Lower Georgia Housing Project Approved

The DC Council today voted unanimously to give the final affirmation to Park Morton, the mixed-use, mixed housing development on lower Georgia Avenue that will replace 174 units of well worn public housing with 477 units of "moderate density" newer housing, both subsidized and market.

Park Morton had been originally sponsored by Councilmember Jim Graham back in 2006, and the Council had approved an additional $3m for the project only last December, going only a small way toward the estimated $157m the project will cost. A host of contributors has already been selected to realize the city's vision, including DC-based development firm Banneker Ventures, nationally renowned environmental consulting firm Circlepoint, and design firms PGN Architects and WDG Architecture.

The project, sitting on the east side of Georgia Avenue and the south side of Park Road, had been noted by the District in several studies as encompassing "severe poverty" lacking basic amenities, though the project's planners did not include a retail element, relying instead on the slow accretion of retail on Georgia Avenue to service the new homeowners. But don't call your real estate agent just yet, development is not likely to start until at least late this year, and take an estimated nine years to complete.