National Capital Planning Commission

NATIONAL CAPITAL PLANNING COMMISSION

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COMMISSION MEETING

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OPEN SESSION

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

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The meeting came to order at 10:00 a.m. in Suite 500 of the National Capital Planning Commission headquarters at 401 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC, John Cogbill, III, Chairman, presiding.

PRESENT:

JOHN V. COGBILL, III, Chairman PETER MAY, Department of the Interior ROBERT E. MILLER, D.C. Government JOSE LUIS GALVEZ, III, Presidential Appointee HARRIET TREGONING, Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia MICHAEL S. MCGILL, GSA STACIE S. TURNER, Mayoral Appointee HERBERT F. AMES, Presidential Appointee DENISE WILSON, U.S. House of Representatives ARRINGTON DIXON, Mayoral Appointee RALPH NEWTON, Department of Defense

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NCPC STAFF:

MARCEL C. ACOSTA, Executive Director LOIS J. SCHIFFER, General Counsel DEBORAH B. YOUNG, Secretariat DIANE SULLIVAN ELIZABETH MILLER WILLIAM DOWD BARRY S. SOCKS DIANE SULLIVAN MICHELLE DESIDERIO

COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS:

THOMAS LUEBKE, Secretary

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C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S

FILE NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE

6629 Draft National Capital Framework Plan: Destinations and Connections Beyond the National Mall ...... 19

2 Report of the Chairman ...... 85

3 Report of the Executive Director ...... 85

4 Consent Calendar ...... 99

1B MP060 Armed Forces Retirement Home .... 101

1C 5907 Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, Tidal Basin, West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C. ... 307

1C 6383 Georgetown Waterfront Park ...... 348

1E A.C. 03-12F/03-13F Modification to a Planned Unit Development for the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Hope VI Redevelopment Project ...... 360

File Number Z.C. 05-36A Second Stage Planned Unit Development for Union Place ...... 410

1G 6400 Draft National Capital Planning Commission Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2009-2014 ...... 436

Adjourn

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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

(10:13 a.m.)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Good morning.

Welcome to the National Capital Planning

Commission's July 10th, 2008 meeting.

Noting the presence of a quorum

I'll call the meeting to order.

If there is no objection the open session agenda will be adopted as the order of business.

Seeing and hearing no objection, it is so adopted. [Open Session agenda follows}

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FILE No. 6629

DRAFT NATIONAL CAPITAL FRAMEWORK PLAN:

DESTINATIONS AND CONNECTIONS BEYOND THE MALL

Agenda Item No. 1 is the presentation on the draft National Capital

Framework Plan: Destinations and Connections

Beyond the Mall.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of the people who have worked very very hard on this.

And the first of those are our steering committee. A number of the members of the steering committee are here with us today; some of the folks could not be with us, and we will miss them, but we certainly do appreciate their contribution to this great effort.

This I would point out too as we begin this that this framework plan is a joint initiative; this is not exclusively an NCPC project. This is something that really came about through the cooperation, the close cooperation, of the Commission on Fine Arts

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6 and the National Planning Commission.

Rusty Powell, who is the Chairman of the CFA, couldn't be with us today, but we do have with us Tom Luebke, who is the secretary of the Commission Fine Arts, who has worked tirelessly on this with our own staff and with his staff.

On behalf of NCPC and CFA I want to thank the steering committee and all of the staff for their cooperation and interest and input during the development of the draft plan. Their commitment is important to what we will ultimately achieve as a unified vision for the nation's capital.

The purpose of today's meeting is to provide an opportunity for staff to present the draft plan as an informational item with the intent to seek the Commission's authorization to release the plan for a 90-day public review and comment period.

I'm pleased that there has been continued interest in the framework plan. I

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7 was invited to testify on May 20th about the future of the national mall, and our work on the framework plan, at an oversight hearing before the Committee on Natural Resources,

Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and

Public Lands.

Several panels provided testimony.

Ms. Harriet Tregoning and I appeared on a panel with Ms. Peggy O'Donnell, superintendent of the national mall and memorial parks for the National Park Service.

Congresswoman Norton also testified on an earlier panel, and a third panel comprised of Chip Akridge, chairman of the Trust for the National Mall; Dr. Judy

Scott Thelman, president of the National

Coalition to Save the Mall; and Arthur

Spitzer, legal director of the American Civil

Liberties Union for the National Capital area, also spoke on that third panel.

I provided the oversight committee with the overall goals of the framework plan,

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8 and the broad objectives we hope to achieve.

However, I did not elaborate on any of the specific strategies or recommendations since the draft had not been presented to the

Commission and to the public.

I also touched on several of

NCPC's planning efforts for the mall including the framework plan as well as our work with the National Park Service on the flood levy and the national mall transportation plan.

The Commission, the National Park

Service and the city were commended at this hearing for the cooperative working relationship that was evident, and the planning that was underway on the national mall plan, the national capital framework plan, and the city's center-city action agenda.

They also commended our past and continuing work to encourage memorial and museum sponsors to locate in areas off the mall.

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At this point I'm going to ask Tom

Luebke and Marcel Acosta to provide additional comments that they might want to add before we move forward.

All right, Mr. Ames, go ahead.

COMMISSIONER AMES: We are getting ready to go into a situation with this national capital framework plan that I think is one of the most important things we can do.

And I'd like to do something very unusual this morning, and that being that I would like to invite the press for those who are here to pay very close attention to what we are looking at here.

We have a situation where we fought many battles at this Commission, especially on the mall itself, and the need for future planning. But a lot of times it falls on deaf ears because it doesn't get out like it should.

And what I'm trying to get to is that the press can make a big difference in

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10 what happens with this framework plan as well as the mall issues themselves by paying close attention and getting the work out so that people that don't normally hear about these things will hear about it.

You know like I said I don't know how many times in the last years we've fought this battle, but it's been a lot. And this is

- you are starting to hear about it now because the mall is filling up, and people are not aware of that until they get there.

So as I said, very unusual for a

Commission to do, but I certainly invite the press to pay close attention, and to keep up with what's going on with this framework plan, and try to play a positive role in what happens to our nation's capital.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Tom? Marcel?

MR. LUEBKE: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman. And thank you for your comments

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11 also, Commissioner.

I'm here again representing the

Commission of Fine Arts. And Chairman Powell sends his regrets for not being able to attend.

I personally have been very much involved with this for a number of years, and it's really been a personal pleasure as well as a professional one to work so closely.

This has really been what amounts to I think an unprecedented amount of cooperation not only between our two agencies, the NCPC as well as the Commission on Fine Arts, but also, we are at a time when a number of agencies that are involved in the physical planning of the city are actually coming together.

We have these federal groups, we also have been working in very close harmony with the District of Columbia government. We have been working with other federal agencies very closely, the National Park Service as well as the GSA, and this has really been an

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12 incredible effort over several years, and really amounts to, for these two review agencies, we see ourselves as the agencies that were created after the McMillan Plan, and we are trying to work with that framework and extend it forward, and it's - I think everyone should take note of the importance of this effort.

So the purpose began, the effort began in 2005 when our two agencies joined together. We testified before Congress in

`05, talking about the need for continued coordination between the agencies charged with stewardship of the mall, and protecting its treasured open space.

We kicked off about a year later this framework plan in 2006. We chose the

U.S. Navy Memorial as the plan for that press conference. Some of you may remember it.

It's a site that exemplifies the goals of the framework plan, illustrating the type of city planning and urban design that successfully

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13 integrates a mix of federal uses, private offices, commercial activity as well as residential use in a significant memorial that is both a visitor destination and an amenity for those who live and work in the area.

The success of the Navy Memorial is proof that our city is ready to move on, in a new era of planning that includes exciting destinations on and off the mall, where the vibrancy of the city can inform the treasured landscape of the monumental core.

This is an opportunity to transfer the perception of federal precincts by seamlessly blending the civic qualities of the mall and vitality of the downtown into federal precincts that surround it.

A win for everything, whether you are a tourist or resident or worker.

And I think as we move forward with some of these decisions, I think it's important to note that a lot of these decisions actually need to be made now. We

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14 are trying to create a roadmap for the future, a new vision, and these are - this is not necessarily pie-in-the-sky ideas. These are questions that are coming before us.

We need to address the continued need for federal office space in the downtown.

We need to address continued issues of transit and transportation and infrastructure, aging infrastructure.

We absolutely must address the issue of where we are going to locate future memorials and museums, as was mandated by

Congress. These things have to be accommodated.

So what we are trying to do is create a framework, a road map by which we can make these decisions.

So the strategies are ultimately, we hope, will create a more vibrant livable city center in the precincts surround the mall, and make them premier destinations, and

Marcel is going to speak next about this.

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MR. ACOSTA: Thank you, Tom.

One of the things that you will see in this plan is that it will identify numerous opportunities that will both benefit the federal establishment as well as the

District itself. Because we have seen with our efforts regarding South Capitol Street, with the D.C. circulator, and with the

District Anacostia waterfront initiative, it does take a lot of collaboration and partnerships to bring these very bold ideas into reality.

The work of this framework plan was guided by a 15-member steering committee that provided a form for input and interagency coordination. And we have also worked with many of the other federal and local agencies which have an interest in this plan to address very complicated land use, transportation and public space issues.

As Tom mentioned there is unprecedented coordination taking place among

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16 these key agencies responsible for the mall and for the surrounding areas within this expanding downtown District of Columbia.

As we've noted, the framework plan is one of four major initiatives occurred in downtown D.C. The other three are the Park

Service's national mall plan; the City Center

- the Center City action agenda; and the architect of the Capitol Complex master plan.

We've all worked very closely with each other, and as you'll see, we've produced this joint brochure called Planning Together for Central Washington.

Our roles are distinct, yet our coordinated efforts reflect our shared objectives to preserve the mall, expand the city center to the waterfront, create distinguished and accessible public spaces, and achieve a livable and sustainable capital city.

Over the last two years, too, we've also met with many members of the public

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17 at key stages to either provide input or provide briefings on the status of our work during this planning process.

Last year we held a framing capital city symposium, and we brought in national experts to examine how commemoration and environmental sustainability, symbolic architecture, the use of public spaces, should influence the character and shape of

Washington, D.C. in the 21st century.

And our public outreach program is still ongoing. Over the next 90 days they public will have the opportunity to review the framework plan's recommendation and take part in discussions on how they may - how these areas might be transformed into settings suitable for nationally significant cultural attractions.

And public input at this stage in the process is an essential component to moving the framework plan forward.

As you'll see, creating new

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18 destinations throughout Washington, D.C. will help ease pressure on the mall; stimulate activity in other parts of downtown; and encourage visitors to see more of central

Washington. Selectively, this will broaden the public's image of the nation's capital, and transform the way visitors, workers and residents experience our downtown.

And with that I'd like to ask

Elizabeth Miller of our staff, and she also served as the project manager of the framework plan, to walk you through the details of this presentation.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman,

I'd like to just make a comment at this point.

I know that the Commission and the staff has been working on east of the river projects. And having gone through this bit,

I'm hoping that Seymour would maybe surface in the presentation today. We want to be sure we don't forget east of the river presence, and the opportunities for memorials and other

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19 things to go there. So that will be a destination area also.

I'm not - in flipping through it and looking through it, reading through it,

I'm not sure I see as much emphasis as I'd like, and I understand some of the reason for that. But I hope with the public input that that will happen, and that we will get east of the river included in this national capital framework plan. We are part of the national capital area, and want to be included in this discussion as soon as possible, before all the money runs away.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: If you can tell us where that money is, we'll help you catch it.

MS. MILLER: Good morning, Mr.

Chairman, members of the Commission, and Mr.

Luebke, welcome, and members of the public.

I'm pleased this morning to introduce the draft National Capital Framework

Plan to you.

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Before I begin, though, I'd like to thank the audience for being here and for your interest. And also I want to acknowledge

I recognize many of your faces, and want to thank you for coming to our initial kickoff workshop in `06, and then the periodic briefings we've had over the last couple of years. It's been a lot of work to get here, and I hope that you see your ideas reflected in the plan as you review it.

I'm going to give a brief introduction, then I'm going to ask Shane

Dettman to come up and actually review the plan's details with you. Then before I turn it back to the Commission, I'll wrap it up.

The overarching purpose of the framework plan is to identify opportunities to create new and exciting cultural destinations beyond the national mall, including ways to enhance the settings of these areas and to improve linkages between them as well as connectivity between downtown, the national

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21 mall and the waterfront.

The framework plan aims to help protect the treasured national mall by planning for the next generation of museums, memorials and public gathering spaces, as well as federal offices, in a way that contributes to sustainable city life.

Just imaging being able - just imagine being able to take a beautiful leisurely stroll from the Lincoln Memorial to the Kennedy Center through a lush waterfront park.

Or taking your family on a self- guided tour along the federal walk to learn about American government, art and architecture, before you lunch in an outdoor café at a brand new museum across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Afterwards you can hop on the circulator and go down to the Southwest waterfront to go sailing. As you sail by you are going to notice a grand staircase leading

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22 up to a magnificent building. And from there there will be beautiful views up towards the

Smithsonian Castle, down tree-lined streets with shops and cafes.

The envision yourself taking the

Metro to East Potomac Park, and with your friends on a gorgeous sunny day you enter, and lo and behold, you see a beautiful meadow framed by the Jefferson Memorial and the

Washington Monument.

You then proceed on to have a picnic, and then walk around the beautiful esplanade that goes around the perimeter of the park.

These are the kinds of places that we want to create. We want these areas to be welcoming, accessible, well designed, and sustainable, and to achieve these goals, these areas must include a diverse mix of uses, and be served by an excellent network of walk able corridors as well as transit options worthy of the 21st century.

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These destinations should be of enduring quality, and be shaped by beautiful civic infrastructure, architecture, parks, plazas and landscapes.

This map actually illustrates the core part of our study area. It includes the

Northwest rectangle here, the federal triangle, the Southwest federal center, which you will hear us refer to now as the Southwest rectangle, and East Potomac Park.

You will also notice that East and

South Capitol Streets are included on our study map. We wanted to ensure that the framework plan acknowledged the important relationship to these areas, as well as the

Anacostia Waterfront.

We did not focus on these areas north of the river because they have been subject to recent past planning initiatives.

To effectively transform the monumental core, and to appropriately integrate the federal and local city, we

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24 focused our recommendations on opportunities that we think are most critical at this point in time where multiple benefits could be leveraged. By improving the settings of targeted areas and targeted sites and corridors, the framework plan can begin to guide creation of new city destinations, destinations that are linked visually, symbolically, physically and economically, places that we can best achieve the plan's overall goals.

There are a number of reasons why the framework plan is an important initiative at this point in time. First of all it's a necessary next step to implement the legacy plan, as well as the memorials and museum master plan.

Prepared in 1997, the legacy plan lays out a vision which illustrates way to think about how federal uses coexist with the city in the 21st century. Respect for the city's historic plans, the legacy plan calls

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25 for siting new museums, memorials and federal offices in all quadrants of the city, reclaiming the waterfront, and mixing federal and private uses as well as retail and where appropriate residential uses as well.

The memorials and museums master plan, commonly referred to as the 2M plan, was the first detailed tool prepared to help implement extending the legacy. The MM Plan identifies 100 alternative sites for future museums and memorials dispersed throughout the city, and has already successfully guided five new memorials to sites off the national mall.

When it first told us to implement the MM Plan with legislation passed by

Congress in 2003, designating a reserve, this is a no-build zone in the cross axis of the mall, which was put in place to help protect it from future construction.

The framework builds on both the

MM Plan and helps to support this reserve legislation by identifying ways to revitalize

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26 many of the sites, many of the MM sites that are within our study area in order to make them more attractive to future museum and memorial sponsors.

As America's preeminent gathering place, the historic national mall is a victim of its own success. Each year the mall receives more than 25 million visitors, and the National Park Service receives over 3,000 applications for public events, large and small.

The stream of people, concerts, sporting events, exhibits and celebrations requires numerous restrooms, food service, trash facilities, which all place stress and demands on this treasured space.

The National Park Service is currently preparing the national mall plan to address the operations and management issues on the national mall as well as Pennsylvania's national historic park.

Currently the national mall is

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27 home to 10 museums and 35 memorials or monuments. Three new projects are currently on the drawing board, and are going to be constructed on the mall in the coming years.

If current trends continue, we can expect locations for dozens of new memorials and up to four new museums are going to need to be accommodated in Washington by 2050.

The MM Plan identifies the sites.

Now it's really up to the framework plan to help identify ways that we can improve the conditions of these sites so that they are attractive and desirable places to be.

It is prudent for us to do this now, to look at how we can create new sustainable destinations in areas beyond the magical mall.

As well Washington is also becoming known for its vibrant urban residential neighborhoods, its thriving cultural scene, and its downtown office market. Thousands of new residents are

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28 turning the center city into a living downtown. A strong office market has also brought in thousands of new employees. A majority are either directly or indirectly related to the federal government, so it's important that we acknowledge that the federal government is still responsible for a large share of Washington's employment, and visitors attractions.

There's more than 9 million square feet of new office development being constructed downtown at this point currently.

Close to two-thirds of this new development is occurring in emerging markets outside traditional downtown core.

Growth is spreading from the

Northwest to the east and south along the waterfront. This is transforming the shape of downtown Washington.

Historically the national mall and the surrounding federal establishment was perceived as being the southern edge of

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Washington's employment center, but these shifting growth patterns, the national mall is becoming truly the heart of the city.

The mayor recently released a center city action agenda which promotes incentives and investments for parks, retail, residential and office development in the center city to maintain and enhance downtown desirability as the place to live, work and visit.

As the city grows, the federal government must be a full partner in the

District's development in a way that meets the needs of the federal government as well as to contribute to the vibrancy of the great 21st century capital city.

To fully capitalize on the prominence of the monumental core, efficiently use the urban land and plan for future federal needs, a number of barriers must be overcome.

These barriers consist of clusters of single-use supersize buildings, avenues

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30 without street lights, poorly maintained public spaces, highways, bridge and rail infrastructure, as well as building spans that cross over streets.

Collectively, these barriers consume large chunks of valuable land; are inhospitable to pedestrians, either deterring or prohibiting access, makes these areas feel unsafe.

The barriers undermine important civic places as well as discourage serious consideration of these areas for future museums, memorials, and even other types of development.

Clearly to create desirable destinations and improve connections would require overcoming a number of obstacles. The framework plan identifies a number of ways to accomplish this. It examines how to overcome these barriers, how to maximize the use of federal land and use a dense mix of uses; how to enhance the quality and beauty of public

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31 spaces; as well as to improve connections.

It lays out a strategy to guide development in a way that meets the future needs of the government as well as the city to support economic vitality and a vibrant city life.

I'm going to now ask Shane to come up and review the plans and key recommendations for each of these precincts with you.

[Insert: Draft National Capital

Framework Plan EDR]

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MR. DETTMAN: Thank you, Elizabeth.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission. It is indeed a pleasure to be here to share with you the vision of the National Capital Framework Plan, and highlight some of the key recommendations that we put together for accomplishing this vision.

We have a lot to cover. I think we will jump right in.

We can begin in the Northwest rectangle. Our goal in this precinct was to transform this area into a cultural destination with a particular focus on the

Kennedy Center. To do this we directed our efforts at making significant improvements along E Street, as well as between the national mall and the Kennedy Center.

However when it came to E Street, we wanted to go further than just establishing a functional connection to the Kennedy Center along E Street. We wanted to look at E Street

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34 in its entirety, and transform it into a new commemorative corridor that links important destinations such as the White House, the

President's Park, and the Corcoran Art Gallery on the East, to the Kennedy Center on the west.

The new commemorative corridor would be made up of a series of interconnected spaces containing parks and plazas, new memorials, as well as cultural buildings.

We'll see them when we take a closer look at the corridor, that several pieces of this connection really exist, and it's just a matter of either improving their quality or filling in the gaps.

We also looked at ways to improve connections between the national mall and the

Kennedy Center.

In terms of physical accessibility, it seemed logical that the two major destinations in such close proximity should have convenient connections between

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35 them especially when it came to pedestrian accessibility.

This can be done by eliminating the transportation infrastructure barriers that currently exist along the waterfront, and reclaiming that land as a premier waterfront park.

But physical accessibility wasn't the only connection we wanted to create between these two very important destinations.

As a presidential memorial we felt strongly that the Kennedy Center needs to be associated with the same set of qualities as the national mall. So in developing our plan and assembling our recommendations, the notion of creating visual and symbolic connections between the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy

Center was a very important element.

Currently the E Street corridor can be described as being made up of a collection of disparate green spaces and a jumble of transportation infrastructure.

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However we see enormous opportunity for E

Street to be a functional connection as well as a commemorative corridor that serves as a destination in and of itself.

In order to transform E Street into a commemorative corridor, we are recommending that street landscape enhancements be made to the existing green spaces that are located to the east of

Virginia Avenue.

We continue to see great opportunity for new cultural uses associated with the Kennedy Center by decking over the transportation infrastructure located to the east.

You will find our recommendations for this area are reflective of the plan drawn by Rocky L. Vignoli, and in fact built upon it, by maximizing connections to the existing and historic street grid, a recommendation made by this Commission in 2004.

We also see a great opportunity to

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37 locate a new cultural building constructed over air rights near the intersection of

Virginia Avenue and 20th Street, and it's this site I'd like to take a moment to focus on.

This site is located at the midpoint of the new E Street commemorative corridor. We see it playing a very important role in unifying the experience along the corridor, as well as tying together or relating the green spaces that are located along E Street as well as those that are located along Virginia Avenue.

So in addition to improving pedestrian circulation around this site, and improving the setting of the existing memorial, we are also recommending the location of a new cultural building made possible by partially decking over the existing access ramps of the E Street expressway.

This is the area as you would see it today, standing at the intersection of

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Virginia Avenue and 20th Street.

And here is the wonderful setting we can create, an improved commemorative setting acting as a forecourt to our new cultural building. We consider this site, which again will help tie together the eastern and western ends of the new cultural commemorative corridor, a premium opportunity that will help relieve pressure on the national mall as well as enliven the precinct.

When looking at connecting the national mall to the Kennedy Center, a primary goal of ours was to improve pedestrian access between these two prestigious destinations.

Currently the half mile distance that separates that is consumed by road and bridge infrastructure associated with the Potomac

Freeway and the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.

This infrastructure severely impedes access to the waterfront, and makes pedestrian travel between the national mall and the Kennedy Center nearly impossible.

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What we are recommending is the creation of premier waterfront park made possible by the realignment and decking of existing infrastructure, utilizing the Potomac

Freeway to its full potential, and regulating the use of Rock Creek Parkway in order to decrease some of the congestion and improve accessibility to the waterfront.

Doing this will allow us to create an axial connection between the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial that will symbolically and visually link them, and more closely associate the Kennedy Center with the national mall.

We also gain additional recreation, commemorative, and special gathering opportunities, and a waterfront park that also serves as a ceremonial gateway into the city.

We could reestablish the historic terminus at Constitution Avenue at a site often called the Belvedere.

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And of course most importantly our biggest gain as a result of all of these recommendations are the improvements of pedestrian accessibility both to the Kennedy

Center and to the national mall.

Next we move to the Federal

Triangle. And here we focused on two things: we focused on making improvements to the public realm to strengthen north-south connections between the downtown and the national mall, as well as establishing east- west connections to improve pedestrian flow through the precinct.

One way it can be done is through streetscape improvements along key north-south connections between 7th Street, 10th Street as well as 12th Street.

We can make these connections much more pedestrian friendly through science and wayfinding, better landscaping, and making sure intersections are safe and accessible to all pedestrians.

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We see a great opportunity in the precincts abundant parks, plots and courtyards to improve east-west connectivity.

These areas are indicated in green on the diagram.

Improved maintenance and landscaping in our parks and plazas can provide visitors and places to relax and marvel at the area's art and architecture.

Programming in public spaces, such as the creation of a public walk, would enliven these spaces, give agencies the opportunity to educate the public, and highlight the precinct's many cultural assets.

And the placement of public art could help facilitate pedestrian movement through the precinct by creating focal points that draw people through the area.

But perhaps our biggest focus in the Federal Triangle was on creating a new destination node along Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th and 12th Streets.

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We did this in order to diversify the mixed uses in the precinct and at the same time take advantage of the many cultural assets that currently exist.

We want to create new cultural opportunities along Pennsylvania Avenue that would strengthen its image as America's Main

Street. And we wanted to improve the use of

10th Street as a transportation hub and an important connection linking the national mall all the way up to the old convention center site.

Comparing the uses along the south side of Pennsylvania along the north is an interesting exercise. While the south side is primarily federal office buildings that fall dark and silent after work hours, the north side stays lively, thanks to theaters, hotels, restaurants, and ground floor retail.

What we want to do is sort of blur this boundary and in a figurative sense pull the civic qualities of the national mall and

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43 the vibrancy of the downtown area together so that this area acts less of a barrier between the federal city and the local city, but rather sort of a melding of the two.

The process of creating this new destination can begin with re-use of the old

Post Office Building as something that will add life and vitality to the precinct provide worker and visitor amenities that are currently lacking, and enliven the area in the evening.

Redevelopment of the old Post

Office Annex building is something that complements the future re-use of the old Post

Office Building; will extend the range of activities offered at our new destination building, and can be planned in a way that facilitates better east-west connectivity and access to transit.

With this graphic we are also showing changes to the site at the FBI

Building. The idea here is that while we

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44 think that the re-use of the old Post Office and redevelopment of its annex site will be a giant step forward towards enlivening the precinct, in the long term, when the building no longer meets the programmatic criteria of the FBI, or when the building reaches the end of its useful lifespan and the cost of maintenance is no longer feasible, this site can be developed in a way that is less intrusive on the public realm and much more pedestrian friendly, and enhance the streetscape by incorporating ground floor activity.

It has the potential for providing as much federal office space that's currently there, at the north end of the site. And most importantly it would provide a major cultural opportunity directly on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Next we'll head south of the mall to the southwest rectangle. In this precinct our primary focus is on finding ways to connect the national mall down to the

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45 waterfront. And 10th Street with its relationship to the Smithsonian Castle and its prominent southern terminus at the waterfront not only became our key connection to the waterfront, but also the quarter that had the biggest potential to enliven the precinct as well as accommodate new museums that may otherwise wish to locate on the national mall.

Our vision for 10th Street is for it to be a lively mixed-use corridor containing a large percentage of federal office space with ground floor retail, and new cultural uses highlighted by new architecturally significant cultural destination anchoring the south end of the corridor, and connection down to the waterfront.

And so like the E Street corridor,

E Street commemorative corridor, 10th Street becomes not only a strong connection down to the waterfront, but it also becomes a destination in and of itself that carries with

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46 it its own unique experience.

In addition to 10th Street we also focused in improving the overall connectivity of the precinct by taking advantage of any opportunity we had to reclaim the street. In particular we focused on the reestablishment of Maryland Avenue as a grand avenue which

I'll discuss shortly.

In order to sort of highlight the kinds of improvements that we are looking to make along 10th Street, in order to achieve our goal of creating a strong connection between the national mall down to the waterfront, and essentially growing that cultural area of the national mall down along

10th Street, we provided you with a little animation.

For purposes of orientation we had the Smithsonian Castle here in the north, the national mall; the Forrestal Building just on the opposite side of Independence Avenue; 10th

Street is indicated as this red line; the U.S.

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Postal Service is located on the west side of

10th Street; the terminus at 10th Street; the

10th Street overlook; and down in the

Southwest waterfront in Washington Sheraton.

And so really what we are talking about here is redeveloping some of what is there, and putting in the Forrestal Building and the U.S. Postal Service building, using infill development as well as air rights development, and developing in a way that is much more pedestrian friendly. We are going to rip some of these super blocks, and we are making it a much more pedestrian friendly urban environment, concentrating on that connection between the Smithsonian Castle and that new architecturally significant cultural destination and connection down to the waterfront.

We gain enormous opportunity to reclaim parts of the street grid including

Maryland Avenue, part of C Street, a portion of Virginia Avenue if we can strengthen the

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48 views back to the Washington Monument.

But what we are really after here is that relationship, that physical relationship that visual relationship between the Smithsonian Castle and the terminus of the

10th Street overlook with our new cultural destination that connects down to the waterfront.

And so as the animation, we sort of finish up the animation, we make our way back down to the southern terminus, try to sort of envision yourself standing at the

Smithsonian Castle looking south along the

10th Street corridor. Think of its current condition, and think of how it could look if we were successful in recreating a lot of the streets, and breaking down this area.

If you had trouble sort of envisioning yourself standing there looking south along 10th Street, we provided a rendering for you to sort of show the existing condition here. The Forrestal Building

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49 spanning 10th Street acts as a visual and psychological barrier. The poor quality of the public realm does nothing to encourage people to cross the street and venture to the end of the corridor, and nothing in the way of signs and wayfinding gives you any clue of how close you actually are to the waterfront.

If we are successful we can cure most of this. WE can enliven the corridor by efficiently developing available land and incorporating ground floor retail activity.

We can make the corridor much more pedestrian friendly by reclaiming streets, and building in an appropriate scale.

If we can draw people along the corridor by planning it as a collection of individual experiences that have this ultimate finale at the 10th Street overlook at our new major cultural destination and connection down to the waterfront.

As I mentioned earlier, we focused on knitting this area of the city back

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50 together by reestablishing the city grid to the greatest extent possible. And in particular we focused on reestablishing

Maryland Avenue as a grand avenue.

Currently Maryland Avenue is dominated by passenger and freight rail lines that cross the Potomac River, into East

Potomac Park, before turning and traveling along the right of way of Maryland Avenue.

The rail travels along the rights- of-way of Maryland Avenue until it reaches

Federal Reservation #113 before it turns to travel along the rights-of-way for Virginia

Avenue.

By slightly realigning and lowering the rail line, we can establish

Maryland Avenue between 12th Street and

Federal Reservation #113 by decking over the rail lines.

This will allow us to improve

Reservation #113 as an important civic plaza, not only located at the point where Maryland

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51 and Virginia Avenues come together, but also along the symbolic 8th Street axis.

So in the end we could have a functional Maryland Avenue lined with a lively mix of uses, dotted with a collection of beautiful public spaces, with commemorative works, beginning with the future Eisenhower

Memorial, traveling on to the new revitalized restored Federal Reservation #113, and then continuing on to the terminus at Maryland

Avenue at a new overlook that affords sweeping views of the Tidal Basin as well as the

Jefferson Memorial.

Considering the current condition of Maryland Avenue, it's easy to forget that it's a very important L'Enfant Avenue in that it lines up with the U.S. Capitol. In fact, its mere reflection to the north of the national mall is Pennsylvania Avenue,

America's Main Street.

This is partly the reason why we feel the need to focus on Maryland Avenue. We

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52 think it's extremely important that Maryland

Avenue possess the visual and symbolic significance that was such an influential element in the original plan of the city.

Finally when we move down to East

Potomac Park, our fourth and final precinct, our focus in East Potomac Park was on improving accessibility to popular recreation place that is much more part of the local civil life. WE focused on the northern portion of the park to identify ways to improve the setting around the Jefferson

Memorial, and diversify the types of recreational activities that the park offers.

And finally we focused on an area along the Washington Channel, to see if we could identify opportunities to provide some of the amenities that are typical of a park this size, but are currently lacking.

Before taking a closer look at these two areas, I'll first discuss the improvements to accessibility.

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Improving accessibility to East

Potomac Park is essential if we want our new destination areas to work. The improvements to accessibility include a new Metro rail station located at the north end of the park.

We are proposing making improvements to pedestrian circulation at the head of the Washington channel where currently there are conflicts between vehicular traffic and pedestrian flow due to the narrowness of the land bridge.

So what we're proposing is sort of a widening of this land bridge in a reconfiguration of the existing roadways in order to create a more accommodating pedestrian environment, and a more formal entrance into the park.

We are also proposing three channel crossing to help interconnect both sides of the channel, and make the park much more accessible to the community. A vehicular and pedestrian bridge at 6th Street will help

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54 create a destination loop around the

Washington channel.

A pedestrian only bridge at P

Street will greatly improve neighborhood accessibility. And a boardwalk crossing near

Haynes Point built out over the water will extend Washington system of riverfront trails and help create a seamless waterfront connection between Georgetown and the U.S.

Arboretum, while providing connections to the entire Anacostia river walk system as well as many other regional trails.

Establishing these three channel crossings is going to necessitate the construction of a canal through East Potomac

Park in order to maintain the volume and size of maritime traffic that exists today and is anticipated in the future.

The canal though an integral piece of the solution to improving accessibility to the park, also carries with it its own unique set of benefits. It will significantly

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55 shorten the distance that most need to travel when moving from the southwest waterfront, around Haynes Point, to the Georgetown

Waterfront, thereby cutting down on the amount of time and the amount of gasoline necessary to make that trip.

It will allow the introduction of

a stocked or riparian edge, such as the creation of wetlands along the southern portion of the channel which will help stabilize the existing seagull, provide a natural means of flood protection and create new wildlife habitat.

