City Council hearings have now been scheduled for October 31 for three Near Southeast alley closing bills (Monument's Square 700/west side and Square 701 requests, and William C. Smith's Square 737/739 request). I've added them to my busy Neighborhood Events Calendar; I've also (belatedly) added the DC Register announcement of the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration hearing on the license request for a new liquor store at 156 L Street (the old Star Market) scheduled for Nov. 8. Note that the Square 701/east side alley closing bill had its hearing on Oct. 10. UPDATE, 10/20: The starting times of the three alley closing hearings on Oct. 31 have been revised, and an additional council roundtable has been scheduled for the same day on the Capper alley closings and new streets bill. All the hearing notices are available in this file, which also includes the notices on the Oct. 23 hearing on the Capper PILOT funding bill and also an Oct. 26 roundtable on LSDBE participation in the baseball stadium. My Neighborhood Events Calendar has been updated as well. Also, the Square 701/east side alley closing bill has been placed on the council's Nov. 14 consent agenda.

Just a reminder that the Capitol Quarter sales office will open on Saturday Oct. 14 at 11 am for it's one-week "sneak preview" of the development (meaning no contracts or appointments). I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview today of the sneak preview--if you're at all interested in Near Southeast, even if you're not currently thinking about moving to Capitol Quarter, you must go see the model of the developed neighborhood, it's absolutely stunning. I took a bunch of photos of it and have put them on my Capitol Quarter page, sprinkling them throughout and displaying them alongside the "live" photos of the area. Sales will begin first-come first-serve at 11 am Oct. 21 for the first phase of market-rate and workforce-rate townhomes. Prices and floor plans are supposed to be posted any second now on the official web site. One thing to remember as you look at the model--the low-, middle-, and high-income units are all mixed in with each other, sometimes multi-unit low-income rentals will have facades that make them look like two townhomes, so from the outside you can't tell which units are which. UPDATE: Prices and floor plans are now posted, on a spiffy new Capitol Quarter web site.

Bill B16-0929, the "Payment In Lieu of Taxes Act of 2004 Amendment And Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Public Improvements Revenue Bonds Approval Act of 2006," has been introduced before the City Council. This bill will allow the sale of bonds to raise $35.1 million to fund the necessary infrastructure improvements (streets, sidewalks, walkways, streetscapes, utility lines, etc.) around the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment. You may recall that two PILOT funding bills were approved in June of this year to help fund the Southeast Federal Center redevelopment (which, like Capper, is being developed by Forest City Enterprises). I suppose you're now wanting me to actually EXPLAIN the concept of PILOT funding, which might be asking a little much. From reading the bill, it sounds to me like property owners within the Capper/Carrollsburg PILOT area will have their tax payments placed not into the city's General Fund, but into a separate Capper PILOT Fund, which will be used to pay back the principal and interest on the bonds. Wikipedia's PILOT entry can help out a bit, too, this line especially: "PILOTs may be negotiated in specific circumstances, as when an arrangement is made for a corporation or institution to build a facility on public land without assuming ownership of the land," which perfectly describes both Capper/Carrollsburg and the Southeast Federal Center. UPDATE: Here's a better explanation, from someone "in the know": "Essentially a PILOT is like a TIF, except with property taxes. Since the property wasn't on the tax rolls before, we can capture 100% of the new property taxes, although once it is stabilized, we will likely be utilizing less than half of the total property taxes allotted to the project. The rest will likely [go] back to the District (though it could also be used to superamortize the loan so that the entire sum will go back to the District sooner)." UPDATE II: There's a hearing in front of the council's Committee on Finance and Revenue on this bill on Oct. 23 at 1 pm. UPDATE, 10/20: The Washington Business Journal (subscription only) gets to the heart of what's really going on--the Hope VI funding for Capper is $35 million short, so they're wanting to use this PILOT to cover the shortfall. But since the city's PILOT program is capped at $250 million, and DOT and the Southeast Federal Center have already chewed through most of that, attempts are being made to raise the PILOT cap to $500 million to then allow Capper to get a $35 million piece of the PILOT pie.

