Finally, some assurances that development along RIA is moving forward. Check out this excerpt from the Washington Business Journal article:
The District plans to finalize financing for Rhode Island Station, a transit-oriented mixed-use development near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station, with A&R Development Corp. and Urban Atlantic, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Valerie Santos told a D.C. Council committee Tuesday.
According to the article, developers are proposing 274 apartments, 70,000 square feet of retail and three parking garages next to the metro station by 2012.
Let’s hope that this momentum is carried further down RIA, so that we can get all of this completed soon!
rhodeislandavene.com 
This, along with the new townhomes at the Brookland station might be enough to spur redevelopment of the old Safeway shopping center, without trash like forman mills.
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Tonight at our SMD meeting, our ANC indicated that things were finally coming together and construction should begin soon. And this link (http://www.wdcep.com/dev_record.php?devId=62) indicates that groundbreaking will be around June of this year. In addition, we had a representative of TD Bank, which is opening a branch in the parking lot of the Home Depot shopping center. There, of course, was objection from the fogies, who seem to think that only people who don’t live here will use the TD Bank, and we don’t need any more BANKS, as if they were liquor stores and strip clubs (fortunately the ANC already held a vote and voted to support the bank). So, everyone, please keep in mind that there is limited but VERY VOCAL opposition to ANY type of development here, even that which brings jobs and necessary services to the neighborhood. If we want these things to happen, we need to attend these meetings as well and speak up (and not stop when we’re interrupted) in support of the things that are good for the community.
Oops, forgot to mention congrats, you’re in the top few results on Google!
Ms.D,
I would be willing to attend meetings to make things happen. I can be very vocal as well 😉
Can you post here in advance when one is going to happen? Maybe you can let the blog owner know so he can announce it.
The ANC 5B meetings are the 1st Thursday of the month at 7 PM at the Washington Center for Aging Services, 2601 18th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. 5B mainly covers the area south and east of Rhode Island Avenue, from the railroad tracks to South Dakota Avenue, as far south as Florida Ave., and a little piece north and west of RIA, from the railroad tracks by Reed St. to 18th St. as far north as Irving. Other ANC maps can be found here: http://www.dcboee.org/maps.asp . Information on ANC members and meeting dates/times can be found here: http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp .
Single Member District meeting information can be harder to find. As far as I can tell, our ANC simply announces her SMD meetings at ANC meetings or the previous SMD meeting. They’re also held sporadically, for example, last night’s was the first one of the year for our SMD. But I’ll post the information whenever it’s available to me.
Remember, you don’t need to be a resident of an SMD or ANC to attend their meetings. If something that is happening in the ANC or SMD will affect you, you have a right to know about it. Obviously, my SMD, which includes Brentwood Rd., parts of RIA including the Home Depot plaza, and parts of the NY Ave. area (not *quite* that far south, but close) contains much of the planned development, and the above-described ANC 5B is in the same boat. I do think the residents of ANC 5B and SMD 5B03 would take kindly to people from 5C or 5A (or other parts of 5B) letting them know that they’re interested in the development, too. After all, people who live on the SW end of NE RIA are still our neighbors, even though they’re in 5A, and Edgewood is still a local neighborhood, even though most of it is *just* outside the bounds of 5B.
The monthly ANC5A meeting will take place this Wednesday night, March 24, from 6:30pm to 9pm at Guildford Baptist Church, 1023 Otis Street (on Otis between 10th and 12th, and right off the Brookland/CUA metro stop. ANC5A meetings usually take place at a different place each month.
Several years ago I attended ANC5B meetings. They were only attended by the commissioners, no residents showed up. Hopefully things have changed significantly since then. That’s why it’s necessary for the residents to attend these meetings and not just have the commissioners make the decisions for the SMD’s they represent.
Some residents attend the 5B ANC meetings, Woodie, but not nearly enough. Fortunately, those who make it out to the ANC meetings seem to have the best interests of the community at heart. They are interested in development and not interested in “special signs” and strip clubs. I was also surprised by just how committed the commissioners who bothered to show up were to reducing crime and increasing development. However, we do have a 2-fold problem. The first is, of course, not enough residents showing up. The second is that only half, if even that, of the ANCs showed up, and that seems to be a running theme, from looking at previous minutes and other resources. Sorry, but if you don’t show up to the MONTHLY ANC meetings, you don’t have any business being an ANC. I can find time to show up almost every single month, except when my job sends me overseas, in addition to attending PSA and SMD meetings, and I didn’t even invest the time and energy into running for office.
Please go to the meetings, get to know your ANCs, and realize how big of an impact this can make. DC is very big on community involvement, and many, many issues must pass through the ANC before they can be officially decided. Woodie, please keep posting info. I can’t make the 5A ANC this month because I didn’t know until too late, but I will try in the future. Are they always the same day/time, or does that change with the location, as well?