On Nov. 2, the National Capital Planning Commission will consider approval of the design of Washington Canal Park, and someone was nice enough to pass along to me the Canal Park Concept Submission document that was prepared for the NCPC (and also the US Commission of Fine Arts's meeting on Oct. 19)--40 pages of incredible detail, with a long design narrative and many many drawings. UPDATE, 11/2: At today's NCPC meeting, the commission "commented favorably" on the design concept. The next stage will be the preliminary design stage, and the NCPC has requested that AWC provide "More fully developed streetscape designs at street edges and crosswalks; Simplified overall design with consideration of durable materials and elements that require less routine maintenance; Lighting design that has minimal visual impact on adjacent streets and mixed-use development; Details of water elements that demonstrates their character when water is turned off; and Design details indicating accommodations for the physically disabled, including persons with visual or hearing impairments." Finally, the commission "commended the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and its design team for integrating low-impact development strategies that will minimize the effects of storm water runoff from the site."

City Council hearings have now been scheduled for October 31 for three Near Southeast alley closing bills (Monument's Square 700/west side and Square 701 requests, and William C. Smith's Square 737/739 request). I've added them to my busy Neighborhood Events Calendar; I've also (belatedly) added the DC Register announcement of the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration hearing on the license request for a new liquor store at 156 L Street (the old Star Market) scheduled for Nov. 8. Note that the Square 701/east side alley closing bill had its hearing on Oct. 10. UPDATE, 10/20: The starting times of the three alley closing hearings on Oct. 31 have been revised, and an additional council roundtable has been scheduled for the same day on the Capper alley closings and new streets bill. All the hearing notices are available in this file, which also includes the notices on the Oct. 23 hearing on the Capper PILOT funding bill and also an Oct. 26 roundtable on LSDBE participation in the baseball stadium. My Neighborhood Events Calendar has been updated as well. Also, the Square 701/east side alley closing bill has been placed on the council's Nov. 14 consent agenda.

Faison Enterprises and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds are holding a ceremonial groundbreaking (with Most-Likely-To-Be Mayor Fenty in attendance) for the Onyx on First residential project, on Nov. 1 at 10:00 am. This is the 260-unit residential building at 1100 First Street SE; the project will also "include a rooftop pool, underground parking, a fitness center, an outdoor courtyard, a game room, and great views of the city from the upper floors. Condos will range from studios to 2-bedrooms, and prices are anticipated to start in the upper $200s." UPDATE: Here's a GlobeSt.com blurb on the project.

From NBC4: "News4 has learned that D.C. Councilmember and mayoral candidate Adrian Fenty is talking with Mayor Anthony Williams about a new plan to build about 1,200 parking spaces on the south side of the stadium rather than on the north side. Sources said the change would make the garages cheaper to build and still leave land on the north side for development of retail stores, restaurants and housing. Sources said the Fenty plan would cost about $56 million compared to the mayor's price tag of about $80 million. Details of the new proposal are still being worked out between Fenty, the mayor, developers and the Lerner family that owns the baseball team. The new proposal could come before the D.C. Council as soon as Wednesday." Very interesting, and might be possible given the extra space on the south end of the stadium site. We shall see what arises. [NBC4 has now updated its story to remove the references to the south side of the stadium.] UPDATE: Here's the Post's article, which says nothing about the south side of the stadium concept mentioned by NBC4, instead saying that two three-story garages would be built aboveground on the north side of the stadium. The Post says that Fenty's plan has the support of CFO Gandhi and that the Nationals ownership group "was receptive to the plan." More: "Fenty said his plan would maintain the city's $611 million cost cap on the project, although it would require tens of millions of dollars in additional stadium-generated revenue that the city otherwise would be free to spend on other needs." And: "A critical aspect of the proposal would require the council to override a D.C. Zoning Commission decision from July that bans free-standing parking garages. Fenty aides said the council can sidestep zoning regulations for government projects." Apparently they're talking about building the aboveground garages in time for the 2008 opening, but the "structures would be reinforced to accommodate additional development on top in later seasons." Another wild ride at the Wilson Building appears to be at hand. UPDATE II: And here is the WashTimes piece, summarizing three of the plans (by Williams, Barry, and Fenty) currently being floated to fix the parking issue, but describes the Fenty plan as being on the south side of the stadium. And I wonder how long it'll be before this AP piece posted at WJLA is corrected, because I'm pretty sure they'd have a hard time putting 12,000 spaces on the site! UPDATE III: Don't forget that DC Council sessions are available via live streaming.

