The Draft Environmental Impact Statement that describes two alternatives for reconfiguring South Capitol Street from just south of Firth Sterling Avenue north to I-395 has now been released, and is available online: there's the compact executive summary for folks who just want the basics, or the full shebang, with 80-plus chapters, appendices, and reports. Note that this draft EIS does not include a final choice for the design of the new Douglass Bridge that would be built to the southwest of the current bridge, though that decision will be made with the final EIS. (I'm a fan of the arched bascule design, because I'm old school.) There's no way I'm going to try to provide a comprehensive overview of what this project is envisioning, so here's some bullet points:

Today's Washington Business Journal has a long piece about legislation making its way through the city council that would require site-specific permits for street vendors and that would create "development zones", "essentially specific geographic areas with a uniform design standard that would be established through a partnership of DCRA, neighborhoods and their business improvement districts." The Capitol Riverfront BID plans on applying to make the area around the ballpark such a zone. The article has quotes from the Nationals and the BID about what sort of vending they'd like to see. Gregory McCarthy of the Nationals says that the team thinks "it's in the city's interest to have a good fan experience and to have vending around the ballpark be regulated in a reasonable manner -- but also be of sufficient quality." Michael Stevens of the BID says that vendors shouldn't sell items that compete with those inside the ballpark: "I want to see a variety of vending food options, drink options. I'd like better-looking carts, [although] I don't know what that means yet." If the bill is not passed by Opening Day, "licensed vendors could set up shop at any site that meets current regulations for vendors -- which include such requirements as not obstructing the right of way for pedestrians. Near the stadium that could include spots along M, N, Half and First streets SE."

A bit on the run this afternoon, so I have to be brief: today Metro's Finance, Administration, and Oversight committee gave approval to two items I wrote about earlier this week: the plans to expand to nights and weekends the N22 bus service that shuttles between Union Station, Eastern Market, and the Navy Yard Metro station (the Post says until 10:30 on weeknights--hope that's late enough for baseball), and to move around some money to allow for the closure of the Southeastern Bus Garage at Half and M. Here's the WMATA press release on the garage closure, and do read my previous entry for additional details and links to WMATA documents. These two items are expected to be given final approval by the full WMATA board on Feb. 28.

Since I posted that NBC4 story crowing about a deal, I feel it necessary to follow up with this from the Post this afternoon: "Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said today that no deal has been struck to use public funds to build a professional soccer stadium in Southeast Washington. He also said his talks with D.C. United about a partnership do not represent a drastic departure from his stance against public financing of the Nationals baseball stadium." Read the rest of the article for details, including discussions of Fenty's stand on public financing of sports venues. [Will. Not. Get. Sucked. In. Must. Resist.]

Looking outside my boundaries long enough to pass along this: "News4 has learned that Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to propose building a $200 million soccer stadium on the banks of the Anacostia River across from the city's new Nationals ballpark. Sources told News4's Tom Sherwood that the soccer stadium would be part of a $1 billion development deal on about 40 acres of land at Poplar Point along the river. The sources said the mayor will announce as early as Thursday that he has selected Clark Construction to develop the land." As for the cost? "Under the mayor's proposal, which must be approved by the D.C. Council, the city would spend about $200 million on the soccer stadium. Funds to pay for the soccer stadium bonds would come from taxes and revenue that already are being generated by the new baseball stadium, which opens in late March."

At Monday's ANC 6D meeting (which I missed because I had three meetings on my calendar for that night and the ANC never released an agenda for me to know whether I should go or not), there was apparently a big discussion of Zoning Case 07-08A, scheduled to be heard on Feb. 21, which seeks to allow temporary surface parking lots for no more than five years on a series of blocks in Southwest, mainly in Buzzards Point (squares 603, 605, 658, 661, 662, 662E, 664, 664E, and Square 658, Lot 7 for those of you with tax parcel maps handy, or look on the last page of this). A temporary emergency version of this text amendment passed with no discussion back in October; the Feb. 21 hearing is to make the amendment good for five years.

The agenda is now out for Thursday's meeting of Metro's Finance, Administration and Oversight Committee, with votes on two items of interest to Near Southeast and to ballpark-goers:

Word is out that single-game Nationals tickets will go on sale March 4 at 9 am. Barry has all the details.

The new "Pay-to-Park" signs that have popped up around Near Southeast in the past few days (many without the accompanying multispace kiosks where one would actually *pay* to park) were brought up last night at a meeting last night with Tommy Wells and residents of Capitol Hill Tower. Rick Rybeck of DDOT seemed surprised that the signs were up already, and equally surprised to hear some residents reporting that they're getting ticketed for "expired meters" when parking by the signs, even though there's not as yet any meters to pay at. Neha Bhatt of Tommy's office said that the meter prices for parking still have not been determined, and that discussions are still ongoing as to whether high-cost meter parking will be allowed on I, K, L, First, and Half between New Jersey and South Capitol during ballgames.

Late last week DDOT began installing "Pay to Park" signs and the green multispace kiosk meters on certain streets in Near Southeast--I've seen either the signs or the meters or both on K, L, M, N, First, and Potomac, but I didn't do a full-scale reconnaissance mission (I'm also seeing them around Garfield Park and I hear they're showing up on Barracks Row). These are indeed the beginnings of Tommy Wells's Performance Parking plan that is eventually going to regulate parking around the ballpark and in Southwest and on Capitol Hill. Right now I haven't heard any of the details like hours and prices, and whatnot, but hope to get some specifics soon. And yes, for a lot of you, this may mean your days of cheap on-street all-day parking could be coming to an end. More as I get it.

Last Thursday the National Capital Planning Commission gave unanimous approval to the early designs of the Waterfront Park at The Yards, which was not a surprise given the nice things said about it in the Staff Recommendation. According to the NCPC web site (I wasn't at the meeting), the commission "commended the applicant, the General Services Administration; the developer, Forest City Washington; and the team's designers for the quality of the design, the range of activities the park will support, its visual and physical connections, and for creatively adapting the design to the site's ground elevation constraints." The design was also endorsed by the Commission on Fine Arts last month.