Jun 25, 2004  |  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 waiting for presentation
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.