Zoning Commission news: the expected Dec. 8 hearing on Florida Rock's second stage PUD has been cancelled, with plans for a new date in Spring 2006. Also, the new proposed amendment to the Capital Gateway Overlay has been approved for setdown (hearing date TBD); here is the Office of Planning's report and draft of the proposed text change that was submitted to the Zoning Commission for discussion.  If you have comments or questions or additional input, contact Joel Lawson at the Office of Planning.

ANC 6B has posted its December Meeting Agenda, which is scheduled to include reports on two Near Southeast projects from its Planning and Zoning Committee's Dec. 6 meeting: the Capper/Carrollsburg second-stage PUD (which is going before the DC Zoning Commission on Dec. 19), and a new proposed project at 1006-1010 7th Street, SE, which plans to combine 3 [currently empty] lots and construct 4-story building with offices on 1st floor and 3 residential floors above (9 apts.). This would be on the east side of 7th Street, across from the Marine BEQ and next to the five rowhouses that are being renovated (just north of the 7th and L Market). This project is also on the agenda for the Dec. 15 Historic Preservation Review Board Meeting. On a similar front, the proposed mixed-use project at 801 Virginia Ave. is also on the HPRB agenda (again), it appears the original proposal (see the July ANC 6B minutes for details) has been revised. My 8th Street Historic District page has a photo or two of these 7th and 8th Street locations.

(UPDATED to fix address for Nov. 28 meeting) ANC 6D and the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly are holding a Baseball Stadium Update meeting on Monday, Nov. 28 at 7 pm at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 222 M Street SW. They are working to get city officials, Sports Commission officials, and others to attend to discuss "traffic, construction, zoning and other important issues." This was announced at the ANC 6D meeting on Nov. 14. Also at that meeting, the ANC voted to support the Florida Rock project; as for Capper / Carrollsburg, while the ANC voted to support the alley closings/street openings portion of the zoning application, they are for now opposed to the second-stage PUD. ANC Commissioner Williams is trying to organize a special meeting to hear more from the community so that another vote can be taken by the commission before the zoning deadline (former residents are complaining they are having problems with the developers about their potential return to the development).

ANC 6D has posted the agenda for its November meeting, at 7 pm on Monday Nov. 14., at 65 I Street SW. Agenda items include votes on Capper/Carrollsburg and Florida Rock PUDs, plus an update by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission on baseball stadium zoning and construction issues.

For those of you who just can't get enough of zoning regulations, here's the final rulemaking and zoning order published in the Nov. 4 DC Register that amended the Capitol Gateway Overlay District regulations to include specifications for the ballpark. (Still waiting for Chapter 16/Capitol Gateway to reappear in the online DC Municipal Regulations!) Note that the design of the ballpark itself will still have to go through zoning hearings; nothing's appeared on the Zoning Commission schedule yet, but there's been hints of a January 2006 hearing date--I imagine that any delay past January on the zoning process would possibly start to impact the start of construction. Tick, tick, tick...!

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.

I've made some major changes to my Florida Rock page, with much more detailed information about this planned 5.8-acre mixed-use project along the Anacostia River. Also included are some fabulous renderings of what the development will look like. Many thanks go to Davis Buckley Architects for providing me with the information and images. ANC 6D will be voting on the project at its November 14 meeting, and the second-stage PUD will be before the DC Zoning Commission on Dec. 8.

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.

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.

Today's DC Register has published an ever-so-slightly corrected version of the Capper/Carrollsburg first-stage PUD approval from 2004. Since the second-stage PUD should be coming before the zoning board in the near future (and is being discussed at the ANC 6D meeting on Monday 10/17), perhaps printing this is one of those arcane zoning rules I'm unaware of. Anyway, anyone interested in the plans for the Capper/Carrollsburg site should take the time to plow through these 40 pages.