Monthly Archives: February 2012

ANC6B Working Group Wrestles with Hine Design Issues – Delays Considering Height Issue Pending Forthcoming Shadow Study

by Larry Janezich

Last Tuesday night the ANC6B Working Group on the Hine Design met to consider recommendations to improve the design of the Hine project, but deferred consideration of the height issue until the results of the shadow study are made available, possibly later this week.  The shadow study is required by the Zoning Commission as part of Stanton/Eastbanc’s application to change the zoning of the site permitting a building height up to 90 feet.  A private consultant, hired by Stanton/Eastbanc, will determine what shadows the building will cast by time of day and time of year.

At the meeting, working group leader Gary Peterson called the height of the proposed development “the elephant in the room.”  Former ANC6B Commissioner Ken Jarboe noted that the building on 7^th Street is two stories higher in the current plan than it was in the proposal which the city selected when awarding the bid to Stanton, making it three stories higher than the building housing Le Pain Quotidian across the street.  Jarboe said, “[e]ven with a step down of the building toward C Street, building to the property line creates a canyon effect.”  Peterson agreed with this, saying that “there’s something wrong with the height.”  ANC6B Commissioner Dave Garrison differed, however, saying “it doesn’t look like a canyon to me.  I’m hard pressed to say this is a canyon.”

Also at the meeting, the façade of the 7^th Street building came under fire for the windows all being the same size and the confusing attempt to break the single building into three sections to make it look less monolithic and more human in scale.  While the working group seemed to agree with these goals, the feeling was strong that the design efforts to do this were unsuccessful.

Peterson put to rest the idea that the development might be set back from 7^th Street to encompass a view of Eastern Market from the Metro plaza as “a dead letter,” saying the National Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Review Board were opposed.   He also shot down any idea of having an entrance or exit to underground parking on D Street or Pennsylvania Avenue, saying because the city will oppose a curb cut, “it’s not going to happen.”

The group will meet next on Thursday, March 1, when the shadow study might be available.    Peterson said he hoped it Stanton/Eastbanc would put it on the Hine website for viewing by the community.  There was no discussion at the design working group of the 3-D scale model, reported by Stanton Eastbanc to be delivered from China mid-March.

The next meeting of ANC’s Subcommittee on the Hine PUD process will be on Wednesday, February 29, at 7:00pm in Hill Center.

Deputy Mayor’s Office Blames Unnamed Federal Agency for Hine Project Delay -Chair Kwame Brown Cites Pressure on Council to Fast Track Hine Project

by Larry Janezich

Yesterday, Corey Lee, Hine Project Manager for the Office of Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, was asked by Kwame Brown, Chair of the City Council’s Committee on the Whole,  to explain why little on the project had happened since Council rushed to approve it in 2010.  Lee offered that this project is “pretty complex” and claimed that delay was related to having to “figure out what other federal entities who have tried to reach in and whether they had any jurisdiction over the project.”  Lee said, the agency in question “is slipping my mind right now.”  He went on to explain that it was “really a question of oversight with respect to design, and whether another agency would have input and how that would – and how that would impact the townhouses….”

This is the first time that the specter of a federal agency inserting itself into the Hine design process has come to the attention of the neighborhood and community organizations following the development of the Hine project.  It has been clear that the City Council has expedited approval of the project.  As Brown characterized the imperative; “we’ve got to move this right now, the whole world was going to fall apart if we don’t move the surplus and disposition.”

Recently, it has also been clear that Office of Planning has been pushing the project through the PUD process.  Last week, the Zoning Commission heard the Office of Planning agree that Stanton/Eastbanc’s Planned Unit Development (PUD) application on the Hine Project was “unsettled” and perhaps not quite ready for a final hearing before the Zoning Commission.   None the less, the Office of Planning recommended that the project be moved forward to a final hearing, based on assurances in an “animated discussion with the developer” that the project would be ready for that hearing when it was scheduled.

Brown’s questions were framed in the context of the Council being told that the deal would fall apart, unless the project were approved without delay, and yet little had happened since council approval.  Yesterday, Brown was told that the reason the City Council had to fast track approval of the Hine Project in 2010; the developer, Stanton/Eastbanc, refused to commit $3 million on design work for the project until the Council had approved it.

Excerpts from the hearing appear below.

Committee of the Whole Hearing today, Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 7:55:00 in the hearing tape, Kwame Brown asks Corey Lee about Hine status:

Lee:  Right now the Hines [sic] Jr HS project has recently been set down for zoning hearing for PUD.  We have gone through a pretty intensive community engagement process over the past 12 months or so.  Gone before HPRB.  There’s a small group of citizens who are not in favor of the project, but it’s very nominal.  At this point we are looking forward to a great project.

