and community green space for an estimated two year period while plans are finalized for the site’s ultimate purpose, which could include an Ebenezer’s Coffee Shop and additional congregational meeting space. 

The church had originally planned to construct its primary meeting space on the site when that plan was sidetracked by the purchase of the former movie theater at 545 8^th Street, SE, which at the time housed The People’s Church.  Tanious announced Tuesday night that NCC hopes to reopen the film theater to the community this spring when it is not being used by the congregation. 

Asked if the proposed lot would be managed by a parking company, Tanious said that plans had not been finalized. Other suggested uses for portions of the several-acre site which emerged during the discussion last night included parking for the Fire Department and parking for the mobile construction offices for CSX which is scheduled to begin rebuilding the CSX tunnel under Virginia Avenue in the near future. 

The raze permit passed the Committee unanimously and is likely to sail through the full ANC6B when it meets at The Hill Center on Tuesday, January 10.