EYA has released details on the Workforce Housing program at Capitol Quarter. There are two floor plans to view (which are probably also a hint at the floorplans that will be available in the market-rate homes), as well as an extremely informative Workforce Housing Guidelines sheet explaining how the 90-or-so workforce units will be sold; details on deposit requirements, restrictions (lots of them), and income levels are included (along with a big NOTE: that just because your income falls within the accepted range doesn't mean you'll automatically qualify). Twenty workforce units will be available initially, and there will be a reservation lottery on Nov. 18. There will also be a seminar about the program on Oct. 11 at 7:30 pm at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hill (415 New Jersey Ave., NW), I'm not sure whether you need to be registered with Capitol Quarter's web site in order to attend. The guidelines sheet also mentions that construction at Capitol Quarter is expected to begin in the Spring/Summer of 2007, with units ready for move-in near the end of 2007, into 2008. And don't forget that the one-week preview period for the market-rate homes will begin on Oct. 14, pre-registration required.

Speaking of taking pictures, I've added some ones to my 100 M Street, 1100 First Street, Capper Seniors #2, and M Street photo galleries. 1100 First in particular has some striking before-and-afters now that trees have been removed along 1st and L streets. I also did some creative cropping of a Sept. 2000 photo of M Street to document (barely!) a solitary rowhouse that used to stand on the 100 M Street lot (where those steps-to-nowhere just west of the alley had been for the past few years, until meeting the wrecking ball over the past few weeks).

An e-mail has just gone out to folks who have registered previously at EYA's web site, announcing that the Capitol Quarter townhome project (on the site of the old Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project) will open for a one-week preview period on Oct. 14, during which the sales office will be open, and plans and prices will be available, but no appointments, reservations, or contracts will be taken. To get in on the preview, you need to re-register with EYA (at a new URL, www.eyacapitolquarter.com/), even if you've registered in the past, so that they can ensure you're still interested and that they have your correct contact info. The approximately 121 market-rate townhomes will start in the $500s, but there are also 91 "workforce" units: "If your income is less than $72,642 for a household of one, $83,183 for a household of two, $93,533 for a household of three, or $103,883 for a household of four, you may be eligible for the workforce housing program. The base prices of the workforce homes are projected to range from $295,000 to $350,000." Reservations for the first batch of market-rate homes will be accepted starting on Oct. 21; there will be a separate schedule for the workforce units, and EYA willl be holding a homeownership and financing workshop for those qualifying for these units. Plans and prices should be posted on the EYA web site in early October. There will also be 65 additional townhomes comprising 111 affordable rental and Section 8 home ownership units mixed into the community. As I understand it, they are projecting that construction will begin sometime in Spring 2007. (UPDATED to add additional information, and fix some numbers.)

Busy day of photo taking (though I wish it hadn't been so dang hazy), and so look to the following pages for new photos: 20 M, the ballpark, Capper/Carrollsburg (where the 3rd/4th/I/K block is now almost demolished) and Capper Seniors #2. If, as I suspect, 70 I and 1100 1st/100 M are about to start, I'm just going to have to start sleeping in my car, camera in hand :-).

As promised by EYA, a sign announcing the impending Capitol Quarter project at Capper/Carrollsburg has indeed gone up at 4th and L, next to the soon-to-be-sales-center trailers. And with perhaps a stronger level of urgency now felt, the molasses-like demolition of the old Capper buildings on the block bounded by 3rd, 4th, I, and K has shifted into a higher gear, with one of the interior buildings finally demolished this week and demolition underway on the buildings facing 3rd Street. Photos of these terribly important developments are now on my Capper photos page. (I guess I might have to start transitioning out of calling this area Capper/Carrollsburg....)

Within the last 24 hours, two well-appointed cream-colored trailers (or small manufactured homes, if you prefer) have been deposited on the now-cleared-and-smoothed lot at 4th and L, smack dab in the middle of Capper/Carrollsburg. I have no information, I'm merely speculating, but these trailers look very much like the trailers that developers use to house Sales Centers before a project's construction begins. And EYA's Capitol Quarter info page still says "Coming Fall 2006." And it's almost fall. Make of it what you will. And I'll see if EYA has anything they'd like to share. Again, I know nothing for sure, I'm just passing along what I saw. UPDATE: EYA confirms to me that the trailers are indeed for the Sales Center, and that a sign should be installed this week as well, with construction on the Sales Center to begin within a week or two. And, if this is a project that you are interested in, I'd suggest registering on EYA's web site to be contacted with more information when the time comes--people on those types of lists tend to get first crack at the offerings.

With 20 M Street and Capper Seniors #2 both in the midst of the Speedy, Obvious Progress Being Made phase, I'm taking a lot of pictures of them, and so have posted new photos yet again. And since I got a wide-angle lens for my birthday last week, you'll note that some of the pictures have a different look to them than my usual fare. No, the buildings aren't in danger of falling over, it's just the lens doing what's necessary to get a 10-story building into frame from a vantage point across the street, rather than three blocks away :-).