Zoning Panel Backs Foggy Bottom Plan

The D.C. Zoning Commission tentatively approved a planned $250 million mixed-use project in the West End at the old George Washington University hospital site. Neighborhood groups have resisted the plan. The Square 54 project now goes to the National Capital Planning Commission for review this month or next. The NCPC will make recommendations to the Zoning Commission before the commission's final vote on the project, which is due to include a grocery store, apartments, 440,000 square feet of office space and 330,000 square feet of retail space.

The university will receive the lease payments from the 840,000-square-foot project on 2.6 acres near the Foggy Bottom Metro station. In addition, a 27,000-square-foot grocery store will be underground, with 1,026 parking spaces.

To appease opponents to the development, the developers agreed to reduce the height and density of the project and took 18,000 square feet off the office component and 15,000 square feet from the residential, said Jake Stroman, project manager with Boston Properties.

The change was helpful in getting Zoning Commission approval, said Tracy Schario, a George Washington University spokeswoman. The university hopes the project is approved soon because it would receive the rent from the properties. "I would like to think it's a small, local, well-funded minority that opposes it," Schario said.

Joy Howell, president of the Foggy Bottom Association, which opposes the plan, said the group will evaluate its options after it sees the zoning order. However, it plans to send a letter to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) in the next few days to request that the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs not issue permits "until we exhausted our legal options," she said. The association says land owned by George Washington should be used for university purposes. By allowing a separate development in the site, the rest of the campus will only grow in density, Howell said. The group wants to limit development in the Foggy Bottom area.

The Foggy Bottom Association, made up of residents of the surrounding neighborhood, made a mark in the past. In 2004, developer Trammell Crow gave the group $5 million in exchange for its support of a mixed-use development at the old Columbia Hospital for Women. It has used that money to hire lawyers and a public relations firm to fight development in the George Washington University area.

Stroman said he expects a final decision in the next month or two but isn't sure how long any neighborhood appeals might take. "We'll have to evaluate and determine whether we're comfortable moving forward."