Photo by Mr. T in DC
The future of the historic McMillan Sand Filtration Site has been one of the more heated public debates for the city in recent years.
The Deputy Mayor’s Office on Planning and Economic Development wants to turn the decommissioned site into mixed-use development—high rises and all—but some members of the community around the park, which stretches along North Capitol Street from Channing Street to Michigan Avenue NW, are worried that’s going to remove a lot of the site’s open public space and historic vaults underneath.
Yet another group wants the site to be used for urban farming. The McMillan Coalition for Sustainable Agriculture, a “group of citizens living around the McMillan Reservoir,” wants to build a urban aquaponic farm in the caverns underneath the site to grow and harvest vegetables and seafood. In a release, the MSCA says that their campaign is at risk because of the city’s desire to turn the site into mixed-use development.
Tonight is the first of three public zoning hearings about what should be done with the 25-acre site, and it’s looking like there will be a lot of people with a lot of strong opinions testifying. Another group of community members, Friends of McMillan Park, want to “preserve, restore, and adaptively reuse” the historic site and are urging people to come out and support their initiative tonight.
One thing is for sure: most of the community around the historic site really don’t like Mayor Vince Gray’s current plans. ““Our interests are concretely injured by the short sighted intent to destroy much of the last green space left in D.C. to build a Tysons Corner 2.0.” Jerome Peloquin, a technical and organizational consultant and MCSA participant, said in a release. “The Mayor wants to ‘surplus,’ the land as having no productive public use and ‘give’ it to developers who intend to continue their climate changing exploitation. We believe DMPED is acting in bad faith by fostering corporate greed at the expense of DC’s children and future.”
Tonight’s public hearing kick off at 6:30 p.m. at 441 4th Street NW, Room 220 South.
