Diamond Teague Park Makes Headway in Southeast

Using plans approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in October of last year, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's proposal for a new public park along the Anacostia River will finally go before the NCPC once again for permit approval on Thursday, September 4th. If all goes according to plan (cue maniacal laughter), Diamond Teague Park will be completed by fall 2009.

Located at the terminating intersection of First Street and Potomac Avenue SE, Teague Park looks to be the much needed community icing on the commercial cake that the mayor's office has baked - first with Nationals Park and soon to be followed by the Capitol Riverfront. The proposal stresses the importance of using the park to attract pedestrian foot traffic as it moves to and fro from the stadium with amenities that include a water taxi service, several public piers for watercraft, a thirty foot wide, floating boardwalk and a lead-by-example, eco-friendly garden space. All of this will occupy a third of an acre at a cost of $16 million.

Of course, what would a public works project in this day and age be without giving into green fever? The proposal calls for the park to be a “green oasis” and refers to the current condition of the Anacostia River as a set of “diverse environmental restoration challenges.” Buzzwords and understatements aside, those restoration challenges should provide an invaluable showcase for the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), which is currently headquartered in the former Capitol Pumphouse that adjoins the park’s proposed location. With a staff comprised almost entirely of neighborhood youth, they plan on using the park as soapbox for community issues that dovetail with their environmental mandate – namely fighting the further pollution of the river and trash accumulation.

On the aesthetic side, the Landscape Architecture Bureau, the project’s lead designers, couldn’t have found a better setting to show off their oh-so-tasteful plans for the waterfront vista. Teague Park is to occupy the prime real estate next to the Riverwalk and, as such, will be in plain view from the ballpark’s upper deck and so-called “Grand Stairs.” From this vantage point, the intent is that Teague Park will serve as the centerpiece of the landscape - providing not only a splash of flora and fauna, but some much needed visual continuity between the Riverwalk and several soon-to-be restored DC Water and Sewer Authority buildings that straddle the site. The park is to be one of four currently outlined under the Capitol Riverfront BID.
Presumably, the ODMPED’s proposal faces little in the way of opposition (unless the Army Corps task force charged with investigating the site stumbles upon more of its own unexploded munitions...again), as it's faced with no competing proposals and relatively little criticism, given its community-oriented mandate and ties to the ECC. All that remains to be acquired before ground can be broken is the requisite National Parks Service permit, whose jurisdiction falls over the portions of river bottom encroached upon by the project.

Positive neighborhood developments aside, the name of the park should serve as a grim reminder of Anacostia’s prospects only a few years ago. The park is named in memory of 19 year-old Diamond Teague, a Southeast resident and ECC member himself, who was gunned down on his front porch by two unknown assailants in 2003. The investigation into his murder remains free of suspects and unsolved to this day. A memorial baring his likeness will be completed in time for the park’s grand opening.

1100 DC Homeowners to Get 'Downzoned'

More than 1100 homeowners in southeast DC will have zoning on their property downgraded to discourage multi-family development, if the Office of Planning gets its way. Since this past summer,the Office of Planning has been conducting a comprehensive study of properties and their respective zoning in both Wards 7 and 8. Now that the study is complete, the results can be summed up with a quote from Jennifer Steingasser's OP memo to the Zoning Commission - "There [are] many many areas in the community where the existing zoning is not consistent with the existing housing type." This simple fact is going to change the landscape of possibilities for property owners and potential developers in Marshall Heights SE.

With their study results in hand, the Office of Planning is petitioning the Zoning Commission to rezone roughly 1,100 properties within an area bounded by East Capitol to the north, Southern Ave to the south, Central Ave to the east and Benning Road to the west. The land mass, which incorporates part of the Marshall Heights community, will be rezoned from the R-5-A Zone District to R-2 or R-3 districts. 'Downzoning,' in official parlance, reduces the size and type of building that can erected without a zoning exemption.

The reason is simple: with the current R-5-A zoning, the number of housing types that can be built is less restrictive, and includes single-family houses and (more significantly) multi-family apartment buildings - the only requirement is that to build the latter, a developer must receive Board of Zoning Adjustment approval. Now however, OP is proposing to restrict potential development in these areas to only single-family detached and semi-detached houses, row houses, churches and public schools.

On November 19, 2007 the Zoning Commission "set the case down" for a public assay; now, zoning has issued a Notice to the Public to attend a hearing on March 3, 2008, where the proposed text amendment will be reviewed. In the arcane mysticism of zoning, once the case is set down, the 'set down' rule goes into effect, forcing developers to act as if the zoning amendment has already taken place.

The reasoning behind this zoning strategy is to restrict future developments in the area to buildings with 'low density character.' Because the area under the study's scope contains many vacant lots, there exists the potential for 'infill development' where developers can squeeze as much square footage out of a given site with the use of multi-family projects. Steingasser's memo cited the District's Comprehensive Plan to sum up OP's point: "Infill development of vacant lots is strongly supported in the District...provided that such development is compatible in scale with its surroundings." Apparently, OP believes that the Marshall Heights area is not compatible with multi-family housing.

In the November 19 hearing, John Moore with the Office of Planning gave this postscript: "There are many, many, many small lots in the Marshall Heights community...where developers are proposing to put four to 12 unit apartment buildings. Often times those sites sit right in the middle of where there are single-family detached houses on most of the block. Obviously that increased density will have an effect on that existing character of the neighborhood." Chairman of the Zoning Commission Anthony Hood responded succinctly, "I think this is a long time coming."

And though lower density housing may seem counter-intuitive, OP begs to differ in this case. Because the District lost many residents due to a mass exodus to Prince George's County in search of a lower cost of living, DC planners see the current rezoning strategy as a way to maintain property values and uphold single-family neighborhoods. Steingasser's memo highlights this point: "Whereas the neighborhood lost families to Prince George's County and elsewhere in the past, it may gain families from these areas in the future if it builds appropriately designed housing, provides quality schools and improves public services." One down, two to go.