* JPI was there requesting support for a public space permit to put up a sign at 909 New Jersey. If you've been thinking that this apartment building looks pretty far along, you're correct: the JPI rep said that they're looking to deliver the first units in February. The building has 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, of which 4,000 is expected to be leased to restaurants. The discussion about the sign permit devolved into concerns about the main staircase on New Jersey Avenue splitting up the public space, which DDOT's public space committee has already approved but which ANC members weren't sure they'd ever seen. The vote on the sign permit request was 4-0-2 in favor of asking DDOT to postpone the decision on the sign as a protest against the sign and NJ Ave public space permits not having been done together.

* EYA and the DC Housing Authority presented their request for ANC support for some new brick "screens" on certain public housing units at Capitol Quarter that won't have alley access and so will need to have their trash and recycling cans placed by the buildings' fronts. There are nine corner buildings in Capitol Quarter with 27 public housing units that will need these screens, though there are also corner buildings at CQ that are not public housing, and there are additional public housing units that are not in these corner buildings. But the ANC felt that these trash screens would make the affected units easily identified as public housing, which would negate what commissioners described as the "concept of Hope VI" where you're not supposed to be able to "tell the difference" in market-rate and public-housing units from the outside. There were also concerns about units with windows above the trash enclosures (i.e., the smell and also having to look out at the trash bins). The rep from DCHA asked the ANC to table the request for support rather than oppose it (so that EYA and DCHA could come back with some revised designs), but the ANC voted 5-0 to oppose the request anyway.

Both these public space permits are on Thursday's agenda of the city's Public Space Committee.

There was also to be a discussion of the stadium Traffic Operations and Parking Plan, but it got moved to late in the agenda, and it sounded like it was going to be just in terms of the impact on Southwest, so I will admit that I didn't stick around.

* The Post's DC Wire blog reports that David Catania is pointing to the latest Sports and Entertainment Commission cost report that says the ballpark costs to the city are now up to $688 million. (The Examiner has a piece on this, too.)

* That estimate does not include the $4 million that the city agreed to pay for additional stadium improvements in Friday night's rent agreement with the team, a deal which some council members are expressing unhappiness about. " 'On its face, I've got some questions about it,' said Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D). 'The way I read it, we got the $3.5 million we would have gotten anyway, and we gave up $4 million in additional concessions.' "

UPDATE: Here's the three-page agreement on the rent deal. (h/t DC Wire)

For those who haven't wandered past themselves, I've posted a few photos of the post-demolition landscape at Capitol Quarter--this was done because of structural problems uncovered in the foundations, which EYA decided were severe enough to require the demolition of the existing work rather than just trying to patch it or shore it up. If you want to see how the construction went up and then came down, here's all the photos of the southeast corner of Fourth and L taken this year.

Here's the Post's DC Wire blog entry, which has some detail: "Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said tonight that he is on the verge an agreement with the Washington Nationals in which the team would pay $3.5 million in rent for the ballpark that it has refused to pay since the spring. In exchange, the District would seek extended warranties to cover repairs on the ballpark, Nickles said. Nickles said the agreement could be finalized tonight." More to come, I imagine.

UPDATE, 10/18: WTOP says the agreement was indeed signed last night: "Acting Attorney General Peter Nickles says the Nationals will pay the District $3.5 million on Monday. In exchange the city will return letters of credit to the Lerners, who own the team, extend the park's liquor license, and resolve 3-to-4-thousand unfinished items in the stadium. The city will also try to get warranty extensions from builders on things like elevators. Both the Nationals and the District say this solves all their issues and the team will pay full rent going forward." And, for posterity's sake, here's the Post piece on the agreement.

* The short list for a design/build team to reconstruct the 11th Street Bridges is out--Shirley Design-Build LLC, Skansa/Facchina, Archer Western Contractors LLC, Perini/Parsons Joint Venture, and KCA Constructors Joint Venture. According to the procurement schedule, a draft RFP should already be out (haven't found it online), and final RFP should be issued by the end of the year, with a contract signed with the vendor by June 1, 2009.

* Metro announced yesterday that 53 percent of baseball game attendees this year arrived at Nationals Park via Metrorail. That's 1.8 million bodies, averaging 23,000 people entering and exiting the Navy Yard station at the 80 home games in 2008. (It apparently doesn't count people who took the bus or walked down from Capitol South.) In the last two years at RFK, only 38 percent of attendees took the subway. Marc Fisher has some thoughts on it all (including some questions on Metro's math).