And finally the canal will introduce a new feature into the landscape of the park, potentially becoming a destination in and of itself.

In addition to the improvements that we are proposing to make it easier to get to the park, we are also recommending that improvements be made to the existing promenade that runs around the perimeter of the park.

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And in fact we are recommending two types of promenade improvements. Along the Potomac River side of the park the promenade would continue to have its more formal feel, while along the Washington

Channel side the promenade would have a much more informal boardwalk feel which would be more in keeping with our new wetland area if we create it. And it would yet again create another unique experience inside the park.

I mentioned that we focused on two areas of the park in order to find opportunities to expand the range of recreational activities that the park currently offers, and provide some additional amenities that are currently lacking.

And they are the last two items

I'd like to discuss. The first of those areas is located just south of the Jefferson

Memorial. Currently this area is occupied almost entirely by a maze of bridge and construction that significantly takes away

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57 from the setting of the Jefferson Memorial, and creates some difficult areas for accessibility.

However we see this area as a prime opportunity to create a multipurpose space where people can leisurely sit about or take part in some form of active recreation similar to what's done in Central Park's Great

Meadow.

We also consider this area as having great potential for accommodating some of the gatherings that currently take place in the national mall.

And of course creation of this space would provide the Jefferson Memorial with the dignified setting that every presidential memorial deserves.

To do this the existing vehicular and rail infrastructure that cross the Potomac

River and currently consumes much of the land at the north end of the park, we need to reconsolidate it and slightly realign to the

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58 south.

And understanding that ease of accessibility is a key criteria for any area to successfully accommodate a large gathering, we are proposing that the existing Metro rail bridge be replaced at Potomac, so that a new

Metro rail station can be constructed at the northern end of the park.

This new station will not only serve our new recreation and gathering area, but it will significantly improve accessibility to the southwest waterfront.

So what would our great meadow look like? Here we have what exists today standing looking north towards the national mall. And here is the great space we would be presented with as we step out of the new Metro rail station, to spend a relaxing day in the park or attend a special event.

Instead of highway overpasses, we are graced with the iconic backdrop of the

Jefferson Memorial, the Tidal Basin and the

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Washington Monument.

For our second area we focused on finding ways to provide some additional amenities in the park such as new types of indoor recreational entertainment, equipment rental, restrooms, or a place to grab something to eat or drink.

This photo shows the existing conditions along this stretch of the

Washington Channel, the width of the channel, and the lack of activity that takes place, takes away from this area's ability to be an active and engaging waterfront.

Recognizing the great work that the city is doing in redeveloping the southwest waterfront, and the excitement and great opportunity that this will generate, we see this as an opportunity to energize both sides of the Washington Channel, and really maximize the destination potential this waterfront has.

And so what we're recommending is

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60 some small scale development located along this section of the Washington Channel that would complement the recreational uses inside the park as well as complement the redevelopment of the southwest waterfront, thereby creating a destination loop and a complete waterfront experience with an activated both sides of Washington Channel.

This is the current view from the

10th Street overlook looking across the

Washington Channel at the area we are recommending improvements. This is a view that people will see after making their way down the new 10th Street corridor.

And since our main goal for 10th

Street was to connect down to the waterfront, we certainly want this street to be active and engaging, one that entices people to continue down to the waterfront, and over to East

Potomac Park.

With the city's efforts to redevelop the waterfront with a lively mix of

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61 uses that are more urban in scale, and our proposal for smaller more recreational oriented uses, we can activate both sides of the Washington Channel, both sides of the

Washington Channel will officially play off one another to create a destination that is truly spectacular.

So to sort of bring it together at the end here, and before handing the presentation back to Elizabeth, I want to first thank you for the opportunity to share with you our vision.

We are tired of trying to overcome barriers in order to make the existing destination much more accessible. We identified ways to integrate new destinations, and existing assets.

We took an area plagued by poor connectivity and inefficient use of land and turned it into a lively mixed use corridor that can relieve pressure from the national mall.

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And we took a highly regarded though largely inaccessible asset and integrated it into the city and improved its ability to accommodate future local and federal needs.

Thank you.

MS. MILLER: Thank you, Shane. I am just going to kind of provide an overview, and begin to wrap this up here.

Shane just summarized how we can reimagine these precincts as new city destinations with distinctive identities of their own, and how to connect these destinations one to another, and a cohesive network of transit-friendly options and walk able corridors.

The strategies as we mentioned earlier will provide benefits to both the government and the city. The plan identifies opportunities to reclaim about 120 acres of multipurpose open space as well as pocket parks, and it also identifies opportunities

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63 for over 5 million square feet in new development on land that is not currently used to full capacity.

We have identified about over 2 million square feet that could potentially be desirable locations for new museums or cultural destinations.

We have also identified an area that could accommodate up to or even over a million square feet in new federal office space.

And we've identified area that would be appropriate for over 2 million square feet in private development.

We realize that some of these recommendations in the plan are bold; some say that they are pie in the sky. Many said the same thing about the Legacy Plan. And as recently as talking with Tom Luebke and learned that many said the same thing about the MacMillan Plan, which quite frankly surprised me.

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Plans reflect the space, dimension and character of their time. L'Enfant would have never imagined that his grand canal that once flowed down Constitution Avenue would be filled in and eventually become a road for cars, or that trains would eventually support goods and people - or can support goods and people along Maryland and Virginia Avenue, and that a train station of all places would be built on the national mall.

Likewise the MacMillan Commission could not have predicted that a tangle of highways would slice through the city severing their park system, or that temporary office buildings and smokestacks would inhabit the mall for decades.

City building can be messy, especially when national events and other forces which cannot be predicted cause incremental and isolated decisions and many of them have unintended consequences.

However, while the city's historic

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65 plans may not have been implemented precisely how they were originally envisioned, a good well thought out plan can withstand the test of time and ultimately reflect the intent of its original vision.

From plan to implementation this scene here evolved over 150 years, and illustrates the importance of strong plans, long range visions, as well as the administrative structures to carry them out.

As we mentioned, when Legacy was adopted, skeptics said it couldn't be implemented. However, there are a number of successes. As I mentioned earlier, the MM

Plan has helped locate five memorials off the mall. The circulator has now been launched; you can now hop on and hop off, and move across town very easily.

And the U.S. Department of

Transportation as well as the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms headquarters were recently relocated to the southeast or northeast parts

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66 of the city.

And then there is South Capitol

Street. When the Legacy Plan was completed in

1997, no one would have predicted that in less than 10 years that South Capitol Street would begin its transformation into a significant destination.

The plan on the left, the plans on the left, shows the Legacy Plan, the South

Capitol Street as it was illustrated in the

Legacy Plan. On the right is the Framework

Plan that was developed by the National

Capitol Planning Commission South Capitol

Street Task Force in collaboration with the city and others.

This work began in 2003, way before the Nationals baseball stadium was even envisioned to be built in the corridor, so it's clear that these planning efforts have guided developmental decisions that are very important for this area.

Today plans call for a grand urban

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67 boulevard and a waterfront gateway on access with the U.S. Capitol. Nearby the Southeast

Federal Center is now home to the U.S.

Department of Transportation; the Navy Yard is redeveloping; our new baseball stadium has already been built.

The District Department of

Transportation is preparing plans to build a new Frederick Douglass Bridge. And very importantly, many of the proposals advanced by the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative are now being built by the city along the Anacostia river.

These particular plans include the large oval rotary that will set this gateway apart from any other, making the setting a nationally significant memorial or museum.

This infusion in public investment is spurring tremendous new development along this corridor.

The framework plan is intended to guide strategic decisions as well. It is

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68 neither a prescriptive master plan nor an implementation plan, but identifies opportunities to coordinate land use, transportation and urban design improvement between the local and federal government. And this can happen over time.

The plan also includes an action agenda which identifies legislative tools and organizational approaches, as well as next steps that can help achieve this vision.

It provides the necessary roadmap to the next level of detailed planning that will be necessary to broaden the image of the capital city beyond the national mall.

It aims to infuse the civic qualities of the mall and the vibrancy of downtown into these federal precincts in the monumental core to enhance Washington's standing as a world class capital city.

These destinations and improved connections can help transform the way residents, workers and visitors experience our

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69 nation's capital.

I'd like to just briefly go over our plan review and adoption schedule. We will be presenting this presentation to the

Commission on Fine Arts on July 17th, at 10:00 o'clock a.m., and that meeting is actually going to be held here in these Commission

Chambers.

We will be holding - we have scheduled public meetings to be held on July

22nd and September 24th. Those will both open at 5:00 o'clock here at NCPC with an open house, and at 6:00 a presentation with time for questions and discussion afterwards.

Between now and October 10th, which is our public comment period, we will be visiting and talking with as many people as are interested about the plan to discuss its recommendations and obtain input.

We will be incorporating that input into the plan in preparation for hearings tentatively scheduled before the

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Commission on Fine Arts on November 20th, and then back at this Commission in early

December, December 4th.

So it's the executive director's recommendation that the Commission authorize staff to circulate the draft National Capital

Framework Plan for a 90-day public comment period for the purpose of obtaining and considering public and stakeholder input prior to preparation of the final plan for review and approval by this Commission.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this opportunity, and this concludes my presentation.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much, Elizabeth. And let me personally thank you and Shane and all the folks who worked on this, the CFA, the National Capital Planning

Commission, our partners in the city and in the Park Service who put so much into helping to grow this city and make it even more beautiful than it is today.

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As you said, and quite correctly, there is a lot to be digested here, and I'm sure there will be a lot of input from the public. But this is something that can't be done exclusively by the federal government or by the city. This is really sets a pattern and a framework that the private sector will need to get involved in.

And we have already seen that in many respects in some of the development, certainly as you pointed out, South Capitol

Street has been a great example of how we can take a plan and the city and the private sector can put together the pieces and make that a reality.

And as you asking, Arrington, about Anacostia, as you know that plan specifically went across the river to do that.

And that was the key to make sure we did that first, to make sure that that link was there.

And as you know, and as I've told you, that I believe that the Anacostia River

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72 needs to be and can be a beautiful amenity with links, and that certainly has been an objective I think of this Commission for as long as I can recall.

To me this is a wonderful opportunity again to challenge government, both city and federal, to challenge the private sector, and challenge our citizens to step up and to continue to grow this city as we've said before. It simply celebrates all that we see as a possibility for the city, and then provides I think at least the initial points of contact so that we can move forward and make this something more than a vision, but could turn it into a reality.

And certainly in our case we try to speak only to what which we can address, which is the federal precincts.

So I am delighted to see this before us. I think it's been a wonderful collaborative effort, and one that I would look forward to hearing from the public on and

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73 then ultimately adopting.

And I think it's interesting that we, the National Capitol Planning Commission, have heard this presentation first. And yet when it comes time to vote, that the

Commission of Fine Arts will have that opportunity to lead us to hopefully approve the plan.

I would entertain a motion, if there would be one from a member of the

Commission.

COMMISSIONER Ames: I make a motion, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, the motion is made.

COMMISSIONER Galvez: I would second it. I'd also like to add that this really represents an incredible amount of really excellent work. I comment everybody involved in this process, both from CFA as well as our own staff here.

And I think it'd be wonderful to

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74 see all of this transpire. I won't be around, but hopefully it won't take 150 years like the last time.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. Ames.

COMMISSIONER AMES: First of all, let me tell Elizabeth and Shane and everybody involved from the Commission of Fine Arts,

National Capital Planning Commission, the Park

Service I know was involved in this, I couldn't tell what Jose says, the amount of work that has gone into this.

But the presentation that was made today was very impressive. I think bold is an understatement, a big understatement. But there is one thing I want to throw in. The chairman mentioned the private sector, and they will be a major, major part of this.

But there are things that the public sector can immediately start on this.

And I think when you hear what I'm going to say, you're going to say, well, here he comes

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75 again. The National mall needs special attention. I hope that as a part of all this that comes in from the public, that the Park

Service, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the

National Capital Planning Commission, will immediately seek, as we got this email from who was it, I can't pronounce his name, but anyway, but how about the Park Service needs to seek urgent authority to take a look at the national mall, and not only the national mall, but what are we going to do in taking care of the national mall as it exists today and the future of memorials to come and where they are going to do?

You mentioned a lot in this program about that. We need to immediately start looking at that, not waiting as Jose said 150 years for the plan to come together, because I don't think it'll take that long.

But that is something that I as a public citizen would like to see, and that will be my input as far as the plan is

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76 concerned.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Ms. Tregoning.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Thank you,

Mr. Chairman.

I just wanted to congratulate the staff of the National Capital Planning

Commission for putting together such a I think visionary and ambitious plan.

But I think what's also very interesting about the plan is the timing. I mean we might look at this and recall how long it took for the MacMillan Commission's recommendations to be fully realized and acknowledge that it was many decades. We are entering in our city and our country and our globe, a time of very intense change, and it's hard to predict exactly what are the kinds of opportunities that are head of us.

We do know that energy prices might be increasing very rapidly, encouraging people to make different choices about where

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77 they want to live, different calculus about where it makes sense to work, how they want to travel.

We know that the work force of the federal government is so important to the economy of our city and region is, I'll put it kindly, aging, and that a significant number are expected to retire over the next decade.

So filling the ranks of that federal workforce is going to be a challenge with some of the characteristics of our region, including our high cost of living.

So I do think that what the plan represents is a real opportunity for the city of the District of Columbia, the federal government and the private sector, to do what it has begun to do in a number of other places, and that's really come together to collectively solve some of these problems and to take advantage of some of the opportunities that have been envisioned in this framework plan.

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So I just offer my congratulations to the Commission.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Peter.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Thank you very much.

I'll echo my fellow commissioners' congratulations and thanks to the staff for producing this document and the efforts of everyone who went into it, and the Commission of Fine Arts in particular for their participation in it.

I think this is very very exciting. It's very exciting for me personally being new to this realm in particular, and unlike I think some prior planning efforts I have the sense that what we see here today is much more real.

Yes, it's a visionary document, but what we see in here are a number of practical recommendations that are things that can be implemented.

I remember looking at the Legacy

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Plan when it was released and thinking, okay, that's very nice but what next. And now I think we have a very concrete answer to what's next. And I think there are things in here that we will see as a result of this plan, and

I hope to be around to see it all.

But I'm not sure I have - whether that's possible. But I certainly look forward to trying to work with everyone to try to implement much of what's in here.

I also know that what we see isn't going to come to pass exactly as we see it here. There are certainly complications for the Park Service in what we see, but I think generally speaking the vision and the intentions are all well conceived, and I look forward to working on it.

I also want to say one last thing, which is the - there is a certain reverence that we all have for L'Enfant and MacMillan, and how those plans shaped the city. And there is I think sometimes a perception that

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80 these plans were given to us and then simply because they exist the - this mall and the city are the way they are. And that is so far from the truth, and that's evidenced in all the photos that we see about all the mistakes that we made over the years, or the - I wouldn't call them mistakes, I guess steps in the evolution of the city - and we have the opportunity to continue that here. And it's because of the hard work of the National

Capital Planning Commission, the Commission on

Fine Arts, the Park Service and others, that we actually see all of this come to pass.

It's a very active effort, and it requires very active attention. And simply printing a plan doesn't do it. There's a lot more to do.

It's been done in the past; it'll be done in the future.

Thanks.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Marcel.

MR. ACOSTA: Mr. Chairman, if I may

I'd just like to spend a few moments thanking

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81 the staff and acknowledging various individuals who have worked on this. I think this represents a tremendous amount of effort that does show the high quality of work and professionals in both the staffs of the

National Capital Planning Commission and the

Commission on Fine Arts apparently has.

First of all, Elizabeth Miller who served as our project manager; then Shane

Dettman; David Zaidain; Stephanie Brown; Lucy

Sherman; Nancy Witherell; Stephen Dunakoskie;

Mike Weil. Also from our office of public affairs, Paul Jutton, Athena Hernandez. Also

Lisa MacSpadden who led our public outreach on this, our public relations efforts on this, media strategy; and Bill Dowd, who serves as the director of the division which produced this work.

I'd also like to thank the consultants, EDAW, Allen Harwood and Ryan

Boma, and our editor, Denise Liebowitz.

Thank you so much for your hard

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82 work.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: One of the highest compliments I ever got in my personal opinion since I've been on the Commission was from J. Carter Brown who when I had written something he sent it back to me with one word, and that was bravo.

So bravo to everybody.

Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed.

(No audible response)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: None.

Abstentions? None.

Motion carries.

Tom, did you have something you wanted to add?

MR. LUEBKE: Mr. Chairman, I would like to add one thing. We are now with this motion we are very excited that we are going

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83 into this public comment phase, and I wanted to make one point for everyone here, that this has been a collective effort. I think we have talked about all this cooperation between the federal government agencies and the participating groups as well as the local government, and I also wanted to say that so many of these ideas come from everyone, from the citizens. I really want to make sure that everyone understands that there has been a very broad base of discussion which has been going on for I think it's probably continuous dialogue about what Washington should be, the national capital. But I know there has been an intense amount of debate and work in the last 10 or 15 years that I've been aware and observing, and I wanted to thank in particular a couple of individuals who have been hugely influential in pushing this agenda forward.

Those include Judy Scott Feldman and Kent Cooper from the coalition, as well as some tinkerers and designers, Arthur Cotton

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Moore and Don Hawkins who is here. The efforts of these individuals who have participated, a lot of these ideas that we are seeing are actually based on input that we are getting from the public.

So we thank you very much for all the work that the public has done to participate in this, and we look forward to your comment over the next 90 days, and whatever you do we will try to work with you to include the plan accordingly.

So thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: That concludes the morning session. We will now recess until our time to reconvene, which will be at 12:30 this afternoon.

Thank you all for being here.

(Whereupon at 11:20 a.m. the proceeding in the

above entitled matter went off the

record to return on the record at

12:35 p.m.)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Good afternoon.

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Welcome to the afternoon session of the

National Capital Planning Commission's meeting. This is a continuation of our meeting that began this morning.

Would you all please stand and join in the Pledge of Allegiance?

(Pledge of Allegiance)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Noting the presence of a quorum, I'll call the meeting back to order.

Agenda Item #2 is the report of the chair.

REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: The Chair has no additional report at this time.

Move to Agenda Item #3, which is the report of the executive director, Mr.

Acosta.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

MR. ACOSTA: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and good afternoon.

I only have one thing that I'd

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86 like to focus on in my report today, and that is with respect to the Sustainability

Development Initiative that we are now undertaking.

As you might recall in April there was a discussion at the commission meeting.

The Commission had asked us to review both stable development issues as well as green building and how it may be applied with NCPC plans as well as projects that we review.

So what I'd like to do is ask that

Diane Sullivan of our staff to come up to the podium and make a brief presentation on this initiative.

MS. SULLIVAN: Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman, members of the Commission.

This past Spring the Commission engaged in a discussion on the agency's role in sustainable development, asking questions such as, what does it mean to be green?

In response to this discussion staff is introducing a new initiative called

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87 the Sustainable Development Initiative that will work in coordination with other federal agencies and define NCPC's role in regional sustainable development efforts.

Before I go into this initiative I thought it would be useful to define exactly what sustainable development means. This term was first coined by the Bruntlin Commission, a commission put together by the United Nations in 1983. And they defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

So in essence this means using resources at a rate at which they can be replenished without negatively impacting the environment.

While the region certainly has undertaken many sustainable development issues over the past five years, we still face many challenges. The region ranks among the top 10

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88 metropolitan areas for air pollution. We have the 12th worst carbon footprint of the largest

100 metropolitan areas in the nation. This was found in a recent report by the Brookings

Institution.

That carbon footprint is coming from carbon emissions from our buildings and our congested highways, and with the region's largest employer with over 155 million square feet of development, the federal government has an enormous opportunity to help reduce this carbon footprint.

And the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently rated the Chesapeake Bay as a C- in terms of its health.

And these problems will actually grow worse, because we are expected to increase by about 32 percent over the next 30 years, so that will mean more development, more traffic, and more negative impacts that come along with such development.

So why is this important to NCPC?

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Well, the protection of the region's natural resources is integral to NCPC's mission. The

Commission promotes a beautiful livable national capital, and enhances the region's extraordinary historical, cultural and natural resources. And we do this through our visionary plans, and our expert development and master plan review, and working with other agencies.

The comprehensive plan does include sustainable development principles.

However a lot has changed in the region over the last five years since the plan's last update. Therefore it is important that we take another look at how our work here can positively impact the region's efforts to become more sustainable.

I'll speak more into the microphone; I apologize.

So the purpose of this initiative in coordination with other federal agencies is to incorporate sustainable development goals

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90 and objectives into the comprehensive plan, focusing on land use and transit alternatives, green building standards, transportation initiatives, green infrastructure which includes things like the amount of trees in the region and appropriate surfaces; and storm water management alternatives; and then to use these goals and objectives to guide the agency in the creation of long range plans and in its project review of development and master plans.

And then finally to get applicant's clear guidance for the review process.

Now in the future I'll spend a lot more time talking about each of these focus areas. However today I just wanted to spend a couple of slides talking about green building, because we have seen a lot of green building projects come in here recently, and the

Commission actually requested for this a couple of Commission meetings ago.

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As this slide illustrates, buildings have a significant impact on the nation's water use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste output, and electricity consumption.

In the national capital region we have over 200 million square feet of leased and owned property by the federal government.

And then in the District of Columbia, if you are looking at federal facilities, excluding parks, it comprises over 7 percent of the total land in D.C. So again, we do have a great opportunity here.

A green building is designed to conserve resources and reduce negative impacts on the environment. The slide illustrates the average savings of new constructed green building.

Green buildings are also known to increase worker productivity and create a healthier environment, and on average they pay for themselves in three years.

So the most commonly used rating

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92 system for green buildings is called LEED. It stands for Leadership and Energy in

Environmental Design, and it was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

And very briefly, the way it works is that scores are tallied for different aspects of efficiency in design and appropriate categories. You can see those categories there in orange.

So for example if you take just the first category, site planning, you can receive points for locating near a Metro facility or orienting your building toward the best solar heat gain.

The once you have done that, and you have been rated within each of these categories, you can be certified at four different levels, the lowest level being certified itself, and the highest level being platinum.

Recently GSA completed two, the

Gold buildings, the first of which is over in

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Arlington for EPA, Potomac Yards one and two, and the second is the NOAA Satellite Facility in Suitland, Maryland.

Then we have also reviewed several

District buildings that have come in trying to achieve the silver. Those would be the public libraries, and recently the forensics lab.

Both the District and the federal government are working on sustainability initiatives. Examples at the District level include the District Council recently adopting the green building ordinance of 2006, which requires publicly owned and financed buildings to be built to Silver. And actually by 2012 it will require privately owned commercial development over 50,000 square feet to be LEED certified.

And the mayor has also signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate

Protection Agreement, which will reduce - which strives to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions to what was called outpour in

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94 the Kyoto Protocol.

And at the federal level Congress established the interagency sustainability working group in 2001, which is comprised of over 20 federal agencies. Its purpose is to inspire federal agencies to adopt sustainable design practices, and newly federally owned, operated and leased buildings, as well as in major renovations.

Most recently the agency signed an

MOU which commits the agencies to meet five sustainable design principles for integrated design: energy performance; water conservation; and environmental quality and materials. This MOU commits the agencies to incorporate and adopt the principles into existing agency policy and guidance.

In early 2007 President Bush issued Executive Order 13423, strengthening the federal environment, energy and transportation management.

Later in the year Congress enacted

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95 the Energy and Independence and Security Act of 2007. These new directives require among provisions that all federal agencies reduce their energy consumption by 30 percent in 2015 compared to a 2003 baseline, and that new construction and major renovations of buildings must reduce their reliance on fossil fuel generated energy, 100 percent by 2030, which is an enormous challenge.

Then finally, ESA 2007 required

GSA to establish the Office of Federal High

Performance Green Building within GSA, and this office has now been running. They are quickly trying to staff it. And they will be developing working on green building principles and standards for the federal agencies as well.

While these federal and local efforts are underway, NCPC has a unique opportunity to provide the regional perspective in sustainable development efforts, in addition to coordinating with

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96 other federal agencies on more site-specific objectives, such as green buildings.

An example of these more regional efforts include looking at land use and transit alternatives; transportation initiatives; green infrastructure; and storm water management alternatives.

So to kick off this initiative,

NCPC is holding a week long conference in

September called the Capital Alliance

Conference, where over 12 countries from around the world will be convening here in

Washington, D.C., to explore the role of capital cities in creating a sustainable environment, focusing on energy efficiency, sustainable design, developing and implementing sustainability programs, governmental regulation, and the effect of green design on world class architecture and historic preservation.

And then beginning in winter of

2009 NCPC will convene a federal and local

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97 agency working group to develop new sustainable development goals throughout the year, and then spend that year incorporating these goals and objectives into our comprehensive plan.

And then identify planning opportunities and case studies that will further these new goals, such as doing a storm water management plan, for example, for a larger area as opposed to a site-by-site basis.

And then finally to continue to look for ways to reduce the agency's own carbon footprint here.

And that concludes my presentation. I will answer any questions.

[Insert: Report of the Executive

Director follows]

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Are there any questions from the Commission at this time?

Mr. McGill?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Mr. Chairman, that was a very good presentation. I wanted to mention one other feature in the 2007 executive order and the act.

It says I think by 2010 federal agencies will lease buildings of - enter into leases of 35,000 square feet or more only in

Energy Star rated buildings. So it's not just owned inventory; it's also leased inventory that will be impacted.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Other questions or comments?

Back to you, Mr. Acosta, anything else?

MR. ACOSTA: That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer anything on the written report.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You do have in front of you the executive director's written

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99 report.

Any questions on that?

Then we'll move on to Agenda Item

#4 which is the consent calendar.

CONSENT CALENDAR

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You have that before you. There are five items on that, starting with the National Geospatial-

Intelligence Agency, Engineering Proving

Ground, Fort Belvoir Hospital, Ronald Reagan

National Airport, Fort Lincoln Urban Renewal

Area, and District of Columbia Department of

Employment Services.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Are there any questions on the consent calendar?

I'd entertain a motion.

COMMISSIONER Ames so move, Mr.

Chairman.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Motion made, and seconded by Mr. Galvez.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion please

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100 signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Motion carries.

Any abstentions or those not in favor?

(No response)

[Inserts – Consent Calendar EDRs follow]

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101

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, thank you.

We'll move on to at this point

Agenda Item 1B.

FILE NUMBER MP060

ARMED FORCES RETIREMENT HOME

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: This is the final master plan for the Armed Forces

Retirement Home.

Before Mr. Keller comes up, I want to just make a couple of procedural comments.

We have 28 people who are signed up to speak today. Our policy is that those who are representing organizations will have five minutes to speak. Those who are representing themselves will have three minutes to speak.

In order to keep track of this we have a clock on the wall which as you begin to speak will count down from the five or the three minutes. We ask you to keep track of that. I realize it's a bit of a distraction.

It will warn you. Lights will come on. An amber light will come on at some point. And

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102 at the end of it there will be an awful noise and a red light will appear.

If you get to that point and you haven't finished, then I ask you to very quickly sum up, take a couple of more sentences, finish up, but try to keep track of your time out of courtesy to the other people who wish to speak today.

All right, Mr. Keller, if you would begin.

MR. KELLER: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and good afternoon, members of the

Commission.

The Armed Forces Retirement Home has submitted a final master plan for its facility located Rock Creek Church Road and

Upshur Street in N.W. Washington, D.C.

Here is its regional context. You see the project location highlighted here in the red. It's two miles north of the Capitol

Building itself, adjacent to North Capitol

Street, and located in the Northwest quadrant

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103 of the city.

Moving in closer, we see here the total of the 272 acre campus highlighted with the red outline. There is approximately 166 acres of open space comprised in the existing layout. Other aspects of the vicinity there

I'll point out here are, to the west, the neighborhood of the District, park view, and also the open space to the north of the Rock

Creek Church cemetery.

Also in that vicinity is the

National Cemetery of the Soldiers and Airmen

Home.

Directly to the east is the

Catholic University campus. It's opposite the

Armed Forces Home campus, directly across from

North Capital Street.

Also in this vicinity is the

Brookland Metro Station, and that serves at both the Catholic University and the immediate area.

Directly to the south you see the

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104 facilities of the Washington Hospital Center, that's comprised of the Washington Hospital, the Children's Hospital, and the U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital.

Here is a view of existing conditions looking from the north to the south. In the immediate foreground is the

Grant Building, then the Sherman Building, then the Scott Building.

To the immediate east is the

Sheraton building, North Capitol Street alignment.

You see further to the south on the east the scale gate street entrance to the campus. That's where those ramps occur.

Immediately off of that is the service area of the campus which is being reduced in size in the proposal.

To the center of the campus is the medical center, the King Medical Center, of the home. The tallest structure there you see in the diagram is the forward building.

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105

To the center is the existing golf course and open space that leads to the west.

There are community gardens for the home located along that vicinity.

And then coming back towards the foreground of the screen is the portions of the historic campus, and then particularly the

Lincoln Cottage is located in this vicinity, and its associated visitors center is near the main gate, which is off Upshur.

Here is the current land use development plan for the campus highlighted in yellow are the existing institutional uses; the various shades of green indicate the golf course as well as the surrounding open space; and highlighted in red are the cultural historic border areas of the home; and then in the ground again is the Lincoln Cottage and its visitors center.

Within the campus are three historic elements. There's the national register eligible historic district, which

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106 comprises the whole of the campus. Also included is the National Historic Landmark

Area, which includes some of the structures shown here in the red. Those include a portion of the Sherman Building as well as the

Lincoln Cottage, and also borders buildings.

And then a recently designated national monument, which includes just the

Lincoln Cottage and the structure immediately to the north.

We have here historic preservation considerations that are being sought through the development of the plan. You see the major elements highlighted there, and most importantly you see to the right the listing of the consulting parties that participated.

You see it's rather extensive. The process h as been successfully completed with the development of a programmatic agreement, applying to the master plan, and that has been finalized.

The Environmental Impact Review of

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107 the plan had been started early in the process with the draft Environmental Impact Statement issued in May of 2005; the final EIS was issued in November of 2007.

NCPC was identified as a cooperating agency in both of those documents.

Four alternatives were reviewed is the EIS, including the alternative based on the characteristics of the plan you'll see today. And the Armed Forces Home issued a record of decision in January of 2008.

The executive director's recommendation considers NCPC's environmental review of the plan, in accordance with the

Commissions' procedures.

Here you see the diagram of the draft plan that was submitted in February of

2006. And this is to demonstrate how it has changed. Initially it was essentially six areas with various uses. Most of the changes have occurred to the west side, so I'll highlight, in the area that initially was

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108 identified for potential institutional as well as residential, and just strictly residential in the southwest area, and then mixed uses to the area that you will see highlighted today in the next slide.

And then all the homes proposed uses essentially were in the central and north central area of the campus.

Here is the revised and final plan, submitted in February of 2008. It's now comprised of just four zones, the Armed Forces zone which is highlighted here in the white; the zone A which is comprised of 77 acres to the southeast; zone B, which is an 8-acre parcel to the southwest; and zone C, which is comprised of about 26 acres in the west/northwest area.

Here is a plan of the overall master plan itself, showing the potential building layouts, and in particular it's based on zone A layout which was detailed layout developed by a successful developer that made

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109 an offer to the home.

Again, that's the 77-acre site, and it's a mixed use proposal.

Zone B is the 8-acre site. There have been changes developed in the final plan for that area of Zone B that allows greater permeability and views into the site, as well as access to the site, and you see that with those green areas highlighted.

And then Zone C was comprised now of just a residential area with open space, limited height buildings, proposed for that area of 40 to 45 feet only.

And then again the central area is the Armed Forces zone. The golf course remained as essentially existing. There will be relocation of some holes of the golf course, two to be exact.

And then there will be improvement features both of landscaping, development, and new structures to the northeast side of the home's proposed area, as well as a newly

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110 developed residential area that is comprised in the area called Chapel Woods. It would be just limited to 42,000 square feet of development with 42 parking spaces, and is a residential type of development for members of the home.

Here is the detailed development plan as proposed by the developer and accepted by the home to date. To the left you see the factors that were considered in terms of street development and view sheds into the site, as well as outside the site, to the exterior. And then on the right you see the proposed land uses, the yellow being residential use. To the south, the blue areas all comprised from commercial and mixed retail use.

The red area is the highlighted area for a proposed hotel use, and then the green building area is an assisted-living proposed structure. And it's actually a renovation of the existing structure.

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111

Again the darker cross-hatched areas that you see in the commercial area are proposed areas for retail, as well as in the north area near the residential here. This would be the local type of retail.

The proposed open space elements of Zone A are demonstrated in this diagram.

They comprise over 23 acres of open space.

That is all publicly accessible, and includes a 12.7 acre consolidated area that will serve as a major park feature for that.

There is also the perimeter park area that you see demonstrated in the lighter green.

And then amenity features that are

going to be accessible to everyone that would visit the area, as well as a historic median area that comprises the Persian Drive.

