| | | H Street Connection plans on the move | | May 15, 2009 |  | | | Voice Correspondent | | After rejecting initial plans last year, community leaders are now giving the nod to an H Street development they anticipate will become the corridor’s retail and residential “centerpiece.”
The new development will be located on the south side of H Street NE between 8th and 10th streets, a space currently occupied by the H Street Connection strip mall. It will consist of 50,500 square feet of retail space and 409 apartment units, according to its McLean, Va.-based developers and site owners The Rappaport Cos.
“This will literally define how the corridor is perceived,” said Joseph Fengler, a member of the Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commission.
Though the commission is still analyzing the impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic, it plans to support the proposed project at a D.C. Zoning Commission hearing with the developers, said Fengler. This hearing is yet to be scheduled.
The Rappaport firm initially submitted plans for redeveloping its property to the advisory neighborhood commission’s economic development committee last year.
“The first designs were too massive and didn’t respect the style of H Street,” said the committee chair, Drew Ronneberg. “The buildings were monolithic.”
Rappaport then submitted revised plans to the commission in December, and they were better received. In February, the commission voted to move forward with the new design, which features smaller storefronts that preserve the original row-house atmosphere of H Street. Chinatown features similar developments, Ronneberg said.
Even if all goes smoothly, he said, construction will probably not begin for another two or three years, according to the project timeline. Many involved in the planning process agree that the changes for this space will alter the atmosphere of the neighborhood, which has caused concern for some area residents.
“I feel disowned in my own neighborhood,” said Manny Johnson, who uses the current strip mall as a social gathering place for his friends. Johnson is worried that with the upgrades in the neighborhood, his family may no longer be able to afford to live there.
“It’s going to change a lot because [the new development] is not designed for us,” Johnson said. “We’re getting pushed out.”
But others, particularly in the business community, are excited by the prospect of change.
“The new apartments and people will bring something more to the area,” said William Walkup, a local resident and manager of the Downtown Locker Room apparel store across the street from the proposed development. “If the whole city has faith in us, we’ll have faith, too,” he said.
Nurney Mason established Mason’s Barbershop on H Street in March 1961 and has witnessed many of the demographic changes in the area.
“It was white and black back in those days,” Mason recalled of the time when his business opened. He said the social turmoil later that decade — particularly the 1968 riots that devastated U and H streets — caused the area to deteriorate. The population shifted to become predominantly African American.
“H Street was burned down,” added Mason’s son, Robbie, who will be taking over the business after his father retires. “Now it really needs a facelift.”
As the area has become more developed and diverse in recent years, business has been better than ever for Mason’s.
“It’s good for [local] people now who will have to straighten out,” he said, adding that as a neighborhood business, he is looking forward to more competition in the area.
For more information on the project, including renderings of the proposed buildings, go to anc6a.org.
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