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Last month, the city released a new vision for Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast. We read it, so you don’t have to.
This part of the corridor, subarea 1, is home to the Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metro station, so of course there’s going to be future chatter about transit-oriented development, maximizing space, mixed-use projects, walkable communities—-people casting their car keys to the wind and using Metro.
This area is slated to get more housing and office space than any other—-and in fact, the entire corridor will receive less and less development as you travel out to Maryland.
The plans include 879 new rental units and 1,097 new for-sale properties, most of which should be completed within the next 11 years. Mind you, there’s currently no housing in this specific area—-It’s not allowed within the zoning, according to Derrick Woody, a coordinator with the Great Streets Initiative. (Brentwooders—-You would know better than I.)
Highlights from the plan:
There is already a planned development for this site by MidCity/Urban LLC. The project will contain 274 housing units, 70,000 square feet of retail, a 215-space Metro garage and two other garages with more than 500 spaces total.
The site across the street from Metro will be anchored by a new supermarket and some other big box use, plus retail, mixed income housing, and minimal parking to “encourage use of transit.”