Today the saga of the Capper/Carrollsburg residential demolition neared its end, as the last building at 2nd and L (which stood partially demolished for most of December) was finally brought down, and one of the four buildings on the final block (bounded by 2nd, 3rd, K, and I) came down; a good portion of one of the other builidings was stripped away as well. I took a few photos of the changed landscape, even though it was an ugly day for pictures. Apparently sometime in January the demolition team will then move to 5th and K to demolish the old community center, at which point the only remnant of the entire 51-building old Capper/Carrollsburg will be Old Capper Seniors at 7th and M, which will itself be demolished once its residents are moved to Capper Seniors #1 and #2. (The city is eyeing that lot for possible baseball parking, even though it's eight blocks from the stadium, so I'm betting Old Capper Seniors will be gone by April 2008.) And then the wait will begin for the construction of the new Capitol Quarter townhomes (most likely to begin in Spring 2007) and the announcement of when any of the planned apartment buildings for the stretch between 2nd and 3rd will begin to move forward.

New page alert! I've added a page on the New Capper Community Center that will be built at 5th and K Streets, with some great renderings of the design of the new building (thanks go to architects Torti Gallas CHK for passing them along). The 28,500 sq ft facility will include daycare for 66 children, a rec center, a computer lab, a gym, a game room, and meeting/classrooms. This building is included in the vote on Capper/Carrollsburg planned by ANC 6D on Nov. 14 as well as the zoning hearing on Dec. 19.

News from Zoning Commission land: at Monday's meeting, the text amendment to the Capitol Gateway Overlay about the stadium was finally approved. As soon as it gets posted in the DC Municipal Regulations, I'll post it here, although in the meantime you can read the text of the amendment from the July 29 DC Register. In other DCOZ news, there will be a hearing on Dec. 19 on Capper/Carrollsburg, to consider Phase I Final Approval and modifications to the consolidated and prelimary PUD. Phase I final approval references the land between 3rd and 4th and K and M Streets, where they are proposing to build 91 3- to 4-story residential units (note that the existing private homes in these blocks will not be demolished); this application also addresses the plans to build a new community center on 5th Street between K and L Streets. At the ANC 6D meeting on Oct. 17, it was indicated that the breakdown of the 91 units would be: 51 units would be 3-4 bedroom townhouses sold at market rate or moderate (80%-120% median income), 11 would be section 8 ownership units, and 29 would be public housing rental units. These units are in addition to the ones already in the pipeline for the blocks between 4th and 5th and Virginia and M--there will be a total of 208 market-rate townhouse units in these first two phases. The community center will include a daycare facility for 66 children, a rec center, a computer lab, a gym, a game room, and meeting/classrooms. AND 6D will be voting on this at their Nov. 14 meeting.