City-owned parcel subject of surplus hearing on SE corner of Riggs Rd & South Dakota Ave NE

The mayor’s office is holding a public hearing to designate city-owned land on the southeast corner of South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road NE surplus property in order to be sold to the Fort Totten Square developers for the second phase of the development.  Phase one of the development is well underway on the north side of Riggs.  The mayor’s office is required to solicit comments on designating the property “surplus,” which means that the land is not required for a public purpose.  The hearing will take place on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at Riggs-Lasalle Recreation Center at 6:30 pm.

The mayor’s office will hold this public hearing and then present a package with a land disposition agreement to the council for the council’s approval.  The council will then hold its own hearing before deciding whether to declare the property surplus and approve the sale of the land.

The parcel, which is sometimes referred to as the Fort Totten Square south site, was the subject of a 2006 council resolution that provided for the sale of the land to Lowe Enterprise.  Lowe, which at that time was the sole developer of Fort Totten Square, owns a parcel adjacent to the city property and sought the city-owned land to make a more viable development.  The 2006 resolution provided for a number of conditions to the sale including:

• The developer will develop a mixed-use project in accordance with a master plan.
• The Mayor will retain design review over the master plan
• The developer and the Mayor will agree to a profit participation program
• The developer will abide by a First Source Agreement and execute an LSBDE MOU to contract with local, small businesses for at least 50% of the pre-construction and construction on the project
• The developer will provide no less than 20% affordable units: 10% affordable to households earning 80% AMI or less; 5% to households earning 60% AMI or less, and 5% to households earning 30% AMI or less.

The sale was delayed by DDOT’s reconfiguration of the intersection.  In the interim, Lowe teamed up with JBG to develop Fort Totten Square and now the city is once again negotiating with the developers over the sale of the land.  If you have thoughts about the surplus designation, let the mayor’s office know at the June 10th hearing.  The record will be kept open for a period of time after the hearing for people to submit written comments.

Hearing notice