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Planned Unit Development: 5220 Wisconsin Avenue, Zoning Commission #06-31
Members of Friendship Neighborhood Association participated in public meetings, met with the staff of the Office of Planning and carefully reviewed the Akridge submission. In September 2006, the Office of Planning recommended that the Application be set down for a public hearing. On September 6, 2006, Friendship Neighborhood Association submitted to the Zoning Commission a petition signed by more than 500 residents living very close to the site. On September 7, 2006, Friendship Neighborhood Association filed comments on the OP report outlining deficiencies in the OP report, including the omission of required tabulations and a discussion of how the proposal was inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan. In February 2007, ANC 3E passed a detailed resolution opposing the Application. A hearing was held on March 8 and April 12, 2007. A decision approving the PUD was published in the D.C. Register on October 26, 2007. Selected Friendship Neighborhood Association Exhibits The Akridge Request in Context: A Comparision with Nearby Residences Opposition and Support: Geographic Distribution and Intensity The Akridge Request -- C-2-B and Beyond: A Corrected Zoning Tabulation The Akridge Request is Excessive -- A Comparison with Matter of Right The Friendship Heights Sectional Development Plan: Planning for the Metro Objectives Underlying Current Zoning: Rezoning for the Metro Comprehensive Plan -- Policies for the Akridge Site Heights of Commercial Buildings in Friendship Heights Impact of the Project on Traffic in the Area: Existing Traffic and New Traffic Generated by the Project Upper Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Study In the Summer of 2002, the Office of Planning initiated the process that lead to the Upper Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Study (UWACS) and the Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Transportation Study (WACTS). The UWACS was prepared by the Office of Planning as a “small area plan” for Tenleytown and Friendship Heights. Members of Friendship Neighborhood Association were active participants in throughout the process, attending meetings, charrettes, providing input, meeting with OP staff, meeting with Councilmembers and testifying at hearings. Friendship Neighborhood Association’s official comments (pdf) on the Office of Planning’s November 2003 Draft Upper Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Study Strategic Framework Plan includes background information as well as an analysis of the likely impact of the UWACS if it were to be adopted as a small area plan. On December 30, 2003, Friendship Neighborhood Association made a presentation to Councilmember Kathy Patterson on the UWACS. On January 24, 2004, a similar presentation was made to Andrew Altman, Director of the Office of Planning and Ellen McCarthy, Deputy Director, OP. The Office of Planning released the final draft of the Upper Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Study in July 2004. On September 2004, DDOT began a transportation study to determine whether the transportation infrastructure could support the recommendations of the UWACS. On September 29, 2005, the Ellen McCarthy, Director of the Office of Planning, announced that OP was withdrawing the UWACS. Other testimony and comments on these two studies are available in the public comments sections of the final drafts of these two studies on the Office of Planning and District Department of Transportation websites. The draft posted on the Office of Planning web-site was withdrawn in September 2005. Comprehensive Plan The Office of Planning recently completed a revision of the District’s Comprehensive Plan which provides policy and planning guidance on the physical development and redevelopment of the city; and will determine the District’s land use policies for the next twenty years. Members of Friendship Neighborhood Association were active in this process, attending meetings, providing individual comments and testimony to the Office of Planning and to the D.C. Council. In January 2006, Friendship Neighborhood Association passed a resolution outlining critical policies that should be maintained in the revised Comprehensive Plan. On September 5, 2006, Friendship Neighborhood Association submitted comments on the July 2006 “Mayor’s Draft of the Revised Comprehensive Plan.” These comments concentrated on mapping issues and the Rock Creek West Element of the Comprehensive Plan. September 5, 2006 Comments (pdf) On October 13, 2006, FNA submitted comments on the Office of Planning’s handling of the these issues in its September 20 Addendum to the Mayor’s Draft. WMATA Western Bus Garage WMATA issued a Joint Development Solicitation on August 21, 2005 which included a solicitation for a proposal for the Western Bus Garage in Friendship Heights. Members of Friendship Neighborhood Association interviewed each of the developers that submitted proposals to WMATA in response to its solicitation of development proposals for the Western Bus Garage site in Friendship Heights. The following description of the site and proposals is based on the WMATA solicitation, public documents, FNA interviews and the developers’ presentations to ANC 3E. This site is approximately 3.75 acres, between Wisconsin Avenue and 44th Street, between the alley behind Harrison Street and Jenifer Street, NW. It includes an elevator-only entrance to the Friendship Heights Metrorail Station. The 1974 plan for Friendship Heights, prepared by the National Capital Planning Commission and D.C. Government Interagency Task Force, in anticipation of the coming Metro, designated an area as an R-5-B buffer zone between “the high density commercial and mixed use portions of the plan area and the surrounding low density residential community.” The recommended zoning in this plan was adopted in Zoning Commission Order 87, along with a Statement of Reasons for adopting this zoning. Much of the WMATA site and the entire abutting Buick site is included in this R-5-B buffer. Just to the south of the site is a row of 2-story apartment buildings. Semi-detached homes, an R-2 district, are just south and west of the 2-story apartment buildings. The R-5-B buffer zone continues to the west of the site in the Lord & Taylor parking lot. To the west of the C-2-B portion of the WMATA site, there is a C-2-A zone, which includes the Lord & Taylor store, and a 4-story office and retail building. On the southwest corner of Jenifer and Wisconsin is a building which includes a parking garage and retail [former location of the Jenifer Theater]. Mazza Gallerie, with height of 60 feet, is directly across Jenifer Street from the C-2-B portion of the WMATA site. Across Wisconsin Avenue is a C-2-A zone. Between Ingomar and Jenifer Street, there is a 64 foot office building which predates current zoning, and a two story building with a restaurant and offices. South of Ingomar Street are one- to two-story retail and office buildings. On the other side of the C-2-A zone is another R-2 zone, with detached and semi-detached single family homes, as well as rowhouses that were built in 1938. Square 1661, the block on the northeast corner of Jenifer and Wisconsin was developed as a PUD, with Chevy Chase Plaza and Chevy Chase Pavilion built in the 1980s, and Friendship Centre developed in the 1990s. On that square, the Courts of Chevy Chase, a townhouse development, was built in the 1990s and is in a portion of the R-5-B buffer. Current zoning on the WMATA Western Bus Garage site includes two zones, C-2-B on a 42,264 SF portion of the site at the corner of 44th Street and Jenifer, and R-5-B for the remainder of the site. The Buick site has a land area of 22,500 SF and is zoned R-5-B. Four developers made presentations at a regular ANC 3E meeting. Six projects were presented. Descriptions of the proposals presented to the ANC by the developers along with additional information that was obtained in conversations with the developers will open in a new window when you click on the developers' names. | ||