There you see the proposed parking for Zone A, and it includes all structured parking. There is no surface parking in the development other than some street side

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112 parking.

The structures will include both above-grade and below-grade parking, and that is what's demonstrated in the colors. The purple areas would be above-grade structure parking, both in the commercial area, to the south near Irving Street, as well as in the residential area. And here it would be essentially surrounded by residential development in the plan.

And the highlighted little illustrations there show the type of fenestration that is proposed, particularly for the commercial development. It is treated such that it is not apparent that there is a parking structure.

Here is the connectivity aspects of Zone A, and they include both pedestrian as well as bike-way access. The blue diagram line shows the dedicated bike-ways in the street layout, and then to the buffer area of the zone is a shared pedestrian walkway and

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113 bike-way. And then within the Zone A development are sidewalks on all parcels, and there is also shared street usage for bikes in the immediate vicinity of Zone A.

This next diagram shows the proposed building character for Zone A as envisioned by the developer. It will demonstrate brick surface features as well as low scale type of development.

The two tallest structures occur in the southeast portion of the zone, and they are illustrated right here. They would reach a maximum of 120 feet; otherwise all structures are in the range of 65 to 100 feet.

And then you see the open space anticipated in the development here. That's the large type of pasture area. And then the renovation of the medical center to hotel use and assisted resident area.

The staff has identified essentially two major aspects to the plan in the final review, and it includes the amount

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114 of office space proposed for Zone A, and the additional publicly accessible open space that is demonstrated in the potentials of the plan.

Staff would like to highlight aspects of the plan, however, that happen to reach an agreement both with our review as well as the participants in the District of

Columbia and other agencies, as well as the developer and the home. And that includes shifting approximately 26,000 square feet of retail from the scale gate road entrance area to Irving Street. And you saw that illustrated in that land use layout. The elimination of widening of road ramps at scale grade, and then instead installing traffic signal development that would be established under the developer's expense; reconfiguration of cross-walks at Irving Street; realignment of the geometry of entrances along Irving

Street that would work with proposed development at the Washington Hospital Center; working collaboratively with the medical

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115 institutions of the area in the development of shared shuttle service; the redirecting of funds directed to that service when further premium transit is developed in the district for the vicinity; and providing active uses for the building corridors along Irving

Street; and again that was illustrated in that land use plan.

In light of the parking issue, though, the staff found that the District of

Columbia department of transportation identified concerns about parking supply and the need for transit service based on the review of the plan, and the CPC staff hosted a series of meetings about the issues.

There was also the aspect of the particular demand for parking as it related to the roadmap work and the constraints that exist there, and that became a focus of discussion.

And the Armed Forces Home and DDOT could not reach an agreement on the proposed

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116 parking as initially developed until recently.

And you have at your desk a copy of a letter that has been received by the Commission and staff regarding their agreement.

And then NCPC staff initiated, before receipt of that letter, recalculation of the parking for the proposed uses and adopting that as a potential starting point for further discussion of the plan.

And it was staff's belief that the goal for the development was an approach that would address the issues and allow the plan to move forward. And staff sought flexibility in the strategy so that it would - and considered factors and figures that would require continued close coordination. And this was an aspect that was of concern to both parties.

And all parties agreed that the site currently is not zoned, and consequently no parking requirements could be developed under the District zoning aspects, due to the fact that it is presently federal land.

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Also parking issues revolved in terms of the development as I indicated of the proposed ratio for the parking and the commission staff believed the comprehensive plan ratios were a good starting point, and provides a beginning for the solution - for the plan to move forward.

And we focused on the aspect of one-space-for-four-employees. That's applicable to the development in the central area of the District of Columbia for federal uses.

We focused on the phasing aspect of parking, and particular phasing of Zone A based on 179,283 square feet of office feet, and 290,650 gross square feet of medical office space.

We converted that, given a net leasable factor as you see here on the screen, and arrived also at an approximation of the amount of square footage per person, staff, employee, and arrived at a number of

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118 employees.

In addition the medical office sum was further allowed a goal for flexibility of a bonus of 25 percent based on shift overlapping and such uses as well as the potential of 24/7 operations of such uses.

And that gave a factor based on the distance to transit considered giving again the somewhat remoteness of the transit service to the site presently.

And finally then maintaining and using the existing proposed parking as developed by the home for retail uses and other uses, such as the residential uses.

And this is a summary of that parking, the initial proposal as submitted with 6,415 spaces; DDOT's review indicated a factor of 4,484 spaces; and then with the calculations as I just reviewed, NCPC proposed development of 5,155 spaces for Zone A with a phasing of Zone A of 2,741 spaces.

In addition to the parking aspects

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119 there were also revisions to the transportation management plan by the developer that involved enhancing and increasing service to the Zone A site. And you see here the eastern component of that where there would be service developed to

Brookland Metro station.

And then to the west would be service to the Columbia Heights metro station.

The overlap and the routing would occur only within the zone site, and would be consistent in both service directions.

The headways would be enhanced in this development, and additionally the developer increased by threefold the amount of funding for the operations.

In the context of additional public accessibility to open space issues, staff has found that the submitted plan provides as I noted earlier 23 acres of accessible open space to the Zone A development, and 12.7 acre central park area.

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The proposed Zone A open space is separated from neighborhoods of the west. The capital space study involving NCPC, the National Park

Service, and the District agencies, identified a local need for park space in the future for the operations and neighborhoods of the

District of Columbia.

However, also in its PERT, in its commitment in the master plan, the home sites consideration to forego development of Zone C and sell it or lease it for public open space if it's able to reach an acceptable financial arrangement in the future.

Staff also notes that the

Commission of Fine Arts, vicinity neighbors, and others supported the open space in the west area of the plan, and staff finds an opportunity now exists to further study the issue of open space with many stakeholders who currently have significant interests and also have resources to pursue investigation of that possibility.

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Staff also notes that the home does not intend to develop Zone C for at least

15 years, and that the area is in proximity to the capital space demographic needs. The home has stated that its purpose in developing Zone

C is for income when needed, and it is presently featuring active uses.

The loss of open space and historic view shed in Zone C under the current submitted proposed plan can be partially addressed in its aspects of considering the use of open space totally for Zone C. And then the opportunity now is present in regard to other interested stakeholders with resources that will be necessary to resolve the complex issues to the home's income stream on a timeframe that meets the needs of both the home and others, and fulfills its successful planning effort.

Staff recommends that NCPC sponsor a series of discussions about Zone C, and staff believes it is timely to explore the

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122 feasibility of Zone C for public park space and establish an income stream for the Armed

Forces Home associated with this use.

And that would be useful for all interested parties.

And staff also notes that for the above reasons staff is endorsing a deferral of

Zone C.

Consequently it is the staff's recommendation that the Commission approve the

National Environmental Policy Act Impact State

Alternative III-A as presented and analyzed in the final EIS of November, 2007, and notes that the impact statement for the master plan concludes that the proposed development will generate traffic impact surrounding the roadmap where that can only be mitigated by improving the capacity of the road network; and that the District of Columbia department of transportation has stated that it will not permit the home to improve the capacity of the surrounding network because doing so would be

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123 not in accordance with the District elements of the comprehensive plan as well as other policies and plans of the District agencies.

Also the District of Columbia department of transportation and the home have not been able to reach accord on the number of parking spaces until recently, and staff highlights that the District has now reached that agreement, and that it is part of the report as you have received its revision; but have not been able to produce the analysis that fully substantiates their positions, and that the site is not currently zoned and therefore no parking requirements under

District zoning are directly applicable; and that the District of Columbia does not yet have plans in place or resources committed to increase transit service in the corridors serving the home.

Therefore the applicants' proposed parking supply for the office and medical office uses has been adjusted substituting the

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NCPC adopted comp plan parking ratios for the employee parking for those uses, and allowing a 25 percent bonus for the medical uses, plus visitor parking, and that solution has been agreed to as noted in the report as well as the letter you received.

And also the staff recommends approval of the submitted final master plan and transportation management plan, with the exception of Zone C and subject to the conditions outlined regarding Zone C as noted below and shown in the NCPC map. With the following changes in proposed parking supply based on the 179,228 gross square feet of office, and 290,650 gross square feet of medical office proposed in the home, with a .9 gross net leasable square foot conversion factor in the assigned amount of net leasable space per person.

The amount of parking shown below is subject to change to the square footage of the medical office space on an increasing or

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125 decreasing; and the approved parking for the ratio of the medical office space is 2.94 parking spaces per 1,000 gross square feet as outlined in the letter of agreement of the

District of Columbia department of transportation, and its office of planning, as dated July 7th, 2008.

Further staff is recommending that parking for phase one development in Zone A is approved at 2,741 spaces, and that space can be shared among those spaces in phase one at the discretion of the home.

The total parking supply for the phases - all phases of Zone A is approved at

5,155 spaces, and the number of parking spaces is subject to increase or decrease by approval of the NCPC after consultation with parties regarding factors that specify it in the following.

To decrease the parking the

District of Columbia develops and implements premium transit service, based on the

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126 characteristics noted there, and that it be designed to be replaced in part by the proposed shuttle service that is to serve both the home and the surrounding neighbors; and funding of the service be provided in part by the home in the development of the premium transit, but that approved other sources would also be relied on.

Staff's recommending that the

District of Columbia complete a cumulative traffic analysis of the surrounding road network demonstrating the network capacity and taking into account all the proposed surrounding developments, and these include

Catholic University future development, the

Washington Hospital Center future development, and the MacMillan Reservoir project.

To increase parking nearby planned developments are permitted greater parking or supply square footage or the parties agree that the medical office market conditions support that increase for parking.

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The Armed Forces demonstrate that they fully explored the opportunities within its site for shared parking as well, and then to increase or decrease parking the District of Columbia completes a study for the medical office parking requirements, and parking ratios, for the overall area, and that parties consider the citywide travel mode splits and trip generation numbers that are developed in their study.

Staff also recommended the appropriate supply of Zone B parking is subject to the same conditions and factors as noted earlier, and that the proposed parking supply for Zone B is 880 spaces, and that approval of Zone C parking is deferred pending the resolution of the approved development of

Zone C.

Then approved shuttle plan submitted in June 19, 2008 be approved in lieu of the service defined in the earlier master plan; and that the service characteristics of

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128 the plan be subject to negotiation between the home and the District of Columbia for change of service characteristics, but that they must fall within the overall service levels accounted for in the proposed funding of the plan.

Also the additional changes specified on page three of the staff report, and those are those seven factors of agreement that we explored earlier. And then notes that the Armed Forces Retirement Home does not intend to develop Zone C for at least 15 years, and that the Armed Forces Retirement

Home has stated that its purpose in developing

Zone C is to provide an income stream for capital and operating expenses of the home, and that the staffs of NCPC, the District of

Columbia, and the National Park Service have determined through the capital space study that the neighborhood surrounding the Armed

Forces Retirement Home have a need for additional park space.

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And therefore the Commission defers action on the proposed Zone C development as shown on the NCPC map file, and approves Zone A and B contingent upon the home's commitment to explore the potential to develop Zone C as a public park that provides an income stream to the home as follows:

That the home will actively participate in a two-year planning process with NCPC staff, the District of Columbia office of planning; the National Park Service; and the community beginning in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, to determine the feasibility of allowing zone C to be used as a publicly accessible park while providing an income stream acceptable to the home, and this process would include the following steps.

First, that the home's commitment to regular meetings and attendance at workshops with stakeholders including NCPC, the Park Service, and the District of Columbia and community groups; the identification by

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130 stakeholders on appropriate value and income stream to compensate for park use, and this includes all those participants; the identification by stakeholders of acceptable options for conveying control of Zone C; and including the factors that are noted there; and then identification by stakeholders to arrange the appropriate park uses and conceptual designs of Zone C.

And further that identification of potential resources and funding options to address site control, capital improvements, and management maintenance of Zone C, and the completion of any environmental and historic documentation and studies necessary; the agreement among stakeholders on a timeline with milestones to secure resources and funding and complete appropriate agreements beyond the two-year process; and that the home and the NCPC staff report to the Commission every six months on the progress towards the goals.

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This concludes staff's presentation and we have the applicant present who would like to respond to some of the issues. So I'll ask Mr. Tim Cox, the chief operating officer of the home, to step forward.

MR. COX: Thank you, Gene.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Commissioners.

I am Tim Cox, the chief operating officer for the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

Joining me here today is a delegation of our heroes from the home, our residents, all military retirees and combat veterans, are heavily invested in this plan and wanted to be here today.

I am pleased to present the final master plan for our Washington campus. This plan is vitally important to our future; it means a great deal to our residents.

It is essential that our plan work. Despite the progress we have made on

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132 shaping a plan that works for all concerned, we have one final point where we differ with your staff's recommendations: the use of Zone

C. Today Zone C is a recreational area on our campus. Our residents use and enjoy it every single day. It is not surplus land. The plan at NCPC's request included our entire campus, whether or not we plan to develop it in the next 15 years.

We do not anticipate developing

Zone C in that timeframe, and have so stated in the plan. Our plan is not to contemplate development of Zone C until completion of Zone

A and then only if the home has a compelling financial need.

We ask for your support and approval of our master plan today.

In preparing the final master plan, AFRH addressed every single one of the issues raised by the Commission in its review of the draft, and responded to the concerns of the District of Columbia, environmentalists,

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133 historic preservationists, our neighbors, and other stakeholders.

In the past four years we held hundreds of hours of meetings, extensive consultations, and made substantial changes to our original plan. We have also worked very closely with you and your staff. We appreciate the time and thoughtful comments provided by the stakeholders, in particular, your staff. We believe this plan is much improved as a result, and welcome your support of it.

I just want to highlight a number of significant changes we have made. We reduced the size of the development from 10 million square feet to less than 6.2 million square feet, well within the moderate range identified in the draft Environmental Impact

Statement.

From a practical standpoint our intent is to proceed with development on only one zone, Zone A, which amounts to 4.3 million

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134 square feet. We reduce building heights, increase buffers to protect storage spaces, and expanded open space throughout the development zones.

In response to our neighbor's request for public park space we included more than 20 acres of public open space in Zone A, nearly one-third of that zone. This space is big enough for picnics, outdoor concerts, and other recreational activities.

I should note that this public park space will be built and maintained by the developer at no cost to the city.

We have also promised to build a sidewalk along the north side of Irving Street from Park Place to Zone A for the convenience of the neighbors on the west of our campus.

Although the land will remain federal, we negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the District of Columbia and NCPC to spell out land use, building code review, and permitting processes.

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We included bicycle and pedestrian paths in our plan to connect our campus with the nearby neighborhoods and institutions. We agreed in writing to postpone any development on Zone C for at least 15 years.

If financial need forces us to consider development of those parcels, we will consider a park proposal.

We developed a transportation management plan to encourage the use of mass transit and reduce the use of private cars in and around the site, and continue to fine tune that plan with DDOT and DCOP.

We have made a number of other changes at the request of the District.

In summary, we have compromised and made many significant changes in response to the concerns of a wide variety of stakeholders. Our plan compares very favorably to other proposed large scale mixed use developments in terms of density and the extent of benefits including open space.

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Our development will be far less dense than any other mixed use development projects in the area, and our percentage of open space will be higher. We are very proud that this balanced project will be financed with private money and not require taxpayer funds.

We have committed in writing to provide a wide array of benefits. While other projects incorporate some of these same benefits, there are few that include all of them.

We believe everyone wins with this plan. This plan creates public open space, in a part of the city where it is most needed.

This plan generates economic activity for the city. And this plan gives us the means to protect, preserve and enhance an historical residential community which assures retired enlisted men and women a safe and caring home when they grow old or become disabled.

While the master plan has

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137 substantially changed, our financial needs for the Armed Forces Retirement Home have not. Our long term financial prospects remain serious.

As you know, ARFH is an awkward hybrid. We are an independent federal agency, and are constrained by all the laws and regulations that apply to any government entity. However, we receive no annual appropriate from

Congress. We are self-sustaining, and dependent upon a trust fund.

Despite substantial belt tightening in recent years, the trust fund lacks the resources to pay for more than the

$366 million in short term maintenance and renovation requirements of the existing buildings.

Our buildings are old and deteriorating, and we need the money for dozens of essential repairs. We need up upgrade wiring, plumbing and elevators, and need many improvements to become fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities

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Act.

One of our major concerns is preparing this institution for the next generation of heroes. Thousands of men and women now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming back from the battlefield with catastrophic head injuries, multiple amputations and other disabling wounds. They will have special needs as they age.

Although AFRH is intended to be a retirement community for those over the age of

60, disabled combat veterans are eligible to live in our community at any age. In fact we have a 41-year-old disabled war veteran living in our community now. He is our youngest resident, and harbinger of the next generation of war heroes.

We need your approval to raise the money needed to care for them.

With your approval we can proceed with the development of Zone A. I don't want to belabor this point, but Zone C is not

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139 surplus land. The federal government holds this land in trust for the exclusive benefits of our military retirees and veterans. I personally have a fiduciary duty and moral obligation to see that this land is used for their benefit.

In 10 years the home may have other needs such as a special rehabilitation facility for Iraq war veterans. I respectfully request that you defer to the home's judgment about how best to use its land, and allow it the flexibility to best care for our nation's heroes.

Crescent Resources, our preferred developer, is ready to build a mixed-use project in Zone A that includes affordable housing, housing for veterans, public open space, office spaces, grocery store, boutique hotel, and other things that you have seen.

The project will also bring construction jobs, permanent jobs, tax revenue to the District.

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I hope I have adequately described the substantial compromise that went into this final plan. We all worked very hard to meet all the wishes and desires of the various stakeholders. We are making every effort to improve the quality of life for our residents and for those in the surrounding community.

Please do not ask our veterans to bear the brunt and fix shortcomings in park planning, to which we are contributing our share, but which are clearly the responsibility of others.

AFRH was created more than 150 years ago as a safe haven for enlisted military service members who put their lives on the line for our country. The veterans of every war since its creation beginning with the Mexican-American War and Civil War and including the first Persian Gulf War have called this institution home.

Our heroes joining us here today represent the more than 1,000 residents we

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141 serve. With your support we can maintain their home and adequately plan for the next generation of heroes.

Thank you for your attention, and

I'm here to respond to any questions you have.

[Insert: Armed Forces Retirement Home

Final Master Plan EDR]

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, sir.

MR. COX: You are welcome.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, we are now going to move to the public session.

Let me just repeat again some of the ground rules.

If you are speaking on behalf of an organization - I'll let you know that - you have five minutes. If you speaking as an individual, you have three minutes.

Please do not repeat what has been said before. Tailor your remarks. Try to stay within the time limits, because we do need to move along.

What I will try to do, because we actually have people out in the hall who can hear us but they can't see us, so I will call three or four names at a time so those folks can come into the room to participate, and then we will proceed.

So we will then move - we will begin that public process.

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Let me say to the commissioners who are here, you have at your place the revised staff recommendation that has been described to you. And just to make sure that we are all on the same page I want to point out the letter from Tim Sheckler that was delivered, dated July 9th that you have; a letter from Muriel Bowser, Councilmember, Ward

#4, dated July 10th, which should be at your place; and a letter from Grayson Dixon dated

May 20th, which has been with us for some time, but I want to make sure that you know that it's also at your place.

I ask that everyone be respectful.

That is the beauty of our democratic process is that we listen to each other and hopefully learn from that.

I know that this has been a very long process, but as Mr. Cox has said, and Mr.

Keller has said, it's been a collaborative process. ; And I very much appreciate the work that all of you have done on this.

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At this point I don't believe, Mr.

Cox, there is going to be any questions for you. But if we could just begin the public process.

And I want to announce the first three speakers. First will be William

Sinnott, Esker McConnell, and W.R. Kitson. So in that order, if you could come forward.

And then following that, just so we'll know, Ellen McCarthy, Sandra Hoffman representing the Petworth and Columbia Heights

Neighborhood Association, and Roland Bland.

Go ahead, sir.

MR. SINOTT: Good afternoon.

Mr. Chairman and members of the

Commission, I'm William Sinott. I am honored to stand before you today as a representative of the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

I am a past chairman of the resident advisory council, and presently serve as a member of the master planning committee.

I enlisted in the Air Force in

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1948; served in the Korean conflict; the Cold

War; and served three tours in Vietnam.

I remained on active duty until retiring in 1972. I have lived at the Armed

Forces Retirement Home for the past five years.

I strongly support the AFRH master plan. Long ago old soldiers were cast adrift after their service with a small provision or none at all. In fact a soldier's pension was

$5 a year in 1800.

This led many to rely on charity simply to survive. In the mid-1800s there were three persistent individuals who envisioned a haven for old soldiers that would assure their care while restoring their dignity. They were: Senator Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederacy during the

Civil War; General Winfield Scott celebrated war hero who was devoted to his troops; and

Major Robert Anderson, son of a revolutionary war hero and aide to General Scott.

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The trust fund was a military asylum was created through the use of a fund from General Scott. With $150,000 he received from Mexico so his troops would not ransack

Mexico City. This money was utilized to establish the asylum.

In 1851 the home was established.

This was 10 years before the Civil War, in a small Washington farm college. Major Anderson led the grand opening starting with three veterans, inmates as they were originally called at the home; later changed to residents. And it was duly named the Anderson

Cottage, now called the Lincoln Cottage.

We are concerned that opponents of the AFRH master plan fail to understand the history and significance of this independent federal agency. AFRH is a prime example of the military taking care of its own.

This land was bought and paid for by our military service. It started more than

150 years ago. Sine that time AFRH has been

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147 self-sustaining through the enlisted and warrant officer program.

Paid deductions from all branches of the service, I have contributed to the AFRH trust fund every single pay period for 24 years. All of us pay a monthly user fee to live at the home. Not a penny of taxpayer money is used to finance AFRH.

This is a time-honored tradition we are proud to uphold. We have experienced substantial changes in home operation in recent years. As administration has cut cost and reduced the footprint to save resources.

We accept these changes, some of them difficult, required to bring the cost under control to ensure longevity in the future years of the home.

Despite the belt tightening, the

AFRH trust fund still does not have enough money to maintain and expand AFRH. Buildings and refurbishing. We see the need for renovation for the old buildings. Some

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148 buildings are over 155-years old. My room is so small it cannot even accept a double bed.

Costly improvements are needed to bring the home into compliance with the

Americans with Disability Act. We accept a tradeoff of development for capital improvement. The immediate things that require attention is: plumbing and heating.

It is old and has been around for decades.

In spite of these challenges, the staff and the residents are upbeat. They are looking forward to the future with the AFRH being a part of its growth and improvement.

Most of us spent our prime years in the service of our country. As career soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, we are proud of our military service. Part of the promise the military made to us was health and economic security in our golden years. We see the severely wounded young service men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. We want to be sure the home is still there for

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149 them when they are our age and need it. This will take a lot of money.

Some neighbors of AFRH want to take our land to create a public park for their use. The developer has, in parcel A, included 20 acres of open space for the community. We use parcel C now, and I thank you very much gentlemen for that.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, sir.

Esker McConnell.

MR. McCONNELL: Mr. Chairman and other members of the National Planning

Commission:

My name is Esker McConnell, a retired United States Army Sergeant 1st Class who served more than 22 years on active duty.

Today I serve as the chairman of the resident advisory council with the Armed

Forces Retirement Home, Washington, and I represent almost 1,200 members of the armed forces, some of whom are with us today.

Our residents represent all

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150 branches of the military, male and female; all races, creeds, colors and sexes. Our residents are representative of the American nation.

Most of us spent most of our productive years in the service of this nation, knowing that as we got older we would be provided for, our health care provided for, et cetera.

I could mention that we are an independent agency of the federal government, or that we receive no direct funding of any kind from the government, but those are known facts. I could recount the numerous military actions that past and current residents of our home have shed blood and lost limbs in, but I will not.

I could recount the numerous medals of the highest orders from both the

United States and foreign governments that our residents have been awarded; but I will not.

Instead I want to focus on the

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151 future, and those currently serving on active duty and those who will serve, who would be eligible for admittance to the Armed Forces

Retirement Home.

Many of these members would in the past not have survived the battlefield, but today they do survive. Many of these soldiers will require increased treatment and support throughout the remainder of their lives.

It would be nice to believe that all wounded soldiers could be cared for in their hometowns throughout their lives; that their families would be able to care for them; that their family life would remain as it is today.

But the history of the United

States has shown that after the first few years of support in the local community, that support drops off and many of those wounded soldiers will need a place such as the Armed

Forces Retirement Home to come to as they age, their family dies, or their health worsens.

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I'm here today to ask for your support of our master plan, a plan designed not only to protect the past but to provide for the future; a plan that offers not only working and living space, but also space for residents of the local community to utilize.

This plan would over its life provide the needed funds that the Armed Forces

Retirement Home needs to continue to honor those who have served in the military services of the United States.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

W.R. Kitson.

MR. KITSON: Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman, and members of this Commission.

I am W.R. Kit Kitson, and I am honored to stand before you today as a representative of the Armed Forces Retirement

Home.

I previously served as chairman of the residents advisory council for 15 months, and presently serve as the residents master

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153 planning committee, and a member of the homes bioethics council.

I enlisted in the military in

1951, deployed to Korea in 1952 during the

Cold War, and remained on active duty until

1978. When I joined the military our government made a promise that they would provide me with health care and a place to live.

I held up my end of the bargain, and just like every other active duty enlisted member, I contributed to the homes trust fund every single pay period of my 27 years of honorable active duty.

This is not just any retirement community or just any federal enclave. This is a safe haven for military retirees and combat veterans. Residents of the home are enlisted men and women who served in every conflict since World War II. They survived

Pearl Harbor attacks, landed at Normandy on D-

Day, served in Korea during the Cold War,

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154 which I did, fought the Viet Cong and served during Desert Storm.

Most of the residents made a career of the military as I did, and each of us pays a monthly users fee to live at the home.

There is a reason people refer to the home as the old soldiers home. More than half of the residents are over the age of 80.

A large number of residents experience difficulty walking, and fully 60 percent use a cane, wheelchair, walker, or battery powered vehicle just to get around the campus.

The Washington central parks people want to take more than 30 acres of our land and turn it into a public park. They claim it will be good for us. I respectfully disagree.

We use so-called parcel C everyday. We use the walking trails, two fishing ponds, golf course and driving range, garden plot, softball field, and picnic areas.

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These amenities enhance the quality of our lives, and we are able to take advantage of them because they are located in a controlled and safe environment.

The normal activities of a public park would pose a significant risk to the safety of many of our frail residents.

Residents could be easily injured, and frankly, most would not be able to use the proposed park.

One out of every five residents suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, also known as battle fatigue, an unforgettable legacy of combat service. They not only prefer the quiet and security of a gated community, but they need it for their peace of mind.

I appreciate the opportunity to express our views, and we respectfully would ask again that you support the Armed Forces home master plan without reservations.

I thank you.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Ellen McCarthy is up, and then following her is Sandra

Hoffman and Roland Bland.

MS. McCARTHY: Good afternoon, members of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen.

When I was a former commissioner on this body I remember attending my first retreat and being proud to find out the extent to which NCPC had created the wonderful set of open spaces along the George Washington

Parkway without which the city would be, and the perception of our nation's capital, would be so different.

And remembering that pride, I must say, I am disappointed in how endemic the EDR is with regard to its recommendations on Zone

C. This is not the Suitland Federal Center where we have to spend most of our time worrying about parking ratios or the FDA.

This is an incredible opportunity in terms of preserving open space and historic

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157 preservation for generations to come.

What I have passed out is just a quick summary of a few of the important elements of the federal elements of the comprehensive plan, and the D.C. elements, and then because three minutes isn't long, let me just particularly direct your attention to the beginning of the parks and open space element where it says, it is the goal of the federal government to preserve and enhance the parks and open space system in the national capital region and ensure that adequate resources are available for future generations.

And then to the second to the last one on page two from the D.C. comprehensive plan elements, which you know NCPC has a very important role in approving, that any future development of armed forces retirement home should be sensitive to and compatible with surrounding uses. It's critical that the west edge of the site be retained as open space with public access restored as it was when

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158 these neighborhoods were initially developed.

In the light of that I think it is very unrealistic to say, let's approve the master plan in total, and let's wait and deal with Zone C at some point in the future.

Because this is a private development, because it's not the Suitland Federal Center, it means that now is the time that one negotiates the package.

Crescent are private developers.

They are used in in any kind of major development of this sort providing a set of amenities commensurate with the density that is being provided. Now is the time you cut that deal. You don't authorize the development of Zone A and Zone B, and then say, at some point in the future, when you have received all the benefit from this, we might come back and want to talk about you dedicating C as park land. We know the

National Park Service is short of resources.

We know the District is short of resources.

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If we don't negotiate this open space as part and parcel of the deal, and maybe it means reducing some of the open space in Zone A, unless we look at this plan as a whole, we can't make those kinds of tradeoffs.

I think it's premature to proceed with the approval of the plan. I urge NCPC to give this more consideration before approving the rest of the plan with these fairly anemic conditions with regard to C.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Sandra Hoffman representing

Petworth & Columbia Heights Neighborhood

Association.

And after her is Roland Bland, and following that is Mary Pat Rowan.

MS. HOFFMAN: My name is Sandra

Hoffman. I'm representing Petworth & Columbia

Heights residents concerned, and we are concerned about maintaining the livability of this portion of the city for all residents,

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160 ourselves as well as those on the Armed Forces

Retirement Home campus.

I'd just like to say that this isn't really a veterans versus a residents issue. It's an issue about making this part of the city livable and safe for everyone involved.

My uncle was a veteran of World

War II. He lost a leg in the Italian campaign. He was cared for well in both his physical and mental disabilities through the

Veterans Administration which has a modern funding mechanism that does not rely on neighborhoods to support veterans through bad planning ideas.

We have members in our association who are members who are residents at the Armed

Forces Retirement Home. What we are trying to do - what we have been trying to do from the beginning is to find something that makes this work for everyone, and we do not believe that what is being proposed by the Armed Forces

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Retirement Home will work for the city, its residents, and in the long term, for the members - for the residents at the Armed

Forces Retirement Home as well.

I want to talk today particularly about the history of the site. What I think often people fail to understand is the significance of this place as part of the

District of Columbia, and its significance as an open space element in the whole city.

It has been that since almost the beginning of the home being formed. I have given you written testimony that details this, but I want to mention a few highlights of this.

In the 1860s when Major Mitchler, the army engineer who was helping - who was working on the design of the District, was surveying possible sites - this is in the

1860s - possible sites for the White House, he

- and for parks - he identified both Rock

Creek Park and also identified the Soldiers

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Home area as an area for the White House because of its ornamented grounds and the importance that it was beginning to play as open space for the District.

By the 1870s Harpers Weekly talks of the addition of the Corcoran property to the home as being a source of great delight, not only to the soldier wards of the government but to the public generally. And later in the 1880s Harpers Weekly again - remember, this is a New York magazine - talks of soldiers home in the same breath as they talk of Arlington as being two of the major historic sites and recreational prizes of the city that visitors to the city must come and see.

The Washington Star writes in

1886, to the citizen of Washington, nothing can be a source of greater pride and pleasure than our beautiful soldiers home. It is much more than a home for veterans; it is a beautiful pleasure ground for the city, and

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163 one which can be enjoyed by everybody. It will compare favorably with the parks of our larger sister cities.

The MacMillan Plan in 1902 then was effectively confirming the role that the soldiers home property had played in the structure of the city for at least 40 years, and it identified soldiers home along with

Rock Creek Park as two of the most beautiful places of recreation lying within the principal residence district of the city.

Its purpose in its plan was not to identify this as a new park area, but to find ways to enhance it, to enhance it by connection to the MacMillan Reservoir, and that connectivity remains an important element in the federal elements of the plan, which we urge you to remember and to consider in this decision.

It is important to remember, I think, the role of both the army and the army as a planner in the city, that throughout much

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164 of the history of the city, this city has been run by a federal board, much of which was under army control. The army office of engineers developed the extension of the

L'Enfant plan into the rest of the city; planted the neighborhoods around soldiers home, which at that time was a 502-acre area that was used for joint purposes of veterans home and recreation grounds to serve the

District.

So the city has always had to function under constraints, under space constraints. And I think that the views of the - the approach of the Army engineers in the 19th century and the first half of this century are a wise idea, that in constrained places we have to share space. And one of the ways in which this has functioned is as a shared space for the District and the army veterans.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

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165

Mary Pat Rowan? Oh, we went?

Okay. Then Timothy Jones, ANC 4C 08.

MR. BLAND: Chairman Cogbill,

Commissioners, NCPC, my name is Ronald Bland.

I live at 1605 Buchanan Street, Northwest, in

Ward #4. I have lived at that address for the last 39 years.

I also should mention that I am an

ANC commissioner, ANC 4C, but I will not be speaking on behalf of the 4C commission.

I refer you to my public statement dated April 13, 2008, and delivered at the public meeting on April 14 regarding the master plan. My comments in the public statement accurately reflect and set forth my concerns about this proposed master plan. I simply would like to amplify on what has already been stated.

