Giant has won its legal appeals against the longstanding lawsuits of a neighborhood activist group that has litigated to stop the neighborhood grocery-anchored project. Washington CityPaper reports today that an appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling that development did not violate the District's zoning laws, as a neighborhood group had claimed in its suit.
The project's developers had always seemed likely to prevail, and had been given added momentum when Stop & Shop, Giant's parent company, partnered with local developer Bozzuto Group just weeks ago to fund the mixed-use project.
Construction of Cathedral Commons is likely to get underway in March or April. The historically debated, two-block redevelopment project will bring 137 apartment units and 8 townhomes, more than 500 parking spaces, and 128,000 s.f. of retail including the anchor, a new 56,000-s.f. Giant, to replace the badly aged 50-year-old one currently on site. Opening of the new Giant is "tentatively scheduled for late 2013.
After years of trailing Whole Foods and Safeway, and even Harris Teeter as urban pioneers, Giant now seems to be catching up on the urban redevelopment wave, having broken ground late this year on CityMarket at O in Shaw and having started construction of a new grocery on H Street, NE.
7 comments:
Free at last, Free at last....
It does seem like Giant was an urban pioneer here in D.C. Weren't there a number of Giants here before there were any Whole Foods or Harris Teeters?
I hope they counter sue that Community Group for the time and money they wasted. This kind of development would be welcomed in any part of the city. No glass towers, nice scale, wow, could I have some in Silver Spring?
i don't normally drink, but when i do, it's to celebrate the defeat of neighbor activist ass hats. CHEERS!
"I hope they counter sue that Community Group for the time and money they wasted."
Giant probably will just want to move on with the project and not look back. But now that it's full speed ahead with all approvals obtained, it's ok to acknowledge that Cathedral Commons will attract more traffic to that area. Yet the surrounding road infrastructure appears too narrow to handle it, in particular what the community group calls its "historic" streets of Macomb, Newark, Ordway, etc. Tell DDOT it should be its priority to upgrade those streets, with wider travel lanes, turn lanes and left turn signals at the major intersections. Watch the NIMBY heads of the community group spin then.
It's not just Giant's time & money wasted, it's our tax dollars paying for the judicial system to process the case. Not to mention our tax dollars paying for city employees at the Historic Preservation Office, Zoning, and Office of Planning to devote time wildly disproportionate to the size of the project). The neighborhood NIMBY's have shown that if you are the 1% (or very close), you can manipulate the system radically to your favor. In this case, they finally lost (huzzah! huzzah!!) but it went on way to long.
Looking forward to the additional retail options and dining choices that Giant is going to bring us in a transit-accessible, bikeable and walkable area.
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