From the TakomaDC Listserv:
We are elected officials representing the area that includes and surrounds the Takoma Metro station. As officials, we reached out to WMATA (Metro) to understand the agency’s intentions regarding development at the station. WMATA executives briefed us last Friday, May 31. We very much appreciate the executives’ willingness to meet, and we feel community members also deserve to know about WMATA’s plans.
PROPOSED NEW BUILDING @ TAKOMA METRO
WMATA is working with development partner EYA toward creating a 255-unit, five-story residential structure at the Takoma Metro site. The five stories include ground-level parking for transit users and a level of parking for residents with three stories of one- and two-bedroom apartments above the parking. There would be a step-back of the upper levels on the Eastern Avenue side to three stories.
The structure would replace the current paved parking area. The current set of bus bays would be preserved in place, with the addition of one bus bay and three bus layover spaces carved from the current park. WMATA would claim the right to place an additional bus loop or other transit functions in the park in the future. WMATA would also construct a bicycle-parking structure, for transit users, on the station grounds.
The revised design is at least a partial victory for community members, who had pointed out that EYA’s previous design, over 80 townhouses with two-car garages and new surface streets to support them, was the antithesis of transit-oriented design.
But 255 residences are more than twice the 65-95 units called for in the District of Columbia’s Small Area Plan for the site. And this would be the largest project by far in the area around the station. The planned 255 units, supported by nearly 200 residential parking spaces, would have a significant Takoma-area impact that must be thoroughly analyzed.
Continues after the jump. (more…)
