Waterfront Redevelopment Project Up and Running

The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation becomes official this week, and the organization's chief plannner, Andrew Altman, has set his sights on developing a land-use for the area where the new baseball stadium will be built. Regarding the impact of efforts to bring professional baseball to Washington, Altman said, "It [the stadium] immediately becomes the highest priority of the waterfront, and you seize it and you run with it." The larger redevelopment plan of the Anacostia Waterfront is slated to take more than 20 years and cost upwards of $8 billion in public and private funds. Chairman of the corporation's board, Stephen Goldsmith, has called for balanced and methodical progress. "It's really important that these grand projects not start only with the biggest, grandest and glitziest, but that they're balanced," Goldsmith said, "so that neglected neighbors and neighborhoods can feel as though they're benefiting as well." The Anacostian River runs through some of the most delapidated areas of Washington and has suffered from years of pollution and neglect.

Thanks to Peter Buryk