Project stalled by bid to ’upzone’

Developers want to build a new residential and retail complex on H Street Northeast and community leaders say they favor the project. The problem is they can’t agree on what it should look like.

As the Louis Dreyfus Property Group and the Near Northeast Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 6-C) continue negotiating, a D.C. Zoning Commission hearing date for the Capitol Place mixed-use project has been pushed back again, this time to Oct. 1.

The biggest issue is Louis Dreyfus Property Group’s request for “upzoning,” or a higher height restriction.

The developer wants to build 110-foot-high gateway near the intersection of Second and H streets. The three-section building would step down in stages to 45 feet high.

Zoning restrictions normally limit the height to 90 feet.

The developer wants the complex to cover 390,000 square feet, despite the fact zoning restrictions would limit it to 333,000 square feet.

ANC 6-C leaders say the added density could lead to traffic congestion. They also are wondering whether the architecture and amenities the developer plans are appropriate for the site.

“The project as proposed was too tall and too dense for a project that shares half of a city block with 25-foot row houses built in the 1800s,” said ANC 6-C Commissioner Alan Kimber.

The project, whose cost has not been determined yet, would be built between Second, Third, G and H streets, right at the heart of some of the H Street Corridor’s fastest development.

Across the street would be the Senate Square condominium project being built by Broadway Development and Abdo Development. The Zoning Commission already rezoned it for a 110-foot tower.

Louis Dreyfus Property Group paid about $28 million for the nearly 76,000 square feet of land on the site. The firm wants the project to consist of as many as 315 condos, 20,000 square feet of retail and three levels of parking spaces. Fifteen percent of the condos would be set aside for affordable housing. The company also said it would install amenities such as new sidewalks, curbs and gutters as well as make improvements to the H Street Bridge.

“The developer claims that the price they paid for the property assumed a certain building size in order to get the numbers to work,” said Drury Tallant, co-chairman for the Stanton Park Neighborhood Association, which is participating in the negotiations. “The community’s response has been that we should not bail out land speculation. If a developer pays too much for a piece of property because they choose to gamble on an upzoning, they do so at their own peril.”