“No Drilling at McMillan” Blog Launched
An artistic rendering of development plans by Vision McMillan Partners
The McMillan Sand Filtration Plant site is a 25-acre parcel of land by the intersection of North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue, Northwest. Recently, a development team unveiled plans re-imagining the land as a mixed-use community with up to 1,200 housing units, a grocery store, retail—the works.
One guy, who seemingly lives in the area, is not pleased about this vision. On Dec. 25, he launched a "No Drilling at McMillan" website tearing down the developers plans. Thus far, he's updated two other times. He's also left up an inquiry for site visitors:
What makes the most sense with regard to developing the McMillan site?
- Do nothing. Keep the fence and allow migratory birds and other wildlife sanctuary in the city. (This option also preserves 25 acres of green space to absorb stormwater that would otherwise flood Bloomingdale.)
- Allow pre-selected private corporations to maximize their profits by maximizing square footage and turning as much of this green space into concrete and asphalt as possible.
- Pull the plug on the current process initiated by the corrupt National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC) and let the city guide development with more emphasis on creating usable park space including trails for running, biking and roller-blading.
- Put all development on the shelf until someone with vision sees a higher purpose for this unique resource than low-income housing, fast food and check cashing/pager stores.
Current results show that the majority of the voters prefer option B: Allowing “private corporations to maximize their profits by maximizing square footage and turning as much of this green space into concrete and asphalt as possible.”
7:02 pm
RS, sorry your argument has as many holes as Swiss cheese. Bloomingdale and neighborhoods surronding the site have very-active civic assoc'ns and community groups. Take the strict development of the AIA award winning Gage School or the Gage-Eckington re-use plan. The course & qaulity of McMillan's development will inevitablly be decided by the community. Neighbors are pushing for a portion of the project to be set aside as green space and for LEEDs rating on all the structures. Personally, I'd rather have dense development where people live within walking, biking or a 10-minute car ride to work rather than 45-minutes outside the City. Perhaps you prefer the ex-urban McMansion sprawl with massive rolling green lawns to this tight-knit strictly-controlled and historically significant development. Mixed-use and mixed-income is one of the most effective means for keeping communites safe and raising people above poverty. If you don't like this, don't stop it, but push for change. Push for green rooftops and porous pavers (like brick) to slow runoff, push for better access to the Closed section of McMillan as walking/running paths, push for the highest LEEDs ratings. As a Bloomingdale resident I certainly would like to a safe running path and a nearby chain grocer like Trader Joes so I don't have to dive to the West End or VA. As it is now, the area around both McMillan sites is too dark and isolated to be considered safe. If we merely look at Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park alone in terms of improved conditions, better businessesm less, lower crime, improved parks (Crispus Attucks) then this shows we certainly have nothing to fear from common-sense community-guided development. But, if we stand on the side and say stop, no leave it to the water fowl, then were are bound to end up with something we all dislike.
8:57 am
Mr./Ms. Seitz,
Where to begin? The Gage School development was a classic DC developer-driven project. They managed to get permission from the City to develop just about square foot of space in what was the school's play yard. If you talk to your neighbors who have tried to get information from, and provide input to, the Bethesda developer in charge at McMillan, you would learn that this anything but a "community-guided" process. There are plenty of properties in the City that could be rehabbed to meet the needs of consumers. There is no justification for destroying one of the last significant green spaces in the City to build more subsidized housing and more places for people to consume things. We should be making every effort to conserve these days, not continue to consume consume consume. This City should focus its resources on existing infrastructure, like the terrible combined sewer overflow system, schools, crime and public transportation. Instead, because developers make huge profits building new projects, there are campaign contributions for politicians who support new development. The McMillan project is being shoved down out throats by a developer that wants to preserve their exclusive rights to manage this project. Since they have made a mockery of the community involvement process, this neighborhood should stand up now and fight this effort to eliminate this unique green space and replace it with subsidized housing and more places to consume things.