From the outset the master plan has been promoted as a means of providing the

AFRH with a stable revenue stream now and in the future. The motto was, protecting a

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166 promise, renewing the trust. Based on what we now know about the cursory revenue protections from Zone A, the master plan if fully implemented over the next 15 years in all probability will not satisfy the future financial needs of the home.

This plan without implementation of additional financial options will not fully protect the promise of renew the trust.

In the meantime 125 acres of land, the most valuable asset of the home, will be leased for development and not utilized as it's intended purpose as an asylum for retired and enlisted military personnel.

It should also be noted that the residents of the home according to their spokespersons would refer not to have any portion of the campus developed.

As far as considering other financial options, I see no reason why the home with community support could not petition

Congress for changes in the laws that restrict

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167 the home's investment opportunities or restrict the home's ability to accept donations or conduct capital fund programs to fix the capital investment.

From a historical standpoint Zones

B and C deserve special consideration. This campus serves as a gateway to the Lincoln

Cottage. The Lincoln Cottage currently is a national museum, and it is being used as such.

The vista leading up to the college is essentially unchanged from

President Lincoln's time. This serene setting provides the ambience for the cottage and its historical significance.

It should also be remembered that

President Lincoln was not the only president to use the AFRH campus as a summer retreat.

Presidents Buchanan, Hayes and Arthur escaped the Washington summer heat by retreating to the home grounds.

This history of this area begs to be left untouched.

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It is my view that Zones B and C should not be developed based on the historical significance of the grounds.

Chairman Cogbill, NCPC commissioners, I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much, Mr. Bland.

Next is Mary Pat Rowan, then

Timothy Jones and Reyn Anderson.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: No, ma'am, I do have someone speaking on her behalf later.

So thank you.

Timothy Jones speaking on behalf of ANC 4C08.

MR. JONES: Excuse me, while I stack arms and come to attention.

Good afternoon, Chairman Cogbill and other commissioners present. My name is

Timothy A. Jones, and I am the advisory neighborhood commissioner for ANC 4C08, an advisory neighborhood commission that borders

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169 the U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home, and a single member district in close proximity to the borders of the U.S. Armed Forces

Retirement Home.

As ANC commissioner I have been a dedicated and a diligent participate in the

U.S. Armed Forces development process. Also as a son of a now-deceased army officer who was a three-war veteran I spent the early and formative years of my life on military institutions, which allowed me to bring a special sensitivity to this project. For the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home have felt like home, and the residents I have met and engaged in conversation like family and friend.

I am justly proud to be here this afternoon representing the 4C advisory neighborhood commission, a commission that has been in the vanguard of working to create a win-win situation for the community and the home; a commission that has passed resolutions

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170 as early as 2006 opposing proposed master plan, and insisting that the master plan as fully approved, must, one: urging that the district and federal elected officials work with ARFH to examine means to meet the U.S.

ARFH financial needs that provide realistic alternatives to development of a critical element of the District's system of public space and historically priceless resources.

In making my testimony I will draw upon a memorable conversation that I had with a resident of the home. I put it in verse form, and the verse goes as follows:

I entitled it: U.S. Armed Forces

Retirement Home Blues.

Welcome. Glad that you're here.

You could look to the left, you could look to the right, but don't you look straight ahead because you are not going out that way.

Now that the right is filling up and the left is closing in and you can't go out the front way, you still can't look

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171 straight ahead and go out straight because the

GI bill ain't the same.

Now that the right is filling up and the left is coming - closing you in, where will others say?

So I hope when the final refrains of taps are played that history will find me on the right side of this process, which will best be a win-win situation for both the home and the community.

And I will end my remarks with that, thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

Reyn Anderson representing

Washington central parks, and then Mr. Robert

Zeiller.

MS. ANDERSON: Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to speak here today.

Washington central parks is here

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172 to day to ask that you approve the NCPC executive director's recommendations with respect to Zone C. Specifically we request that you direct the AFRH to work with the D.C. council, mayor's office, National Park

Service, and any other interested federal agencies and entities to ensure that Zone C is preserved in perpetuity as and opened as park to the public.

As you know, as you have all seen this poster before, some of you more than once, the Washington Central Parks' vision is an interconnected series of parks and trails running from Ft. Totten through parts of the soldiers home along the western perimeter now known as Zones B and C in the master plan, and down to the MacMillan Reservoir and filtration field, thereby connecting neighborhoods across three city wards, and also the entire north central part of the city to the larger regional of parks and open space.

In pursuing this vision, as it

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173 relates to the soldiers home, Washington

Central Parks is guided by several principles.

The first is to preserve in perpetuity, again, in perpetuity, important historic and national resources on the AFRH campus for the continued use and benefit for veteran residents.

We want to make sure that Zone C is around not just 15 years from now, but well beyond that time when none of us here in this room any more.

We also want to engage with current and future generations of AFRH veteran residents to ensure their comfort and security in the continued use of Zone C, and to provide the amenities and uses of the land compatible with the veterans' needs and wants.

We also intend to compensate the home for the use and acquisition of its land to work with all the available resources, federal, district and private, to ensure that money is put into the home's trust fund now

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174 that it can invest and use going forward to ensure, as part of our fourth principle, that it will bring - that there will be greater national recognition and appreciation for the

AFRH's important historical significance to our nation, and also to ensure that it continues to operate as a veterans' retirement home for many generations to come.

The Washington Central Park

Division is as you have already heard really a renewal of the MacMillan Plan's historic vision for parks and open space for this part of the city, and more recently aligns with this Commission's capital space initiative, as well as numerous policies in the 2004 federal elements comprehensive plan. And I'd like to quote a couple of those here now.

For instance this plan - this

Commission's federal elements plan states, among its policies, that the federal government - and that includes the AFRH - should maintain and conserve federal open

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175 space as a means of shaping and enhancing urban areas. The federal government should preserve open space that is crucial to determine quality of life of a neighborhood.

And also that federal government should conserve portions of military reservations that add significantly to the inventory of park open space and natural areas, and should to the extent practicable be used by the public for recreation.

In preserving Zone C and opening it to the public as a park, it is crucial to the long-term quality of life of the surrounding neighborhoods. These are among the city's most densely populated, with the lowest per capita access to park space in the city.

Zone C is also a critical component, a lynch pin, in the connected parks and open space system. This parks and open space system is crucial to the long term quality of life in the neighborhood, and it

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176 will be crucial to attracting new residents to the area, including those into the proposed development of Zone A.

And finally the soldiers home, as a whole - since it's inception - has been a part of the inventory of park open space and natural areas used by the public for recreation. Until at least the late 1960s the home left its gates open for pedestrians to enter the campus and share in what the

Commission of Fine Arts has called the spectacular physical resource in the city.

We are asking the home to share again. Under the policies guiding this

Commission the home has a responsibility to do so. Unlike the past we are not asking for a free ride. We will work to ensure that any public use of Zone C will put money in the homes trust fund today.

And thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Mr. Robert Zeiller followed by

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177

Paul Prideaux, and then followed by Victoria

Leonard Chambers on behalf of Councilmember

Harry Thomas, Jr.

MR. ZEILLER: Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman and Commissioners.

I am Robert Zeiller, the regional vice president for Crescent Resources, LLC.

We are the selected developer for Zone A of the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

On behalf of our entire development team we are honored to be a part of this important project with an even more important mission. Today represents the culmination of years of planning, negotiation and collaboration. We now look forward to beginning the process of implementation. We thank Mr. Cox, the home's development team, and most importantly, the residents for entrusting us to be the steward of their land.

Crescent Resources was founded nearly 40 years ago by Duke Energy on the guiding principles of community development

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178 and environmental stewardship. It was largely for those reasons that our team was attracted to this opportunity. To us this opportunity represents an opportunity to create a significant urban mixed-use development that capitalizes on the strength of the medical area and complements the surrounding neighborhoods, an opportunity to create a special place on a truly magnificent site with rich history and an abundance of natural resources, an opportunity to further implement our sustainable development objectives and stewards for natural resources, and an opportunity where the success and revenue is put to a most noble cause, the long term care of our nation's heroes.

We are particularly proud of this master plan because it truly represents a collaboration from a host of stakeholders, from the National Park Service to the National

Trust, the Office of Planning, the state preservation officer, and NCPC, we are

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179 confident that this plan reflects the interest of all those parties.

I'd like to highlight a few of the key elements of this plan.

The plan provides significant neighborhood retail opportunities to both residents, tenants and the surrounding neighborhoods.

The plan provides significant live, work and play opportunities that are in dire need for the hospital complex.

And the plan is flexible and able to respond to changing market conditions. The plan encourages mass transit, and employees aggressive transportation management strategies.

The plan creates a vibrant new publicly accessible open space with connection points to surrounding neighborhoods directly as a result of their request.

This will be an asset to the greater community.

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As you heard from Mr. Keller's comments in his presentation there was considerable dialogue regarding parking. We are pleased to report that the parties have reached an agreement and we thank the agencies in particular, NCPC, the Office of Planning, and the department of transportation, for working responsibly to reach that compromise.

It is absolutely critical that we balance the market demands for parking, particularly with heavy medical office use.

We look forward to working with the city, the

Office of Planning, and the department of transportation to further study demands for medical office, and being a part of the solution for the regional challenge of enhancing public transportation.

Thank you for this opportunity, and I hope you find our plan compelling and vote to advance the master plan that positions us for developing a successful mixed use community for our veterans.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, sir.

Paul Prideaux.

MR. PRIDEAUX: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

My comments have been well covered by the recent speaker, Mr. Robert Zeiller, so

I would like to forfeit my time to other speakers today.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

Victoria Leonard-Chambers on behalf of Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr.

MS. LEONARD-CHAMBERS: Hi, I'm

Vicky Leonard-Chambers, and I'm here to read a statement on behalf of Ward #5 Councilmember

Harry Thomas, Jr.

I would like to begin - excuse me,

I would like to confirm my support for the

Armed Forces Retirement Home master plan. It is my understanding that this master plan represents the culmination of more than three

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182 years of market research, planning, community meetings, stakeholder consultations, and negotiations between Crescent and the Veterans representatives of the U.S. Armed Forces retirement home.

As planned this exciting development will be of significant benefit to our country's service veterans, the residents of my ward, and the citizens of the District of Columbia.

The plan is responsive to the needs of the Ward #5 residents and includes numerous community benefits. In particular the plan includes more than 20 acres of publicly accessible open space with walking and bike trails.

The plan includes a mix of uses, including convenient community oriented retail and hotel and meeting facility. The developer's commitment to sustainable development principles could be a model for the District and the region for years to come.

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183

The plan also provides new permanent and temporary jobs, new affordable housing opportunities and will utilize LSDBE and CBE organizations.

The plan capitalizes on its strategic location directly adjacent to the

District's largest concentration of hospitals to create a destination life sciences zone.

The creation of this zone will enable the expansion of the hospital facilities and the enhancement of the District's health care services.

It is my understanding that the city and the developer have reached a compromise that provides adequate parking to support medical uses. I am encouraged by this recent dialogue. I am confident that together we can make Ward #5 the District of Columbia's premier community in which to live, work and play.

We are excited about the Armed

Forces Retirement Home project, and we look

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184 forward to seeing this project approved as proposed in the master plan.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Miriam Markowitz and then followed by Michael Walker and Patricia Froehle.

MS. MARKOWITZ: Miriam Markowitz,

Children's National Medical Center.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission. I am Miriam

Markowitz, director of planning for Children's

National Medical Center.

Founded in 1870, Children's

National was a 283-bed not-for-profit academic medical center devoted solely to meeting children's health care needs.

The hospital was a multi story facility located a little more than a quarter mile from the Armed Forces Retirement Home project.

Children's National was very interested in this exciting project, and we are eager to see the AFRH site developed in a

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185 manner that meets the needs of the community, the AFRH tenants, the city and the businesses in the area.

For our part we have immediate need for expansion of administrative medical office space, for research and outpatient clinical space.

Children's National is landlocked, and we've hit the maximum legal square footage permitted under our zoning allowances. We strongly believe that with the three other hospitals located on the same campus, adding clinical research and admin space at the AFRH site would be a natural extension of this academic and life science hub in the

Northwest.

We understand that a compromise has been reached that will provide parking for medical uses that assign three spaces per

1,000 square feet which is a current standard and minimum for us when we look for places to provide services.

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186

Let me explain why parking is so critical to our institution. Children's

National was a regional center for pediatric care. And as we draw patients from throughout

Maryland and Virginia, as well as children from nearly every state in the union and internationally, as the metropolitan region grows, so does the demand for our highly specialized care.

We're responded by building eight regional outpatient centers around the beltway to ease traffic at the main campus and to better accommodate families' needs.

We have built five centers located in the District, and a mobile medical unit to take care of the community. But there are many services that simply must be provided at or in close proximity to the campus.

To accommodate patient volume and demand for clinical space and parking limitations, we've moved many non-clinical departments to off site locations scattered

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187 through the city and into Maryland.

The departments that moved off site freed parking spots at the main campus, but still we have families and visitors who drive through our parking garage for 20 minutes looking for space.

We spend millions of dollars annually for off site staff parking at South

Dakota and Massachusetts Avenues, and shuttle services to and from these locations and to

Metro locations.

Additionally we make pre-tax Metro cards available to all staff. Still we must stack park at least 300 cars on a daily basis at our facility. Our parking situation is critical, and is a real hindrance to expansion of programs at the main campus.

We respect the Commission's desire to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in our nation's capital, but I ask you to keep this in mind. We currently handle more than

100,000 outpatient visits per year at our

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188 campus, and our ED serves more than 71,000 visits per year.

Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to a positive response to the proposal.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, ma'am.

Michael Walker.

MR. WALKER: Good afternoon,

Commissioner, Mr. Chairman.

Mike Walker, Charter Development.

I'm here today wearing two hats. I want to speak to you about the Armed Forces Retirement

Home development first as a United States Air

Force Academy graduate, decorated combat pilot and current Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel.

I stand in front of you humbled by the sacrifices of the retired and disabled vets living at the Armed Forces Retirement

Home, as well as those who one day may live at the home.

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189

This property is one of the few remaining revenue generating assets available to the home. As such this property must be able to generate the maximum financial return and to continue its critical mission of serving our disabled and retired veterans.

Any reduction in scope and scale of this development will have a direct negative impact on those folks.

This development contains a new

100-bed transitional facility for our veterans at risk. Our veterans are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, and we must do everything we can to support these men and women.

This facility will be a state of the art building with living facilities, as well as classrooms and meeting space for on site supportive and counseling services, including job counseling, with the goal of helping veterans become self sufficient.

As you consider each element of

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190 this master plan I ask you to remember, this development is about the veterans and for the veterans, and maximizing the financial returns to the home is the least we can do to honor their legacy.

The second hat I wear is that of

CEO of Trident Development, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in the District of Columbia certified business entity.

We are lucky and fortunate enough to be a strategic partner of Crescent

Resources. Crescent Resources provided the opportunity to develop our management, financial and construction management resources on a large public-private partnerships.

Crescent has cultivated the development and capacity of Trijan, our equity funds and affiliate, for the purpose of turning Trijan into a regional developer.

As I flew in this morning on the red eye from Las Vegas, I was attending a

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191

National Veterans Business Conference. And I was amazed by the buzz in that community about this development and the opportunities providing for service-disabled vet owned companies, small businesses in the local area to participate in a project like this.

In partnership with Crescent

Resources, Trijan Development, our equity partner, will bring 20 percent of the funding for this project.

We believe that our relationship with Crescent really marks the beginning, the platinum standard in the area of small business partnering, the historic nature of this project, and the inclusion of service- disabled veteran owned business and CBEs as a development and equity partner, it will set the bar and become the model for future federal and District of Columbia projects.

I also have with me a letter signed by the National Association of Black

Veterans, the veterans group, and Veterans

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192

Affairs Committee of the NAACP supporting this effort.

If I could get this in the record somehow, I would like that.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: If you could just give it to the secretary, and we'll have that included in the record.

Thank you very much.

Patricia Froehle, John Huges, and then Tanya Topolewski.

MS. FROEHLE: Good afternoon. I'm

Patricia Froehle. I'm a resident of Ward #4.

I live about six blocks from the old soldiers home.

And no doubt there is a lot of anxiety among the residents, because they deserve to have a place to stay. And no doubt that Crescent Partners has done a good on creating the development plan.

But aside from improvements that the veterans need, this space is sacred space, and they've seen it reduced already a number

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193 of years ago. So I think it's an abomination that we are doing any development on this space at all.

I want to read something from one of the veterans who is a resident of the home.

In movies we admired infantryman calmly assessing his next course of action as a machine gun rakes his position, or a tail gunner firing back and cursing an oncoming enemy fighter with its guns blazing away.

But America's moviegoers seem to have the impression it was people like John

Wayne who performed these feats. In reality it was these 80-year-old men that I associate with at the home here everyday.

The Iraqi war is going to produce combat veterans. Those years and extensions in an environment where dear life itself depends on critically assessing the actions of every moving person or thing in their proximity are going to exact a terrible psychological toil requiring extensive

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194 treatment.

Should some of those veterans elect to come to this home, first, it should be here for them in its entirety; second, they should be able to feel that they have not been sent to a jail without walls. They will need the freedom to roam these grounds. Hopefully someday a psychologist will come to the same conclusion as that of this layman and advance a theory that one of the most significant contributors to an unintimidating atmosphere is personal space.

We will not likely see better candidates for space therapy than combat veterans from our current war should they elect to come to soldiers home to live; the land and facilities should be here to accommodate them.

If we don't protect Zone C from development, what happens to those vets? What happens to the Iraqi and Afghan vets when they come back? If that land is able to be

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195 developed in 15 years, what will be left for them in a space that should be theirs?

The military, I don't think, and the government is not doing its duty in funding the old soldiers' home. The FRH, there is the ability to take $2 a month out of active duty personnel's paychecks for the home, and that is not - right now it's only 50 cents. There are revenue streams that should be investigated including public funding.

I personally would support my tax dollars going to the home. But if the only way we can protect that land from being developed is to keep it in perpetuity as open space, then we should do that.

And I firmly recommend that the

Commission do so.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

John Hughes.

MR. HUGHES: Hello, my name is John

Hughes. I'm a resident of the Park View

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196 neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

I just wanted to make a couple of clarifications. Mr. Cox talked about the need to keep Zone C available for residents, and he's correct. The residents hike in Zone C.

They go in the gardens of Zone C. Sometimes we see them across the fence, and we give them a wave, and they wave back.

What you are being asked to approve by the home I think is about 750,000 square feet of condos for Zone C. You are not being asked to approve garden plots and hiking.

What Mr. Cox's plan says is that if we need the money we want to put 750,000 square feet of condos in that space. What the community has said is, if you need the money could se consider keeping the space open for residents to continue using, because you can't plant a garden in a condo, you can't hike across the condo, but could we keep the space available for veterans and the citizens,

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197 assuming that you get paid compensated for that land, not one dollar less than you would get for condos.

So I want to end this idea that this is a taking somehow of residents' land.

The only taking going on is the giving away of land for condos and buildings for Crescent

Resources to construct. They get the money, but they are giving up space.

The option we are talking about here allows them to keep space and get the money, if that is possible, why wouldn't they consider that?

Mr. Cox has refused to consider it in the almost four years we have been working with him. The NCPC staff recommendation says you know what, we should at least look at this. You are not saying no to development in

Zone C. All you are saying is, we should look at if there is another way. If you think that you have been handed a report that assesses whether a park is possible for Zone C, look

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198 through the thousands of pages in the EIS.

See if there is anything, if there has been any assessment done on keeping that as park.

It hasn't. This has been a plan from day one for condominiums in Zone C.

We ask that you consider - just consider - the possibility that it could be something different, a place where we could all come together, veterans, neighbors, visitors to the Lincoln Cottage. People from all over the world come to something called

Emancipation National Park. That's a vision we should at least consider, and if we find out that it just doesn't work - the city, the

National Park Service, if they all come back and say, we can't do it, then let's come back here and put up those condos. But let's at least look at it, and that's what you are being asked to do today.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, sir.

(Sprinkling of applause)

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Wait, wait, wait, that's not appropriate. Thank you very much. I don't want to gavel anybody out of this room.

Just to comment, what we are proposing, or what the NCPC is proposing, is deferral of any proposed development on Zone

C, and then goes on to propose discussions between the AFRH and the community and that's all set out in about eight different standards, and I guess objectives, as part of that deferral recommendation for Zone C.

Am I correct?

All right, we'll move on to Tanya

Topolewski, then Joe Prosser and then Matt

Bell.

MS. TOPOLEWSKI: Thank you very much, Commissioners, for hearing all of our testimony today, and including it in your decision making.

I want to start by saying that pointing to Chair Cogbill's vision that is

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200 clearly stated on the NCPC website, that the commissioners work to preserve iconic buildings and public spaces, for those who reside in the city and for the millions who visit to make this an inspiring but livable space.

The staff of your organization has come together to actually implement a process to preserve a fabulous open space area, the soldiers home. They have worked very diligently to come up with a process where something can be saved, something can be preserved, and that would be Zone C.

I want to look at this in terms of what are the benefits for the home in preserving for Zone C. Because everybody talks about this issue very emotionally. It's a hugely emotionally charged issue for many people; but in actuality it gets to be very simple. What the people are asking for you to do, what their staff is asking for you to do, is to change one use on the property. Change

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201 one use on Zone C, take one change, and reap enormous benefits.

That change in use is changing from placing residential development on Zone C and actually make the use a park. Nothing else changes. The home will still be compensated for their land. We want to compensate them. We want them to flourish and to thrive.

We also want NCPC to fulfill its mission of making a - preserving unique spaces. And this compromise about Zone C will achieve that.

I want to cover five things that the home will achieve if they actually compromise on Zone C. One is financial compensation for the land in the same level as they would get if they actually were to develop it as condominiums as my friend, John, said.

Second, park and open space preserved in perpetuity, that they do not have

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202 now. There is no moratorium set on Zone C for development. It's only a statement; it's not a moratorium as far as I understand.

Historic preservation in perpetuity of a unique quality that exists in the capital region. Part of NCPC's goal is to create, preserve those spaces, those unique spaces, that make this a place to live, a place to be, and a place to actually keep its stature as a capital that is worth visiting, worth living in; keeping that level high.

Third, one of the things that - I will say this very quickly - Washington

Central Park can do two things: be a fundraising partner for the home, that is not something that the home has the ability to do.

And also they can leverage us to get through their approvals.

So there are lots of ways that we are a benefit to the home.

Thank you very much, and I hope that you consider my thoughts.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Joe Prosser followed by Matt Bell.

MR. PROSSER: Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for the ability to speak here today. I really just have a couple of small but important points that I'd like to make.

First is that the national average for the quantity of available parkland in city, in the top 55 cities in the United

States, is about eight acres per 1,000 residents.

The areas in D.C. that's in between the red line and 16th Street over by

Rock Creek Park has about 1.9 acres per 1,000 residents, which is a grossly underserved area of the District in terms of available open space and parkland.

Nobody here I think questions the patriotism or the sacrifice of all the people that serve our country, and nobody is

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204 questioning the need for sustainable income to make sure that that is preserved forever, that ability to have a comfortable place after going through such hardship.

And nobody is even proposing any taking of any land in any way.

All that is being proposed here is essentially the consideration of alternative uses, and when it comes to uses, as far as I understand, the master plan that was submitted and up for approval has a fence in between the residents area and where Zone C is. And so if that ends up being the case then the access to

Zone C really is limited by that fence. And so I don't quite understand the difference here; they would still own the land regardless. It's a matter of use, like John said. Is it condos, or is it park?

With such a great benefit on the side of the park space helping a major underserved portion of the city, and with the ability to generate income from that somehow,

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205 and I think some of these - there are enough smart people in this room to figure out how to make that park generate income.

The other point I'd like to make is in response to some of the earlier statements about the parkland or the open space within Zone A, the master plan. I understand that that is some compromise, but if you look at the access to that, it really does not serve the purpose of serving this area that we talked about between the red line and 16th Street.

The access to that park can easily be within just a few blocks from where the border to the home is, can be up to a mile walk just to get to that park, and so if you see this park as serving the community, really, it's mean to serve, if you look at the plan, people who live in that locality that surrounds that park.

So with these two points what I would hope is that the Commissioners stick

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206 with the recommendations of the executive board.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

Matt Bell. Lori Hafverstein, followed by Sheila Gudiswitz.

MS. HAFVENSTEIN: My name is Lori

Hafvenstein. And I'm a homeowner in the park view neighborhood adjacent to this proposed development.

I am sincerely to the NCPC for the opportunity to comment on the plan that you are being asked to approve today, a development plan that will forever and inalterably change the city.

This is a responsibility that I know you all take very seriously. Your stated mission after all is to develop planning policies and make decisions that protect and enhance the extraordinary historical, cultural and natural resources of the nation's capital.

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Today you are being asked to do what to me seems unthinkable - approve a plan to turn previous parkland surrounding a national historic monuments into condominiums, offices and parking lots.

Were it not for what appear to be dire circumstances for the veterans whose dedication and service has allowed this nation to remain a free one, I'm sure that it would not even be considered.

And I am honored to be in the presence of those veterans today.

There is every reason to believe that this community and the affiliated organizations working with the AFRH can come up with a win-win proposal, for the soldiers home, the community, the District of Columbia, and the nation.

It is possible to develop and implement a plan that assures the financial well-being of the home while protecting this precious green space.

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This community has tried without success for more than four years to engage the home's management in conversation. And we now must put that decision in your hands.

We are asking you to do everything you can to prevent development for zone C and frankly B, and we ask your help in facilitating a collaboration between the AFRH and the community of organizations with the goal of creating a better plan, one that provides both for the soldiers and preserves their historic green space.

I have faith that this planning commission, one that aspires to creative and visionary planning, that builds on the nation's rich cultural heritage, will surely find a way to preserve the integrity of this historic property to inspire generations now and into the future in the world's most magnificent capital.

Thank you for much for hearing my testimony.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Sheila Gudiswitz, followed by

Antoinette Barksdale, followed by Cliff

Valenti.

MS. GUDISWITZ: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm here as an avid cyclist and a D.C. resident.

I have been living fortunately within a five-minute bike ride from Rock Creek for the past eight years, and I have a few times had to go east from there and dare I say it's quite precarious.

Since I have been a bicyclist all my life, I will ride in places that other people consider risking life and limb. I found it somewhat thrilling to actually go on the cloverleaf by Irving to North Capitol. I didn't know that that was how I was going to have to make that access. So I am ecstatic that there are bike paths that can circumvent some of these things, and I will not have to do that again, even though that was a little

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210 fun, because you only see them on highways normally.

But there is still a lot of disconnect for a cyclist or anyone else who is not in a vehicle and is trying to get to the other side of some other area of the armed forces retirement home.

Particularly I guess for me, when

I just kind of look at a larger map I see a fair amount of green space to the north.

There are a couple of grave yards and Ft.

Totten that it would be fantastic if there was actually full connection up through to get to those parks. I didn't realize the graveyard is not a park. But as a cyclist it's very nice just to have some trees on the side of you for a change rather than buildings encroaching upon you. So being able to cut through in those areas would be fantastic, and as a D.C. resident I can appreciate, it can connect to the other efforts that the District is making to have more bike lanes, more bike

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211 paths, and for that area there are only houses.

I feel quite privileged to live near Rock Creek Park. I go most Saturdays and

Sundays. I can spend quite some time under the trees, and the residents who live east of me do not have that luxury. It's quite a privilege, which I do appreciate, so I would hope that you would expand the bicycling area on the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

I have only once been on the Armed

Forces Retirement Home lands, to visit the

Lincoln Cottage; it's absolutely beautiful.

And I think more people would appreciate that and become aware of the retirees' needs if the land was integrated more into our lives as

D.C. residents. But right now it's this isolated place; before being invited to go see the Lincoln Cottage, I did not even know there was an Armed Forces Retirement Home there at all. I had been here eight years; never heard of it.

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And I think it would benefit the retirees to be a little bit more connected to the neighborhoods, and also as there are younger non-retirees but veterans who are moving in, that they would probably even more so appreciate having closer connections to the community.

So with that, all the best.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

Antoinette Barksdale.

MS. BARKSDALE: Good afternoon,

Chairman Cogbill, and NCPC Commissioners.

I'm Antoinette Barksdale, and I'm a resident of the Petworth area. And I stand before you as a resident, and I ask that Zone

C be preserved for parkland.

The grounds of the home have historically been accessible to the community and provided much needed open and recreational space that has been cherished by the residents. There have been many articles

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213 submitted to you that evidence the issue of keeping the home accessible dating back to the

1950s through the 1970s.

Moreover there are residents in the audience here that have come to show that they personally played on the grounds and have enjoyed playing on the grounds, and can evidence that it was open access well into the

1960s and 1970s.

And at this time we would like for some of the residents to please stand, raise your hand, who are supporting this parkland, and we appreciate you coming out. Thank you so much.

There are also letters that we've submitted, and I think you mentioned Mr.

Grayson Dixon's letter.

And I'd also like to read a letter, a few excerpts from a letter from

James Tolliver.

Dear Commissioners: Please do not let more open space be lost on the soldiers

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214 home campus. I am a lifelong resident of the

District, and have seen this magnificent property repeatedly whittled away through my lifetime.

It is time to stop this before this city and this country lose this beautiful gem in our nation's capital.

I have fond memories of spending time on the old soldiers home campus as a child. I understand that there is a plan for very large scale development along North

Capitol side of the soldiers home campus. I do not see how the transportation system can accommodate this. The streets are narrow and not made for this kind of traffic. They are already extremely congested. I do not see how a much larger development can be accommodated without the transportation system breaking down.

I understand that the District residents have been working to support the idea of the District comprehensive plan. I

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215 now live in the Columbia Heights. It is particularly important for Columbia Heights residents that the open space at the corner of

Kenya and Irvin Streets and Park Place, NW, be part of this park system. This is only six blocks from the heart of Columbia Heights in the most direct route into the corridor of this park and open space.

Columbia Heights has been one very small playground type park. This is not adequate for its growing population.

So in wrapping this up I'd like to say that the community is asking for access that has historically had and been denied only in recent years.

Thank you so much.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you. And you do make me realize, and I did not announce this before, but I do have Mr. Tolliver's letter.

MS. BARKSDALE: Oh great, thank you.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We all have it at our place, as well as a letter from Mr.

Hughes, John Hughes, and finally, a statement submitted by Richard Howton. So that is all in our place.

MS. BARKSDALE: Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you for pointing that out.

Cliff Valenti on behalf of the

Parkview United Neighborhood Coalition.

He will be followed by Dennis

Pullin.

MR. VALENTI: Hi, hello.

My name is Cliff Valenti. And I'm president of the Parkview United Neighborhood

Coalition, a registered 501(c)(3) civic organization dedicated to the improvement of

Parkview.

Our recent accomplishments include planning over 40 trees in the Parkview and

Petworth neighborhoods, and getting resources and support in cleaning up the Parkview

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Recreation Center.

I have submitted written testimony stating the UNC's position twice. The organization unanimously voted to oppose the development plans of the AFRH unless Zone C and Zone B are submitted as publicly accessible green space.

The ANC 01 has also submitted a similar resolution.

I would like to express my personal views, and I would also like to note that those trees we planted were in that little space between the sidewalk and the street, and at the little traffic triangles that exist at the what used to be publicly accessible entrances to the Armed Forces

Retirement Home. That's all we have.

On the website for NCPC it states:

NCPC helps ensure that Washington remains one of the most admired capitals in the world. I ask you to examine whether or not a plan that advocates for development so close to the

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Lincoln Cottage, Rock Creek Ceremony, and is historically respected for a multitude of reasons, whether that respects this vision.

Additionally this land has been used for agricultural recreation by the soldiers for decades, and we would like it to remain that way; and as green space to the neighboring communities.

Isn't this an opportunity to reopen what was once considered publicly accessible, what the community really needs for sustainability?

Additionally I ask you to examine if you really believe there is no other way the home can reach their financial goals.

This is a question I feel like has not been adequately addressed. Does the - the sale of that land permanently alters the historical site. Five hundred years from now that land will still be there because of Lincoln's

Cottage and everything else. We need to consider that.

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According to the newspaper of the

Armed Forces Retirement Home, called

Lighthouse, the veterans do not believe this is the case either. And I would like to submit this to you all so that you can read their letters that they have submitted within their own internal newspaper.

I sincerely feel this plan does not respect the stated goals of the National

Capital Planning Commission, and I urge you to support park space on Zone C and B.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Dennis Pullin.

MR. PULLIN: Good afternoon.

My name is Dennis Pullin. I am the chief operating officer of the Washington

Hospital Center.

The Washington Hospital Center is one of three Medstar Health hospitals here in the District.

The Washington Hospital Center is

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220 the city's largest hospital employing well over 6,000 employees. We also cater roughly to about 2,000 patients and visitors on a typical workday.

Our primary concern is the effective delivery of quality health care to the public. Ease of access to our facility by our employees, our visitors and our patients are major concerns.

