The Giant Supermarket Saga Continues...In Court

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals heard oral arguments yesterday in the lawsuit to block the Giant supermarket development at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street, NW.  The case is Wisconsin-Newark Neighborhood Coalition (WNNC) and 3300 Idaho Neighbors versus the DC Zoning Commission and Friendship-Macomb SC.)

According to DC Mud, WNNC is asking the court to overturn the Zoning Commission's unanimous approval of the Giant development project on the grounds that height and density are inconsistent with the neighborhood commercial overlay zoning.  DC Mud further reports that the petitioners want the city "to revise the PUD as a two-stage application," and declare that the Zoning Commission "lacked authority" to grant a PUD [planned unit development] within a neighborhood commercial overlay zone.

The battle over the Giant supermarket and residential-retail-office complex has been going on for over a decade. The lawsuit to thwart the Giant was filed last August. Most observers give the chance that a lawsuit will block the project near-zero odds of success. Indeed, plans are already underway to replace the dilapidated, 1950's supermarket with a modern store.

The project is supported by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, the local ANC, former Mayor Fenty, current Mayor Gray, other elected officials, the Zoning Commission, and the vast majority of people who live in the Cleveland Park neighborhood, where the Giant is located.

Cleveland Park's Giant Supermarket Saga Continues

The Cleveland Park Listserv is hopping again over the Giant. To recap, there's been an epic battle over whether or not the Giant supermarket at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street should be modernized. Small is good, big is bad, and giant is even worse in the eyes of the Giant's opponents.

The battle raged for 11 years, an almost biblical length of time, but now a modern supermarket and accompanying residential and retail development is assured.

The minority of neighbors who've opposed the Giant development threw everything they had, including lawsuits, to thwart the Giant's plans, and have lost. There's even one remaining lawsuit, but almost nobody expects that to succeed.

But the issue de jour is: What about the stores that will be displaced during construction? What will happen to them -- the toy store, the barber shop, the yoga studio, even Starbucks? Will they return? Will they be able to afford to return?

Now that the Giant development is close to a certainty, the anti-Giant community continues to portray big as bad and small as good, and wants to blame Giant and the pro-Giant forces for displacing these stores. But it can be claimed with equal conviction that it was the anti-Giant side that caused the smaller stores to have to leave. At one point Giant had planned to do phased construction, but is now going to demolish everything and build the project all at once. Had the opposition focused their rather considerable energies on ensuring that the construction cause as little disruption to the existing stores as possible, instead of digging in their heels and opposing Giant at every opportunity, things could have been different.

Giant Launch Postponed

Posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv:

We want to give all the members of the community an opportunity to join us for a launch of the new project to redevelop the Wisconsin Avenue Giant and Friendship Shopping Center, which will be known as Cathedral Commons. To honor the High Holy Day, Rosh Hashanah, we will postpone the previously announced launch event.

For additional information, go to Wisconsin Avenue Giant.

Rose Jackson
Giant Development Team
www.wisconsinavegiant.com

Anti Giant Forces Sue to Block Supermarket...Again

Reported yesterday on the Cleveland Park Listserv:  A handful of neighbors filed a lawsuit to block the development of a new supermarket and residential/commercial complex at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street.  Despite the fact than an overwhelming majority of neighbors --93 percent in a Listserv poll-- support the new supermarket project, a few neighbors think that their vision of Cleveland Park should prevail.  

A determined few have been trying to block the new Giant for ten years.  Their strategy of block and delay has been, unfortunately, successful.  Hopefully, this is their last stand and they will fail.

For some people, that vision includes the idea that a neighborhood like Cleveland Park --what they think of as a "village" in Washington, DC-- shouldn't even have a modern, well-stocked supermarket.  They worry that a large supermarket will attract shoppers on their way home from work.  Personally, I've never understood the fear of having people who live outside of one neighborhood shop in another.  It's actually a good thing when dollars are brought into a community. Other supermarket opponents insist that Cleveland Park can get along just fine with a small supermarket.  "Busy city dwellers do not need to spend an hour doing the family shopping, walking miles around inside huge markets," wrote one person on the Cleveland Park Listserv who opposes the concept of a larger supermarket.  Never mind that other people want a better supermarket; the opponents think they know what's best.