The Alliance for Rational Development, whatever that is, appears to be giving its endorsement to the proposal for redevelopment of the Safeway site at Wisconsin and Ellicot Street.
Sure the plans (large PDF) look ok, but there is a lack of consideration of the broader community input, and broader community impact.
For example, most of the development plans take place on land zoned for residential use, however, this proposal contains no provision for such. More disappointing is the failure of the proposal to take advantage of the opportunity to include affordable, or market based housing. Indeed, this project could have at least one or two floors of residential atop the grocery store with virtually no impact on the existing residential community. Instead, in order to bypass the ongoing, or chronic opposition to density on Wisconsin Avenue, Safeway has chosen the safest route to proceed at the expense of any thought towards longer terms sustainability goals such as LEED certification, reducing auto emissions, or implementing more housing to create a greater threshold of residents to support existing retail between the Tenleytown and Friendship Heights Metro stations.
1 comment:
looking at the shadow study in their plans, i can guarantee that the neighbors are going to strongly oppose this based on the "light and air" argument.
there's absolutely no way that they'd be able to get a second or third story approved, based on the NIMBY history of the neighborhood.
Post a Comment