Norton Oct. 22nd Town Hall Meeting on DHS Expansion Expected to Spur Retail & Development (10/14/08)
Norton Oct. 22 Town Meeting on Proposed DHS Expansion Expected to Spur Retail and Development
October 14, 2008
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will convene a special town hall meeting Wednesday, Oct. 22, 5:30 p.m., at the Petey Green Community Center, at 2907 Martin Luther King Avenue, SE, to brief residents and community and business leaders on important new developments for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Headquarters, planned for the campus of St. Elizabeth's on Martin Luther King Avenue in Ward 8. The town meeting follows the Congresswoman's success in securing the first appropriation last month to begin the project. The initial plans Norton rolled out to the community in 2006 limited construction of DHS to the hospital's West campus. Current plans will allow one of the DHS agencies to be located on the East campus, controlled by the District government. General Services Administration officials have been in discussions with city planning and transportation officials to assure that the move fits the city's plans for the East campus.
"This is a win-win for the federal government and the city alike," said Norton, chair, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, which has oversight over GSA, the agency that will build the headquarters. "I was motivated to get DHS at St. Elizabeth's, in no small part, because of the commercial and retail that follows in the wake of location of a federal agency. The East campus, unlike the West side, will accommodate commercial development, and the presence of a federal agency will jump start the District's plans for the East campus and the quality retail the community has desired for decades," she added.
The town meeting will feature remarks by federal and city officials on expansion of the DHS complex and its meaning for Ward 8 residents, businesses, and the federal government. It will also allow comments and questions by residents. The Congresswoman held a public hearing last year on local business opportunities likely to come with the new DHS headquarters. Community leaders urged the Congresswoman to get GSA to consider the East side, as well, because it easily accommodates retail. The DHS construction will mark the first time the federal government has located a major federal agency east of the Anacostia River. The headquarters will be a compound of half a dozen agencies, and will be the largest federal construction project since the Pentagon in 1943. The federal development is expected to help revitalize Martin Luther King Avenue, one of the District's main thoroughfares.