And our planning for existing and future facilities, we have considered carefully not only our own access needs but potential impact on the local area transportation system as well.

Our institution recognized the urban setting in which we are located, and the fact that the city has limited large tracts of land for development. We also fully understand and support the concept of development on the Armed Forces Retirement

Home site.

The Commission's record will show

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221 that the Washington Hospital Center supplied oral and written testimony as far back as 2005 supporting development on this site. However, without careful planning this could significantly impact the functioning of our institution, and perhaps seriously affect our viability as the city's primary health care provider.

We find that the NCPC staff report reflects a reasonable evaluation. The report addresses the traffic and parking issues in a significant way, providing the parking in phases and requiring future comprehensive studies of parking requirement, traffic impact, and future transit services.

The Washington Hospital Center supports the recommended conditions of approval and requests the opportunity for full and active participation in the follow on studies and evaluations.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you, sir.

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Next is Tim Sheckler from GSA, then we'll have a representative from the D.C.

Department of Transportation, and then Don

Hawkins, Committee of 100.

MR. SHECKLER: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I'd like to thank the Commission for the opportunity to present the final AFRH master plan for your approval.

Obviously a variety of stakeholders have given a lot of information, a lot of diverse opinions today. There's clearly no shortage of strong opinions on this subject.

But there were a few points that I wanted to clarify, I felt some misconceptions and clarifications. And then I have some additional remarks.

The point was made that there has been no dialogue or negotiating between the parties on kind of amenities and features for their proposed development. And I just wanted

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223 to assure people that that is not true; that dialogue has been going on for a number of years, and has resulted in a lot of changes to the plan.

There was also the point that has been raised that the home has always been kind of an open public park, and that is not true.

We actually studied in some detail the minutes of the board of governors. The home was always invited access. There were periodic times that the home was invited in.

And I think the issue that broaches its security is a substantial concern to the home in terms of the residents, the average age of the residents being over 80, so I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

Another point was raised about petitioning Congress for funds. The Secretary of Defense and Congress, I think, have been very clear to the home on this point. They have in no uncertain terms told them, given the fiscal situation and deficits, you are not

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224 going to get money. You need to fend for yourself. And that is the marching order that we are trying to work under.

Another implication that has been made is that the master plan doesn't support connectivity, and I would beg to differ. The master plan does provide for connectivity through the green spaces to the south on the way north to Ft. Totten. Respectfully it's probably not, it's not exactly in the same location that the Washington Central Parks group and other groups are looking at. But there is connectivity around the perimeter.

We - the master plan shows it along the southern and eastern part. I think Washington

Central Park is more looking on the western side.

And finally the point has been raised that the home has not been engaged in a dialogue, or has not been willing to engage in a dialogue to discuss potential park on Zone

C. As having been part of this process for a

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225 number of years I can categorically say, that is not true. That discussion has been ongoing for a number of years, and I'll discuss that a little further in my remarks.

And as I'm sure you know, this process has been a long one. It's over four years. Today is I think in fact the fourth time that AFRH has been before the Commission related to the master plan. And clearly that has taken the efforts of a lot of people, and

I'd like to thank the staffs of DCOP and DDOT and NCPC, especially David Levy, Gene Keller and Nancy Witherall and Christine Sand who I saw today for really helping us get to that point. We do appreciate it.

We ask you to approve the master plan as it was written, with the transportation compromise that was reached this week which we were very happy about.

We also respectfully ask you to approve Zones A and B at this time, but remove the contingency related to Zone C and the

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226 requirement for the immediate discussion on

Zone C. The home does understand that this area is underserved by parks, and we have heard that feedback loud and clear from the initial discussions that we had on the plan.

And that's why Zone A was formally - to try to address that need as quickly as we possibly could, to provide over 20 acres in Zone A alone, and try to improve that access to the folks that are west of the site by providing a sidewalk along Irvin Street.

What we have a hard time agreeing to is the contingency language in the EDR making approval of A and B contingent on Zone

C, and we think it's problematic for a couple of reasons.

First as has been stated I think by the residents and by Mr. Cox, the AFRH residents are still actively using Zone C for a variety of purposes. And kind of forcing that discussion when the home is still using it doesn't make sense. We think it has

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227 underplayed if the park is being provided, the open space being provided in Zone A is a bit underplayed.

Secondly that approach seems to be anathema to the process that the home has described in its master plan. The logical progression that we are trying to follow is, develop Zone A, build it out, look at the financial return. If we don't need to develop any further, we won't, and Zones B and C would stay as green space. We don't want to develop more than is necessary to address the home's needs for its current and future residents.

In fact if the home had a continuing financial need after Zone A we would welcome that discussion about trying to make the park, I think the point that Mr.

Hughes made about, we'd prefer to see open space or build condos, I think the home's preferred alternative if we could generate an equivalent income stream, I think open space

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228 would make more sense. The home is not oposed to that discussion.

I think the only difference in on the timing of that discussion. I think that's the point I want to leave you with.

And again we just want to say that the focus really is on the veterans here. We are trying to preserve their home, and preserve it for future residents as well.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Representative of the D.C.

Department of Transportation.

MR. RICKS: Good afternoon. I'm

Karina Ricks. I'm the associate director for transportation policy and planning for the

District department of transportation, and we appreciate the opportunity to have a comment on this master plan.

DDOT along with our partner agencies is enthusiastic about the proposed development for this unrealized portion of the

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229 city. The North Capitol Street corridor holds tremendous promise as yet another great street in our city, with the campus area transformed into a world class medical research and treatment facility worthy of the nation's capital.

The vision presented here will bring much needed housing, employment and retail amenities to serve every economic segment of our diverse city, while at the same time celebrating and drawing renewed attention to the tremendous historic and natural resources of the Armed Forces Retirement Home campus.

As with all major infill projects in our highly urbanized and highly congested city, there are significant transportation challenges that must be addressed as well.

North Capitol Street is one of the city and region's major arterials carrying tens of thousands of commuters into and out of the central core each day. Irving Street and

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Michigan Avenue are one of the very few continuous east-west connections linking neighborhoods within the District from west of

Rock Creek Park to the far Northeast quadrants of the city.

As such it too is challenged to carry existing traffic volumes destined for the hospital campus, Catholic University,

Columbia Heights, Brookland, and other neighborhoods along the corridor.

While challenges, these conditions also present an opportunity to approach development on home campus and other nearby development sites with a new paradigm for travel, livability and long term vibrant sustainability in an urban context.

We applaud the mix of uses represented in the master plan as able to create a new walk able District in an area now known only as an insulated institutional outpost.

The master plan will bring housing

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231 opportunities close to this major employment center, enabling the opportunity to live near work.

It will bring dramatic retail to support not only the workers' lunch time trips, but daily services of the adjacent communities.

It'll provide precious open space and celebrate the historic destinations which will invite more bicycle and pedestrian trips to and through the area.

All of these DDOT welcomes and whole heartedly supports.

However, the master plan as initially proposed also included some less progressive aspects. The parking ratios in particular reflect a more suburban and dated approach to employee travel. Parking provision is inextricably linked to vehicle trip generation, and the plan readily acknowledges that the trips generated by the proposed development will result in the

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232 failure of some local intersections, approaches, and degradation of the level of service of adjacent roadways.

These outcomes are not only detrimental to the master plan objectives but to the whole of the city. The DDOT - I'm sorry, the NCPC report presents a compromise approach which DDOT has endorsed. And while we do urge the Commission to adopt this amended master plan, we do need to point out that the parking reductions proposed will not prevent the projected failure of these intersections.

Transit will and must be a major component and an organizing principle in the development of the area. Transit services today are admittedly inadequate to the intensity of development contemplated for the area.

The city recognizes this condition and has already begun the process to implement a new vision for the area.

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The D.C. Transit Alternatives

Analysis, completed last year, promises premium transit services to the campus area.

Premium transit means signature modern vehicles, extraordinarily high levels of service, and a new way to travel to meet the needs of workers, patients, residents, shoppers and visitors with convenient, comfortable and efficient services.

While deployment of this public service is still some years away, the master plan developers and other stakeholders can and are doing much to set the stage. The

Washington Hospital Center already runs a popular shuttle to the Columbia Heights and

Brookland Metro stations, and the transportation management plan for the whole master plan proposes a similar service.

Critical to the long term success will be ensuring that this para-transit shuttle service is frequent enough and reliable enough to establish travel patterns

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234 that utilize transit right from the onset of the project occupancy.

Changing already established travel patterns is much more difficult than making it easy to do the right thing right at the beginning.

DDOT generally supports the amended plan, regarding transit services, but of course we would welcome and encourage additional peak hour service.

This is an exciting opportunity for the city and the nation's capital. It presents significant challenges, and strong leadership will be necessary to ensure that the master plan adopted ultimately implements the sustainability principles so valued by this Commission.

We support the adoption of the master plan with the recommended modifications suggested by staff, and look forward to the prospect of this development.

Thank you.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Don Hawkins on behalf of the

Committee of One Hundred, then followed by

Kristen Barden, representing Councilmember

Muriel Bowser.

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Chairman

Cogbill, and Commissioners, for allowing me to speak today, and particularly, thank you,

Commissioner Miller.

I would like to read a part of Mr.

Howton's testimony which he sent in a letter.

This was prepared along with Barbara Zartman who the two of them have been following and reporting on this project for the longest time

- four years I am reminded today.

Mr. Howton has written that we would like to encourage you to improve the staff recommendation for Zone C, and enlarge the staff recommendation to include Zone B under the recommendations and plan, for Zone

Zone B is no less important than

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236

Zone C, in creating a network of open space, and preserving the fragments of an expansive vision of green space in the city.

The MacMillan Commission recognized the importance of dedicated green space within the growing city of Washington; the need to preserve open space as the lungs of the city. Today in an area of the city chronically underserved by park and open space, and an area of the city that is facing development on all fronts, the quantity and scale of proposed development of AFRH in conjunction with the aggregate impact of the other proposed and potential development threaten to permanently erase the grand and humane conception of the MacMillan Plan, and change forever the quality of life for all residents, all visitors and all institutions.

Today in an area that is only beginning to recognize - in an era, I'm sorry, that is only beginning to recognize the implications of global warming brought on in

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237 part by short-sighted development practices, the need to preserve that most fragile of urban elements, green open space is all the more urgent.

As long as we keep giving lip service to the notion of open space, green space, and the livable city but quickly add, not only my property, on the other guy's land, we will end up with a city that is concrete and asphalt and brick; a city that may have green roofs, that is not truly green, and not livable.

I'd like to refer back to earlier this afternoon, quite a long time ago, when

Ms. McCarthy suggested that before you give something away is when you negotiate what you are going to get for it. And I think that very definitely applies to Zone C.

It's also been stated and we're reminded that for four years we have had discussions. This Commission has had the good fortune over the years, many times, to be able

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238 to look at plans and approve very fine plans for the city.

The city has had the good fortune to have the Commission between it and other plans.

This is one of the plans that really needs you. The neighbors and interested bodies have been dealing with the retirement home for these four years, and it has not been a conversation. It has been in some cases a number of people tossing zingers at one another, missing because somebody who doesn't recognize that a zinger has hit him hasn't been hit.

We have not really made the contact I think that we should have been making with one another over this period of time. I would say that if among the team working for AFRH there were one person who had the sensitivity and knowledge of views and view sheds in the city that for instance Nancy

Witherell brings to the table, we would have

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239 an entirely different set of conversations.

We have not really been communicating, and you are in the position to make decisions that whatever might have felt like in the way of compromises by Mr. Cox, they haven't looked like compromises from the other side of the table all too often.

I'm sorry for that, but it is the condition that we are blessed with this

Commission. Please look at the city's future, and listen to all of the people here. I don't really think that most of the participants in these conversations would be disappointed by what you would see as the right solution.

Thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Kristen Barden.

MS. BARDEN: Good afternoon. I'm

Kristen Barden, and I'm going to read a statement from Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who represents Ward #4.

As the Ward #4 councilmember, I am

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240 very engaged in economic development issues around Ward #4 and throughout the District of

Columbia.

I am writing to support the

National Capital Planning Commission's executive director's report which approves the submitted final master plan for the Armed

Forces Retirement Home adjacent to Ward #4, and transportation management plan, with the exception of Zone C, and subject to conditions outlined in the July 3rd staff recommendations regarding Zone C.

It is my understanding that the

Armed Forces Retirement Home does not intend to develop Zone C for at least 15 years, and that the Armed Forces Retirement Home has stated that its purpose in developing Zone C is to provide an income stream for capital and operating expenses for the home.

I also support the National

Capital Planning Commission, the District of

Columbia, the National Park Service through

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241 the capital space study, that the neighborhood surrounding the Armed Forces Retirement Home need to have additional public park space.

And therefore I recommend that the

Commission defer action on the proposed development of Zone c, and approve Zones A and

B, contingent upon the home's commitment to explore the potential to develop Zone C as a public park that provides an income stream to the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

I also encourage the home to actively participate in a two-year planning process with NCPC staff, the District of

Columbia Office of Planning, the National Park

Service, the District Department of

Transportation, and the D.C. council and the community as well, beginning in the first quarter of the year 2009, to determine the feasibility of allowing Zone C to be used as a publicly accessible park while providing income that is acceptable to the home.

Sincerely yours, Councilmember

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242

Muriel Bowser.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

That concludes the public portion of this hearing.

[Insert - Public statements]

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243

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I'm going to bring it back to the Commission.

Mr. Keller, do you have anything more to add?

MR. KELLER: Not at this time,

John.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, then,

Mr. Ames?

COMMISSIONER AMES: First of all let me make it very clear that I am one that fully supports open space and a city atmosphere. I happen to live in a small city in the south that we have a lot of that, and it's a great asset to have.

Second of all, let me say that this has been a long ongoing process and it's about one thing: the support of our national heroes that have fallen in wars and served our country for many years, and their support, and the money that it takes to provide this retirement home for them. This is not a bit about messing up a beautiful piece of land

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244 because somebody just doesn't like the way it sits. It all boils down to one thing, and that is money. And I don't think anybody on either side can disagree with that.

Secondly let me say that the overall master plan for Zones A and B I pretty support at this point. I do not support the mater plan for Zone C which is for condominiums, because personally I don't see the need for that to be master planned right now.

But I also know that we required the whole piece of property to be master planned when we requested that you master plan it for us to approve the development you want to put there. So you are not at fault for doing that, but I do think that there is a solution to work out here.

Number three, I am appalled that our staff would require negotiation on a landowner's part for future use of their property when they are not ready to do that.

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I am upset, if it was placed before me today as the executive director's recommendation that I approve, I as one commissioner, with my one vote, approve a recommendation that requires somebody to a negotiating table whether they want to be there or not. That goes against everything I believe in. I find it totally un-American that somebody would try and do that, and I am very disappointed we did that.

I am not ready to make a motion at this point, but I will tell you, in support of the Armed Forces Retirement Home I am ready when the time comes to make a motion that this

Commission approve the master plan for

Sections A and B, that the plan for Section C be deferred to give the people of the parks, people in Washington, the city of Washington, the planning commission of Washington, the

National Capital Planning Commission, all a chance to sit down and talk.

I am also appalled at those who

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246 think that Mr. Cox and Mr. Sheckler would shy away from the opportunity - the opportunity - as everybody that has come forth today has said - to provide income for the home in - and use Section 3 for open space.

I would think they would be totally nuts if they turned that down, and I can't believe that they are, because they wouldn't be in the position they're in.

Now for people to say they haven't listened, maybe they haven't had anything to listen to. But I think that what we need to do is move forward with A and B, leave C out, let the water calm down a little bit, because there are some hot sides on both, and now I'm hot in the middle.

But I'm going to tell you, we should never ever force somebody to the table who doesn't want to be there, especially when it concerns a very vital passionate issue such as veterans who have their place to live, and that is what it's all about.

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So Mr. Chairman, when the time comes for a motion, I have one in mind, but I will give everybody else their chance before I go any further.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. Ames, I believe it's prudent that when before we begin discussion that there be a motion on the floor, and that is the reason we do that so we can then discuss it.

COMMISSIONER AMES: My motion would be that we move forward with the approval of

Zones A and B in the master plan, with Zone C

being deferred. And with no conditions put on that Zone C. Let it be up to the home and others to discuss what they would all like to do and see done financially and with the park area.

Thank you.

COMMISSIONER McGill: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Motion made and seconded.

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248

Just on behalf of the staff I want to just say that I don't think that the staff was unreasonable in the way they proposed this. In fact what they said was, they asked the AFRC, the AFRH, to commit to explore the potential to develop Zone C. I think that is merely an embodiment of what I think both parties have said, both the AFRH and the community at large.

So I don't take grave exception.

In fact I think that was a reasonable position. And I feel the staff has worked very hard to try to reach a middle ground, as evidenced by the comments you heard today from the community.

So with that I'll now open it to the rest of the Commission.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman,

I know Mike had asked to speak, he seconded it. But I just wonder whether or not if there would be interest in a substitute motion to bring back the executive director's report and

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249 tweak it with all the language and the verbiage that we need to go forward with. And then of course if we want to strike some language then we can do that.

But I think it would be good to have that work product put on the table to start with, and I would like to see if the mover of this motion would be at least willing to consider a substitute that would get that on the table, and then if you want to strike language from it to make it stronger, then let's do that.

But I think the work of the staff has been, not just because they did it, but because it has a lot more in it, and it tends to bring a lot more to the table. And then we can move -

COMMISSIONER AMES: The only difference in my motion and the executive director's report is the elimination of the language that deals with the contingencies that we are forcing upon the Armed Forces

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250

Retirement Home in order for them to be able to move forward with A and B.

So it's not a matter of all the other language in the thing. If somebody comes up with a better way to do things, I'm always for that. But all I'm asking is, in my motion is, that we deal with A and B, and we eliminate anything to do with C and the conditions that our report asked us to put on it left out. Other than that, the language stands as it is.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I have a suggestion. For specific language, as a seconder. The way I interpret Commissioner

Ames' motion is that on the bottom of page three, the paragraph beginning, notes. It says, notes that the Armed Forces Retirement

Home does not intend to develop Zone C for at least 15 years, and that - I recommend that this motion be such that that be the end of it; we drop the "and that." So we end with the, notes that the home does not intend to

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251 develop Zone C for at least 15 years, period.

And all conditions after that are deleted from the -

COMMISSIONER AMES: That is pretty much what I had in mind.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman,

I would like to then speak to this. Because it has been brought up by a number of speakers that there has to be - and may be just get this good faith commitment, and I think it's there - that there is going to be meaningful dialogue; that we haven't lost the opportunity.

Because those of us who negotiate periodically realize that the time to get some conditions on the table is when you are making the first commitment; not after you made the first commitment.

And I feel there is a sense that there is going to be this good faith effort to work together to try to deal with this park, and that they are not going to take advantage

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252 of our first commitment and just move forward.

I believe that.

Having said that, I want to speak

- this is a very fascinating discussion. Here we have millions spent in Iraq. We have soldiers who served. We have the military.

We have an environmental issue with land.

It's not just about green space. It's about ecology and being able to breathe, because green space generates oxygen and all that.

I mean there is so much on this table right now, which is almost like a microcosm of what we are facing nationally.

And I come to you really as first of all a former Ward #4 councilmember. And I remember, gentlemen, I'd like to ask those of you who are members of the home, could you raise your hand please? All of them are here. I want to recognize all of you, and thank you for what you've done.

But I will tell you, when I was

Ward #4 councilmember I think is the first

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253 year when we got elected to office that we were not allowed to come on your grounds. I mean it was the first time. We couldn't get in to get registration. We couldn't get in to speak. And I don't know what the timing was, but that was a problem. It's been around for quite awhile.

I also think that saying, this opportunity to get the community together to talk with you all, to maybe even have a ground, a park where you can come in contact, maybe not with the 80-some-year-olders, but those who may be more able to move around and mingle, because you need constituency.

Because I think it's disgraceful frankly we are here now. I mean the money that you all need to keep your facility operational, you shouldn't have to sell off anything. I don't understand that. It's part of the whole current discussion about returning veterans who have injuries. And you gentlemen are looking at your - you may not see any of this

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254 happen, I mean I may not see any of this happen, but you are in here fighting for something that the country, the nation's national government, should be making sure is in place. We got a beautiful facility, and you got to now sell it off to get money to keep yourself operational.

I think that you need this community relationship which is beginning to develop here, and has been developing, is very important. You need constituency to you help you get maybe resources, so you can keep C green. So you can maybe even keep B where it is.

But I do believe, I do believe, that the parks space is a critical piece, and

I will support the amendment that is on the table now. I would be willing to support that, at this point, unless I hear something stronger that changes my mind.

But I want to be sure that the leadership at the home are going to, in good

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255 faith, going to keep in communication and let's work together with the community and look at the councilwoman's direction.

I'm also retired #06. I mean I served some time too, so I know about this, okay. And I care about you all. I would like to actually go to your home, but I don't think

I can get in now.

Anyway, I just want to be sure.

The point I'm trying to make is, I'm willing to go along and support this direction, but I want to feel comfortable that there is going to be ongoing meaningful, meaningful dialogue to try to get this park and the community together on where C goes in the future.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Just for clarification, too, Mr. McGill, you had said strike the language at the bottom of page three after the word, years, beginning with

"and that." All of page four. But there was also the reference to defers action. We need that paragraph about deferring action on the

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256 proposed development of Zone C.

I think that needs to - doesn't that need to be in there? So we would put in defers action on the proposed development of

Zone C.

(Off-mike comments)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Ms. Tregoning.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: I don't know if I'm proposing a further tweaking of this. I understand Commissioner Ames strong reaction, perhaps particularly to the language that makes the approval of Zones A and B contingent upon the Armed Forces commitment to explore the development to potential to develop Zone C.

So if that is the particularly offending language, I think that there are some things we can do to tweak that.

But what I would say that I think is important, I think that in part the staff's intention was to give this matter of park planning some urgency. I think many of you

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257 are aware that we are approaching the bicentennial, the Lincoln bicentennial, and that there is a lot of interest on the Hill, there is a lot of interest across the country, in commemorating the life and the accomplishments of President Lincoln.

And right here at the Armed Forces

Retirement Home we have a very close connection with that legacy, and there may not be another opportunity five years, 10 years,

15 years from now, to make that connection very closely.

It's an opportunity to put a plan in front of people to provide the endowment of the home that is so important, and yet preserve perhaps in perpetuity the open space that is there.

And I think that this recommendation is intended to give us a sense of urgency; to try to make that happen, to take advantage of that opportunity.

And I very much appreciate both

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258 the testimony of Mr. Sheckler and Mr. Hughes who pointed out that indeed the development of both Zones B and C in an ideal world would be necessary, either because the finances would not require it, or because an equivalent amount of money could be raised through other sources to permanently endow the home, and endow it now, not 15 or 20 years from now, to provide that open space, that access, and the degree of protection for home residents versus open access, that is totally negotiable.

That's absolutely negotiable. It could be time of day. Between Zones B and C that could be entirely worked out.

I'm just saying, it would be a shame to miss that opportunity of the Lincoln

Bicentennial to put something in front of people that they might be willing to fund.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Can I ask Ms.

Tregoning a quick question?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Sure.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Would you feel

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259 more comfortable if I added to my motion, if we could get a second to that part, that the

National Capital Planning Commission encourages the Armed Forces Retirement system to immediately start talks with all interested parties on the ideas of keeping that as open space? Because I flatly will oppose any dictatorship rules to say you must, because that goes against everything I believe in.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman,

I'd like to make a motion. I think we are trying to tweak back the way we are. And I think what we ought to do, if you feel strongly enough, we may not get all the votes,

I would like to move as a substitute motion the executive director's recommendation.

COMMISSION MILLER: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: There is a motion made and seconded it. That is a substitute motion and it will take precedence over the original motion in terms of a vote.

But there is discussion on that

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260 motion.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I seconded the motion for EDR because I think the staff and the home and the District, the Department of Transportation, a lot of people, the community, have been working on this obviously for a very long time. There has been a lot of give and take, and all of this contingency provides is for a process.

I think process is very American.

It's very Washingtonian. It provides for a process, and there needs to be a process because everybody seems to have the same ultimate objective, which is to preserve that public open space, both for use by the veterans and the residents of the home, and with some access by the community, where, and that type of public access to these parks is called for in both the federal and district elements of the comprehensive plan.

I think we have to, just quoting, if we don't have this contingency even, what I

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261 fear will go from what Ms. McCarthy called anemic - I don't know, does anemic mean you don't have enough blood - to zero, there would be zero blood. This is just a process. It's discussion. I think it's healthy discussion.

The affected councilmembers support the executive director's recommendation.

I applaud the staff work. There have been a lot of compromises on both sides.

This will bring some needed economic development in housing, maybe for seniors, and for veterans who aren't able to live in a home in this community.

So I think I heard my colleagues to support the EDR.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Mr. Chairman, if

I could? Thank you very much.

First of all let me say the Park

Service has gone on record as being opposed to development on B or C at this time, and we do feel it's very important that both areas be preserved as parkland.

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262

I also, I have been weighing whether what was in the executive director's report was supportable. And at first I was uneasy with the idea of forcing people to the table to discuss this. But after further consideration, and particularly after some of the public testimony that we saw, both the notion that we really need to make a deal now with regard to the entirety - or not we, but a deal needs to be struck now that addresses the entirety of the property; I think that is what

Ms. McCarthy was arguing for. But also that the one graphic - and I'm sorry I can't recall who put it up, but it was a diagram of the property over the years. And you see this very clear lopping off of corners of the property. And you see this progression. And

I can just see that thing 50 years from now being reduced to almost nothing.

And I think that the idea that even when we know that the most recent lopping off occurred with the sale of property to

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263

Catholic University across from North Capitol,

I think that is what happened, I mean that is the last slice off. And now we are going to take away Area A, and there is no specific guidance as to what is going to happen with

Area C, I find it very very troubling that we just sort of leave it open like that.

I understand the dire nature of the situation with the home. And the financial situation. I mean it's a shame that we're in this position right now. But even if it's not going to happen until 15 years from now, I mean who is going to say the situation won't be the same at that point, and this

Commission with new players on it will be forced to make another unpleasant decision to allow this to proceed.

The last thing I'd say about this is, I have no difficulty whatsoever with trying to force a discussion in this circumstance, because while this is the only asset that the home has to work with, it is

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264 still a federally owned property, and it's not like a piece of private property that we are simply forcing somebody to deal with.

I think there are broader issues at stake here that we should be seeking vigorously to protect, and in our role as defenders of parkland and even potential parkland I think the Park Service would not be able to support even the executive director's recommendation as it's currently written.

I could see something, if we were to leave out B and C with some language about how those would be addressed, so that there is more leverage, I could support that.

COMMISSIONER NEWTON: Mr. Chairman?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Yes, sir, Mr.

Newton.

COMMISSIONER NEWTON: The compelling presentations today have left me very contemplative. As they have everyone on the Commission I'm sure.

I see the dedication of the

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265 military service members everyday in my job, because I work at the Pentagon and represent

DOD here on the Commission.

But yet as some of the others have represented, this is not only about the preservation of the home and its viability, financially, over the future. While that is of primary concern, there is also the aspect of our nation's heritage, the Lincoln Cottage, the view sheds, the preservation of green space and the ecology. So many issues that are of importance that must be achieved, we must achieve a balance and an opportunity to preserve some balance between the needs of the home and the needs of our broader community.

We all live in communities, we live and work in communities. And I will support the EDR, or possibly another motion.

But I feel that no disrespect to our veterans, they are the ones that have preserved our freedom, and we owe them our deepest respect.

But the planning issues here are important as

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266 well. So I think the preservation of

C as open land is vitally important.

Thank you.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: Mr. Chairman?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. Galvez.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I've been torn with part of the discussion too about how do you control this piece of property. And I come back to the thought that the piece of property really belongs to the country. This is federal land we are talking about; it's not an individual landowner that we are telling what to do with his property.

Our obligation as NCPC is to look out for federal property, what the best use of that property is. And absolutely no disrespect to the needs of the home or to the needs of the servicemen there. I'm looking at this from the standpoint of the country at large, what we are charged to do in preserving open space, and I support the EDR the way it's stated.

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. McGill.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I am opposed to the substitute motion, which is the EDR. I think the Armed Forces Retirement Home and the developer that they have selected for Zone A have been remarkably cooperative in the negotiating process that has proceeded over the last several months.

The original master plan as approved and reviewed in the EIS, and as approved in the Section 106 programmatic agreement, called for 6,500 parking spaces.

At the fairly late in the process, DDOT came forward to demand less, and the developer, the home, the office of planning and DDOT sat down together and negotiated with NCPC's staff assistance, and reached a compromise agreement that reduced the parking by 20 percent.

When compared with what they originally proposed developing on this site, the home cut by more than half the proposed density for Zone A.

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268

I think that they have shown cooperation, but they have shown cooperation because of a strongly felt goal and need to generate revenue so they can maintain their buildings, expand their facilities, cover their annual operating costs, without the benefit of an appropriation.

And what they have come forward with is a proposal to develop Zone A, and to spend the next 15 years doing so. They are not sure how all this is going to play out.

Will it develop the way it's proposed in the plan or not? Will it generate the revenue that is anticipated or not?

And they have tried to do it in such a way that there is contingency so that if it doesn't generate the revenue, or if the costs imposed by veterans coming back from the

Iraq War, and perhaps, heaven forbid, future wars, meaning the cost of operations are higher, the population is larger, and they need more money, then they have got zones B

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269 and C to rely on for more money.

Now I find very problematic the

EDR because it places a contingency on the development of Zone A, and for the developer to develop Zone A, the developer needs to obtain financing. And if there is a contingency hanging over this approval, a 2- year contingency, saying boy you better come to these meetings and you better appear cooperative, and you better not be too demanding or else, then the developer is not going to get his financing, Zone A will sit fallow for two more years, and I can just see the way the negotiations will proceed.

Because I've been involved in fundraising, community based fundraising for various purposes. I was at one point the chairman of a school board, and we closed the school, and the community came forward and said, well, let us raise money to keep the school open. And then the dialogue ensues, and they begin to say, well, do you really need that much money.

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270

Why don't you ask for less? And what are you going to contribute to the process?

And it's a whittling away and a series of wearing down meetings for the Armed

Forces Retirement Home which has limited staff for community meetings. This is not their job to go out and meet every two weeks and negotiate with the community. They are running a home for disabled veterans and retired veterans.

Now it seems to me that if you want to have language in the EDR encouraging them to meet and cooperate and negotiate, that would be acceptable. It would also be useful if you would say, the proposed development of

Zone C is an appropriate measuring stick for the value that should be paid for the property if the home agrees to sell it. That would be useful, because then they wouldn't be forced to negotiate down to the point where people would be saying, well, look, it's open space now, you should just be asking for the value

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271 of open space.

But these negotiating processes, when something as amorphous as fundraising of this magnitude is involved, are very daunting.

And it would impair the development to say, there is a risk, Mr. Developer, that every month or so somebody is going to come running back to NCPC and say, they are not negotiating in good faith. Make them stop developing Zone

A. This language says approval of Zone A is contingent on a two-year process. And that is wrong.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Ms. Tregoning.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: This may not - this might be irregular, and I hate to put Mr. Cox on the spot. But I am compelled by Mr. McGill's notion that the contingency implies that a two-year process might have to be concluded before it's been satisfied.

If Mr. Cox was willing to commit to engaging in a process, keeping in mind that process is simply about exploring a

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272 possibility, if he made that commitment, then the language of the EDR could say, is approved based on the commitment of the Armed Forces

Retirement Home to engage - and then the rest of it can kind of be there. But that commitment has already been done and been satisfied, as of this meeting.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. Cox.

MR. COX: Thank you.

Our issue is not to engage to talk about what to do with land that we currently use; it's the timing of that.

So to say that within two years we need to have a commitment, in all due respect to the Park Service, to D.C., for four years no one has come forward with the funds to look at leasing a park. So in four years when we've been dialoguing about the uses, no one has come forward.

We figured out with our developer a way to be able to get at least 23 acres of our space that now no one has access to but my

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273

1,100 residents into public space.

So all I'm saying here is, we have a commitment to explore it if and when my residents no longer have a use for it.

Currently we use it. We have been forced over the years as you have aptly said to let go of property for which we have not been remunerated. For four years no one has come up with money for BMC, and this contingency was never talked about when we started our process.

So as far as the 106 process goes,

I think this really queers that whole deal, to now force a contingency on the home when we currently use property that we don't really ever want to develop; we want to keep it open space, but we want to keep it our open space.

So I am willing to talk at the time when and if we need it. But I am hoping with the creativity we have, around this room, in the nation's capital, in the world at large, that we can generate revenue in

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274 different ways, after Zone A. We don't have to have a space used by the home for other things.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Mr. Cox, I think the problem is that the Commission is unwilling to put this off for 15 or 20 years to let other bodies decide whether or not the circumstances of the home in 20 years warrant lopping off another hunk for development.

If we think we could get the funds now in the time of the Lincoln bicentennial.

