SW Community Center Request for Volunteers

The following message is from the SW Community Center:

A new SW Community Center is coming to Waterfront Station! Are you a member of the community who is interested in learning about the new Center? Do you want to become involved? If so, read on! We are seeking two different types of volunteers. 

1. If you have experience as an impartial facilitator or a marketing/communications background, the Community Engagement & Communications Committee (8-10 members) might be just the right place for you! Please click here to provide a short statement of your interest by December 31, 2019.
2. If you want to make sure that you, your organization, or your neighbors have input into what you want to see in the SW Community Center, consider signing up as an ambassador here to help us get the word out about the community engagement plan, once it is finalized. 

Would you like to receive updates on our progress? Stay tuned! Once this first Committee is up and running, we will have a website and email distribution list where we’ll share relevant materials and announcements and will begin hosting meetings, focus groups, surveys, etc., to make sure you are an integral part of the SW Community Center! 

About the SW Community Center: 

ANC 6D negotiated with Brookfield Properties (formerly Forest City) for a new Community Center at Waterfront Station as part of a Community Benefits Agreement. The ANC partnered with SWNA for a meeting earlier this year to hear from the community about its broad vision for the SW Community Center. Since then, a new non-profit organization called The SW Community Center has been formed and recently announced its founding Board of Directors. Joining the Board of Directors are Shannon Vaughn, Will Rich, Gail Fast, Evelyn Lugo, and Ambassador Mattie R. Sharpless. The Board is ready to begin a sustained community engagement process in the first quarter of 2020 in order to help bring the SW Community Center to fruition.

Rendering courtesy of Brookfield Properties

CBCC Summit Debrief

This morning, I attended the Near SE-SW Community Summit: Taking Charge of our Future, which was hosted by the Community Benefits Coordinating Council (CBCC) and facilitated by America Speaks. The summit was well attended and contained a diverse audience of community members, local pols, and some developers (I spotted Elinor Bacon from the PN Hoffman-Madison Marquette Waterfront team). A few ANC 6D commissioners were present, including Andy Litsky, Ron McBee, and Roger Moffatt, as well as former commissioners Jane Jorgensen, David Sobelsohn, and Mary Williams. There may have been others, but those were the ones I noticed. Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells also came in the afternoon. My guesstimate based on the number of tables and the fact that the room was pretty full is there were between 100 and 125 attendees.

The five main issues for discussion at the summit were as follows:

1. Workforce Development/Jobs/Community Centers
2. Neighborhood Oriented Retail and Services
3. Housing Diversity and Affordability
4. Youth-Education and Services
5. Environmental Concerns

Each person got to choose which issue they wanted to focus on for the day and then the room was divided into groups of people who wanted to discuss the same issue. I sat at one of the tables discussing Neighborhood Oriented Retail and Services. Most people chose Youth Education and Services, while the other four issues were pretty evenly distributed. Each group discussed assets and challenges that their issue presented to the community, then brainstormed ideas that could be implemented over the next 1-3 years to help resolve their particular issue. Out of the large lists of ideas for each issue, everyone in the room voted on which top two ideas were most important.

Issue #1

• Incorporate Ward 6 in the SW Waterfront development's workforce program (currently only Wards 5, 7 & 8 are targeted)
• Identify and create a workforce clearing house

Issue #2

• Increase of locally-owned businesses
• Use vacant land at Waterfront Station until new development is completed

Issue #3

• Stronger coalitions to represent all types of residents' interests to developers and policymakers
• Make sure residential developers commit to specific housing preferences for current residences/residents

Issue #4

• Bolster pre-K program
• Utilize Jefferson Middle School for adult vocational education and workforce development

Issue #5

• Develop community gardens using public land and church offered space and transitional dog parks
• Avoid over development: keep height and density restrictions

Once the top two ideas for each issue were voted on, the groups met again to discuss how to implement those ideas. The CBCC will make the results of the brainstorming session available in about a week or so and will use these ideas to come up with suggestions for community benefits agreements between developers and the ANC.

Did any of you attend the summit? What did you think?

Update on St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church Redevelopment

If you haven't been past 222 M Street in a few months, you may not have noticed that St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church has been demolished. The old church building was razed back in May so a new church, community center, and apartments can be built. In the interim, St. Matthew's is sharing space with the congregation at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church on 6th & M Street. I recently contacted Pastor Huber of St. Matthew's to get an update on the progress at redeveloping their site. St. Matthew's is teaming up with Trammell Crow and CSG Urban Partners on redeveloping 222 M Street. Internationally recognized architecture firm BBG-BBGM will design the project - another local Southwest project the architects have recently designed is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The redevelopment will include three components (1) a new St. Matthew's Church, (2) the Thurgood and Cecilia Marshall Southwest Community Center, and (3) an apartment building. The pastor hopes the new church will include a Fellowship Hall for community meeting space, as well as a sanctuary that could accommodate theatre and performances, in a partnership with Arena Stage. The community center hopes to include the following: a coffee shop called "Sacred Grounds", a day care center, a computer lab, thrift shop, multi-media classroom, community outreach center, and a Southwest Youth and Children's Choir. The apartment project, as planned, will include approximately 195 units - 15% of which they hope will be workforce housing. The development team still needs to get zoning approval and submit a PUD before construction can begin. Pastor Huber says they hope to have their submission to the Zoning Commission done soon. I'll be tracking further progress of this project and once renderings are available, I'll be sure to post them.

Special thanks to Pastor Huber for his assistance with reporting on this redevelopment project.