Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

dmped

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
 

DC Agency Top Menu

-A +A
Bookmark and Share

D.C. United stadium design has improved, but zoning panel still has concerns

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Washington Business Journal by Karen Goff

Reacting to pressure from neighboring Buzzard Point landownersD.C. United amended its stadium plan to include park space, street-facing retail and a redesigned First Street SW.

The D.C. Zoning Commission, one member of which previously described the 19,000-seat, $300 million stadium design as reminiscent of a prison, said Monday the plan now looks better — but during a hearing raised many other, ancillary issues. Among them: parking, traffic, construction dust and conflicts with Washington Nationals' games.

After 4 1/2 hours, the discussion was not nearly finished, so the commission will hold another hearing Dec. 14. As the year winds down without final approval, the Major League Soccer team's plans to start construction this winter in order to play at Buzzard Point in spring 2018 are up in the air.

"We need our own home," D.C. United Managing General Partner Jason Levien told the panel. "RFK stadium is not really a place we can operate a business that functions well and properly represents the team."

RFK has been D.C. United's home since MLS began in 1996.

Todd Spangler of Populous, which co-designed the stadium with D.C.-based Marshall Moya Design, said some of the most recent stadium tweaks include the realignment of First Street (to better handle traffic flow and provide a game-day pedestrian experience); a public park on the northeast side of the stadium; a public open space on the northwest side; pocket parks on Second Street SW and T Street SW; and enhanced retail space on First Street.

Zoning Commissioner Robert Miller said the plan has a lot of improvements and will be "truly transformational for the city, but obviously many questions are still there."

Not part of the plan: on-site parking. Team officials said the expected game-day demand is 3,000-4,000 spaces, and they have identified that many spaces nearby. But many of those spaces are used by Nationals fans when the baseball team is playing at Nats Park on the east side of South Capitol Street.

D.C. United said there would be an agreement in place to schedule games at different times than Nationals games. Many cities — including Baltimore, where the NFL and MLB stadiums are next to one another — have such plans, but also need to be flexible to allow for playoff appearances and other special events.

"We will put together a plan for overlapping situations," said D.C. United attorney Phil Feola of Goulston & Storrs. "This is not that unusual."

Miller also raised concerns about the half-mile distance from the soccer stadium to the Navy Yard Metro station.

"I don't see how this is going to work without a shuttle," he said.

Zoning commissioners took further issue with what they deemed an awkward location of a stadium bicycle valet operation, the capacity limits of the bicycle valet, proposed valet parking for players, access for the disabled and "overkill" on the stadium signage.

From the community side, Andy Litsky, 6D neighborhood commissioner, raised concern about the logistics of a new stadium and the planned Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge replacement, set to begin in 2017.

"This entire plan was done without considering the bridge project," he said. "You will be opening this stadium in 2018, when the Douglass Bridge and South Capitol Street will be rubble."

D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner, meanwhile, extolled the stadium project.

"Approval would be a much-needed first step so we can move forward," said Kenner, highlighting the hundreds of jobs and anticipated $6 million in annual tax benefits the stadium will eventually bring to the city.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2016/11/29/d-c-united-stadium-design-has-improved-but-zoning.html?ana=e_wash_brk&s=newsletter&ed=2016-11-29&u=iwiEv47oBIqiyqQDXcPElcFKjr4&t=1480441253&j=76594931