KB:  What happens now?  I mean, the reason I ask the question is because what we received from the committee is that we got this, we’ve got to move this right now, the whole world was going to fall apart if we don’t move the surplus and disposition and then when we move it, it just stops.  Right?  Like, nothing kind of happens.  Where are we now because the world was going to fall apart a little while ago?

Lee: “Well, I’m not familiar with the world falling apart…

KB:  I mean in terms of it had to hurry up and get out of the Council, if it didn’t then the whole deal was going to fall apart. So we did that a little while ago and  I’m just like OK….?

Lee:  It’s a pretty complex project, so it takes quite a bit of time as opposed to some of the smaller projects that you’ve mentioned today.  This is a project that we’ve had to figure out what other Federal entitites that have tried to reach in and whether they’ve had any kind of jurisdiction over the project.

KB:  Over the Hine school?

Lee:  That is correct.  Because it is a former school site.

KB:   What part would the Feds have?  I mean…

Lee:  Well, we had to make that argument  through working with OP, working with HPRB (Historic Preservation Review Board), to insure that just based on the location and the ownership structure, and also with Hine being in that historic overlay along Pennsylvania Avenue, whether or not somebody else would have the ability to reach in.  I’m actually…the name of the agency is slipping my mind right now.

KB:  The reason I asked that question is because when the world was falling apart and I had hurry up and move it, all that had been taken care of.  They told me everything was taken care of, it was ready to go. And now and I’m like, well I thought, a lot of that had been settled, because why would we surplus or disposition something that we don’t even know if we can surplus and disposition because it might not even be ours.

Lee:  It wasn’t a question of surplus or disposition, it was oversight with respect to design.  Whether another agency would have…how that would affect the timeline.

KB:  So this was more about the design.

Senthil Sankaran (Director of Development) interjected here:  Correct.   What you heard Corey indicate all came out through the design and development process by which the developer has refined his design over the last year since the approval of the surplus disposition.

KB:  Two years, almost two years.  It’s almost two years.

Senthil Sankaran:  Sorry, almost two years.  They are on schedule per the LDA that was negotiated in which they were recently set down by the Zoning Commission for their PUD hearing.  PUD, depending on the workload of the commission, could be six to twelve months.  After which they’ll be able to achieve a financial settlement and a groundbreaking by [crosstalk]…July 20, 2013 is their groundbreaking, which will keep it within the terms of the disposition agreement.

KB:  So that’s on schedule.  Was that part of the “Moving Projects Forward?” [crosstalk discussion of why Hine was not included in list of projects going to groundbreaking in 2012]  …. Mr. Jackson just told me the developer wouldn’t pay the money until the Council approved it.  So that’s why we had to approve it, so the developer could spend on the design work the $3 million dollars.  So, I got the answer to that.

View the hearing video here:  http://dc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=1086   Go to 7:54:10

How The Hine Project Has Changed Since The Plan Was Selected by The DC Deputy Mayor’s Office

by Larry Janezich

Last Monday, the Zoming Commission voted unanimously to “set down” or recommend that Stanton/Eastbanc’s request for a Hine site zoning change – its Planned Unit Development (PUD) application – be afforded a final hearing before the Commission in no fewer than 60 days.  Actually, it is more likely to occur in the next 90 or even 120 days.

The PUD process affords the community an opportunity to raise concerns and provides a process for improving the project in terms of its impact on the community.  Part of this process involves benefits and amenities and mitigations provided by the developer.

ANC6B has appointed a Subcommittee comprised of certain commissioners and resident members to analyze the PUD process and to come up with a list of amenities and mitigations and to negotiate with the developer on behalf of the community to achieve desired results.

Some of the major concerns of the community include its height and mass and how much the development has changed since the bid for development was awarded to Stanton/Eastbanc by the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Planning and Economic Development.  The following chart, created for the ANC Subcommittee by former ANC6B Commissioner Ken Jarboe reflects how the project has changed over time.

Best and Final Offer     HPRB Submission    PUD Submission     Term Sheet                        3/1/09                             2/25/11                     11/23/11

Sq. Feet     401,648                          427,530                        464,278                    405,793

Retail          48,285                             45,530                              46,699                      49,200

Office           213,197                           151,350                                163,392               211,999

Residential   140,166                           230,650                            254,187              144,594

No. of Units        150                                   168                                      158                      132

Parking Spaces   391                                   270                                      260                      201

(The figures under “term sheet” reflect what the developer agreed to provide after being awarded the bid by the city.)

