A Giant Uncertainty In the Pike's Progress

"As a community, are we interested in accepting the tradeoffs and a different vision than the one we spent so much time coming up with? Is it worth it? Giant has the leverage here, but I'd like to find a way to pull this project off. I'd like to find a way to make this work," DeCamp said.

The original plan, according to a Columbia Pike revitalization Web site, included an expanded Giant, which would combine the shopping center's now separate grocery store and drugstore; as much as 28,000 square feet of additional retail space; and rental apartments. Building heights along Columbia Pike would be six stories, and the frontage on South Ninth Street, a block north of the pike, would be no taller than 3 1/2 stories. Parking would be underground, at grade and in a parking structure wrapped by the buildings. In addition to parking for the stores and residences, the project would include as many as 280 public parking spaces.

People familiar with the plan now in the works said it features compromises, mostly on the part of the community, which would have to accept a 62,000-square-foot store -- perhaps the largest grocery store in the county -- and a somewhat different vision for the town square than was put forth in the form-based code. There would be no sprawling parking lot, but planners said there would be space for loading docks on Adams Street.

The larger store also would mean less retail space for other shops and 25 fewer apartments than the 325 originally envisioned.

John Ariail, co-owner and spokesman for B.M. Smith, said he thinks the revised project would be just as stylish and functional as originally intended. Neighbors, he said, would not notice the changes and still would be able to enjoy a park and other common spaces in the town square, as well as the variety of foods that a larger market would offer.

Waiting for Giant to leave on its own, he said, would be a mistake.

"The tradeoff is that Giant has a [long] lease, and with inertia, they'll sit there and go downhill, as will our shopping center, if we don't do anything," Ariail said. "We want to rejuvenate the neighborhood. That Giant is a big part of it."

Jamie Miller, a spokesman for Giant Food, declined to comment on plans for the Columbia Pike store except to say, "We're working with the developer on this project to evaluate all our opportunities, but at this point there's nothing firm."

For some, it's not as simple as Giant agreeing to build a smaller or larger store.

John Antonelli, former president of the Columbia Pike Civic Association, doesn't own a car. He walks where he needs to go, such as to the supermarket. Last year, when the Safeway on Columbia Pike near Walter Reed Drive closed, he and other neighbors began relying on the Giant at Adams Square. It was the second Safeway to leave Columbia Pike in a decade.

Antonelli said he has no gripe about Giant building a 62,000-square-foot store at Adams Square, but he wants to know what he and other neighbors will do during the 24 months planners said the store could be under construction.

As he sees it, there should be some provision for those who don't drive, such as a temporary market nearby. Giant also could offer its Peapod home delivery service free to the elderly and disabled, he said.

"Arlington County has encouraged a car-free lifestyle, and people moved to Arlington for that reason," Antonelli said. "We can talk about the form it takes and what it looks like, but in the end, the bottom line is that there needs to be a supermarket that people can walk to."

Janet Dorn, vice president of the Penrose Neighborhood Association, which represents about 1,200 families, is equally concerned about the impact, and that the controversy could result in no store at all.

"The whole idea of redeveloping Columbia Pike was to bring new life to the neighborhood and make it more of a walking community so we could walk to shop and have places to gather," Dorn said. "Most of us can get in our cars and drive to Baileys Crossroads or Pentagon Row, but there are a lot of people who can't. This is something we thought could be good for the neighborhood, and now we don't know what's going to happen. The idea that we won't have a store at all is devastating."

Like many of his neighbors, Ernest E. Butler Jr., co-president of the Penrose Neighborhood Association, said he believes Giant doesn't care about the neighborhood's future.

"We went through great pains to make some decision about how we wanted the neighborhood to grow up and down Columbia Pike," Butler said. "But the impression I have is they have their cookie-cutter shop, and this is what they want to go there. I can appreciate that this is a business. Unfortunately, they may consider us too small to take us into consideration."

Zimmerman said there will clearly be tradeoffs. The question is whether the community and policymakers will find them acceptable enough to push forward and make exceptions in the form-based code to allow the larger store.

"We have to look and see what the final proposal is and ask ourselves, 'Is this close enough to meet our vision that we can work with it, or is it not?' I'm as anxious as anyone in the community to have a look and see," he said.