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Norton’s Southwest Waterfront Redevelopment Bill Passed, Ready for President’s Signature, Groundbreaking Expected in January

June 26, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today celebrated House passage of her Southwest Waterfront redevelopment bill (H.R. 2297), which is now headed to the White House for President Obama to sign into law. The bill clarifies the legal status of property at the Southwest Waterfront in order to allow the District to move forward with a major redevelopment project that will include 2.5 million square feet of hotel, office, retail, and residential space, as well as clear the way for increased maritime activity there. Norton expects the issuance of a permit by the fall, and the groundbreaking in January. The bill will create thousands of jobs for D.C. residents, generate millions of dollars in tax revenue every year, create new and improved waterfront parks and docks, and revitalize the city's southwest quadrant. The Congresswoman expressed her "deep appreciation for the considerable assistance of my friends in the House, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and in the Senate, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME), in getting the Southwest Waterfront bill through both houses."

"This is a major economic development bill for the District of Columbia," Norton said. "The bill allows the District to move forward with a 21st-century vision for the Southwest Waterfront, the most valuable underused asset in the District. Restrictions on the District's own land have long prevented the city from putting the Southwest Waterfront to its best use, driven down property values, and deprived residents and visitors alike of a vibrant waterfront. In the end, the city will have a world-class Southwest Waterfront to match the Southeast Waterfront, now called The Yards, being redeveloped from our prior bill. D.C. residents will have access to jobs and small business opportunities to build a new waterfront as well as to thousands of permanent jobs that will come with the new mixed-use Southwest Waterfront. Our city will get millions of dollars in new tax revenue annually."

The federal government had no interest in this land other than the Titanic Memorial near Fort McNair, which D.C. worked with the National Park Service to protect, and the Maine Lobsterman Memorial, which Norton worked with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to protect.

Published: June 26, 2012