The Post fired a shot this Sunday in the growing fight over a land-use plan for the campus of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, and some residents of area neighborhoods are preparing their own response.

Established in 1851, the Old Soldiers’ Home, which once served as Lincoln’s summer Presidential residence, was originally surrounded by 500 acres of open land amid the neighborhoods of Park View and Petworth, with Brookland off to the east. The land is dotted with trees and ponds, a golf course, random military paraphernalia, and the Retirement Home, where generations of soldiers returning from war have lived. The home still operates under the aegis of the Department of Defense (but without taxpayer funding), treating veterans for a host of medical problems, both age- and combat-related. The Retirement Home’s growing medical costs are a key driver of plans for development (click here to see a recent Post news story on the project and neighborhood opposition).