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| Patrick Menasco, president of the Metro D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender
People, said the city invited the Center to draft a lease that would allow it
to use Stead Park as the site for a combination gay center and park complex.
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
The District government is negotiating terms of a lease that would allow organizers
of D.C.’s gay community center to convert a city park at 17th and P Streets,
NW, into a community center complex that would include a public park and an underground
garage with as many as 540 parking spaces.
Wanda Alston, Mayor Anthony Williams’s special assistant for gay, lesbian,
bisexual & transgender affairs, said the lease would make the final approval
of the development of Stead Park contingent upon support from the surrounding
community and the Center’s ability to secure financing.
But Alston and Patrick Menasco, president of the Metro D.C. Center for Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender People, said the city’s decision
to open lease negations with the Center represents a major step forward in
advancing the ambitious project.
Plans for the project call for building a three-story community center with
35,000 to 40,000 square feet of usable interior space on a section of Stead
Park. The 68,000 square-foot park is located behind existing buildings on P
and Q Streets and 16th and 17th Streets, NW.
The Center would include offices, meeting space, and a small theater suitable
for gay performing arts groups and films sponsored by the city’s One
In Ten gay and lesbian film festival, according to information released by
Menasco last year. Last week, Menasco said the center would also include a
gymnasium open to the public.
He has described the proposed facility as a “multicultural GLBT community
center that can support our community’s diverse artistic, social, recreational,
spiritual, educational and civic activities.”
The park, which includes a playground and soccer field, would remain a public
park but would be upgraded and maintained by the center on behalf of the city,
according to plans released last year.
Similar to the Jewish Community Center located a few blocks away, Menasco
said the gay community center would be open to the public, including local
civic and community groups.
He said the project would cost between $10 million and $15 million. The parking
garage would serve as the main “revenue stream” to pay for the
center’s operations, Menasco said. However, he said additional financing
from the city would also be needed, and center officials would soon make an
appeal for financial assistance to the mayor and D.C. Council.
According to Menasco, the project could provide reserved parking spaces for
nearby residents, but the majority of spaces would be used for patrons of nearby
restaurants and businesses in an area plagued by a chronic shortage of parking.
He said preliminary plans call for the parking garage to be built on two or
three levels underground, with about 180 parking spaces per level.
He said the approval of a lease by the city would clear the way for the Center
to pay for a full architectural plan for the project. However, he said the
Center would not finalize architectural plans without first obtaining input
from nearby residents, including input from the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood
Commission.
ANC commissioners, who are elected by residents in neighborhoods throughout
the city, serve on advisory bodies for city agencies, which are required to
give “great weight” to their recommendations.
Darren Bowie, the openly gay chair of ANC 2B, which represents the Dupont
Circle area, said the commission looks forward to learning more about the community
center project.
“Formally, they have not come before the ANC to make a presentation,” Bowie
said. “I cannot comment until I know more details.”
ANC commissioner Mike Silverstein said he, too, would have to learn more details
about the project before making a decision. Among other things, Silverstein
said, he wants to determine whether the Stead family, which donated the land
to the city for a park, placed any restrictions on its use through terms attached
to its gift of the land.
“We would have to see the historic documents to see if a center is allowed,” he
said.
With Williams’ approval, Neil Albert, director of the D.C. Department
of Parks & Recreation, invited the Center to draft a proposed lease for
developing the Stead Park site, according to Alston.
“We met with Parks & Recreation a year and a half ago,” Menasco
said. “They liked the idea and asked us to come back with more details.”
Last month, Menasco said, Albert said he liked the details and asked the Center
to draft a proposed lease.
“The mayor is supportive of a community center,” Alston said. “He
wants to see a plan. So far, we have seen things only in bits and pieces.”
Menasco said the Center has prepared a “summary book” which describes
the proposed project in some detail. He said he planned to release the summary
to the Blade but did not do so by press time.
Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.
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