Nearly 4 years after initial presentation, ‘Lady Bird’ project in AU Park still struggling to take flight at former Superfresh site

A developer’s plan to build 219 residential units and new retail on the site of a long-vacant supermarket in American University Park is still nowhere close to groundbreaking, stymied by fierce resistance from some neighbors ever since its initial unveiling nearly four years ago.

With over 500 documents filed in its Zoning Commission case record, the project at 48th and Yuma streets NW has turned into a back-and-forth between builder Valor Development and its proponents on one side, and organized critics on the other.

Amid examples of famously stalled development projects in DC, such as the legally challenged redevelopment at the McMillan Reservoir site recently upheld by the DC Court of Appeals, the AU Park proposal shows the extent to which neighbors can slow-walk even lesser-known projects. And it comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser has called on Ward 3 neighborhoods to hold more housing.

Earlier this year, Valor Development put its original application for design review on hold. The Zoning Commission recently scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 19 on a new submission Valor made in May, which would allow for the project’s proposed density in exchange for public amenities. As currently planned, the housing units — down from a maximum of 250 originally — would be distributed among a four-story apartment building and five town houses.

In the neighborhood of mostly single-family homes, a vocal group of residents has said the proposal is too large for the site, located across from Spring Valley at the edge of AU Park; they’ve also cited concerns about traffic and the impact on the nearby Wagshal’s Deli. That’s despite Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E’s support for the plans; the current members of ANC 3D haven’t taken a firm stance on the overall proposal, although they have raised procedural issues. 

Last October, Valor lowered the height of the main building from five stories to four with penthouses while retaining its promise to bring a grocery store, among other amenities. The site was formerly home to the neighborhood’s last full-service grocer — a Superfresh that evolved into a Fresh & Green’s before closing in 2013 — and Valor says it has an early agreement with Mom’s Organic Market for a 16,000-square-foot store. 

The venture is named The Lady Bird after Lady Bird Johnson; the project is so old a website under its name has expired. Despite changes and commitments Valor has made since 2015, detractors would like to see it further scaled down. 

Will Lansing, principal of Valor, conceded after a community meeting in April that he could not tell how soon a shovel would go in the ground or whether neighbors might take the case to court, if the project ultimately wins approval. 

“We’re unsure what people are going to do,” he said.

Valor filed its new planned unit development (PUD) application on May 6, but it’s unclear when a final order would be ready if the Zoning Commission grants approval. Shane Dettman, a planning director at law firm Holland & Knight, which represents Valor, has told the community that Valor did not originally file for a PUD because the DC Office of Planning opposed the project’s original scale. 

Currently, Valor wants both its original, stalled original application and the nearly identical project outlined in its PUD application to remain active in order to see which one can win approval sooner. The Office of Planning has proposed a text amendment to the city’s zoning regulations that would eliminate the hurdle for Valor’s design review application that arose from a Zoning Commission decision earlier this year. The PUD application can move forward without such a zoning rework.

Shelly Repp, who described himself in one of many letters to the Zoning Commission as living “five houses away from the site,” is a top critic who has formed an opposition group called Citizens for Responsible Development. In one letter to the commission after Valor revised its proposal in the fall, Repp said the project faced “serious legal hurdles.” 

Repp pans both applications as “inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan because [the project] is not appropriate to the scale and character of the adjoining community.” He says neighbors want a compromise but that Valor has not been forthcoming. 

“I view this a David vs. Goliath issue here,” he said. “We’re basically fighting Holland & Knight.” 

The project has backers who want to activate the vacant space and who dispute the objections raised by Citizens for Responsible Development. Writing in support to the Zoning Commission, the Office of Planning on May 31 said the project would not be inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan and that the redevelopment “would preserve the existing residential neighborhood.”

Susan Kimmel of Ward 3 Vision, a pro-smart growth organization, applauded the proportion of two- and three-bedroom units in the project — 33% and 16%, respectively. Twenty-nine units are set aside as affordable housing under the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements. 

“This means that there is real choice for baby boomers who want to downsize and move into the city once they sell their suburban homes but need an extra bedroom or two for when their kids and grandkids come to visit,” Kimmel said in submitted testimony to the Zoning Commission. 

Lansing said the changes between the design review application and the PUD are procedural in nature, aside from minor tweaks to the penthouse units. The plan retains a community benefits package negotiated between Valor and ANC 3E, which in part guarantees a grocery store on the site for a decade. (The project is within ANC 3E bounds, but across the border from ANC 3D.)

Valor said it plans to release a new transportation study this summer, Lansing said. The project includes a total of 370 parking spaces, with 228 dedicated for residents. Its PUD filing says a shuttle to the Tenleytown Metro station or ride-share credits would be provided for residents of the apartment building during the morning and evening rush hours for at least one year.

The Citizens for Responsible Development group is still hoping for a smaller project as a compromise, according to Repp. He recounted that a proposed February meeting with critics, Valor and Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh fell apart when Lansing withdrew a day before. 

“I regret that, but we gave it a shot,” Cheh wrote back to Repp on Feb. 26 after Valor said it wouldn’t send representatives based on advice from counsel. 

“Mary Cheh was not snubbed,” Lansing said at an April meeting of ANC 3D, responding to criticism from Repp. He added that, by that point in February, changes could not have been made to the design review application before the Zoning Commission.

In late May, Cheh sent an email to the Zoning Commission noting that she “took no offense” from the cancellation. “I would like to reiterate that I have no position on this particular development,” she added. “I would like to see the site no longer vacant and hope that both sides can find common ground to allow a use of this space.”

According to Valor’s figures, it has held or attended 54 community meetings since late 2015. But on May 9, it skipped a meeting of ANC 3E, where the firm was scheduled to speak on its new PUD filing. A few critics of the project at the meeting called again called for a compromise that includes less density.

In preparation for September’s zoning hearing, ANC 3E is scheduled to discuss a draft memorandum of understanding with Valor at its monthly meeting tonight. The project wasn’t listed on last night’s ANC 3D agenda. 

Since the company’s original 2016 filing for a project with about 230 units, the height of the building has been reduced by 24 feet and its gross floor area by 95,000 square feet, Valor wrote in a Feb. 6 zoning filing. 

At ANC 3E’s April meeting, Lansing reiterated that the project hadn’t changed much with the new PUD filing. “It stays just as everyone has seen it for the past, you know, bit of history.”