There will be a DC Ballpark Business and Economic Opportunity Conference on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to "bring together contractors and subcontractors with public, private, and non-profit organizations that have responsibility for LSDBE business development, apprenticeship programs, and employment of District residents for a day-long conference on subcontracting and apprenticeship opportunities associated with construction of the new baseball stadium."  Also on Wednesday, Nov. 2., a WASA public meeting on their river cleanup efforts, Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th Street, SE, 7:00-8:15 pm. Remember to look at my Upcoming Events Calendar to see what's on the Near Southeast agenda.... 

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.

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!

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.

DC Council Chair Linda Cropp has signaled that she will block any attempts at significant alternations to the baseball stadium financing package, reports Tuesday's Post. She will introduce as "technical" the amendments necessary to amend the financing package on Nov. 1, which limits the amount of changes that can be made. While councilmembers such as David Catania, Kwame Brown, and Vincent Orange have hinted that they would like to reopen the financing package, the article notes that two council members who voted against the package last year--Kathy Patterson and Adrian Fenty--have indicated they would probably vote to approve the amendments. Says Patterson: "The District is at some risk of not being taken seriously as a government if we renege on the deal we have. That said, we negotiated a lousy deal."

The DC Zoning Commission will be taking up the stadium text amendment to the Capitol Gateway Overlay District at tonight's meeting. This should be when they vote for final approval--although with the discussions these days about building heights near the stadium, I wonder if there will be some revisions in the works.

According to the Washington Business Journal, owners of land north of the new stadium site recently met with DC council members Cropp, Evans, and Ambrose to discuss limiting the heights of their future developments in order to preserve views of the US Capitol dome, with buildings being able to get progressively taller as they near the Capitol. Russell Hines of Monument Realty is quoted as saying that they're willing to work with the city on this point. (A WBJ editorial supports this idea.)

Sunday's Post reports that Linda Cropp says she is committed to the Near Southeast location for the new baseball stadium, with aides for Mayor Williams saying that the council chair's support is crucial, given that she has power to limit changes to the original legislation if she brings forward the necessary revisions as "technical changes." UPDATE: in "If It Doesn't Come, Will They Still Build?" in Monday's Post, developers weigh in on how their plans for development around the stadium site would change if the stadium weren't put there after all. Some say it would slow down their plans, others say that the area is still ripe for new offerings. And one more article from the weekend deluge of Nats/stadium pieces, Saturday's piece on which groups appear to be the leading bids to buy the team also mentions the issues the council is having with the stadium lease agreement, and how the choice of a non-DC-based owner could impact those negotiations.

Once again proving that nothing can ever be considered "done" in DC government, Vincent Orange's attempt to force Major League Baseball to pick an owner before a stadium lease agreement is in place, plus some technical errors in the baseball stadium financing agreement completed in late 2004, may be giving the DC Council an opening to revisit the terms, perhaps even taking another shot a trying to build the stadium at the RFK site instead of the site chosen in Near Southeast. Reps from the city's executive branch are trying to indicate that this is no big deal, and MLB is gently reminding the council that a deal's a deal, but who knows what will transpire. Read the Post and the WashTimes articles for more details.

In case you don't have enough Near Southeast items on your calendar: