A development team selected by the District to redevelop the former Hine Jr. High School on Capitol Hill is locked in a thorny battle over zoning approval for their plans.
The team, led by Georgetown’s EastBanc and Capitol Hill’s Stanton Development, has proposed a mix of offices, housing and shopping that they say would take advantage of a site that is across the street from a Metro Station and next door to Eastern Market, the city’s most popular outdoor marketplace.
To learn more about their proposal, watch the above video featuring EastBanc’s Joe Sternlieb, who is managing the project.
The plans, which the developers posted online, include some novel ideas, such as reopening C Street Southeast to reconnect Seventh and Eighth streets with a passageway that would be open to cars on weekdays but reserved for pedestrian traffic and outdoor market vendors on weekends.
The economy has not been particularly kind to the project thus far, with both the Shakespeare Theatre Co. and the non-profit International Relief and Development canceling plans to occupy space there.
The developers have also run into opposition from some neighbors who, despite the site’s access to public transit, would like to see the developers reduce the project’s height, something the team has already done twice. Some neighbors of the project have posted signs urging Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) to call for a smaller project.
The developers went before the D.C. Zoning Commission June 14 (a hearing that lasted until almost midnight) and expect to return at least once more. Video of the initial hearing is online here.
Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbiz
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