Hill East Waterfront Action Network Continues its Support of HDG
August 3, 2009
The Honorable Valerie Santos
Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 317
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Deputy Mayor Santos,
I am writing on behalf of the Hill East Waterfront Action Network (HEWAN) to welcome you as Washington, DC’s new Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED). HEWAN is a membership organization that facilitates ongoing community input into the Hill East Waterfront redevelopment process. Most of our members live in the Hill East neighborhood adjacent to the proposed Hill East Waterfront or in the broader Capitol Hill community. We know you have an exciting job, given the ambition and sheer number of DMPED’s ongoing projects. We also know that you are confronting enormous challenges stemming from the ongoing recession.
After hearing that four (4) highly qualified development teams responded to the Hill East Waterfront Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), and knowing how contentious Capitol Hill development disputes have been in the past, few of us living here in Hill East would have predicted that the extremely diverse Capitol Hill community would rally around one team’s proposal. However, that is what happened. HEWAN members expressed the most excitement about the HDG Partners vision and the HEWAN Board voted unanimously to support HDG Partners. Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society also chose to support HDG Partners. Perhaps most interesting was that the local ANC, 6B, voted unanimously to endorse HDG Partners. As your office makes its decisions on the RFEI, HEWAN hopes it will consider the near decade-long history of community involvement in Hill East Waterfront redevelopment debates as well as the near unanimous support of adjoining neighbors for one particular Master P lan development team.
Thank you in advance for accommodating our request, made to your office by HEWAN board member Ellen Opper-weiner, to meet with you in person this month. We appreciate your willingness to hear from us directly why we support choosing a particular Master Developer to implement the Master Plan for the Hill East Waterfront.
Sincerely,
Alaine A. Perry, President
Hill East Waterfront Action Network
P.O. Box 15373
Washington, DC, 20003-9998