WBJ: Wal-Mart applies for Georgia Avenue building permit in time to avert Green Building Act compliance

Wal-Mart and Foulger Pratt have submitted a building permit application, along with a check for $20,000, to the District, according to the Washington Business Journal:

Several agencies will get a look, including the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the Department of Transportation, Office of Zoning, Water and Sewer Authority, fire department, Historic Preservation Review Board and the Department of the Environment. The reviews run the gamut from mechanical to electrical, structural fire systems, stormwater management, transportation, and plumbing.

The piece also includes this note on Wal-Mart's motives for moving the development along at this particular time:

Interesting side note: By submitting its building permit before the end of the year, Wal-Mart will not have to comply with the District's Green Building Act. The final phase of the 5-year-old law, which kicks in Jan. 1 , requires all nonresidential new construction larger than 50,000 square feet to meet Energy Star and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Standards.

Walmart strikes city-wide Community Benefits Agreement

Read the report by Michael Niebauer in the Washington Business Journal. According to the WBJ's sources, the agreement includes:

• Wal-Mart will work with the Department of Small and Local Business Development to identify certified business enterprises — small, local, minority owned contractors — who can take on jobs during store construction. The retailers will encourage, but not require, its general contractors to meet a 35 percent CBE goal.
  
• Wal-Mart will create and fund a workforce development program with a focus on low-income residents, minorities, at-risk youth, released convicts and veterans.
  
• Wal-Mart will open hiring centers in each ward where stores are planned — Wards 4, 5, 6 and 7 — with the expectation of filling a majority of available positions with D.C. residents. It will also hold job fairs and work with the District government to identify candidates.
  
• The retailer will not sell guns or ammunition.
  
• Wal-Mart will seek out local retailers to provide goods and services within their stores — coffee shops, for example.
  
• While Wal-Mart has not agreed to pay a “living wage,” it will pay its employees competitive market salaries as compared to its D.C. competitors.
  
• With regard to transportation, Wal-Mart has agreed to install Capital Bikeshare stations, bus shelters and bike racks near its stores, and work with Metro to assess existing bus routes.
  
• Community advisory committees, comprised of residents, businesses and nonprofits within 1,000 feet of each store, will be formed and Wal-Mart will meet with them quarterly.

Initital thoughts: Contractors will benefit; I'm certainly not going to complain about the Capital Bikeshare part; and this really seems like the bare minimum.

Wal-Mart takes Fort Totten

Tonight The Washington Post's Nikita Stewart tweeted that Wal-Mart will announce that in addition to its four proposed stores (one of which is to be located at the Curtis Chevrolet site at Georgia and Missouri Avenues NW), it plans to open two more stores in the District: one at the Skyland Town Center in Ward 7, and another at the planned Fort Totten Square development. This brings the Wal-Mart count in Ward 4 up to two -- and they'll be within 1.5 miles of each other.

More details will be available tomorrow morning when Wal-Mart and Mayor Gray make their official announcement.


Rendering of the proposed Fort Totten Square Wal-Mart (JBG)

Wal-Mart and Foulger-Pratt reps met with 4A, 4B ANCs last night

I spoke with several commissioners who attended last night's meeting, and came away with some information about the planned development:

• A presentation of the proposed development was provided, and though I haven't seen the renderings myself, the general consensus seems to be that the building is decent looking and not one of the big-box behemoths of ugliness that Wal-Mart is famous for. The plan does not include saving the historic car barn that is on the Curtis Chevrolet site. I'm not sure if the Historic Preservation Office has the final say on that, but Wal-Mart's stance was clearly stated: they want that car barn gone.
  
  
• Of course traffic issues were raised, but of course neither company has control over the redesign of the intersection of Georgia and Missouri Avenues. That's for DDOT to handle.
  
  
• Access to the underground parking garage will be from Peabody Street. The building will be set back from the street, allowing for 23 feet of sidewalk.
  