So I think the issue is that we would like as a body to dispose of this situation with the intention of both allowing the continued use of this property by your residents, but also creating an endowment that would obviate the need for you to develop these properties in the future, and again, exploring the possibility of that, putting funding proposals in front of third parties, but to do that we would need your commitment to engage in that now before this Lincon bicentennial period I

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275 is gone.

MR. COX: I guess I am hearing two things. You are still putting the time frame on it. And what I'm saying is, I'd be willing to say, okay, let's take B and C off the table, and make them just part of the AFRH zone. And then we will never develop them, but they stay part of AFRH, and we just do zone A.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: You are not interested in pursuing an endowment for that land?

MR. COX: I'm not at this time, because the home still actively uses it, okay.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: I'm not talking about selling it. The endowment might come from an easement.

MR. COX: But we actively use it.

We don't want to give up that land.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: It wouldn't necessarily involve you giving up the land.

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276

MR. COX: It would if I'm giving you an easement. That means we don't have control over it.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: The easement might just prohibit condominiums.

MR. COX: Well, what I'm saying is, when we have it just in AFRH zone, that does the same thing then. It takes it away from development, because it's just part of AFRH.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Are you willing to allow any other access to that AFRH zone?

MR. COX: I'm willing to allow access to Zone A, and if you'd like to volunteer to come in and meet with our residents, happy to have that. But it's their home. It's their home. It's where you live.

Do people come in your backyard all the time?

No. We respect your right to that privacy, you know.

The NDA 02 made the home look at itself, and didn't give them money. It said, you have to figure out how to look at your

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277 assets, which include sale or lease. That is

different than other federal properties and how they are treated. We have a specific law by Congress that makes us look at how we can utilize our assets by sale or lease.

So it is my fiduciary duty to look at that, and I am willing now to say, okay, if there is such opposition and the Commission doesn't want that developed, then just let it stay AFRH, because that is the goal. And I hear that is what you are saying too, that that is the goal, to keep AFRH as put together as possible.

So if an amendment could be made to just allow Zone A, and the master plan now no longer includes B and C; B and C become the

AFRH zone.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: But then we lose the possibility of any public access to that land.

MR. COX: No, we have 23 acres of public access in Zone A, which you do not have

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278 today.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I'm not sure it's productive to try to negotiate that here now.

I want to weigh in a little by this, because I am depressed by Mr. McGill's argument. For a couple of reasons.

One, in going back to what Mr.

Ames said, we required that this be a master plan for the entire property. They didn't propose that; we did. So it does bother me now to be saying that we can't approve this unless you agree to this condition, which is to negotiate for the disposal, potential disposal, of a portion of your land.

The idea of lopping off land, that happens all the time. That's called condemnation. But in a condemnation suit you know what you are being paid for that land before you ever have to give it up.

So what we are saying to these folks is, we want you to put your land up. We

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279 want to discuss it with you. We may not agree at the end, but for at least two years we are going to put you in limbo that you really can't move forward on the business of financing the development of Zone A.

When you talk about the other federal agencies, we talk about the park service, the Department of the Interior, GSA, every other federal agency I know is funded by the federal government. That money is given to those agencies.

And yet, and yet, those same agencies sell, barter, or whatever they need to do to get additional funds to pay their expenses.

In the case of the Park Service you have concessions. You get grants from corporations to relight some of your facilities. You get resources. You are able to bring in these resources.

I can't think of a single thing that the AFRH could do to raise revenue other

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280 than to allow an ice cream vendor to come onto the property.

So I don't know how they would raise the money that they need to support their constituency.

When we think of GSA, GSA has the same sort of situation.

So I think we put these folks in an untenable situation at this point. It's certainly reasonable to say we need a deal now. But somebody made the point about, maybe it was you, Mr. Cox, about what do we do about

- this is someone's back yard. This is the residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, it's their backyard, and we are telling the people who run this that they have to negotiate this, whether or not it ultimately ends up in a resolution, to potentially give up that land, when he is telling us now that he doesn't believe they would do that, or they don't want to do that now.

I think these folks have a

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281 fiduciary responsibility. I think that they have been ordered by Congress to do this. And

I am becoming increasingly convinced that this contingency is not appropriate in light of what these people are being asked to do.

So at this point based on the discussion I have heard today I am not going to support the substitute motion.

Mr. Ames.

COMMISSIONER AMES: As I stated earlier, it all goes back to one thing: we were approached about by the Armed Forces

Retirement Home about a mandate they had to fund themselves additionally.

We looked at them and said, provide a master plan to us that we can approve. They now have come back to us with a master plan as we asked with the intent of that master plan using really just Zone A to try it out.

They never one time ever said to us, we are interested in taking Zone C or B

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282 and C and allowing it to be green space. That was not their intent from the very beginning.

Their intent from the very beginning was to do the least amount possible that would raise funds to keep these people in more comfort than they had, because I'm sure it's not the nicest place in the world to live to begin with.

And here we want to go - and I never thought about Mr. McGill's situation where he says, and being in the real estate business I probably should have, but I think

Mr. Cogbill being a real estate attorney will tell you when there are contingencies in something, lenders are headed the other way.

So what are we going to manage to do today? We are going to put a bunch of contingencies on something that is going to tell them, fine, we approved your master plan with these contingencies, but you got a master plan you can't use, because I am going to tell you something, it will be awfully hard for the

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283 next two years until that whole thing is drawn out to get funding on anything you do there.

And basically you are saying, veterans, just sit where you are, those who live that long, sit where you are until we get around to you. And I don't believe in doing that. If you can come up with better language than I had, you can do what you want to do, but you are totally defeating the original purpose which was a mandate by Congress to fund yourself and these people have worked hard, and I've witnessed it because I've been on this Commission since they've been coming before us, and now you are getting ready to knock them in the nose and say, work a little harder because we aren't going to do what you want to do anyway.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: If there is no further discussion, the substitute motion is on the floor --

COMMISSIONER MAY: Mr. Chairman, I

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284 just had one small question. This is a question for staff, and it has to do with the parking.

Currently there is no zoning on the property, and so no parking requirements are explicit. But what happens when there is zoning, which there certainly would have to be for it to be developed?

MR. KELLER: We understand by both our memorandum of agreement, our memorandum of understanding with the District and the home as well as further discussions in the last few weeks that the zoning process in and of itself will look in detail about the parking levels.

And there is provisions, both as spelled out in our recommendation, for adjusting that.

COMMISSIONER MAY: So in other words what ever comes out of the Zoning

Commission discussions, which would involve traffic studies and everything else, that again, NCPC would alter or would be able to

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285 alter its resolution -

MR. KELLER: It would be a process of adjustment, and the recommendation is that they coordinate that with NCPC.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Can I clarify? According to the approved NCPC master plan we will develop a unique zoning for the Armed Forces Retirement Home for Zone

A, and that zone A zoning might have the ability for parking to be adjusted in phases, depending on the results of the other studies and analyses that are referenced in the EDR.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I would like to add, I think this is a really unique and innovative approach that NCPC and OPI have taken. At the very beginning of this process there was a long discussion about, well, it's federally owned land so it shouldn't be subject to zoning. District said, well, if it's not subject to zoning, then who is going to enforce the codes, and how do you get necessarily the District's involvement in

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286 certifying streets and things of that sort.

So NCPC and the District negotiated an agreement with the home to have a hybrid process and that - this hybrid process has come to this conclusion at this point.

COMMISSIONER MAY: That's helpful.

I would point out thought that federal land use for federal purposes is not subject to zoning, but federal land used for private purposes is subject to zoning.

But I just wanted to know that it wasn't - we weren't going to have Zoning

Commission or zoning rules conflicting with this and require further action by this

Commission to reconcile itself with zoning requirements. So thank you.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Mr. Chairman, in the spirit of trying to give these honorable veterans what they deserve, and also in the spirit of trying to live up to the mandate that the Armed Forces retirement

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287 system was given by Congress to fund yourself or find other ways to do it, I'd like to make an amendment to the motion that we exclude parcels B and C from the master plan, and that we approve the master plan for parcel A.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I would accept that - as a parliamentary procedure.

We have a substitute motion on the floor. But if you are ever going to do that, Herbert, I would accept that as a friendly amendment.

(Off-mike comments)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Right, it does.

And I was going to get to that.

COMMISSIONER AMES: So what do we have to do next?

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Can I ask, since I am the maker of the motion, can I ask, what that means in terms of the staff? What would that do to the opportunity for community and the home to get together over B and C?

How does that affect the executive director's recommendation? Whoever is staff to answer?

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MR. ACOSTA: It would eliminate that requirement to proceed with the negotiations.

COMMISSIONER AMES: It would eliminate the order from headquarters that you have got to do it.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: If I could add maybe one other piece to that.

The issue here is really trying to get access and use to the public space to the land. And I agree with the notion of dropping

B and C completely. But it would be good to somehow get the dialogue continuing to get that access. You can retain ownership; you can retain control. But allow the access to happen somehow.

MR. COX: We do have a lot of access. For instance first time last year we had over 300 people for a bike race that was sponsored by a bike club in D.C. We ask for volunteers to come in all the time to do our fishing rodeos, things like that.

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What we don't want to do is have security issues, because again this is our residents' back yard.

So we don't deny access when someone wants to come and visit. If they want to come and visit, have lunch with the residents, it's the best six bucks you'll ever have and be able to visit. What we don't want is it to become someone else's backyard.

So with all due respect, we are happy to have people come and see us. Our partner, Frank Milligan, is here from the

National Trust. We have tons of visitors that come to see that, and experience life at our home. WE are not against the public coming in.

What we want is, we want to make sure that that access is also monitored, and we have security for our residents, because it is their backyard.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I understand what you are saying. But part of the issue

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290 seems to be that the community is in dire need of open space for recreational use.

MR. COX: Right, and we have over

23 acres that we are doing that on that site, and a walkway which is not here, and Crescent is paying for it out of their own pocket to go all the way to Park Place, so neighbors in

Petworth and Park View are able to get to that open space.

So we have addressed that, so that they don't have to walk through our property.

They can walk on the perimeter on the parkway on a safe sidewalk.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We need to bring this back to the agenda.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Miller.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I am intrigued by Mr. Cox's suggestion that we just move forward with Zone A and leave B and C in the AFRH zone.

I wanted to ask Mr. Keller, that

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291 means that the current master plan for B and C would proceed with what's there now, right?

MR. KELLER: Right. They are obviously in their final plan. They would modify it to provide for file purposes to us.

That would reflect that those zones would be defined or identified as the armed forces property.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: But the uses

MR. KELLER: Yes, as it is now.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: Would remain as they are now?

I think that is very intriguing.

I wanted to say that my support for the contingency, which is what the staff had recommended in the EDR, was in no way meant to harm or prevent the development from moving forward. The zoning process alone would probably govern the entire time that that ongoing negotiations, which there will be ongoing negotiations during that zoning

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292 process as well about the public amenities.

So I really support the EDR, I think there might have been votes for it at one point.

But I would say this: let's vote on the EDR and if that fails I think Mr. Ames, we can go back to a modified version, a substitute motion which would be just to go forward with A, Zone a, and put B and C in the AFRH zone.

COMMISSIONER AMES: So procedurally where are we?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I will explain.

We have a substitute motion on the floor.

The substitute motion made by Mr. Dixon was to approve the executive director's recommendation as written in a staff reported last revised 7/9/08.

Is there any question about what the motion is? Okay, all those in favor of that motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

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293

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All those opposed, please signify by saying nay.

(Chorus of nays)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Any abstentions?

The motion does not carry.

Now we are back to the original motion. Would you like to amend your original motion?

COMMISSIONER AMES: I would like to withdraw my original motion if somebody - you were the second - and I would like to make a motion that we exclude Sections B and C from the master plan and that we approve Section A in the Udall report as of today.

Thank you.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, motion made and seconded.

Ms. Tregoning.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: I'm clear on the motion. I'm wondering if it's possible for me to suggest an amendment to that motion

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294 that doesn't add any requirements, but in light of all the testimony that we heard today from so many parties, what Commissioner May has said, what Commissioner Galvez has said, that at least encourages the home to explore the potential to develop zones B and C as park space with some public access that provides an income stream to the retirement home.

COMMISSIONER AMES: I would be glad to add that, just what you said, to my motion except for one thing: I do not include Zone B in that, because this is the first time Zone B has come up for green space in the whole discussion.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: It's just an exploration.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Well, I would just like - we are digging too much into their business to begin with. I'll go with Zone C with my motion if you'd like to.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Well, I'd prefer that they be both, so maybe there will

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295 be another motion put on the table.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: Is a motion appropriate to say, excludes B and C, or excludes development at this time on B and C?

(Off-mike comments)

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I understand.

But if it's a master plan of the property it needs to be included within the master plan, but just not proposed for development at this time.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Is it more appropriate - and I'll ask this question to staff - is it more appropriate to deny approval of the master plan for B and C, when you are approving Zone A are we denying essentially what Zone B and C has proposed?

MR. KELLER: It would be my belief that you would be; it's a denial, so they can't move forward as proposed. Does that answer your question?

COMMISSIONER MILLER: It does in concept. It's just that in reality what you

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296 are doing is, you are approving a subpart plan rather than an entire master plan, which if you exclude B and C.

(Off-mike comment)

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Mr. Chairman, what Mr. Cox said was that he would be willing to make Zones B and C part of the AFRH portion of the master plan. The master plan as now drawn has AFRH down the middle; Zone A on the east; and Zones B and C on the west and south.

So what he is saying is, the AFRH portion in the middle would be expanded to incorporate the former zones B and C. And then if they wished to develop at some point in the future, they would come back to NCPC again.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Well, why don't

I make my motion to say just what he said; would that be better? That B and C are now part of AFRH under the armed forces -

COMMISSIONER DIXON: So what he said?

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297

COMMISSIONER AMES: He said something close.

(Laughter)

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman, point of information. Point of procedure, point of information.

We are now beginning to - someone is going to have to clarify what this motion is. Because I mean that I think we had the

ERA on the table; we knew what we were talking about. And just to say we are going to strike

B and C from - doesn't speak to all the other verbiage that exists in the motions that are on the table.

I focused on what I thought was clear. That is being dealt with appropriately. We need to know what we really have on the table. I'm still concerned that we are going to lose some leverage for the community to make some of their negotiations.

But we've gotten past that; I'm not going to reopen that. But we know what is on the table

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298 now; I think you do, too, Mr. Chairman.

COMMISSIONER MAY: I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask one thing.

I was wondering if we might actually consider taking up Commissioner Ames on his suggestion that that we encourage further discussions with regard to Zone C only, because I do think that that would be a valuable thing to add to this particular motion this way.;

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, let me sort of restate the bidding.

Mr. Ames has proposed a motion that would provide for the approval of Zone A, and would further not approve Zones B or C, but would include zones B and C as part of the

Armed Forces Retirement Home as shown on the master plan. So the master plan would reflect

Zone A for development; Zones B and C disappearing and being part of the Armed

Forces Retirement Home block that was in the middle. So those would disappear.

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Now Mr. May has suggested that we add to that or that we ask that Mr. Ames to consider that he -

COMMISSIONER AMES: I do.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: So Mr. Ames now encourages the Armed Forces Retirement Home to enter into discussions, continue with discussions, with the community consistent with -

COMMISSIONER AMES: And the NCPC.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: - and the NCPC consistent with the eight points set out on page four. That seems to me -

COMMISSIONER AMES: Period, because you get more -

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: What I want you to do is, you have a piece of paper in your hand, look at those eight standards.

MR. ACOSTA: So Mr. Chairman, I would recommend that we maybe break for a few moments so we could draft the language based on what you said.

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300

COMMISSIONER AMES: You don't need to do that.

MR. ACOSTA: There are sections in the EDR that would also have to change too to reflect this basic concept. So we want to make sure this is consistent all the way through.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I think that is perfectly appropriate. We are going to recess for 15 minutes.

(Whereupon at 4:00 p.m. the proceeding in the

above-entitled matter went off the

record to return on the record at

4:17 p.m.)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We'll call the meeting back to order, please.

Let me just look at - let's talk about what we have in front of us. It looks like we may have worked from an earlier draft, because we don't have the language about the parking. So that needs to go back in. And I believe that - I think in reading this further

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301

I'm not sure that these eight points that I had suggested really fit in, and that we are talking about here - we need to go back to the idea of a commitment to engage in a process.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: And Mr.

Chairman, I also think that instead of simply disapproving of the master plan for Zones B and C, that leaves an incomplete master plan.

What you need to do instead is say, B and C become part of the AFRH portion of the master plan.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, let's go through in some order then, to recap, first we need to do is add back in the agreement that was reached which was very very good with respect to the parking. That is the exact language that was in there before.

Second, we are not disapproving

Zone B and C but simply approving the plan for zone A and incorporating Zones B and C into the AFRH.

Then with respect to the - what is

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302 now page four, is that right, page four, we would drop those eight points, but simply say that I think - it was not -

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: No, no, approve Zone A contingent on the commitment by the Armed Forces Retirement Home to engage in a planning process, blah blah blah, the rest of that paragraph ending with the period where the comma is in the last line.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Wait a minute.

I think we are simply asking for a commitment from the Armed Forces Retirement Home. You had asked for Mr. Cox to come up before to articulate that.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: I did, and basically, cognizant of Mr. McGill's point that we don't want to make approval contingent on a long process, but simply on an act, an act to commit -

COMMISSIONER AMES: I think Mr.

Cox, let's let him answer that question, Mr.

Chairman. I think that what he will do is

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303 commit to meet, dialogue, for the two year period and see what happens. Isn't that the commitment you are looking for?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Can't we just simply incorporate that.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Yes, but I want to make sure he understands what we're talking about, because we are changing it all around here at the end.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: That would have to be in a letter.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Why make it a two-year period?

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: You don't make it any period.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: It's a commitment to continue to dialogue, basically.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: - commit by the Armed Forces - blah blah blah.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: That paragraph would read, approve Zone A contingent on the commitments by the Armed

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304

Forces Retirement Home to engage in a planning process. All the rest of that paragraph, period at the end of Home, and we are done.

COMMISSIONER AMES: Wait a minute, say that again? I don't want any contingencies in here. Because it throws a flag up to the banks, I'm telling you. You cannot use that word legally because it really throws a red flag up -

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: I think we can use the word, contingent, as long as it's clear what the contingency is.

If you want to make it a letter of commitment, that's all it would have to be, not on the process, but on a letter of commitment by the Armed Forces Retirement Home to engage in a planning process.

COMMISSIONER AMES: And this does not commit them to do anything one way or the other, other than the process.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Correct.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: It encourages

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305 them to participate in a good faith effort.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Correct.

MR. COX: Yes, I am stating that I am committed to explore that here. But I really don't want contingent in this, in the language, because it does affect how we can go forward on A, and I don't want anyone who isn't here today to think then we have to have a deal on something about a park before we can get financing for A.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Then will you be happy with the language that says, approve Zone A based on the Armed Forces

Retirement Home's commitment to engage.

COMMISSIONER AMES: That's good.

MR. COX: Correct, that's good.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You'll provide a letter to that effect, Mr. Cox?

MR. COX: Yes, I will.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right. Now

I will ask the Secretariat to cite that one more time. Or would you rather I do it, and

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306 you correct me?

All right, on page two will be to add back in the language about parking. It changes the language to remove the disapproves, and it says, incorporates Zone B and C into the AFRH, and then Ms. Tregoning if you would give us your language again on page four.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Approves the Zone A based on the commitments by the

Armed Forces Retirement Home, and then the rest of the paragraph as it is, ending at income stream acceptable to the home, period.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Period, end of discussion.

Does everyone understand that change?

Now, Mr. Ames, this is your amended motion?

COMMISSIONER AMES: That's my motion.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: And the seconder

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307 on that was?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: And I second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, we've got two seconders.

Okay, all right, do we all understand the motion? All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed?

Abstentions?

(No response)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

FILE NUMBER 5907 MARTIN LUTHER KING MEMORIAL

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, we are going to move now to Agenda Item 1C. This is the preliminary site and building plans for the Martin Luther King, Jr., national memorial.

Mr. Keller.

MR. KELLER: Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission, the National Park Service

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308 has submitted preliminary site and building plans for the Martin Luther King, Jr.,

National Memorial located at the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.

Here you see highlighted in red the general area of the memorial location adjacent to the Tidal Basin and located in proximity to the Lincoln Memorial and

Jefferson Memorial.

And directly adjacent to the location to the south, as well as within, currently, is the West Basin Drive, and part of the proposal relocates that, and you will see that in a moment.

Here is the December 2006 revised concept site plan that you approved at that time. It included the elements highlighted there in the red, and those remain in the preliminary site and building plan submission.

There have been some changes. I will note that you will see at the lower portion of the diagram the location of what

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309 was then called a Ranger station and visitors information kiosk. There were two elements.

They were located at the south end of the memorial site.

And then also you will note the configuration of the walkways that are at both the northeast perimeter and the southwest perimeter of the memorial site area.

This is the current submitted preliminary site and building plan. You will see how the location of the building that contains both a bookstore, restrooms, and ranger contact station or visitor contact station, excuse me, is now located along West

Basin Drive, still on the west side of the drive, but the north side of the memorial.

And then you will see how there has been minor modifications to the entry points both to the north east and south west.

These were elements that were reviewed by the

Commission of Fine Arts and commented upon and requested changes, and these are in response

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310 to those.

You saw some of this in the information presentation that was made in May to you at that time by the Foundation.

Aspects too of the site other than those are basically that there is a larger connection to the visitor contact area, and bookstore, and restrooms by way of a crosswalk, and this was a refinement of the design, again to help orient the visitors to those elements.

A positive aspect to the movement of the building to the north is that it does place it in better proximity to the major entry point to the memorial. And this again was a factor that CFA considered, and also allows a lot of the handicapped parking and bus drop-off area to again occur in closer proximity to the crosswalks and the facilities that visitors would normally use in disembarking from those types of arrival.

The elements of the Mountain of

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311

Despair continue to exist; the stone of hope of course is located here. And again the waterfalls are included elements in the preliminary design, and flank the Mountain of

Despair.

Here you see the elevations of the north and south segments of the wall, highlighted there are the water features. As this diagram shows, the inscriptions are now centered on the panels essentially, whereas before the diagram you saw had them right- justified.

This again is just a normal refinement. The inscription specialists that are part of the design team has looked at this in a great amount of detail and feels this better represents the placement of those features.

Going to the details of the preliminary design of the visitor contact station, bookstore, building plan, again it is on the west side, West Basin Drive. The

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312 building is approximately 34 feet wide, and about 84 feet in length, wall to wall. There are overhangs at the main entry to the bookstore that exist to the dimension of 8 feet and an approximately 3 foot 2 inch overhang, for two-thirds of the building's length that exists over to the ranger contact point to give some overhead protection to users.

The restrooms occur on the self elevation - or self portion of the building, and you will see that in elevation in a moment. And our feature that had been determined necessary for the programming of the facility.

Here you see the east elevation.

The top shows the dimensions of the building.

It's 14 feet in height to the top parapet area. Roof is totally flat; there are no mechanical features on the roof. And then again you will see the overhang here. That is about 13 feet. And then the bottom diagram

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313 shows the types of features in terms of the bookstore will exhibit a storefront glass facade. The ranger contact station has a walk-up window, and one door way entry for the station attendant.

That is pretty much like a theater ticket sell venue.

And then the restroom area, this is a translucent glass. It will allow a lot of light into the restroom areas, but obviously not transparent. It's just a light feature.

And then this also suggests the amount of landscape treatment around the buildings to provide shade in the overhead plane.

Here you see the north elevation, again, the bookstore exhibits the glass storefront; the plaza area that exists around the building will exhibit seating; and then to the south also, here you see how the entry points are, you walk toward and then turn

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314 right or left for men's or women's facilities.

Then again benches and bike racks are provided in the plaza area between the building as West Basin Drive.

This is a perspective view, again showing the overall visual appearance of the building as seen from West Basin Drive.

Then moving on in the preliminary design to the planting plan, as was initially introduced in the information session, the planting design has changed. There is more integration of the treatment of the cherry trees, to provide a lower scale at the upper portions of the embankment, but still there are large shade trees along West Basin Drive and Independence Avenue, and these are a combination of the elms and other deciduous trees.

And then there will be shrubbery introduced both on the embankment as well as planting islands that exist in the central plaza area near the main feature of the Stone

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315 of Hope.

Here is a view of the planting as seen from Independence Avenue and West Basin

Drive looking south. And this is a view looking east, again, West Basin Drive. This is essentially giving you the view that all visitors would have as the pedestrians approach to the memorial.

Another change has occurred in the lighting of the memorial in terms of just the element of the base lighting. Before it was sort of a flood light approach with the feature being on the surface of the plaza and washing the walls. It's still the concept to wash the walls with lighting, but now there is what's called a light trough or trench. The fixtures will be placed at or below the level of the plaza, but will be flush with the plaza, so it presents no tripping hazard or barrier to visitors approaching the walls themselves.

And then there is lighting that

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316 appears along the floor board areas.

There are essentially three memorial issues that staff has identified in the preliminary review, and that deals with the final alignment of the roadway design,

West Basin Drive, and you will see that in a moment, and the proposed security elements for the memorial, if the Park Service demonstrates such security features are necessary. And that has become a topic that has been identified to the staff in just recent weeks.

And then the issue of the review of the preliminary and final sculptural image of the Stone of Hope, which again is just an aspect of the total design refinement, but it's an element that the Commission has not seen.

On the issue of the curved alignment for West Basin Drive, during the

Section 106 process the idea had been introduced by D.C. SHPO’s office as well as some other consulting parties to investigate,

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317 and you see that illustrated on the right.

The axial preliminary submission shows the alignment as depicted on the left.

The issue of the introduced security barrier as a potential design element is highlighted here. This is the approximate location that has been identified through the

Section 106 process so far. It would occur again at the flanking approach walkways to the memorial, as well as within the central forecourt. And from the northwest.

And the location of the barrier line at this point is about 17 feet from the

Stone of Hope. During the Section 106 process there was an expression of concern about the proximity of that.

And then finally the issue of the sculptural image is that in the preliminary design is essentially giving us technical documents that show the foundational design and the core elements of the sculpture but does not give us any details on the actual

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318 exterior appearance.

Of course that is still under refinement. It was just approved or reviewed by CFA in the past few weeks, and both the

Park Service and the Foundation intend to bring that to the Commission shortly.

Staff analysis finds that as submitted West Basin Drive is unresolved, and is being finalized by the 106 process, and it's a Park Service goal to complete the 106 process for the September NCPC review.

The submission of security elements must be included and that includes a threat assessment supporting the need for the proposed perimeter security features, and an analysis of how the measures and any of the alternatives are supported by either existing

NEPA documentation for the memorial or supplemental NEPA documentation, and then evidence that the 106 compliance has been fully completed for the security elements.

Staff also finds that at this time

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319 the security elements could possibly disrupt the design concept for the memorial. Again there has been an expression of the proximity of those features to the Stone, or Mount of

Despair, and there was that aspect that staff wished to highlight.

Staff also notes that the security measures must adhere to the National Capital

Urban Design security plan objectives and policies. And then also highlights that the applicant - to the applicant that the preliminary final design for the sculpture, the Stone of Hope, must be submitted.

Consequently it's the staff recommendation that the Commission approve the preliminary site and building plans for the memorial's visitors to contact station, bookstore, restroom building only, as shown on the map file number, and notes that the

Commission support the overall design of the memorial, but is unable to move forward at this time because of unresolved issues

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320 surrounding the proposed introduction of the perimeter security elements by the Park

Service that would possibly impact the memorial design; and because of the location of the West Basin Drive is subject to change during the conclusion of the 106 process.

And then discourages the National

Park Service from adding perimeter security to the design of the memorial, because it's likely to disrupt the design concept. And defers preliminary approval of the memorial, other than the bookstore contact station building, and requires the applicant to provide a final alignment for the design of the West Basin Drive; provide a design for the proposed security elements of the memorial; and if the Park Service demonstrates that such security is necessary; and then submission of those preliminary elements that must include the threat assessment supporting the need for, and the design and placement of, perimeter security elements in accordance with the

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321

Commission's National Capital Urban Design and

Security Objectives and Policies that were adopted by the Commission in May of 2005.

The analysis of the Park Service of how such perimeter security measures are supported in the existing NEPA documentation for the memorial project or supplemental documentation.

And evidence of the Section 106 compliance for the introduction of perimeter security elements.

And then for the preliminary and final design of the sculpture of the Stone of

Hope.

And that concludes the staff's presentation.

[Insert: Martin Luther King, Jr.

National Memorial Staff Recommendation

EDR]

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[Insert: Public Statement]

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323

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Any questions of Mr. Keller at this point?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I move the

EDR.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I appreciate that, but if you would hold that thought. We do have one individual who has asked to speak to this. And he is representing the National

Coalition to Save the Mall.

And that is Kent Cooper, so we will move now to the public session.

MR. COOPER: Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the Commission.

I'm speaking for the coalition, but also out of my own experience as the architect for the Korean Memorial, and the architect of record for Vietnam.

What's happening here, first of all we really have been, the coalition has been supporting this memorial right from the start.

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324

We think it's going to be a terrific addition to the mall, and we have absolutely no problem. It's been a very cooperative kind of thing. We are happy that the stone face has gotten changed.

But the thing that bothers us most is the creep that is going on with the visitors services. The - we've been facing this for years. The - it's gotten to be so that every memorial has to have its own bookshop as well as its toilet rooms and ranger station and the like.

In this case I think it's been probably even a little more blatant than some of the other ones. At the Roosevelt Memorial it's really hidden. At Korea we got away without one. The World War II memorial managed to squash that idea.

We don't know what's going to happen with Vietnam yet. I cross my fingers about that one. I wish it would go away.

But the creep continues. And in

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325 this case the - while there was four acres allotted to the memorial, which you would think would be enough to get the little kiosk that was promised in the preliminary design and a few bathrooms which are kind of a necessity in this part of the mall that is really underserviced with restroom facilities, but this now, if you look at the plan there is a major set of bathrooms, restrooms, adequate to serve the polo field I might add, it seems like. And it seems like this is kind of a way of getting the organizers to pay for things that otherwise the government, the Park

Service, really ought to be doing.

I know that Peter will say that this is something that is going to be considered by the new mall plan that is underway. But I'd like to call this to your attention that sooner or later you really ought to start fighting back against the, I think the corruption fo the memorials, by the explosion in these visitor facilities. The -

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326 this particular facility has a very good message content which has been beautifully organized. It really doesn't need a lot of literature interpretation.

There needs to be a station for the Park Service rangers. The same thing I think is true about Vietnam. Vietnam is a case where it's a self-defining memorial, and to get a lot of literature and a lot fo visitors center information added to it I think is going to be a terrific distraction.

I don't know whether it's too late to do anything about it. There is a question about how much this has been considered in the

106 process.

It certainly wasn't the original intent of the designers to have anything more than a small kiosk placed on the memorial side of the road.

Now we have something that is really, as you saw, a very masculine building that sits out in the polo field, and really

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327 isn't in the spirit of either the memorial or

I think the mall.

Thank you very much, and you will do with it what you will.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you very much.

I will bring it back to the

Commission, and note that you also have at your place an email that was received from

Mark Weis in Seattle, Washington, which relates to this project as well.

All right, at this point it's back to the Commission.

Mr. McGill.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Well, I'll still move the EDR.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, motion made. Is there a second?

COMMISSIONER AMES: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Motion made and seconded. Discussion?

COMMISSIONER MAY: If I could, I

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328 just want to answer quickly some of the issues that were just raised by Mr. Cooper.

It's true that the visitor contact station was not in the original design concept, but it was something that was - as I understand it since I wasn't part of the process at the time, but I am told that it was discussed and that it was added to the program. Certainly it was added to the program before 2006 when the concept plan was approved. I think we saw that on the drawing, that it existed, and it was on the other side of the street from the memorial, and so it's certainly not a new concept.

I would also add that in terms of the Section 106 process we have had three meetings since we re-engaged on Section 106 in

January, and in all three of those meetings the visitor contact station has been on the other side of the street. It moved around a little bit. In fact it moved closer to

Independence Avenue as a result of the

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329 discussions of the building itself, and the idea that somehow this is a new element only came up at the most recent Section 106 meeting, which is a little frustrating, but we are doing our best to try to explain to folks why it is necessary, and are confident that we have done so.

I would also, in terms of the actual executive director's recommendation, I think for the most part the Park Service is comfortable with this. We understand that the late introduction of the need for security at this point makes it impossible at this point to give preliminary approval of the whole site plan. The one issue that I do have, though, is that because this is very late arriving we have not had a chance to make the case to NCPC staff that this truly is necessary, and we believe it is, but we haven't been able to make that case yet, and we also have not been able to develop and refine the appropriate design solution, and we would hope to and we

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330 are planning to work with staff to both make the case and to come up with the best possible design.

