Lots of development news to report:
- First up, community representatives held an initial meeting with consultants from the Cafritz team on the children’s museum component of Art Place at Fort Totten. You may be wondering why we’re talking about the children’s museum component since we reported recently that Cafritz was still looking for an anchor to secure financing for the project. Well, unofficially there may be an anchor in place (a possible anchor we listed in this post). We haven’t gotten official word, but it makes more sense that they would schedule a meeting at this point for museum consultants to introduce themselves and solicit community input if there is an anchor on the horizon. Look for more information in the future from the ANCs and the leadership of the Lamond Riggs Citizens Association and the North Michigan Park Civic Association.
- The Totten Life blog brings us news of a brewery headed for Riggs Park with a link to a news release from DC Beer. Hellbender Brewery is building out the space at 5788 2nd St. NE (not too far from Fort Totten Square and 3 Stars Brewing Company). Just in case you’re curious, according to this release from DC Beer, the brewery is named for the hellbender, the largest salamander in North America. The Hellbender team plans to use the salamander as a symbol of the team’s “‘environmentally safe brewery practices and waste disposal.'” The team wants to work with local businesses and residents to make the neighborhood “a better place for everyone.”
- The Office of Planning recently recommended approval of a modification to the PUD for 6000 New Hampshire Ave NE. Recall this is the site of the new Comstock detached single family homes and townhomes. The original developer sold his interest in the 2 other buildings on the property. These buildings are zoned for residential use and the original PUD called for residential apartment buildings. The current develper would like to modify the PUD to accommodate a rehabilitation center for mentally disabled adults in one of the buildings and reduce the number of apartments in the other building. The ANC and LRCA (and other community groups) officially opposed the modification, outlining areas of concern. The Office of Zoning held a hearing on the modification request on February 21, 2013. The neighborhood groups and the ANC presented testimony on their areas of concern. While it is almost certain Zoning will approve the modification, Zoning would like the developer and neighborhood groups to come to a consensus on the outstanding concerns and it appears that such a consensus can be reached.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 
What is the consensus on the number of group homes that are popping up in the Riggs Park neighborhood. The homes in Riggs are sturdy, made of brick and mortar but can they withstand being turned into essentially group homes with 8 unrelated adults. All boomers who grew up in the NE area should remember the boarding houses on Rhode Island avenue which probably would have been called group homes in todays terminology and how it lead to the slow decline of Rhode Island Ave corridor. Lets not keep repeating the mistake of our past no more than 3 unrelated adults should live in a group setting and ideally every adult should have their own apartment and in a family environment. No one now has 8 children living in one house. Its nice that additional businesses are moving in except for maybe another Walmart (thats another comment) but if the surrounding environment becomes dilapidated and ill kept I see disaster and the destabilization of the neighborhood.