A quick roundup of Near Southeast-related doings at Monday night's ANC 6D meeting. After a plea from 6D07 commissioner Robert Siegel, the ANC voted to support the previously-voted-down alley closing request on the east side of Square 701 (between Cushing and 1st streets), saying in effect that a $95,000 community amenities proffer is not something that should be turned down. Monument Realty came before the commission to request support for it's two alley closing bills (in Squares 700 and 701 in the Ballpark District), and the request was referred to the ANC's Development Subcommittee for further discussions about Monument's community amenities package, which includes a pledge of up to 20% affordable housing in the residential project at Half and N, LSDBE participation, LEED standards, and an offer to spend approximately $500,000 to upgrade the electrical/HVAC systems at Amidon Elementary School (but there's some question as to whether Amidon will be open past 2007). Finally, the ANC voted not to support the request for a liquor license to open a liquor store at the old Star Market site at 2nd and L (the license hearing is Nov. 8). I'll link to the Hill Rag/Voice of the Hill reports on these meetings when available for additional details since it must be admitted that I bailed before the meeting was over and am relying on a vast network of informants and stringers to provide the few meager details I included here.

Since I know this will back in the news any second now, here is the DC CFO's Oct. 2 Fiscal Impact Statement on how the draft bill being shopped around by Marion Barry to get the Herb Miller/Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness plan back on track to put garages on the north end of the stadium site will result in the busting of the $611 spending cap the council placed on the ballpark project. And there's a bonus surprise! At the end of the FIS is the draft of the bill itself. (Also, just for the heck of it, here's CFO Gandhi's testimony back in July on the Miller garages plan.) Back on Oct. 4, news reports said that Mayor Williams told the council that he supported Barry's bill with several amendments that addressed Gandhi's concerns. There was talk of this bill coming before the Council at it's session this coming Wednesday, but it's not yet on the schedule. UPDATE: The city council schedule for tomorrow (Wednesday) has now been updated to show so many different ballpark-related items on the agenda that I'm not going to even try to figure out what's what. We'll see what transpires on the morrow....

Yet another Near Southeast-related bill has been introduced to the DC Council--this one is B16-0932, the "Square 770, Lot 802 Securitization Act of 2006." My not-so-learned reading of the bill tells me that this bill is authorizing the issuing of bonds not to exceed $140 million (principal), $40 million of which will go toward funding a portion of the costs of the five-acre Anacostia Waterfront Park planned along the river between 2nd and 4th Streets (within the Southeast Federal Center land), as well as the infrastructure improvements needed to allow for public access to the site. An additional $75 million will help fund other (unnamed) Anacostia Waterfront Initiative infrastructure improvements. The bill also sets up the DOT HQ's parcel (Square 770, Lot 802) to now be exempt from property taxes and instead have those payments go into the new Anacostia Waterfront Park Fund, to be used to repay the financing of the bonds and other expenses related to the park. You can read more about this PILOT plan in this June 2 post. UPDATE: There is also now PR16-1004, which appears to be amending the earlier DOT PILOT bills a touch. There is also a DOT PILOT technical amendment being voted on as emergency legislation at the Oct. 18 city council session--might be the same as PR16-1004, but I can't tell for sure. UPDATE, 11/2: Here is the actual resolution that was passed on Oct. 18 on an emergency basis, PR16-1039, The "DOT Pilot Revision Emergency Approval Resolution of 2006."

A beautiful fall day on Saturday meant that I had no choice but to go on a photo-taking expedition: see my photos of the new ballpark, Capper Seniors #2, and 20 M Street.

Just a reminder that the Capitol Quarter sales office will open on Saturday Oct. 14 at 11 am for it's one-week "sneak preview" of the development (meaning no contracts or appointments). I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview today of the sneak preview--if you're at all interested in Near Southeast, even if you're not currently thinking about moving to Capitol Quarter, you must go see the model of the developed neighborhood, it's absolutely stunning. I took a bunch of photos of it and have put them on my Capitol Quarter page, sprinkling them throughout and displaying them alongside the "live" photos of the area. Sales will begin first-come first-serve at 11 am Oct. 21 for the first phase of market-rate and workforce-rate townhomes. Prices and floor plans are supposed to be posted any second now on the official web site. One thing to remember as you look at the model--the low-, middle-, and high-income units are all mixed in with each other, sometimes multi-unit low-income rentals will have facades that make them look like two townhomes, so from the outside you can't tell which units are which. UPDATE: Prices and floor plans are now posted, on a spiffy new Capitol Quarter web site.

