McMillan Park Redevelopment Roadshow Comes to ANC1B

Anne L. Corbett, the project director of Envision McMillan, came before Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1B/U Street on February 7 to brief about the proposed redevelopment of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, also known as McMillan Park. The entire area is listed as a historic place by the National Park Service.

How it might look (photo credit below)

McMillan Sand Filtration Site is located in ANC5E/Bloomingdale. It was reported at the ANC1B meeting that ANC5E had approved the proposal on the stipulation that nearby ANCs also approved it. Another abutting ANC has already approved the proposal.  ANC1B abuts McMillan on McMillan's west side.

Development of the site will be part of a public-private partnership, Corbett said.

Two flyers given out by Envision McMillan at the meeting, plus Corbett's testimony, yield the following profile of the proposed McMillan development:

• 17,000 square foot community center with 25-meter-long pool
• 12 acres total of open public green space, including an 8-acre park on the south side of the development
• 50,000 square foot grocery
• 30,000 square foot of "neighborhood-serving retail", enough for "more than 10 retailers"
• 146 rowhouses
• "at least" 425 apartments

10% of the row houses, and 20% of the apartments, are designated as affordable housing, according to one flyer. A family of three would have to have an annual income of less than $77,400 to qualify for these units. The units will rent for less than $2000/month for two-bedroom apartments, less for smaller units. These numbers come D.C.'s Department of Housing and Community Development.

One of the flyers said: "all 24 historic buildings perserved". However, there was some discussion about the necessity of demolition on the site. It is possible this referred to demolition of things other than buildings. The ANC was told all demolition on a historic site must be approved by the Mayor's Agent in the D.C. Historic Preservation Office. 

Envision McMillan's redevelopment plans won provisional approval from D.C.'s Historic Preservation Review Board in October 2013. The most vigorous opponents to the plan are a group called Friends of McMillan Park.

The ANC did not vote on the proposal. It will probably be considered by the ANC's Design Review Committee, who will issue a recommendation to the full ANC for a later vote.

"This is an ongoing process," said Commissioner Tony Norman (district 10). "They will be back before this commission."

Norman's ANC district is the district that abuts the McMillan Site. 

See the location of McMillan Park on Google Maps here.

See a video about the development made by Envision McMillan on Vimeo here.

(Photo credit: from a flyer distributed by Envision McMillan at the February 7 ANC meeting.)