  
• According to Commissioner James Sydnor's notes, "A store of this size will require three truck deliveries per day which will access the store from Missouri Ave., with enough room to turn around on site. Consideration will be given to six smaller trucks as an alternative to the three larger trucks. The community may wish to give consideration to six daily deliveries instead of three."
  
  
• One attendant asked if Wal-Mart, Foulger-Pratt or the city had calculated this development's effect on independent businesses, and what would be the corresponding loss in jobs and tax revenue, but received no direct answer.
  

It's difficult to write about this objectively for the blog when I remain very unconvinced that Wal-Mart is going to be the cure for what ails Upper Georgia Avenue. As I mentioned earlier, Foulger Pratt is attempting to wriggle out of the December 7 meeting that has been planned and wants to consider last night's meeting the "public meeting". Understandable that they don't want to deal with the opposition...after all, many communities have successfully opposed Wal-Mart; so perhaps this plan can be altered, and Brightwood can instead attract a different large retailer, and hopefully one whose labor practices are less abhorrent than Wal-Mart's.

ANC requests community concerns regarding Wal-Mart; Foulger-Pratt to present initial design plans on Dec. 2

Representatives from Foulger-Pratt, the developer of the Curtis Chevrolet site, will present a first look at the plans for the proposed Wal-Mart store at a meeting with 4B Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and other community representatives on December 2.

Commissioner James Sydnor, who represents 4B04, the district in which the Curtis Chevrolet site is located, has asked for community members to send their concerns to him before the December 2 meeting.

(At last week's ANC 4B meeting, a neighbor stated that it was appalling that our commissioners learned about Wal-Mart's intentions the same way the majority of District residents did: on the evening news and on the Internet. I agree wholeheartedly. The news was particularly jarring having participated in the very intense community involvement process of the Walter Reed redevelopment team. Hearing that Wal-Mart plans to drop itself into our laps, without requesting community input first, felt invasive after all of the discourse at the Walter Reed planning meetings.)

Please post your concerns here, or e-mail them to thebrightwoodian at gmail.com, and I will forward them to Commissioner Sydnor before the December 2 meeting. Concerns can be anything from "I'd prefer to not have a Wal-Mart at the Curtis Chevrolet site" to questions about the aesthetics of the building's design to concerns about traffic issues that the project will cause in the neighborhood. Those of you who are unable to attend the larger meeting for the community on December 7 at 7pm at the Fourth District Police station, 6001 Georgia Avenue NW are especially encouraged to respond now.

How well would Wal-Mart assuage the complications it will bring to the neighborhood?

Check out the Georgia Avenue Community Development Task Force website and read Faraji Whalen's concerns about Wal-Mart's nascent plans for Brightwood. He raises a lot of good points, particularly with regard to how roads and traffic patterns in the immediate area would have to change drastically in order to accommodate a store the size Wal-Mart is planning. What about the loading dock entrance? None of the abutting streets (Georgia, Missouri, 9th, or Peabody) are particularly 18-wheeler-friendly.

Incidentally, the Georgia Avenue Community Development Task Force is a great organization, composed of concerned citizens and stakeholders, that aims to ensure that the new development along the Georgia Avenue Corridor meets the needs of its residents. The group meets biweekly at different locations along the corridor; meetings are announced via a yahoogroup listserv that I encourage you to join.

"This is not your father's Wal-Mart": GGW talks to Foulger-Pratt

Dan Malouff has further info on Wal-Mart's plans for Brightwood over at Greater Greater Washington.

He points out that the Curtis Chevy site is fewer than four acres, significantly smaller than the suburban plots of land that Wal-Mart typically occupies, which are 20 acres on average. The store itself will be 102,000 square feet, and it will be vertically built. (For comparison, the bilevel Target store in Columbia Heights is 173,000 square feet.)

The store's entrance will be set back 20-30 feet from the curb, and parking will be below-ground.

