Perhaps it was foolhardy to think that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which handles the Federal portion of the District’s Comprehensive Plan, was actually interested in developing the former St. Elizabeth’s site in Congress Heights into anything but a cathedral to commuting, traffic and Homeland Security. After all, NCPC has exhibited a history of only wanting to improve the city east of the Anacostia when it’s politically expedient for them to do so. So was it surprising when the NCPC called the D.C. Council’s decision to rezone the area around the future headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security to allow to mixed-use development “contrary to the federal interest”? Honestly and sadly, no.
Lydia DePillis reports this morning that the Commission’s review of the Council’s alterations to the Comprehensive Plan (read the PDF after the jump) came back with one glaring objection — the alteration of zoning regulations along Martin Luther King, Jr. Street SE which would promote development of “retail and service uses” in the corridor. Obviously, the city is salivating over the new DHS headquarters — featuring 4.5 million gross square feet of office space and to house about 14,000 employees — which could serve as a significant boon to business development in the immediate area. But NCPC thinks that restaurants and small businesses would pose a serious security threat to the headquarters; in its recommendation, NCPC reviewers determined the following:
The policy recommendations contained in The Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010 are contrary to the Master Plan for the west campus. The provision of retail at a depth of 200 feet along the Martin Luther King, Jr Avenue frontage of the west campus would be inconsistent with the Master Plan and would require demolition of all or parts of the historic wall and portions of several historic buildings within the campus as well as conflict with the Department of Homeland Security’s Level 5 Security requirements. Therefore, with the General Service Administration in agreement, they recommended that the language regarding mixed-use development be dropped.
With this conclusion, the National Capital Planning Commission apparently wants to ensure that the enormous DHS headquarters — whose bureaucratic secrecy potential businesses in the surrounding community must kneel before — is little more than a Pentagon II: a heartless, soulless monument to government confidentiality, offering no character, serving only those who shuttle in and out for eight hours every weekday and carrying a boatload of wasted potential.
