Section 10-A1816. FSS-2.6 BELLEVUE/WASHINGTON HIGHLANDS

 

1816.1The Bellevue commercial district includes several blocks around the intersection of South Capitol and Atlantic Streets. The area is a traditional neighborhood center, including small retailers, a bank, food and liquor stores, a gas station, personal services, a drugstore/training center for pharmacy technicians, and a Department of Employment Services (DOES) branch office. It includes the former Atlantic Theater and the Washington Highlands Library, and is adjacent to the new campus of Patterson Elementary School. 1816.1

 

1816.2In 2002, the area was designated a Strategic Neighborhood Improvement Program (SNIP) area by the District. The program’s goals were to improve the area’s commercial and retail opportunities, increase home ownership and housing choices, improve the quality of infrastructure, enhance workforce and youth development opportunities, and promote public safety. A local advisory committee was created to prepare recommendations as part of this process. These included buying vacant homes for resale to nonprofit developers; improving streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure; repaving the street; and upgrading public facilities such as the library. Efforts to strengthen South Capitol/Atlantic as a neighborhood center should continue in the future. South Capitol is part of the city’s Great Streets program and has been targeted for additional investment and economic development. 1816.2

 

1816.3The neighborhoods surrounding the commercial district include a large number of garden apartments, many in deteriorating condition. Some of these apartments were quickly constructed during the boom years of the 1940s and may need replacement or substantial renovation during the coming years. The policies below ensure that neighborhood character will be enhanced and that housing choices will be retained as these changes take place. 1816.3

 

1816.4Policy FSS-2.6.1: Neighborhood Shopping Improvements

 

Encourage new commercial development and adaptive reuse of existing commercial buildings in the South Capitol/Atlantic Streets commercial district. Development should provide improved commercial goods and services to the surrounding Bellevue and Washington Highlands neighborhoods. 1816.4

 

1816.5Policy FSS-2.6.2: Business Improvement

 

Support the continued efforts of local merchants to improve the Bellevue shopping district, provide adequate off-street parking and loading areas, and enhance building facades and storefronts. 1816.5

 

1816.6Policy FSS-2.6.3: Bellevue-Washington Highlands Infill

 

Encourage refurbishment and/or replacement of deteriorating apartment complexes within Bellevue and Washington Highlands. Where buildings are removed, encourage their replacement with mixed income housing, including owner-occupied single family homes and townhomes as well as new apartments. Every effort shall be made to avoid resident displacement when such actions are taken, and to provide existing residents with opportunities to purchase their units or find suitable housing in the community. 1816.6

 

1816.7Action FSS-2.6.A: Great Street Improvements

 

Implement the Great Street Plan to beautify South Capitol Street, maintaining the width of the street and landscaping it from Martin Luther King Jr Avenue to the Maryland border. 1816.7

 

1816.8Action FSS-2.6.B: Merchants Association

 

Encourage local merchants in the South Capitol/Atlantic shopping district to form a merchants association to address issues such as the reuse of the Atlantic Theater. 1816.8

 

1816.9Action FSS-2.6.C: Washington Highlands Library

 

Consider joint public-private development opportunities to reconstruct the Washington Highlands library, providing the Bellevue and Washington Highlands neighborhoods with a first class, state-of-the art public library. 1816.9

 

notation

The provisions of Title 10, Part A of the DCMR accessible through this web interface are codification of the District Elements of the Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital. As such, they do not represent the organic provisions adopted by the Council of the District of Columbia. The official version of the District Elements only appears as a hard copy volume of Title 10, Part A published pursuant to section 9a of the District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1994, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; D.C. Official Code § 1 -301.66)) . In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions accessible through this site and the provisions contained in the published version of Title 10, Part A, the provisions contained in the published version govern. A copy of the published District Elements is available www.planning.dc.gov.