Among the changes Jarboe selected for emphasis in a report to the Subcommittee were the following:

Changed shape of the public space from a plaza mid-C Street to a setback of the residential building at the corner of 7^th and C Streets, and access to the interior courtyard (originally accessible to the public it is now reserved for residents and occupants of the building);

Increased height of the 8^th and D Street residential building;

Added a 7^th story (ten feet) to the commercial building at Pennsylvania Avenue and 7^th Street;

Added a 5^th story (eleven feet) to the residential building at 7^th and C Streets;

Removal from the project of participation by the Shakespeare Theater;

Decrease in parking spaces from 391 to 260.

The height and mass of the project are controversial, with many in the community convinced that the development will dwarf and dominate the historic Eastern Market and ultimately work to the disadvantage of the small independent retailers on 7^th Street as well as the residences on nearby streets.  Others, some of whom characterize themselves as new-urbanists, support all the density and height the site next to a transportation hub will allow.  Both sides speak from a expectation and perception rather than from any clear ability to visualize the finished project.  That vision will become more clear in mid-March, when the developer will finally produce a three dimensional model of the project extending to one-half block  on each side of the site.  It’s perhaps noteworthy that the developer has resisted pressure to produce the model, relenting only after the Office of Planning urged them to provide one.  Equally noteworthy, the developer elected to present a single graphic of the Hine development in last month’s Hill Rag showing the project from its lowest perspective, minimizing the perception of both its height and mass.

The city, after alreadygranting the developer a one year delay, is pressuring the developer to begin construction as soon as possible.  Some Zoning Commissioners at Monday night’s hearing – as well as the Office of Planning – were skeptical that the project in its current form was ready to move to the final stage.  Despite those reservations and with assurances from the developer that the project will be ready by the time of the final hearing when scheduled, the project has moved to the final stages of approval.

ANC6B’s Subcommittee on the Hine PUD will meet next Thursday, February 23, at 7:00pm in Hill Center to discuss a preliminary list of amenities and mitigations with which to begin negotiations with the developer.  The meeting is open to the public.  The Subcommittee’s website can be found here:  http://hineschoolpud.wordpress.com/

DC Office of Planning Offers Scant Criticism of Hine Development – Initial “Set Down Report” Downplays Community’s Concerns                

by Larry Janezich

The Office of Planning (OP) has issued its “Set Down Report” on the Hine Planned Unit Development (PUD) project, recommending that the Zoning Commission proceed to a public hearing to begin the process for final approval of Hine developer’s request for a zoning change to permit greater height and density for the project.   The earliest that final Zoning Commission hearing could happen would be in April, but a May or even a June date is more likely.

The Planned Unit Development (PUD) process is designed to encourage high quality development that provides public benefits when development requires zoning changes.  Generally, in exchange for the zoning changes which permit greater height and density, the process requires that a development’s impact on the surrounding area be “either favorable, capable of being mitigated, or acceptable given the quality of public benefits in the project.”  

Occasionally a Set Down Report takes issue with a development, recommending changes to the proposal before the Zoning Commission proceeds any further with the case.  Yet, in the case of Hine, OP did not quarrel with the density of either the residential or the commercial building, which it deemed “moderate.”  Nor does it take issue with the maximum building heights – 54 feet for the 8^th Street residential, 64 feet at 8^th and D, 88 feet for the 7^th and PA office building – down to 51 feet nearer C Street, and 74 feet for the residential building at 7^th and C, diagonally across from Eastern Market.  Likewise the report raised no issue with the 47 foot maximum height of the North Residential building.  As residents have pointed out, the Hine proposal as it currently stands is the largest development to come to any historic district in the DC. 

Thus far in the PUD process, in addition the height and density, residents have expressed concern over aesthetics, parking issues, loss of green space, space for the flea market, ambiguity over the control of C Street, and the prospect of retail development on the here-to-fore exclusively residentially-zoned 8^th Street.   

The Zoning Commission will hold the first of two hearings on the PUD process on Monday, February 13, at 6:30pm.  This will be a conversation between the developer, Stanton/Eastbanc, and the Commission; the public will not be permitted to participate.  The public will participate at the second and final hearing which is likely to occur in May or June.  Both hearings will be held at the Zoning Commission at 441 4th Street N.W., Washington, DC 20001 in Room 220 South.