Photo by from-the-window
The District of Columbia’s highest court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case that could block the Cleveland Park Giant Food project.
The appeal before a panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals pits the D.C. Zoning Commission against a group of neighborhood residents who say that the commission’s 2009 approval of the project violated zoning regulations and the city’s comprehensive plan.
“The Comprehensive Plan law … is quite clear that this site should remain a low density, neighborhood commercial center,” Dan Hecker, who lives near the project site, said in a news release by the Wisconsin-Newark Neighborhood Coalition, one of the groups that brought the appeal. It is unclear from the release whether Hecker is a member of the coalition.
Giant has faced more than a decade of opposition to its plan to replace the store at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street Northwest. The Cathedral Commons project calls for a mixed-use development including apartments, townhouses and ground-level retail in addition to a larger supermarket.
Advisory neighborhood commissioner Trudy Reeves said in February that the project was in the “pre-development phase” and that boring would begin this month.
Tuesday’s arguments will be webcast live from the court’s website. The case is Wisconsin-Newark Neigh. Coal & 3300 Idaho Neigh, et al. v. D.C. Zoning Commission; Friendship-Macomb SC Inc., Intv. (No. 09-AA-1092).
