ANC 6B commissioner
Norm Metzger reports today on a meeting held earlier this week with the Marines on
their plans for a new barracks to replace the aging "Building 20" on the southeast corner of Eighth and I. According to
his notes (and in line with
previous scuttlebutt), the Marines listed three locations as passing the stringent security requirements for a new barracks: Square 882 (former site of the
old Capper Seniors building that's slated to have mixed-income apartments within the next few years plus eventually a 600,000-sq-ft office building); the northeast corner of the
Navy Yard, where a Marine facility is already located; and the block at 10th and G, SE, that currently houses Tyler Elementary School and its baseball field.
Apparently the community group "fairly vigorously set out 'issues' for two the sites," repeating the status of 882 as I've heard it, which is that the Housing Authority's plans and financing moves for the housing portion of the block are well underway --but who knows how much pull the guys with guns might actually have {ahem}. Using the existing Marine site on the northeast corner of the Navy Yard could be problematic, especially given the Navy Yard's
announced need to expand its workforce. And there would be a "firestorm" from the community if the Marines tried to take over the Tyler site.
So the group meeting with the Marines suggested two other possible sites, both in Near SE: the open field on the south side of Virginia Avenue west of Seventh street at the
Marine Annex built in 2004, and the site of the closed-down Exxon
at 11th and M.
The Marines are having a series of community workshops about their plans for new space, and workshop #2 is being held next week, on Tuesday, March 23 from 6 to 8 pm at Van Ness Elementary (1150 5th St., SE) and then repeated the next morning from 8:30 to 10:30 am at Eastern Market's North Hall. The
agendas for the meetings are now available, and they include a section about the possible sites before the meetings move to "focused breakout sessions" to talk about those sites and any other possibilities. The
project web site also has
documents from the first workshop, including a
revised Vision, Goals, and Objectives statement that was updated after input from the workshop's participants.