I think it's premature at this point for the Commission to stake out a position that this is somehow unnecessary, and

I think that if we take out that sentence that sentence that says, discourages the National

Park Service from adding perimeter security to the design memorial, I would be happy to support this EDR. But with it in there, I think that you are jumping the gun, and that you need to give us the opportunity to make the case, and try to integrate that into the design.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Mr. Chairman,

I just wonder whether or not there is a motion being made to take it out. Is that what you are suggesting?

COMMISSIONER MAY: Well, I would like to make a friendly amendment to the motion to remove that line.

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COMMISSIONER DIXON: Requiring the security?

COMMISSIONER MAY: Yes.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Also I was wondering whether or not there is any feedback from -

(Off-mike comment)

COMMISSIONER MAY: I'm sorry, removing the line that discourages us from adding security.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: That particular sentence?

COMMISSIONER MAY: That sentence, yes.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: I just noticed that the committee, the folks that are involved in the development, do they have any reaction to the staff's report in terms of their position?

MR. KELLER: They have been provided copies of the report.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: I think that

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332 would be good to know how they are reacting to some of these recommendations. Is that a fair request?

MR. KELLER: You may ask them directly to step forward and present their opinion.

MR. JACKSON: Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission, my name is Ed Jackson.

We've had a number of times where we had chats along this line. What - there are several things that are going through my mind at the same time. And Mr. Mayor is correct: the Park Service placed this requirement on us late in our game. And that is having significant impact on our timeline in terms of starting construction.

Our game plan is this: we are moving ahead with the necessary design requirements to meet this requirement if it is in fact a requirement that is going to be placed on us that we have to implement.

Our position is that we would not

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333 like to have the bollards. But if it is a requirement of the Park Service, and their further analysis supports this, then we are prepared to implement this.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: So how do we accommodate that? We have an amendment, the

Park Service wants to ask them to do it. They feel it impedes their time table.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We don't have an amendment.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I would encourage us to keep the discourage language.

The whole direction of this Commission and of the security task force is to try to keep away from the bollardization of Washington, D.C., and this would set a precedent for a lot of our memorials. And so I think we should give that direction to with all due respect Mr.

May, and then you can come back and make the case, and we will give you the rebuttable presumption.

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COMMISSIONER DIXON: Also it seems to me that the proponents are aware of the concern. They have got to be as concerned as anybody else about somebody being hurt, there being a security problem. So I'm sure if the

Park Service presents it to them, then they are going to be very anxious to deal with it I would think.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Mr. Chairman, if

I could I just want to respond to that.

I have no difficulty with the judgment of the Commission once the case is made. But at this moment we are in a position where we have to keep everything moving, so we are trying to deal with multiple submittals and overlapping requirements and late introduction of requirements, which you know it's our fault, we understand that, and it's a problem but we still have to deal with it.

And for us, for the Commission to stake out a position at this moment that it is somehow unnecessary I think is inappropriate.

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335

It raises the bar inappropriately in terms of the case that we have to make. I think that if the - even if the motion were changed, or if the wording were changed, to express concern about the introduction, I would have no problem with that. But to say that you discourage it presumes that you have an understanding of the need, and I don't believe that you have had that opportunity yet.

So I would strongly recommend that you change it, the wording.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Okay, I would accept - I would propose as the maker of the original motion a slight tweak in the language.

Encourages the National Park

Service to think carefully about adding perimeter security, and to make a presentation to the Commission if it feels it is necessary as to the reasons why this is necessary.

Now you can do this in executive session. John Parsons did it for the

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Washington Monument. But I don't think - I think this has been a significant enough issue for the Commission that the Commission needs to think about it, not just the staff.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I would second that.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: All right, so essentially we are striking the word, discourages, and it says, encourages the

National Park Service -

COMMISSIONER McGILL: To reconsider adding perimeter security, da da da, and to present the rationale, if they wish to do so, to present the rationale to the Commission.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: Is that - can you work with that? Does that keep you on track?

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I don't think that is going to affect our schedule. I think the approvals no matter what are an issue.

MR. JACKSON: It depends on the timing of you all's final decision actually.

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Our legislative mandate to start construction ends on November 12th. We have 95 percent construction documents complete. Design review comments already back from the National

Park Service, in Denver, and we are prepared to implement our construction process in obtaining a permit, but it's subject to the decision that you all have to make on this one issue.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Can I just point out that what has to happen by November 12th is the approval by NCPC, the Commission of

Fine Arts, and the I think it's the Secretary of the Interior officially. But it's those approvals; we don't have to actually start construction by November 12th.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: If I could just make a comment, my concern with weakening the language is that the counter-arguments will be back before us the next meeting, say we are so far along, you've got a design, you got to put it in.

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COMMISSIONER MAY: We will not make that argument. I can promise you we will not make the argument that we are so far along that it has to go.

We intend to make the case that this is necessary, and make the case that we have come up with the best possible design solution, and we intend to make that case in

September.

And I would just want to keep the door open to be able to do that on a fair playing field at that time.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Let me just say to add my comments that I discourage perimeter security on most buildings. And most facilities. My theory is that they should protect iconic buildings, they should protect national security targets of high importance, and they should protect our ability to run and operate our government.

So I feel like I would generally discourage any perimeter security absent the

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339 proof that it was warranted. And I guess in my case I'm concerned that we have been in this process for a decade, and we are now at the point of deciding we may possibly need security.

COMMISSIONER MAY: Mr. Chairman, I would also have no problem if what were put into the language here was a general discouragement, a note that the Commission generally discourages perimeter security, and puts the weight on the Park Service to prove the case. I have no problem with that.

It's just that the way this reads now, and frankly the way Mr. McGill altered the wording, both I think imply that there has been a thoughtful evaluation of the facts of this case when there have not been. And I just want to - I mean a general discouragement

I think is fine, but this wording I think is too judgmental.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Mr. Ames.

COMMISSIONER AMES: I tell him one

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340 that really goes against security measures, and I'd like to offer a substitute motion that we accept EDR as it was written and move forward.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I will second that.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We have a substitute motion.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I just have a question unrelated to the security issue.

Back to Mr. Cooper's testimony.

What is the square footage of this visitors center, and how - I'm trying to visualize it. I see the picture, but I'm not good at looking at those. We don't have a visual display here.

MR. KELLER: Well, maybe a best comparison would be to an existing facility, the FDR facility. And this is within I believe 70 square feet of that facility. It's just slightly larger.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: How big is

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341 that?

MR. KELLER: The FDR building, I don't have the exact - I was just trying to give a comparison to something you possibly have seen. Yes, it's 34 by 84.

(Comments off the record)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Are there any other questions or comments?

I'm sympathetic to your concern,

Peter. I believe that this is a little stronger than we have done. But I'm not about to - I'm not going to vote against the substituted motion.

Yes?

COMMISSIONER TURNER: Is it possible to put in a requirement that the case is made by September? Because I would hate to see the project slip even further if for whatever reason the facts weren't in by

September, and therefore these folks are pushed up against the wall in November.

COMMISSIONER MAY: You know, the

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342 difficulty with that, we are going to try to make that case, but our deadline for submitting all the information that we need to submit is the very beginning of August, and it is possible that we will not have reached full resolution with the staff by that time.

We fully intend to have it in

September, but it is also possible that we will not reach that in that timeframe. It's not - whether we get our preliminary approval in September isn't really the critical point.

The critical point is having final by

November 12th. So we would still theoretically have the opportunity in October and even November's session, since that is on the 6th, to get the final approval.

MR. JACKSON: Mr. Chairman?

COMMISSIONER MAY: Well, they can't move ahead until all the approvals are done, and we have to still go through the

Commission of Fine Arts, and that may take more than one trip in that time period as

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343 well.

So it's putting it by September imposes yet another deadline for us.

Honestly, there are - the real hurdle is just getting through everything by November 12th.

We would want to have the ability to I think you are tying our hands too much. It forces your hand in September to vote against it even if there are questions that still need to be answered.

MR. JACKSON: Mr. Chairman?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Dr. Jackson.

MR. JACKSON: We took this issue directly to the chairman of CFA. He does not necessarily support putting bollards in the project, but he expressed it similar to the nature that I did; that if it's a requirement that the Park Service is going to impose, I guess we'd have to go along with that.

He says there are numerous examples throughout Washington. It's becoming

bollard city. And from our point of view any

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344 extension adds to our bottom line in terms of dollars. And we need to break ground and get this project underway.

I did make a proposal to Mr. May that look we could explore this bollard issue well after design - I mean construction is underway. We have a two-year construction window, and that could be addressed, and we could have numerous opportunities to do so.

We also presented to CFA our recommendation in terms of the bollard design, and in that last meeting that we had before them, they accepted it if this becomes a requirement.

And so to get - if I continue to pursue this in the manner in which Mr. May is suggesting, I'm seeing one delay after another delay, and that I am really concerned about.

COMMISSIONER DIXON: I'm not sure that bollards are what we need - is that - I mean there may be other ways to do this. I mean maybe even some - we looked at even

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345 outside of the structure. We just want a car,

I think, or some other vehicle - maybe there is something other than a bollard that maybe you could consider, benches properly placed outside that people could sit on that would block a car from going through the hole. I don't know.

But I don't want to be holding you all up either. I just don't want to be surprised at the last minute with something like this.

COMMISSIONER MAY: These issues are why we would want to defer all of the discussion to the point where we make the case and we explain the design, and we just haven't done that, and that's why I'm trying to make this issue.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I'll just make a comment, though. And I agree with the comment that you made about, you have a two- year construction window. The plaza elements of this are the last pieces to go in. You

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346 have a lot of time to work this out, if you do indeed need security.

It's not going to slow down the rest of it. Heavy construction could go on.

It's going to go on for a long time. You are talking about the plaza surfaces here; that's the last thing that we put in.

So I don't think the pressure is such that - it says we have to approve this now or in September in terms of security.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We've worked with the Smithsonian on this issue, and we have in many cases discouraged them from just bollards, and we've been able to work though,

I think very successfully, some additional design on that.

But I will say to you, the

Commission, that my intention is to see that this stays on track, and we will work with the

Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation and the

National Memorial Project to keep this on track.

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347

But we will also have to listen to what the Park Service tells us and we will have to evaluate that, and we may not decide that bollard or the security issues by

September, but we will do everything we can to keep this project on track.

All right, we have a motion on the floor. The motion is to accept and to approve the executive director's recommendation.

Further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed?

Abstentions?

Okay, one abstention. Motion carries. Thank you very much.

We move on now to the Georgetown

Waterfront Park. And that is you again, Mr.

Keller.

MR. KELLER: Correct, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We are getting

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348 very comfortable with you up here.

MR. KELLER: I feel like I am camped out up here.

FILE NUMBER 6383 -

GEORGETOWN WATERFRONT PARK

MR. KELLER: This next item is the submission of the final site and building plans for the Georgetown Waterfront Park by the National Park Service. The feature is located at Wisconsin Avenue and 31st Street, and it's titled, as the Commission has reviewed it, as the Wisconsin Avenue terminus.

Again the location of the waterfront park is along the Potomac River, you see here highlighted in red. We will move in closer.

The outline here shows the total boundary of the waterfront park, that comprises just a little more than 10 acres.

The portion you are reviewing today for final site and building plans is highlighted in the blue, and it comprises just a little more than

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349 two acres, and is at the far eastern end of the waterfront park.

This the preliminary site plan of

February 2007 that the Commission approved.

Here you see the features that were in that plan. They included the water feature, the central plaza, which was a basin with low water jets that people could enter into.

There is the promenade which is a continuation of the feature that exists along the full length of the waterfront park and was a major element to the park.

There is the step bulkhead which is located here, and that feature has some slight adjustments that you will see in a moment, but its location is maintained.

The pergola is also another feature that was in the preliminary design, and again, it's been carried through to the final design.

And then the bioengineered edge, which is the soft green sustainable edge

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350 aspect that was developed in this space of the project at this location.

At the earlier phase that you approved through final design that has been constructed - in fact all of those features in that phase one development we'll be opening in

August of this year, and there is a bioengineered edge in that element as well.

Here you see the plan that for the final site development. The bulkhead, the major change has just been in the edge. Now it's an edge feature that faces downstream; gives a flow to the approach of the shoreline as you come through the safety features and down to the edge.

Again, this is a feature that allows people to sit at the water's edge; it's developed for the observation of regattas and the crewing competitions that exist on this portion of the river.

And then there is the location of seating that in the earlier design was here.

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351

It's actually just a series of low level walls that would serve as seating, and that is now brought to the promenade side.

And then the full development of the ring garden feature occurs in that location.

The pergola is maintained in its preliminary design location. It has been fully executed now, and we'll see that in a moment.

Again, the crescent trail continues its previous approved location, and that continues in the final design.

Here is a simulated view of that final central basin area with the water feature.

And here is a view of the pergola structure itself showing you the nature of the seating. Again this you saw in preliminary design, and has been continued and executed in the final design.

The lighting for the park,

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352 perimeter lighting is maintained as approved in the preliminary design with the Washington globe at the perimeter, and then the internal park lighting is an indirect lighting element that again has been installed in phase one, and will be utilized for this phase of the project at the Wisconsin Avenue terminus.

Staff finds no issues with the final plans, and the submission continues conformance with the Commission's preliminary approval.

The staff has attached to its report recent comments, and you have those available to review about the waterfront that were submitted by an interested individual.

And then the staff notes that no portion of the Wisconsin Avenue park terminus area is within or directly affected by the alternative location of the Georgetown

University Boathouse at the Key Bridge location is an alternative being reviewed by the Park Service in its current EIS process.

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353

Consequently it is the staff's recommendation that the Commission approve the final site and building plans for the

Georgetown Waterfront Park, Wisconsin Avenue terminus, as shown on the NCPC map file, and notes that the National Park Service is preparing an environmental impact statement for the Georgetown University Boathouse project that includes an alternative locating the boathouse within Georgetown Waterfront

Park.

That concludes staff's presentation.

[Insert: Georgetown Waterfront Park

Staff Recommendation]

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[Insert: Public Statements]

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355

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Can you go back to the slide that shows the rendering looking down that water feature?

MR. KELLER: Sure.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Right there.

What are those little concrete -

MR. KELLER: These are bollard features that are placed there for direction of traffic only. Not as a security element.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Because they are too far apart. This is just to keep the traffic coming off of Wisconsin Avenue.

MR. KELLER: Correct, and the bike path of the Crescent Trail travels through here. And it's to define the pedestrian area versus these corridor areas.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, all right, thank you.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Am I correct in assuming that the boathouse, if and when it's proposed, will come before NCPC?

MR. KELLER: In terms of if that

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356 location begins to be placed in the currently approved area, yes it would. You did act on it as a zoning case in 1995.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: But that was a much different location, right?

MR. KELLER: It's the present location that has been fully developed by the university, and they have offered that as one of the alternatives in the EIS process. So that is being considered, as well as alternative locations.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, so if it's on federal land, then we have full authority.

If it is requiring a zoning change, we'd have advisory authority?

MR. KELLER: Correct.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay.

We had one individual signed up to speak on this, Mr. Robert Von Eigen. Are you here?

MR. VON EIGEN: I am.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Oh, very good,

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357 thank you.

MR. VON EIGEN: I waited out the other debate.

My name is Bob Von Eigen. I'm president of the Friends of Georgetown

Waterfront Park. It's a 501(c)(3) corporation organized to advocate for and to support the

Georgetown Waterfront Park development.

We are here obviously to endorse the proposal, to approve the final site and building plans for the Wisconsin Avenue terminus.

We are very enthusiastic about this development, and have succeeded in raising money to get it constructed. And we are hoping that this goes to bid soon, and we can break ground on it this fall.

But I would like to comment on the note in the executive director's recommendation relating to the EIS for the

Georgetown University Boathouse project, and the alternative locating the GW boathouse in

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358 the park, phase one in the park. It's under constructing right now. It's going to be opening in August.

Obviously Friends of Georgetown

Waterfront Park vehemently opposes that alternative on the merits. We didn't discourage the discussion of it in the EIS, because we didn't want to create a litigation issue for those who would prefer to see it in the park. But we believe it would be a breach of faith to locate that boathouse in phase one, which was - went through a planning phase of over 50 meetings, public fully involved, design components, and location of this park were premised on a 1980s definition of a boathouse zone, and then reliance on that.

We went out and raised money to build this park right here. So we really want to be firmly on the record of opposing that alternative to destroy phase one, which we just have not even opened yet by putting a boathouse at the western end but east of 34th

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359

Street.

The boathouse zone, defined in the

1980s, was to locate all boathouses to the west of the foot of 34th Street. And we went forward with soliciting funds for this park on the premise that that was going to hold firm.

So with that comment, we would enthusiastically endorse the approval of the final site and building plans for the

Wisconsin Avenue terminus.

Thank you.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

I also note for the Commissioners that you have at your place a letter, or actually two letters, from Robert B. Norris on this matter.

Mr. McGill.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I move the

EDR.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Motion made, and seconded by Mr. Miller.

Okay, motion made and seconded.

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360

Further discussion?

All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed, none.

Abstentions? None.

Motion carries. Thank you.

All right, we will move now to agenda item 1E. This is a modification to a planned unit development for the Arthur

Capper/Carrollsburg Hope VI Redevelopment

Project.

Mr. Hart.

FILE Z.C. 03-12f/03-13F

MODIFICATION TO A PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT

FOR THE ARTHUR CAPPER/CARROLLSBURG HOPE VI

REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AT 250 M STREET, S.E.,

WASHINGTON, D.C.

MR. HART: Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman and members of the Commission.

The proposal before you today that was preferred by the Zoning Commission for

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361 your review and comment is Zoning Case 03-

12F/03-13F, modifications to a planned unit development located at 250 M Street Southeast, in the Capper/Carrollsburg Redevelopment

Project.

This site is located in Southeast

Washington in square 769, lots 18, 20 and 21, at the corner of M Street and 2nd Place.

It is a 27,000 square foot lot in a C3C zone.

This proposed site is part of the larger Capper/Carrollsburg Project outlined here in yellow.

Capper/Carrollsburg is a 33-acre

PUD that this Commission approved in January,

2004, and includes housing, office and some retail space.

Across 2nd Place, which is here, is

Canal Park, the future Canal Park. This

Commission approved these final site plans in

November of 2006.

This park is a federally owned

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362 property, but jurisdiction was transferred to the District of Columbia in 1965.

Also an earlier version of this version of the proposed site before you today was approved by the Commission in June of

2007. This earlier design included a building at a height of 110 feet, and the building did not adversely affect the federal interest.

Nearby land uses include high rise office and in the future some mid and low rise residential.

The U.S. DOT is located here directly to the south, the Navy Yard, and the

Navy Yard Metro entrance is actually over here.

This is a prospective drawing of the proposed development from the corner of M

Street and 2nd Place Southeast.

A portion of Canal Park can be seen in the very lower left of the image.

The requested modifications to the approved PUD are to increase the height by 20

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363 feet. As you recall it was at 110 feet in

2007. Increase the gross floor area to

234,000 square feet. Increase the number of floors from nine to 11. And modify the roof structure design.

This proposal is for an 11-story

130-foot tall office building with retail on the first floor. The layout of the first floor is shown here. And for your orientation this is M Street, 3rd Street, and 2nd Place, and this is a service drive that is to the north.

Staff has reviewed the proposal at

250 M Street and identified the main issue as conformance to the Height of Buildings Act.

This case is different than some of the other

Height Act cases that this Commission has recently reviewed. This case is focused on

Section 5 of the Height Act, which describes how building heights should be determined when buildings confront a public reservation.

Section 5 of the Height Act shown in this

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364 slide requires that where a building or a proposed building confronts a public space or reservation formed at the intersection fo two or more streets, avenues or highways, the course of which is not interrupted by said public space or reservation, the limit of height of the building shall be determined by the width of the widest street, avenue or highway.

As I stated earlier, this proposed project is located at the corner of 2nd Place and M Street, as shown on this map. It is in square 769 and it's just east of Canal Park.

When staff applies the requirement in Section 5 of the Height Act to the site shown here, we find that it would allow the developer to use the width of either 2nd

Street, 2nd Place, L Street or M Street for the basis for measuring the height of their building.

Since 2nd Place has a width of 60 feet, and M, L and 2nd Street have widths of

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365

90 feet, the staff finds that the maximum allowed height would be 110 feet, or 90 plus

20.

This is the same height that this

Commission approved for this building in 2007.

The developer, however, has stated that the Zoning administrator has a view that the width of 2nd Street at this location is greater than 110 feet.

And that would allow the maximum building height of 130 feet under the Height

Act.

Although staff has been informed about the Zoning administrator view on the width of the street, written confirmation of this view has not been provided to staff.

The developed is suggesting two separate theories on why he should be allowed to increase the building height.

The first theory is that the

Height Act would allow a building to use the width of a public reservation in the

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366 calculation of building height when their property confronts a public reservation.

And the second theory is that the historic right-of-way is 250 feet, which you see here, and so it should allow a taller building.

Staff does not agree with either of these theories.

With regard to the first theory,

Section 5 of the Height Act provides that if a building confronts a reservation that is formed by uninterrupted streets - and this one does - the height may be taken from the width of the widest street around the reservation.

There is no mention of using the width of the reservation in addition to the width of the streets.

The developer's theory that it can add the width of the street and the reservation and even the next street to get a taller height is not supported in the act's language.

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367

Also the developer will cite a case from 1986 called - which we call

Techworld, to support this first theory in determining height of a building confronting a reservation.

IN that case the D.C. surveyor did use Mr. Vernon Square and two parallel streets surrounding that square, to determine the height of that building. This Commission at the time did not agree with that view.

That case actually landed in court, where NCPC, the Park Service and a private group argued that the height could not be determined in this manner.

The trial court agreed with the developer, but that decision was later vacated, and does not require that this

Commission to change its view.

It is also important to note that in the Techworld case, the court gave a few examples of instances where it said the D.C. surveyor had added two street widths and a

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368 reservation to determine building height.

Staff has reviewed each of these cases, these examples, and in each one the developer could have the same height of the building just by applying the Height Act and using the widest street around the reservation.

Because staff finds that the language of Section 5 of the Height Act does not support the developer's viewpoint and the

Techworld case was vacated, staff disagrees with this first theory.

The second theory the developer is offering is that it is using a single 250-foot right-of-way that was established 200 years ago. Staff finds that the Height Act is designed to establish a relationship between streets as they are currently configured, and the heights of buildings.

The history of the streets that we now know as 2nd Street and 2nd Place is important, however, and staff will quickly

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369 review a few dates in order for you to understand why the developer's argument is not valid.

Next few slides are illustrations staff has created to show what the rights of way layouts have changed, or how they have changed over time. These illustrations are only meant to allow easy comparisons between the dates listed.

The first illustration is from the

1797 Demott Map for the city of Washington.

It shows these streets used to be a 250-foot right of way and a canal going down the middle.

In 1909 a map was copyrighted by

Michael Willer, a member of the President

William Taft's committee. All the streets and avenues on that map have their widths listed, and 2nd Street is listed as a 90-foot-wide street. But it is actually, on the map, it is actually much wider than the other 90-foot wide areas.

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370

But it is listed as a 90-foot wide street.

Also note that at this date the canal is no longer here. It was actually filled.

Here we have the Sanborn Map from

1928. And in the middle you can see a railroad track, spur, that was in the middle - again, a 250-foot right of way here.

In 1956 the Baist Real Estate Map actually shows a 75-foot right of way, a 100 reservation, and a 65-foot right of way.

Again, next to the square 769.

In 1997 the National - excuse me - the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the L'Enfant Plan of the

City of Washington included 2nd Street southeast. On this form the width of 2nd

Street is listed at 90 feet. There is no special mention of the reservation here, nor does the registration form give another width of 2nd Street.

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371

Finally and most importantly in

August of 2005, NCPC reviewed a proposal by the D.C. Office of the Surveyor to dedicate several roads including 2nd Place and L

Street, Southeast, as part of the 2nd Street -

I'm sorry, 2nd Place and L Street as part of the overall Capper/Carrollsburg Project.

Shown here, 2nd Place was to be dedicated at 60 feet, and L Street was to be dedicated at 90 foot, 90 feet.

This was a delegated action from

NCPC, and as NCPC staff did not find any federal interest that would be adversely affected, these road dedications were approved by the District of Columbia city council in

December of 2006.

For this reason staff disagrees with the second theory, and finds that the 2nd

Place and 2nd Street are clearly two separate streets, and cannot be combined into one right of way.

As you can see here, this is the

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372 existing condition today. Again, a site, 2nd

Place, 2nd Street, and L and M.

If we look at the elevations, the building that the NCPC approved in 2007 was

110 feet high, as you see here. The actual outline for that building is here.

This 110-foot height was based on the developer's correct interpretation fo the

Height Act, that it could only use the 90-foot width of M Street.

Also, all of the building heights for Capper/Carrollsburg were established in

2004 when the PUD for Capper/Carrollsburg was approved by the zoning commission.

This building at the time was set for 110 feet. At no point at the time was the width of 2nd Street identified as an issue.

Focusing back on this building, in

2007 there were two building elements that were above the allowable height limit, and one of them was the tower, and the other one was you can kind of see in the outline here a

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373 penthouse.

The approved penthouse was actually set back appropriately, and the tower is allowed under the Height Act.

In summary staff finds that because Section 5 of the Height Act allows the widest street around a public reservation to be used to determine the height of the building confronting a public reservation, then the maximum allowed height of this building is 110 feet.

Since the new proposal exceeds the maximum allowed height of 110 feet, staff determines that this project is in violation of the Height Act.

Therefore the executive director recommends that the Commission should advise the Zoning Commission that the proposal would be adverse to the federal interest because it does not conform to the requirements of the

Height of Buildings Act, as it exceeds the maximum allowed height of 110 feet, and

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374 recommend that the Zoning Commission require that the applicant modify the project design to reduce the building height by 20 feet to bring the design into compliance with the

Height Act.

And this concludes my presentation.

[Insert: Capper/Carroll Hope VI

Redevelopment Project Staff

Recommendation]

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375

[Insert - Public Statement]

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376

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Thank you.

Questions of staff?

All right, Mr. Quinn, welcome back.

MR. QUIN: Thank you. I can raise this? I like this. It makes me feel like I'm in the court of appeals or something like that.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You just showed me something I didn't know we had.

MR. QUIN: First of all thank you very much for letting me appear here today on behalf of the William C. Smith Company and the

Zoning Commission's approval and DCHA is also a co-applicant in this case.

We filed as you know an extensive response to the EDR. I doubt that you have been able to read it word for word, and I certainly am not going to read it for you at this point. But we thought it was very important to get both the law and the facts in front of you, which you have in that

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377 memorandum.

Because of my limited time, I'm going to - do I only have three minutes? I thought I had five as an organization?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I'll give you five.

MR. QUIN: How about six?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: No. You're just so eloquent, it fell over at five.

MR. QUIN: I'm sorry. I thought I at least had five.

I'm just going to barge straight in at this point. 250 M and the restoration of 2nd Street are part of the major

Capper/Carrollsburg development which you have heard about.

The mix of uses is what enables a one-for-one replacement of 695 public housing units. That's what's unique about this.

The 130 feet of height is necessary to allow the building to go to the gross floor area of the originally approved

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378

Zoning Commission's decision; 110 feet did not allow that to happen.

What we are talking about here is the restoration of 2nd Street to the width and configuration as it was originally established over 200 years ago. This is the Dermott Map.

Let's get the right utensil here. I'm sorry.

The square that we are talking about, this is

M Street right here. I'm just going to walk up here. 759 right here. The width of the street is 250 feet from the edge of this property line to the edge of this property line.

If you look at the top of the screen, you see numbers, one, two, three, four five. 2nd Street was 2nd Street. With the

Canal in the center. Measuring 250 feet across. And what we are talking about today,

I'm going to go two forward, three forward, and show you that the same - 250 feet from property line to property line is the same as exists right out there today. You will see

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379 buses parked along in the center.

The point here is that that is all going to be restored into the Canal Squares

Park, which will be actually so perfect that it is going to reflect the canal by water features including even an aquatic garden right in between.

What you can see by the reservations now - well, I'll just skip into that part.

Then what happened is, in 1965, we are going from the beginning back to - sorry

- in 1965 the eastern portion is a better copy in your package was closed. And I'm sorry I can't get this thing to work, but the eastern part. That was closed, and for the benefit of the National Housing Authority, for the

Capper/Carrollsburg project originally.

Then by that - sorry, I'm a little discombobulated here because that didn't work

- the street revested in the National Housing

Authority except for the little part at the

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380 bottom you can see that reverted to and vested in the property owner that is our predecessor in title.

Now following the Zoning

Commission's approval of the first stage approval of the Capper/Carrollsburg case, the city council legislatively approved the rededication of that same street. Back to the same dimensions, so that we had from the edge of the property line as you remember, the last exhibit, all the way to the property line on the western side of 2nd Street, 250 feet.

So my point here is that we are restoring the same street that was there going back 200 years.

The second point that I want to make is that the measurement of height here is consistent - is consistent, and based on the longstanding applications of the height through decisions by the District of Columbia.

The office of attorney general, the District of Columbia, the surveyor and the Zoning

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381

Commission as Mr. May said on that case.

These precedents are described in detail, but what I want to do here is quickly show you the two precedents that are cited in the court case.

The building, you see Farragut

Square, the Army-Navy Club is at this point, and the Farragut Building is this point.

Those adjacent streets are not 110 feet. They are not even 90 feet. But in terms of the interpretation, the measurement of the open space plus the street allowed those two buildings to go to 130 feet.

The same is true of McPherson

Square. The building at the southeast corner of the square, the Prudential Building, went to 130 feet based on the same interpretation.

Those are the two examples we wanted to cite.

With regard to NCPC, this is our third point, obviously this Commission performs a very important function in

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382 determining what affects federal interest.

But I think it's meaningful here, though, to point out that the Height Act is essentially a local act, by its terms applied and enforced by District of Columbia officials. All operative and enforcement functions are vested in the mayor, the office of attorney general and the city council. No federal agencies, including NCPC, were given any role in determining heights under the act.

And what's more, the initial legislation was not by Congress, but by the

Board of Commissioners of the District of

Columbia, that was forwarded to the House committee on the District of Columbia. That's why it's called a federal act. The District did not have until home rule a legislature.

Not like Virginia or Maryland or any home rule state.

So we respectfully ask that you respect that application by the District of

Columbia.

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383

As to 2nd Street being a single street, there are other streets in the city - we have already talked about the two, 15th

Streets and 17th Streets. This is E Street, separated by reservations, one street. The addresses is on the north side of the park are odd, and the ones on the south side are even.

This is true, the same with 2nd Street, another portion of E Street, pointed out in our brief.

So the point here is that when you have a reservation in the center of two streets, or that would look like two streets, that they are actually a single street, and you can determine that by virtue of the addresses. In other words they are all called

E Street.

I think the last slide I want to show is the importance of the balance between the two buildings. This is Canal Squares Park between the two buildings looking north from M

Street. The one on the left, on the west side

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384 of the street, is 130 feet. The one on the right, which we propose is 130 feet. So that is very important to us in terms of the balance.

So in closing what I'd like to say is two things, maybe five things.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, make it two, because you are about five minutes over.

MR. QUIN: All right, this is my closing statement.

We do not understand why NCPC would take action, one, that's contrary to the consistent application of the Act, by those who are vested with authority to apply the

Act. That is number one.

Number two, it's contrary to the Zoning

Commission's based on planning reasons.

Third, it's contrary to the economic well-being of the District of

Columbia.

Fourth, it's contrary to the sound balancing of the design, and importantly the

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385 ratio under the 1910 Height Act is always 20 feet and more for commercial buildings that the width of the street. Here -

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You need to wind up. You need to wind up.

MR. QUIN: This is it.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay.

MR. QUIN: Here the actual height versus the width of the street is a two to one ratio with the open space being twice the amount of the height of the building.

And finally, contrary to the support of the exemplary hope six project.

And I'm glad to answer any questions at this point.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, leave that picture up.

The building and the symmetry you are talking about, what is the street that was used to measure the height or to determine the height of that other building?

MR. QUIN: New Jersey Avenue.

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386

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Right. So that is a little wider than these streets here.

MR. QUIN: Actually it's not wider.

New Jersey Avenue, because - well, this is

250 feet between.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: No, no, we are going to argue about that too.

Let's go back to the point that was raised by our staff. You are looking at a

1797 map versus a 2006 city ordinance that establishes 2nd Street and 2nd Place. So how do we get back to 1797?

MR. QUIN: In 1797 that's when the streets were originally established. And the count went right through the center, and the width between property lines was 250.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: But it's not 250 now, because it's two different streets the way I read it.

MR. QUIN: I would differ with you in the sense that -

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, that's

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387 good, because we differ. We don't need to debate it. We just differ.

MR. QUIN: Well, I think maybe I should give the reason for it.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, go ahead.

MR. QUIN: The point here is that the order of the Commission of the legislative body, namely the city council, that rededicated the eastern portion of 2nd Street dedicated it so that it would be 250 feet apart as a single street.