A web site has been launched for the 260-unit residential building at 1st and L, which I've been referring to as 1100 First Street but which has been dubbed Onyx on First. Not much in the way of actual information there, but there is a registration form to fill out. (And I hope people who aren't in-the-know about Near Southeast aren't baffled by the "Ballpark Metro" references, since there's no station with that name, of course.) This is the project being developed jointly by Faison and the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund (Magic Johnson being the "Johnson" part of that).

Bill B16-0929, the "Payment In Lieu of Taxes Act of 2004 Amendment And Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Public Improvements Revenue Bonds Approval Act of 2006," has been introduced before the City Council. This bill will allow the sale of bonds to raise $35.1 million to fund the necessary infrastructure improvements (streets, sidewalks, walkways, streetscapes, utility lines, etc.) around the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment. You may recall that two PILOT funding bills were approved in June of this year to help fund the Southeast Federal Center redevelopment (which, like Capper, is being developed by Forest City Enterprises). I suppose you're now wanting me to actually EXPLAIN the concept of PILOT funding, which might be asking a little much. From reading the bill, it sounds to me like property owners within the Capper/Carrollsburg PILOT area will have their tax payments placed not into the city's General Fund, but into a separate Capper PILOT Fund, which will be used to pay back the principal and interest on the bonds. Wikipedia's PILOT entry can help out a bit, too, this line especially: "PILOTs may be negotiated in specific circumstances, as when an arrangement is made for a corporation or institution to build a facility on public land without assuming ownership of the land," which perfectly describes both Capper/Carrollsburg and the Southeast Federal Center. UPDATE: Here's a better explanation, from someone "in the know": "Essentially a PILOT is like a TIF, except with property taxes. Since the property wasn't on the tax rolls before, we can capture 100% of the new property taxes, although once it is stabilized, we will likely be utilizing less than half of the total property taxes allotted to the project. The rest will likely [go] back to the District (though it could also be used to superamortize the loan so that the entire sum will go back to the District sooner)." UPDATE II: There's a hearing in front of the council's Committee on Finance and Revenue on this bill on Oct. 23 at 1 pm. UPDATE, 10/20: The Washington Business Journal (subscription only) gets to the heart of what's really going on--the Hope VI funding for Capper is $35 million short, so they're wanting to use this PILOT to cover the shortfall. But since the city's PILOT program is capped at $250 million, and DOT and the Southeast Federal Center have already chewed through most of that, attempts are being made to raise the PILOT cap to $500 million to then allow Capper to get a $35 million piece of the PILOT pie.

This is not something I'm going to continue to track, but I know some readers are interested in knowing if former Near Southeast nightclubs Wet and Edge are going to reopen somewhere else. There is an Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration hearing on Dec. 13 on Wet/Edge's petition to move their operations to a new location at 2046 West Virginia Ave., NE. So if you're wanting to know more, you might want to keep an eye on the ABRA web site and its calendar (which doesn't get updated much in advance of the weekly hearings).

Today there was a media tour of the ballpark construction site hosted by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission and Clark/Hunt/Smoot, and they were nice enough to invite me. I'll have photos and details of what was said later this evening, but in the meantime here's the first JDLand Near Southeast multimedia offering, four minutes of video from within the construction site. It's not earthshatteringly exciting, but it is from down within the bowl of the stadium instead of from the usual vantage points along the perimeter. UPDATE: I've now posted my photos from today's tour, and also a bit of audio with the opening remarks from the DCSEC and construction folks. UPDATE II: And now the stories from news outlets on the tour: here's NBC4's brief. And MLB.com's (with lots of good details). And the Post's, which sneaks in a bunch of parking garage-related items into the story. UPDATE III: And the WashTimes story, and Marc Fisher's Post column talking about the garages (and how Mayor Baseball has already "checked out").

Included in the packet of materials handed out today at the media tour were three new renderings of the stadium's exterior, much more detailed and crisp than the water colors that were originally released; I've posted them on my main stadium page.

There's not much in it that oh-so-informed visitors to this site don't already know, but here's a brief from Commercial Property News about the start of construction at 100 M Street. The only tidbit in it that's new to me is that CB Richard Ellis will be handling the marketing and leasing.

