Only one of the 23 land owners in the footprint of the new baseball stadium has agreed to accept the city's offer for their property, according to "Stadium Property Owners Balking" in Saturday's Post. From the article: "To gain control of the land for the $535 million stadium project, the D.C. attorney general's office will go to D.C. Superior Court as early as Monday to begin eminent domain proceedings to seize the properties that have not been sold. By going to court, D.C. officials plan to control the entire 21-acre stadium site within 90 days, they said. That will put them on schedule to clear the land, remediate minor environmental contamination and complete the Washington Nationals' ballpark by Major League Baseball's March 2008 deadline." Some of the landowners are complaining that the city is doing nothing to help them relocate, although other owners have said they feel the city is dealing with them in good faith. Again from the article: "[U]nder the "quick take" provision in the eminent domain law, the District will assume title to the properties once it deposits the money into a court-controlled account. Unless a judge stops the action on constitutional grounds, owners will have 90 days to vacate, and a jury eventually will determine the sale price unless an agreement is reached. As long as the city can show that the stadium will serve a significant public purpose, the court will allow the takeover, land use lawyers said." To see the 2005 assessed values for the properties, along with what the city has offered, see my Stadium Offers chart.

I've made some major changes to my Florida Rock page, with much more detailed information about this planned 5.8-acre mixed-use project along the Anacostia River. Also included are some fabulous renderings of what the development will look like. Many thanks go to Davis Buckley Architects for providing me with the information and images. ANC 6D will be voting on the project at its November 14 meeting, and the second-stage PUD will be before the DC Zoning Commission on Dec. 8.

As part of the Great Streets Initiatve, the District Department of Transportation will be holding public workshops to help plan and design over $100 million in transportation for seven corridors, including South Capitol Street. The workshop that will include South Capitol Street (along with MLK Jr. Avenue and Minnesota Avenue) will be held Wednesday, October 26 at 6 pm at Thurgood Marshall Academy.

This is not the sort of thing I normally would post about here, but I've been giggling about it all morning, so.... I dreamt last night that I was driving around Near Southeast, and suddenly at N Street I saw a big brick building that I knew hadn't been there just a few days earlier. I went to investigate, and it was a "model" of the new baseball stadium, about three stories high and two blocks long, that the city had built so that residents could get a feel for what the new stadium was going to look like. It was a Camden Yards-looking design (so of course I told everyone in earshot "no, the architects have said they'd be using glass and stone as their major materials!"), and there were tons of people milling around looking at it, getting very excited about seeing the "real" stadium built. If I had to ask Dr. Freud, I think he'd tell me that I'm at the end of my rope waiting for the design to be unveiled!