Also, he notes:

Unfortunately, the development won't be mixed-use. If Foulger-Pratt would stick a few floors of apartments above the retail uses, that would add new customers for the surrounding businesses and help revitalize central Brightwood as a place to live, not only to shop. It's regrettable that the plan misses such an opportunity.

I personally agree that the lack of mixed-use is indeed regrettable, but that's partially the fault of Brightwoodians themselves, who so strongly opposed the residential aspect of Foulger-Pratt's original plans for the site, that the plans were scrapped. (This was before my time in the neighborhood, so I wasn't around for that whole fiasco, but from what I've heard things got pretty heated.)

Foulger-Pratt will meet with the community on December 7 at 7pm in the Community Room of MPD's Fourth District headquarters, 6001 Georgia Avenue NW, to discuss the building plans.

Even more news regarding Wal-Mart's impending domination of the District

Apparently, the Wal-Mart planned for Georgia and Missouri isn't a small-scale version of the megastore, as the initial report led me to believe. No, the first four stores, including the one bound for the Curtis Chevrolet site, are going to be pretty typical of your average Wal-Mart's size. But wait, there's more! Wal-Mart intends to expand even further into the District by opening the aforementioned small-scale stores, in addition to the four mega-emporiums. Wal-Mart is about to become as ubiquitous as CVS. More here.

More thoughts on Wal-Mart plans

First, Councilmember Muriel Bowser has released a statement:

Today, Councilmember Bowser responded to news that Walmart intends to locate a retail outlet along an important Ward 4 corridor. “I am very interested to learn more from Walmart executives about their interest in Ward 4,” said Bowser. “The intersection at Georgia and Missouri Avenues represents a huge piece of the Georgia Avenue revitalization puzzle. Any redevelopment at this highly visible, dynamic location must be done thoughtfully and with community outreach.” A previous plan to build a mixed use —housing and retail—project at the former Curtis Chevrolet site was endorsed by Bowser contingent on concessions to the community and to the site’s significance. But, a sluggish economy and a varied neighborhood reaction slowed progress. With the plan aborted, Bowser consistently urged the property owner to keep all options on the table and to move as quickly as possible to develop the property to its most productive, best use. “ It’s important that this vacant lot be put to use, sooner rather than later,” she said. “But more importantly, we have to ensure that Ward 4 residents understand and are comfortable with the effect the store will have on their neighborhoods and local businesses; that residents are informed about traffic flow and parking details, and that they are given the opportunity to learn more about the company’s labor practices,” Bowser said. “And most importantly, the company must make clear its commitment to improving the Brightwood community and all of Ward 4. We look forward to starting that conversation with the company, Ward 4 residents, and our local leaders.”/

It makes me feel a bit better to know that the Wal-Martians will be subject to community input. The news came yesterday in such a hurry that I had envisioned a big box just being plunked down on the site.

There are so many issues to take into consideration. What will be done about that horribly awkward intersection at Georgia/Missouri/Military to facilitate traffic flow? What about the car barn on the site; it's been designated as a historic structure and Foulger-Pratt's plan for its mixed-use development incorporated the car barn's facade; how will Wal-Mart deal with the car barn issue? Is the company amenable to designing a building that won't be a total eyesore?

Wal-Mart has its eye on the Curtis Chevrolet site

...for one of its "urban format" stores, according to Mike DeBonis.

The good side to this is that the "urban format" stores sell groceries, which would help to alleviate Ward 4's food desert problem, as Aaron Morrissey points out.

The bad side is that...the site would be taken up by Wal-Mart. Certainly not what I was hoping for (actually, just about the furthest thing I was hoping for).

Fighting off a Wal-Mart was certainly not an issue I was expecting to face when I moved to DC! And we all know that communities that have tried to fight Wal-Mart have been largely unsuccessful. I'll be keeping a close watch on how this plan progresses.

***UPDATE 8:40 pm***
At this point it looks like it's all but confirmed.