I heard from two people this weekend saying that the Nexus Gold Club (the last night club, and also the last strip club, left in Near Southeast) was either closing immediately or had in fact already closed. Terrified that I had missed a critical piece of news, I marched up to the front door (ignoring the gales of laughter coming from throughout the neighborhood) and made my inquiries, and was told by an unidentified staffer that Nexus is still open, with December still being the rumored closing date. Coming to that location will be 909 New Jersey Avenue, a 238-unit residential project by JPI. (I did notice the last time I drove past the 900 block of 1st that the tire alignment shop right next to the Nexus appeared closed in the middle of a workday. While last I heard the A1 auto shop directly on the corner of 1st and K was not selling to JPI, perhaps it's next-door neighbor has decided to move on; no property sale has been recorded through late August, the most recent records available in the city's online sales database, but perhaps that's changed.)

The Post's front page this morning has a big profile of the Lerner family, which starts right off with the friction that has become standard between the Lerners and city officials over almost every aspect of the new baseball stadium: "To District officials, the concrete columns rising along South Capitol Street represent the beginning of a sweeping renewal of the Anacostia River waterfront, not just the foundation of a new $611 million stadium for the Washington Nationals. For the team's owner, the family of 80-year-old billionaire shopping mall developer Theodore N. Lerner, there are more immediate goals. Every few days, the Lerners call or visit city officials with their latest desire: an executive dining room, and in the luxury suites, individual bathrooms and a special window glaze. They want close-in parking for the best-paying fans and have turned down several ideas for how to build it. They don't want to pay for cost overruns. Recently, Lerner himself wanted to know precisely where the team's souvenir store would be. When a city official described it, Lerner said he needed to see actual plans. [...] City officials hoped the family's development experience would bring high-quality services to the stadium and propel a waterfront revitalization, a major justification for building the ballpark with city money. But the Lerners also came with something else: an all-business approach that helps explain the friction with the city over the stadium."

EYA has released details on the Workforce Housing program at Capitol Quarter. There are two floor plans to view (which are probably also a hint at the floorplans that will be available in the market-rate homes), as well as an extremely informative Workforce Housing Guidelines sheet explaining how the 90-or-so workforce units will be sold; details on deposit requirements, restrictions (lots of them), and income levels are included (along with a big NOTE: that just because your income falls within the accepted range doesn't mean you'll automatically qualify). Twenty workforce units will be available initially, and there will be a reservation lottery on Nov. 18. There will also be a seminar about the program on Oct. 11 at 7:30 pm at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hill (415 New Jersey Ave., NW), I'm not sure whether you need to be registered with Capitol Quarter's web site in order to attend. The guidelines sheet also mentions that construction at Capitol Quarter is expected to begin in the Spring/Summer of 2007, with units ready for move-in near the end of 2007, into 2008. And don't forget that the one-week preview period for the market-rate homes will begin on Oct. 14, pre-registration required.

From Friday's Post: "The debate over parking for the new $611 million Washington Nationals baseball stadium has dragged on for months, and council Chairman Linda W. Cropp called on the mayor and council yesterday to make a decision." The story details a council breakfast meeting (now being held "in the sunshine"), with Cropp telling members "All you're doing is wasting time and shooting yourself in the foot," Mayor-to-Most-Likely-Be Adrian Fenty saying nothing, Marion Barry trying to give his bud Herb Miller another chance (and Herb getting dissed by Linda), and Jack Evans having the most reasonable comment: "[Evans] said the ballpark should be viewed as a long-term investment whose full development would appreciate in value. He compared it to the 1997 completion of MCI Center, now Verizon Center, where shops and restaurants were developed along with Gallery Place over a decade. 'I think we're about to make a decision that we will regret later on' if the underground parking is rejected, he said." And one more indication of the [non-]relationship between Mayor Baseball and the Lerners: "Williams laughed when Catania and council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) suggested a new meeting with the Lerner group to discuss the project. 'Dealing with the Lerners is a problem for the new administration,' Williams said." Look for the Mayor's latest plan to possibly come before the council on Oct. 18.

Pieces of news so small that I'm practically embarrassed to be posting them: Landscape work is being done at DOT, with a whole slew of trees and shrubs having been installed in the past few days along M and 3rd. The digging of what will be a very big hole for 70/100 I has begun, along I Street and now moving north into the property. And steel beams have started to be installed at the stadium site. Tomorrow's update: 15 leaves fall from a tree at 1st and K.