Stop the presses! I have NON-STADIUM news! Hallelujah! Construction has begun on Capper Seniors #2, the wraparound addition to the Carroll Apartments for low-income seniors at 4th and M. This new construction will add four stories and 130+ units to the 64 units in the Carroll building. Scroll to the middle of my Capper Seniors page for a rendering of the new construction, and photos of the current site. As for Capper Seniors #1 at 5th and Virginia, construction is speeding along, and I promise once the Christmas rush is over to post new photos. For more detail than one would ever want on the entire Capper/Carrollsburg project (and Canal Park, too), read the Feb. 2004 Zoning Approval for the Capper PUD.

Some Capper/Carrollsburg items: I hear tell that the construction contract for Capper Seniors #2 will be awarded soon (once the money aspect of the project gets settled, also "soon"). Also, word is that the Capper Community Center is to be demolished, Any Minute Now (we have a lot of those type of items, don't we?). In zoning news, the October Voice of the Hill gives details on the Sept. 15 zoning commission Capper / Carrollsburg agenda items--in addition to a second-stage approval being sought for a three-acre section of the project (presumably the "ribbon" between 5th, 4th, I, and M, which was demolished nearly a year ago), the developers are submitting a new application with modifications to several aspects of the original plans: they are seeking to increase the residential density to 2.34 from 2.21, and at the same time are proposing to reduce the parking spaces per unit to 1.38 from 2.1--these changes are the result of efforts to preserve some of the existing private houses that had been slated for redevelopment, according to a DC Office of Planning staffer. No date is yet announced for the public hearing on this.

I've been away for more than a week, so I apologize if my news items have been slow--I'm still catching up on some things, hope to get back up to speed soon. In the meantime, I'll pass along that the DC Zoning Commission approved the Capper Seniors #2 building, approved for setdown the Capper/Carrollsburg 2nd stage PUD (which I believe means that basically they've agreed that they should have a hearing at a later date), and deferred the final vote on the stadium text amendment to the Capitol Gateway overlay, presumably until their October meeting. I'd be able to give you more details on all this, but I mistakenly believed the DCOZ web site when it said that Zoning Commission meetings are streamed live, and, well, this one most assuredly wasn't. Waaah!

The DC Office of Zoning has posted its agenda for the Sept. 15 meeting, and it includes the stadium text amendment for the Capitol Gateway overlay, as I expected. But they're taking up other Near Southeast items as well, both having to do with Capper/Carrollsburg. I'm not 100% versed in zoning minutiae (I might have made it to the 30% mark by now), so I'll just parrot what the site says, that the Capper/Carrollsburg 2nd Stage Planned Unit Development (PUD) and Modification is on the agenda. I believe that a second-stage PUD means a specific, fully engineered, plan for the site is being submitted for approval. So I hope that's something we can get a look at pretty soon. I would also think that this submittal means that the project may be kicking into a higher gear soon, as also evidenced by 15 building permit requests submitted at the end of August for addresses within the Capper/Carrollsburg boundaries.

There's also an additional agenda item for "Capper/Carrollsburg Venture LLC -- Senior Building," which I believe is a revision of the design of Capper Seniors #2, because the design submitted in 2003 included a blank wall along M Street, which is a zoning no-no in this area. The need for this vote was discussed at the Jan. 12, 2004 meeting, and is probably why the project's building permit application has the zoning section marked "Hold for Correction." (Yes, my head hurts, too.)

Speaking of second-stage PUDs, while wandering around on the web trying to educate myself on this topic, I found this 1999 National Capital Planning Commission document, showing the detailed plans for Florida Rock. However, that was then and this is now, and in December the Zoning Commission will be again taking up Florida Rock's second-stage PUD. So we'll have to wait and see what changes have been brought by six years (and a baseball stadium next door).