[[This is the text of a press release I sent out Thursday afternoon to give journalists another perspective on Fenty's announcement (and DMPED's press release) that morning.]]
In an unpublicized press conference, whose date and time were changed in the early morning hours, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced his decision to pursue a public-private redevelopment project involving the Tenley-Friendship Library and the Janney Elementary School, located at the southwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Albemarle Street in Tenleytown. No representative from DCPS – neither from Michelle Rhee’s office nor from Allen Lew’s -- was standing by his side with representatives from LCOR, the private development company chosen for the project. DC Chief Librarian, Ginnie Cooper and John Hill, President of the Library Board of Trustees, were also absent, although DCPL Construction Manager Jeff Bonvechio was called to the microphone to affirm that the library would work with the Deputy Mayor’s office and its chosen developer. Ward 3 Council Member Mary Cheh was present to lend her (somewhat equivocal) support, but, when questioned, she acknowledged that she had not seen LCOR’s best and final offer.
Local activists speculate the Fenty kept the press conference under wraps because he knew that his announcement would be greeted with outrage, both because it violates the “model process” DMPED promised, in the wake of the West End debacle, to use for the disposition of public land and because, once the community saw the proposals submitted in response to an RFP issued for the site, neighborhood opposition to a joint project quickly became overwhelming. Previously, the community had been divided over whether a public-private redevelopment option was worth exploring. But once residents saw the proposals, many people who had previously been either supportive of, or undecided about, a joint public-private redevelopment of this site became convinced that the costs to the school and library were too great and that the community would not realize any benefit from using public land for this purpose. The Janney School SIT/LSRT (a parent-teacher organization that deals with facilities issues) rejected all three proposals that emerged from the RFP, including the LCOR’s submission which, according to Mayor Fenty, was the basis for today’s selection. In short, opposition to the project became near-unanimous once the community saw what a public-private joint venture would look like in practice.
In February 2008, Fenty promised the Tenleytown Neighbors Association, a local civic association that the project would not go forward without the support of the community. Deputy Mayor Neil Albert, who rejected the ANC’s request for community representation on the RFP selection panel, had repeatedly promised that the community would “get another bite of the apple” – a chance to see and comment upon the selection panel’s recommendation – before any decision was made. Both those promises were broken today, a point made repeatedly by a number of angry residents who attended the press conference. They pointed out that the community had overwhelming opposed this project, citing not only the ANC’s stance, but resolutions from six different local civic associations and emails from nearly 100 individuals, calling for the public-private development option to be rejected. Not a single local organization offered its support for any of the three submissions received in response to the RFP.
“It’s like a cruel joke,” said Sue Hemberger who has served on an ANC special committee that has been studying the project since last May. “The community has spent a year working with DCPL on a design, DCPL has spent over a million dollars on the project and is two steps away from ground-breaking, both the community and the Commission on Fine Arts have praised the library’s design, and now DMPED steps in and stops the project dead in its tracks.” Community members question why Neil Albert has been given the right to put public land that is in active use – this is DCPS’s most overcrowded elementary school and it was one of the busiest branch libraries – on the auction block without the consent of the Council or the agency involved. They point out that, under the LEAD Act, very different process has been legally mandated for decisionmaking regarding public-private development projects that involve the use of the library system’s land and/or associated development rights.
“From a public facilities standpoint, we’re getting less, we’re getting it later, and we’re paying more. It’s insane,“ said ANC 3E Commissioner Anne Sullivan. “Building an apartment building on this site guarantees that DCPS’s educational specifications for playground and sports facilities cannot be met on Janney’s campus. The kids will lose. ”
Neighbors point out that one block north of the site, at Wisconsin and Brandywine, there is a residential project that has gone unbuilt for years now because there’s no market for the units. There’s no shortage of underdeveloped privately owned land in this area that could be used for multifamily residential construction which leads them to question the need to devote public land – including the elementary school’s soccer field – to residential development.
But this particular project is especially attractive to developers because it will be heavily subsidized. The RFP for the project offered respondents the capital funds already allocated to rebuild the library and to expand the school and all three respondents asked for additional subsidies for the project in the form of a TIF or PILOT bonds. This means that the developer awarded this deal gets two public works construction contracts (with profit already built in) as well as the use of valuable public land and probably some tax breaks and reduced financing costs for construction loans. On top of that, the developers hope to charge the city both to build public parking underground (an expense that wouldn’t otherwise be necessary) and to subsidize the construction of affordable housing.
The complaints voiced today in Tenleytown – about both the process and the substance of the Fenty Administration’s public land deals – echo concerns that have been expressed throughout the city, most notably in response to the subsequently overturned emergency legislation regarding public property in the West End last summer and the school closures. Groups like EmpowerDC are pushing for legislative reform and stepped up Council oversight to ensure that public land serves public needs rather than functions as a source of patronage to be bestowed on favored developers. The Fenty Administration’s lawless approach to the disposition of public land has got to stop. The city is making decisions about the use of public land that are neither rational nor democratic. By law, the Council needs to surplus public land before it is offered for private development and ANCs are to be accorded “great weight” in decisions regarding local public facilities needs.
