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The saga that is the Fort Totten South project, a mixed-use townhouse development proposed by a partnership of EYA and JBG Smith for the southeast corner of South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road NE, moved forward on Tuesday June 18 when the DC Council approved the closure of the slip lanes at South Dakota and Riggs that took place in 2011.

This project was actually supposed to break ground some time ago but it was held up by a bureaucratic snafu. The project dates back to at least 2006. We have been reporting on this since 2014 (the blog was created in December 2013), so this project has been around in some form or fashion for a long time. You can read posts about the project here, here, here, and here.

In 2011, DDOT reconfigured the intersection at South Dakota and Riggs into a standard four corner intersection by closing two slip lanes at the southeast and southwest corners of South Dakota & Riggs. Development of Fort Totten South was predicated on that closure and the creation of a contiguous parcel of land for the development. Closing the slip lanes technically constituted a road closure, and road closures require Council (and Congressional) approval.

Part of the land to be developed for the project belonged to the District (known as the Fort Totten triangle). The above image shows the southeast corner of South Dakota & Riggs where the District parcel was located and the adjacent parcel owned by developer JBG Smith/EYA. A slip lane used to separate the two sites before the intersection was reconfigured by closing the slip lane. Previously the site was to be developed by a partnership of JBG and Lowe Enterprises as multifamily rental units. JBG Smith formed a new partnership with EYA to develop townhomes instead. Over a period of years, the District and the developer negotiated a purchase price, eventually coming to agreement on the final purchase price in 2016. When it came time to officially close the deal and prepare to break ground, officials realized that the Council had not approved the closure of the slip lanes (the road closure) when it actually happened back in 2011. That part of the process just fell through the cracks for whatever reason. Legislation was repeatedly introduced over the ensuing years to approve the closure. Now after the Council’s Tuesday vote approving the emergency legislation to close the slip lanes, it looks like financial closing on the sale of the District parcel can take place in the next few months and the project can finally break ground.

In the interim, the developer has tweaked the project. Recall that the original plans called for 160 townhomes, the majority at grade and around 65 stacked townhomes above a podium with retail on the ground floor. Now, the developer is proposing to replace the stacked townhomes on the podium with around 60 to 80 rental units for seniors, with the goal of providing as much affordable senior housing as possible. At grade, there will still be around 90 traditional townhomes. Retail square footage remains the same, sufficient for about seven retail spaces. Not clear what prompted this latest change, but given the ever-present concern in the community about seniors, this seems like it will be a welcome change.

The developer hopes to break ground by the fall and certainly no later than the end of the year.