We called it, however, 2nd Place in order not to identify and confuse people in the location of the street.

We can go back to the city council, I ask Mr. Miller, and have it designated 2nd Street. It should be the designation.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Because I'm confused now, if it's 2nd Place and 2nd Street, it's not 2nd Street. And you said 2nd Street was 2nd Street, but it's not; it's 2nd Street

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388 and 2nd Place. So I think there may be two different streets, and I'm not convinced that we are really at 250 feet.

The other point if we are going to rely on - well, I'm not going to go there with that.

But the other issue about this being a local ordinance, if I remember correctly, when home rule was established this act was excepted from acts that could be changed by the D.C. government.

MR. QUIN: That's exactly correct.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: So that seems to imply to me that there is probably some federal purpose for having that.

MR. QUIN: Well, I think there obviously is federal purpose. But my point was that the act itself came from the

Commissioners of the District of Columbia. It was not something that was imposed by

Congress. It was something that was in fact supported by the city because of the Cairo

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Hotel, the height of that hotel.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Why does it say

Act of Congress at the top of the document?

MR. QUIN: Because Congress was the legislature for the District of Columbia.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: The other question I guess I would have is, saying that this is a local ordinance subject to local interpretation, are you implying that the

National Capital Planning Commission has no jurisdiction over this?

MR. QUIN: I would say it has no jurisdiction in terms of the application of the act to a project.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Do we have -

MR. QUIN: It certainly has every right to make a comment to the Zoning

Commission as to what your views are on the act.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Do we have standing to challenge the issues?

MR. QUIN: That's a very

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390 interesting question. I don't know the answer.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I do. I think we do.

On your issue of Techworld, which is a case that has been vacated, and you point there to the Army-Navy Club and the Prudential

Building. I believe the height of those buildings was determined based on K Street's width, was it not?

MR. QUIN: No. It was based - in fact the court is very clear. It's based on the measurement by the office of attorney general from one street through the reservation to the other street.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Certainly that was one of the findings in the case. But you have mentioned the surveyor and the surveyor's interpretation. Has the surveyor ever been wrong? Has he ever revoked some of the plats he's done? Has he ever withdrawn some of his opinions?

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MR. QUIN: Has he ever withdrawn?

I don't know.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I think he has, but I won't swear to that.

MR. QUIN: But I would say, these two buildings do not front on K Street.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Which buildings?

MR. QUIN: Neither the Army-Navy

Club nor the Farragut Building.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: They do not?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: They are a block south?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, well, then

I apologize. I'm wrong on that. Am I wrong?

MR. HART: Yes, actually, the

Height Act, Section 5 says, that - and actually I would go back to it, but it's not in this presentation - but the Height Act does allow you to take from the reservation, you can take any of the streets that abut the reservation. So they could actually use K

Street, which is 147 feet -

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CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, well that

MR. HART: They could use that for any building that are around here.

MR. QUIN: Well, that is simply not the way this has been administered over the years. Because the K Street could not be used, these two buildings front solely on

17th, the Park, 17th, and the same is true for the other building, namely, the Prudential

Building, 15th, the park, and 15th.

These rights of way are not 90 feet, nor are they even 110 feet, obviously if they are not 90 feet. But the measurement was taken as the court points out from this property line all the way across.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: And the surveyor I believe when he was asked about this said he did not understand or did not know the federal height act requirements; is that correct?

MR. QUIN: No, he stated what he

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393 felt the streets were. It's the office of attorney general, formerly the corporation counsel, that made the ruling, and they are responsible under the 1910 Height Act for the enforcement of the act.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Go back to your picture of Rolling Street, Rollins Park, E

Street.

MR. QUIN: There.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, what are those buildings at the bottom of the picture?

Are they federal building?

MR. QUIN: I think they are, yes.

COMMISSIONER MAY: It's the

Department of the Interior on the right, and the Office of Personnel Management on the left.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Do they violate the Height Act?

MR. QUIN: I don't know. I haven't looked at the height.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I mean you are

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394 showing us the street.

MR. QUIN: The reason for showing this was to show you that a single street may have - be a single street with a reservation in the center.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: But if these buildings are built, how do we know that they are not built in accordance with the Height

Act as we understand it as opposed to - I mean

I don't understand what the purpose is other than you are showing me E Street is a wide street at this point.

MR. QUIN: Well, the purpose is, at least hopefully it was my purpose, that E

Street as you go along from 18th Street to 20th

Street, is a single street. The address of this building is E Street. The address of this building is E Street right here.

So what you have is one street with a reservation in between which consistently has been applied by the Office of

Corporation Counsel, now office of attorney

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395 general, to compute the right of way above 110 feet.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, last question, or last comment, I guess, when we talk about this mix of uses and allowing the building to recoup the cost of these additional houses, why didn't we talk about that when this was originally approved two years ago?

MR. QUIN: When this was approved two years ago, and I can give you the background of that, we thought, the initial

PUD, that we could get the 236,000 square feet in 110 feet. When we went for the second PUD, when it went forward, the applicant - the owner said, well, just proceed on, and see what happens.

Later two tenants requested, as I understand it - one of the representatives is here today - that they needed the additional

33,000 square feet as part of the building.

In order to get that we were

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396 asked, go explore this with the city. We went to the office of attorney general who said, we needed to go the zoning administrator and the surveyor. Which we did, and we got favorable rulings from the zoning administrator, the office of attorney general. And that is how we got here.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: When you mentioned economic well-being which I fully understand - we want businesses to succeed - but I guess I would take this to the extreme.

I'm sure they would be economically better off if they went not just 20 more feet but 100 feet, 120 feet. And my concern is that we are creeping this.

MR. QUIN: Well, the 1910 Height

Act is pretty clear that no commercial can above 130 except along Pennsylvania Avenue.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I agree, and that's where we disagree. Because my view of this is a little different. So I'm not going to support your request.

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397

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I've got a couple of questions too.

Is it not possible that the federal - the D.C. commissioners were federal officials and that was a federal law? Because right now D.C. has this unique dual status with my organization. We can transfer land to

D.C. under two alternative approaches. The first alternative is that we can treat D.C. as another federal agency. And we can transfer the use of the land to them with restrictions that they must follow; or we can treat D.C. as a municipality and sell them surplus property.

So if before home rule the D.C.

Council adopts the Height of Buildings Act, or whatever they were called, the D.C. commissioners, that's then ratified by

Congress, is that not a federal law?

MR. QUIN: Of course in that sense it is, Mr. McGill. For example if the 1910

Height Act had come to the attention of the commissioners after home rule, then their law

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398 could have gone into effect without going to

Congress. That's the only point I'm making, is that this is primarily was generated from the local rulers, namely, the three commissioners of the former government.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: But it was when D.C. was a federal agency, and approved by Congress, and therefore the Height of

Buildings Act is a federal law?

MR. QUIN: I'm not disagreeing with that.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Well, then,

NCPC has standing to comment on the federal interest involved in the federal law.

MR. QUIN: I didn't say they didn't have standing to comment. I said that they did not have a role in the application of the

1910 Height Act. And if you look at the act, the only references are to now the mayor, the city council, and office of corporation counsel. They are the only people who interpret and apply the act. Not that you

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399 can't comment. I believe you can comment, and

I suspect that you will comment. I'm hoping that you will comment in favor of us.

(Laughter)

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Okay, then one other question on the reasoning about the same named street on each side of a reservation.

So this means that if East Capitol

Street is rezoned commercial around Lincoln

Park that you can build 130 foot buildings, because the street on the south side of

Lincoln Park is East Capitol Street S.E., and the street on the north side of Lincoln Park is East Capitol Street N.E.

MR. QUIN: If it were zoned that way that would probably be true.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Even though it's two blocks wide.

MR. QUIN: Well, this is 250-feet wide here. But I mean if you talk about one street, look what we have all across the

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400 nation. We have streets, thoroughfares, with large islands in the center. It's still one street. 95 going right through the chairman's country is a single street. What does it have in the center? At some parts it has 2- or 300 feet in between. It's still one street.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Mr.

Chairman?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Yes, ma'am.

COMMISSIONER TREGONING: Not that I don't love these discussions about height; I do. I do, I live for them every month.

But I will just, I just want to express a couple of things. When I think about some of the weighty matters that this

Commission has dealt with, you know, even earlier today talking about the visionary future of the District of Columbia, and all of those wonderful ideas, I have to just ask the question about the federal interest. You know, maybe Washington is a place, I don't know, that needs to be bird dogged like this.

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401

But if you look at the intent of the Height of Buildings Act, which is really an urban design intention, that you give a scale to the buildings that is commensurate with the experience of the space, you know it seems like it's a crazy thing but if the city council were to go back and rename 2nd Place

2nd Street as it once was, that then suddenly this is okay, and otherwise it's not.

But the space in front of the building is a very vast space, and in fact from an urban design perspective, the 130 feet notwithstanding from an urban design perspective could actually accommodate a much higher building.

The interpretation - that's all I ask us to think about. When we talk about the federal interest, I have a hard time seeing sometimes what is the federal interest, what is the federal ox that is being gored in a matter of - in this case okay it's a massive

20 feet of difference. But in some cases we

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402 are arguing in this body over two feet or 10 feet or something like that.

So I just respectfully submit that we are addressing these issues in the course of our zoning rewrite. I can't predict how things are going to come out, but some of the areas of contention I can assure you will be resolved.

But one of the other things that we are trying to do in this city is give certainty and predictability to the development community. And when we have interpreted something you know in a certain way, we find it very difficult, as much as I think the Commission would like the city to change how it does it, to turn on a dime and to do it very differently.

The process that we have set in front of us to make some of those changes, if we are going to make them is through the zoning rewrite.

And so that's the forum where I

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403 hope we can flesh out and resolve some of these issues, but I do respectfully submit that I think the question of federal interest in this matter might be somewhat overstated.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, I do look forward to your rewrite, and getting to the certainty that you talked about.

MR. QUIN: Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to correct one thing that is out there.

There seems to be a statement that this building is 20 feet higher. The building technically from the top of the roof is 20 feet higher, but the net total height is about

7 to 7-1/2 feet higher than it was when we had

110-foot level. It's how the architects changed the structure so as to place part of the mechanical penthouse into the floor that still had habitable space on it.

COMMISSIONER MAY: I'm not sure I understand what you are saying about that seven feet.

COMMISSIONER McGILL: He is saying

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404 there is no penthouse on top of the new building.

COMMISSIONER MAY: No, I understand the building, what they were designed for the building. I don't understand what you are saying, seven feet. Because the way that I see it is, there was 110 feet. You are asking for 130. Yes, there is a conference center that is right underneath that 130 feet, but it's still a 20 foot difference between where that 110 feet was and where that 130 feet is now.

MR. QUIN: No, the net difference in the total height of the building to the top of the penthouse is approximately seven feet.

COMMISSIONER MAY: I'm not sure that it makes any sense to argue whether the penthouse counts in the height measurement.

If I could just add my two cents on this debate. I would have to agree with

Ms. Tregoning that the Height Act as we are trying to interpret it here is really

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405 something that goes to - or that speaks to the urban design of the city.

And I think the idea of trying to match the heights of buildings to the right of ways that are adjacent I think is a very important concept. And it's true, the relationship between that open space and the street wall that faces it, you know, you are usually going for something in the neighborhood of a one-to-one relationship, and here we have two to one, which is, does it make for good what's the right - public square making in the more old-fashioned sense of the word.

That doesn't mean that this won't be a lovely park; it will be, with 110 or 130 foot buildings on either side.

But I think that if we are looking out for the federal interest here, I think we are served better by concerning ourselves with the planning issues that are associated with it rather than trying to focus so minutely on

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406 these very very fine differences in interpretation, particularly when the actual authority to enforce the Height Act lies with the Zoning Administrator.

And I just - we could take a motion here that says the Zoning Commission should change its action. But I can predict that the Zoning Commission won't change its action, and we will simply defer to the Zoning

Administrator, because that is who has the authority to interpret it.

So that is what I have to say.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Ms. Miller.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I just wanted to associated myself with Harriet Tregoning's remarks, and not that the Zoning Review Task

Force that she alluded to, it's supposed to be meeting in 32 minutes to discuss this very height issue, and there are several participants in this issue, Marcel Acosta from

NCPC staff, Jennifer Steingasser who is helping running the thing for Harriet, Steve

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407

Sher, and myself as an observer, height is on the discussion. WE may not get there.

But it has been, I think from an urban design standpoint, it is - a 130-foot building on the other side of this square, at most all we are talking about in all these cases as Ms. Tregoning alluded to is at most

20 feet. It usually is four or eight or 12 or two, the parapet, three feet. It is amazing the amount of time we all spend on it. But that's why the task force is trying to simplify and create some predictable and some consensus around these issues.

However it has been the longstanding District interpretation to allow for the street and the reservation to be included in the calculation of the Height Act.

That has been the longstanding interpretation. NCPC staff has a different interpretation.

This task force may come out with a different interpretation that agrees with

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408 the - but I have to - I'm not going to concede that the District doesn't have the authority to continue interpreting the Height Act the way it's been interpreting it for decades, and especially in the case where from an urban design standpoint it makes some sense.

So I will not be supporting the

EDR. I would hope as in another case, I'm sometimes successful in these things and not, and I don't want to delay this so I can get to that task force meeting, but in another case recently, I think it was about a year ago at

Connecticut and K, where there was a different issue with the Height Act, you graciously agreed to change the language that says it does violate; you put in may violate, because that is your interpretation. It isn't clear- cut that it is violation just cause you say it is.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We look forward to the results of your commission.

All right, any further comments?

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409

I think we really have discussed this at great length.

All right, do we have a motion?

I've forgotten at this point.

Can I have a motion on this?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: I so move.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Moved the executive director's EDR.

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Seconded by Mr.

Galvez.

Further discussion?

All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed?

(Sprinkling of noes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, show of hands.

All those in favor of the motion, raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five.

All those opposed to the motion?

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410

One, two, three, four.

The motion carries. Thank you.

Okay, next item. Agenda item 1F,

Second Stage Planned Unit Development for

Union Place. Mr. Hart.

FILE NUMBER Z.C. 05-36A SECOND STAGE PLANNED

UNIT DEVELOPMENT FOR UNION PLACE

MR. HART: Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman and members of the Commission.

The proposal before you today that was referred by the Zoning Commission for your review and comment is Union Place, the Zoning

Case 05-36A, the second stage planned unit development located at 250 K Street in

Northeast.

This site is located in Northeast

Washington on square 749, lot 67.

This site is bounded by 2nd Street to the west; K Street to he south; and I

Street to the north. The lot is 58,000 square feet, and it's a C3C zone.

It is the second phase of a two-

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411 phase project, the first phase is here, which is adjacent to the east.

To the west of the site is the train tracks. There is the New York Ave

Metro, and the newly constructed ATF building to the north.

This second stage PUD is phase two of a two phase project. The first phase was approved by NCPC in February of 2006 as a consolidated PUD. NCPC has made two comments on the first stage PUD - I'm sorry, this was the first - this was a two-stage PUD. This was a consolidated PUD, phase one over here; phase two over here.

So I'm talking about this building.

The comments, the two comments that NCPC made at the time were that the developer clearly demonstrate that the buildings are functionally one by providing a meaningful connection; there was not a meaningful connection between these two

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412 buildings, so that this could be seen as one building; and to reduce the height so that the building would not exceed 130 feet as measured at the front of the building on K Street.

Staff commends the developers as they have made these requested changes. The height of the building is now 130 feet as measured along K Street, and each floor from the 2nd to the 11th floor, the hallways are connected between the two buildings.

This 555,000 square foot development consists of a 14-story building with daycare and retail uses on the first floor. A green roof has been incorporated into the proposal, as well as four mechanical penthouses on the roof.

All the penthouses are above the

130 foot maximum height limit.

A publicly accessible courtyard is also included in this design. That's entered here from 2nd Street.

The next few slides are

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413 prospective renderings of the proposal itself.

This is a view of K and 2nd, the corner, the entrance to that courtyard is here. This is phase one here, and phase two building here.

Again, this is 2nd Street, the entrance to the enclosed - the publicly accessible courtyard. There are actually gates in front here for closing at nighttime.

And this is a view of the - aerial view of the courtyard. Again this is the - that entry portal. There are two levels.

There is a lower level, and there are some stairs on either side for to access the upper level.

The main issue with this project is that two of the four penthouses are not set back as provided by the Height Act. Section 5 of the Height Act is shown here provides that penthouse's ventilation shafts and tanks shall be set back from the exterior walls distances equal to their respective heights above the adjacent roof.

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414

According to the dictionary of architecture and construction, exterior walls are defined as a wall which is part of the envelope of a building, thereby having one face exposed to the weather or the earth.

We have used this definition in several of the height cases of recent.

As I stated earlier, this roof plan includes four mechanical penthouses - one, two, three, four. These are all above the 130-foot height limit. This dotted line here shows the exterior wall.

Note that there is not a dotted line here, because this is actually phase one of the building which is located here.

These two penthouses here and here are actually set back appropriately. These two penthouses, however, are not set back appropriately from the exterior walls here.

One could argue that because the courtyard is nearly enclosed, the set backs shouldn't matter. The staff finds that

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415 because this is a publicly accessible courtyard here, an amenity that the developer has proposed, these penthouses should be, and actually are in the public realm.

Also this drawing illustrates this looks like a completely enclosed courtyard, but the northeast portion here you can see that this is a 10th floor, that this is actually just two floors, and these parcels are not actually included in the development at all. This is the northeast corner of the building.

The staff has determined that the courtyard would be visible, that the penthouses would be visible from the courtyard because of the courtyard is open to the general public.

Staff has also identified some - and recently reviewed one similar case. In

Zoning Case No. 0721, 2201 M Street, which was before the Commission in May of this year, the developer was requesting set back relief for

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416 their penthouses from the rear and side exterior walls.

This is the plan for this building. These in blue are the penthouses, and a courtyard, and exterior wall courtyard here, exterior wall here.

Staff finds that because these - finds that because this is a - in this case, these penthouses were not set back from the exterior walls, and the Commission found that the proposed action would be adverse to the federal interest, because it did not comply with the requirements of the Height Act.

Staff finds that because the publicly accessible courtyard that is incorporated into the design is not fully enclosed, and the two penthouses are not set back appropriately, they are not in compliance with the Height of Buildings Act.

With that the executive director recommends that the Commission should advise the Zoning Commission that the project is not

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417 in compliance with the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 as amended because two rooftop elements that are penthouses, are not set back from all exterior walls. And the Act provides that penthouses, ventilation shafts and tanks shall be set back from the exterior walls distances equal to their respective heights above the adjacent roof.

And therefore, that the proposed action is adverse to the federal interest.

I have now concluded my presentation.

[Insert: Union Place - 250 K Street

Staff Recommendation]

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418

[Insert - Public Statement]

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419

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Questions of staff? All right, Mr. Glasgow.

MR. SHER: Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, for the record I am not

Norman M. Glasgow Jr. I'm Stephen E. Sher, the director of zoning and land use services with the law firm of Holland and Knight.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear this evening I guess, and to address the executive director's recommendation.

We have submitted a letter to the

Commission yesterday. I hope you have had an opportunity to read that letter.

Mr. Hart I think reasonably well described the project that is before you with only one exception, and that is, the building is not 130 feet high. It's 121 feet high. We took one floor off the height of that building from where it was before.

Notwithstanding that, a portion of the penthouses do still exceed the 130 foot height level. I don't want to make it seem

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420 like there is no issue anymore. But the height of the building is only 121 feet.

As he showed in his diagrams, we have a project or this phase of the project consists of three wings that are essentially parallel to the three streets that surround the project, so we've got to call it a U- shaped or a C-shaped on its side or whatever it is.

And at the corners, where those three rings intersect, we have located the elevator cores of our building. This is the most logical place to put the elevator core.

They are centrally located. It's also a crummy place in the building to put residential units, because you are right on the corner. You don't have any windows for those units, or you have to make them part of the units that go either way. It's the logical place to put the elevator core. So the elevator cores run right up through the building. And then when you get to the top of

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421 the building, on top of the elevator core, there is a penthouse.

So the penthouse does exceed the height of the building, and it is located without meeting the one-to-one set back on those two interior corners. On the one case it's set flush with the wall; on the other case it's set back a little bit less than eight feet for an 18-foot height. So we are not quite there.

The executive directors recommended that you advise the commission, the Zoning Commission, the project is not in compliance with the act because the penthouses don't meet the one-to-one set back. We respectfully disagree with the EDR and request you find the project does comply with the act, and the project would therefore not be adverse to the federal interest.

For many years this Commission and the District government have interpreted the term, exterior wall, to mean a wall facing a

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422 public street. Earlier this year, as Mr. Hart pointed out, you adopted a new interpretation of what that term, exterior wall means based on a definition in the Dictionary of

Architectural Terms.

We submit that there was and is no basis to reinterpret the consistent application of the act as to the meaning of exterior walls.

Elevator, penthouses at issue, they are in the most logical place. This is where they belong in the building. They are in a, technically under the zoning regulations, a close court. I admit that anyone can walk into that court and look up and see the penthouses rising up along that interior wall. But if the act had a purpose it was basically to talk about what the view of those rooftop apartments was from the public side of the building, i.e. the street side, if there was a park there.

This is on the interior court,

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423 surrounded on all sides by our own building.

And if our people or anybody else walks in and looks up, yes, they will see it. But we don't believe that that is what the act was really talking about when it said, penthouses need to comply. We believe that what we have done complies with the letter and spirit of the act, because the lack of a set back is not going to contribute to their visibility from the outside of the building.

For all the reasons stated in our letter, and for what I've said briefly here, we request that you report to the Zoning

Commission that the project has no adverse impact on the federal interest.

And I did that in a little better than three minutes.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: You did well.

You did well.

A couple of questions. In the letter that was submitted on page four, in the middle of the paragraph under the proposed

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424 interpretation, it says, in short, the Height

Act is not a statute designed to achieve national objectives. Rather it is a local land use regulation designed to protect views from streets.

Then it says, and other public spaces.

So if we agree that this is a public space, then doesn't your own definition or your own interpretation tell us then that they have to be set back?

MR. SHER: I don't believe so. I mean any building, any building that you build, a shopping mall, an office building, an apartment house, will have space around the building that is open, that people can go out into. I don't believe that's what the act of

1910 was considering when it said, penthouses and other rooftop appurtenances need to be set back. I think they were talking about the view from the publicly defined streets.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: But in the case,

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425 the original case when this was approved it required this public space. And using your words, this is a space open to the public, and they have the view of this, whether they live there or whether they are guests there.

So to me, that's - this is not my language, this is yours. And I guess - I don't disagree that we historically have talked about exterior walls and party walls; that's what I think we have been talking about. That is really - I don't understand the difference or how we got to the idea of viewable from the public streets.

And that's where I think we substantively disagree.

MR. SHER: We know that up until earlier this year when you adopted these positions with regard to a couple of previous

PUDs that the District - and the District government still believes this, and I think even the records of NCPC's approval of other

PUDs will show that these structures that were

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426 set back from the street surrounding a project, but not set back from side walls or interior court walls, were before this

Commission; they were not found to be volatile of the Height Act, and were subsequently approved by the Zoning Commission and constructed.

We can show you many examples of that. I'll point to just one. The building at 1700 K Street, at the southwest corner of

17th and K, the roof structure is set back from the K Street side of the building, back from the 17th Street side of the building.

But it is closer than one to one on the south side of the building.

And everybody said that was okay.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, let me ask you a question then about your enclosures attached to the letter. Because these were the same enclosures that were provided to us by Ms. Brown I think when she appeared before us before.

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427

The first one is the National Park

Service, and - on Ohio Drive. Where is the public street that we are measuring against?

And does this in fact violate the set back of these penthouse units?

MR. SHER: Okay, I'm not sure to what you are referring. Oh you are talking about the photographs?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Aerial photos, yes.

MR. SHER: Oh, I thought you were talking about the exhibits. I think the point only was that the penthouses are set flush with the wall of the building rather than set back.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Is this building subject to the Height Act?

MR. SHER: All buildings are subject to the Height Act.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: What is the street that this is measured from?

MR. SHER: Presumably Ohio Drive.

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428

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, but you don't know for sure?

MR. SHER: No, I don't.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, I don't either, and that's the point. We have had this intellectual discussion, which is very helpful, but I can't make heads or tails of these exhibits, because I don't have the information.

MR. SHER: Okay, I can go through most of them.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: No, I don't want to do that. And I don't mean to do that to you here, but I do want to understand that, and I think we would like to continue this discussion after this to continue to understand better why you all feel this way that these are in fact violations.

And I again would respectfully disagree that our interpretation has changed.

I know that you had made reference to the

WETA Case. In that the Commission did not - I

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429 think voted in favor of it, felt it did not violate the federal interest. But after that the Commission was taken to task and the

Congress investigated that or actually had hearings on that, because in fact the Congress took the position that it violated the Height

Act.

MR. SHER: Well, I don't know that anybody actually ever made any - took any definitive positions there. Either way the building didn't get built, and that was that.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: But y'all had indicated that the Commission took a different position. And I don't disagree. But I think it did violate the federal interest, but they didn't find that. But certainly Congress stepped in.

So when we are talking about whether the Height Act is a federal law, then certainly I think the fact that Congress got involved in that is probably indicative.

I know, I don't intend to delay -

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430 or to badger you on that. And I know that we need to get along. So I will stop.

Mr. May.

COMMISSIONER MAY: I think there was a distinction between the courtyard in this circumstance and other public space, because this is privately owned space, right?

MR. SHER: Yes.

COMMISSIONER MAY: And the terms by which it is available to the public is that it was an amenity that was proffered in the PUD, right?

MR. SHER: Correct.

COMMISSIONER MAY: And to allow that public access so that you could go in during the day or during specific hours.

MR. SHER: Right. There are certain specific hours defined at which it is open, and other hours at which it is not open.

COMMISSIONER MAY: That's it in terms of my discussion with you. I think if we get to the point of a motion -

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431

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We'll take a motion, we'll entertain a motion.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: I don't have a motion. I have a comment, sorry, not to belabor it.

But again, a longstanding District interpretation, not just by the District of

Columbia, but by the Zoning Commission, which as you all are well aware has two of its five members as our federal officials National Park

Service and Architect of the Capitol, I think they are people who are concerned about the federal interest, and have displayed that very well over the years.

And I think Mr. Sher has accurately described what the purpose of the set back from exterior wall, it is from a public space. There may be disagreements whether it should be from a public street or a public alley, and that is being discussed in this task force meeting that we are going to get to. But this clearly is not public space.

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432

This is a 500-unit apartment building, or condo, which I should add will have if the exclusionary zoning applies which I assume that it will, it will have at least 8 to 12 percent affordable housing units.

I neglected to say in the last debate that that office building is subsidizing the reconstruction of low income housing for the poorest of District of

Columbia residents, that office space.

So every 20,000 square feet of space, yes, does help, Hal, he talked about the economic development, but I don't think he talked about it was actually subsidizing. So if they need that 236,000 square feet of office space for that, I think it's important that they get it.

From an urban planning standpoint,

I think it doesn't do any violation to the

Height Act.

COMMISSIONER AMES: I move the EDR be approved.

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433

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Is there a second?

COMMISSIONER GALVEZ: I second it.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: We do look forward to the task report.

All right, any discussion?

COMMISSIONER MAY: Yes, once again

I can't support the EDR because I think that this is - we are stepping beyond the urban planning principles of the Height Act, and we are interfering frankly with the ability of a private landowner to make full use of their property.

I mean this is - I would think there would be some concern about at least that aspect of it, because we are telling them what they can or can't do within that courtyard as if it were a federal issue.

And I can see that it might conceivably be a building code issue; that there are things you might want to regulate in terms of light and air when it comes to how

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434 courtyards are made, and so on, and I think that is a reasonable thing.

But that is not the federal issue.

The federal issue is the Height Act, which has to do with the height of buildings, that front on public ways.

Anyway, so I would not support the

EDR.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Okay, further discussion?

All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All those opposed.

(Chorus of noes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, show of hands.

All those in favor? Four, is that right?

All those opposed? Four. Motion is defeated. There is not - so there needs to

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435 be another motion, or there is no action.

The motion is defeated, the recommendation to approve the EDR is defeated.

There needs to be action by someone.

COMMISSIONER MILLER: Well, or else there just wouldn't be comments to the zoning commission, officially.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I think under the rules - is that correct? Okay, that works.

COMMISSIONER AMES: So that means it gets approved, correct?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Well, no, it means that the motion to endorse the EDR is not approved, so we took no action essentially.

COMMISSIONER AMES: No, what I'm saying is, he gets to do what he wants to do.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Whatever the

Zoning Commission says, that's correct.

Well, thank you very much. Sorry to burden you with this.

All right, we are going to move

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436 on. We have item 1G, which is the National

Capital Planning Commission's strategic plan for fiscal years 2009 to 2014.

Ms. Powers.

FILE NUMBER 6400 - DRAFT NATIONAL CAPITAL

PLANNING COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLAN, FISCAL

YEARS 2009-2014

MS. POWERS: Good evening, Mr.

Chairman and members of the Commission.

I'm here today to present to you an overview of the draft 2009 to 2014 strategic plan for the National Capital

Planning Commission.

You should have a copy of this in front of you, and you may have already had a chance to peruse the content over the last week as well.

The purpose of my talk today is to obtain your approval to circulate the draft for a 45-day public comment period pursuant to

OMB Circular 8.11.

Now the strategic plan covers the

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437 fiscal years 2009 to 2014, and essentially the purpose of the document is to answer three questions: What do we want to do? How will we get there? And how will we demonstrate our success?

Now to address the first question of what we want to do as an agency, the strategic plan contains a vision, a vision statement which is an ideal endpoint that provides inspiration and motivation; and an organizing focus to guide our work over time.

It provides a mission statement which articulates the purpose of the agency and its core programs and activities.

And it also provides a set of strategic goals that direct us in the fulfillment of the agency's mission, and the realization of its vision for the National

Capital Region.

To talk about how we are going to get there, the strategic plan describes the specific programs, initiatives and activities

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438 that will take us where we want to go, and those are known as program objectives in the strategic plan.

And then finally how will we determine that we have made progress to our goals will be outlined by specific concrete performance targets with expected dates of completion.

So why are we doing this, and why are we doing it now? The first reason is because we have to. It's part of a routine process, as set out by the Government

Performance and Results Act of 1993, which is commonly known as GPRA.

Further requirements are specified in the OMB A-11 circular. We must review the strategic plan every three years, and the agency's last plan or current plan ran from

2004 until 2009.

But beyond - but going beyond just the basic barebones requirements, we really wanted to improve upon previous strategic

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439 planning efforts, and product a document in plain English that is comprehensive to those outside the agency; that explains who we are, what the unique essential function of NCPC is, whom we serve, and why we're important.

And above all we want this to be a document that expresses the agency's identity.

And then finally in addition to fulfilling our requirement and communicating to those outside the agency, this has been an important process of internal review or self- examination for us. It's provided an opportunity to step back to make sure that we are all on the same page, and to identify ways in which we are not.

And most importantly, it's an opportunity to ensure that each person sees his or her work as a means to fulfill the agency's mission, nad to realize our vision of a vibrant world capital that accommodates the needs of the federal government; that enriches the lives of the region's residents, workers

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440 and visitors; and embodies and urban form and character that reflect the enduring values of the American people.

So what are our next steps?

Several of these will actually occur concurrently. The first step is today to obtain the approval to circulate the plan.

Also we are looking forward to the input of the Commissioners, and we encourage you to comment on the draft plan that you have today.

The approval to circulate will enable us to begin preliminary discussions with the Office of Management and Budget.

And our 45-day public comment period will begin, the clock will start, when we post the plan on the web.

We will also continue our staff discussions to further refine and improve the plan. And after our consultations with OMB the plan, we will brief Congress on it as well.

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441

So the final part of the process is to return to the Commission, to ask the

Commission's approval to adopt it, which we hope to obtain by early fiscal year 2009, which would be the fall of this calendar year.

I am happy to answer any questions that you may have?

[Insert: National Capital Strategic Plan

FY 2009-2014]

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442

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Questions from the Commission?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: So you are asking to win one for the Gipper?

MS. POWERS: Yes, exactly.

(Laughter)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: I have had a chance to read this over, and I do think it's a very good document to help us sort of focus on where we want to go the next couple of years. So I commend it to you.

With that, I guess, do we need to take an action to publish this.

COMMISSIONER AMES: I make the motion.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: All right, there is a motion.

Is there a second?

COMMISSIONER McGILL: Second.

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: A motion made and seconded. All those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye.

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443

(Chorus of ayes)

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Opposed?

(No audible response)

COMMISSIONER AMES: We didn't have a unanimous vote today did we?

CHAIRMAN COGBILL: Yes, we did. No extensions? Thank you very much.

And I believe that completes the agenda for the day, and if there is no further business to come before the Commission, we stand adjourned.

(Whereupon, at 6:31 p.m. the proceeding in the above entitled matter was adjourned.)

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