Zoning Commission hears Montana Triangle PUD; commissioners set closed meeting and grant ANC party status amid community concern

The Zoning Commission of the District of Columbia on Oct. 20 held a virtual public hearing on a consolidated planned unit development (PUD) and related map amendment for the Montana Triangle site, where Jamal Shaffer LLC and Jamal’s Bumper George LLC (affiliates of Douglas Development Corporation) seek to rezone roughly 4.2 acres of New York Avenue frontage from MU‑5B to PDR‑1 and to build a roughly 180,000‑square‑foot, two‑level flex/warehouse building.

The hearing, chaired by Anthony Hood, also produced two formal procedural actions: the commission voted to hold a closed meeting on Oct. 23 “to seek legal advice from our counsel and deliberate upon the contested cases” and granted party status in the case to ANC 5D. Hood announced the closed meeting proposal and moved for it, and the commission’s roll call recorded three votes in favor (Hood, Commissioner Wright and Vice Chair Miller); two commissioners were not present and did not vote.

Why it matters: The proposal sits on a 9.13‑acre PUD site on New York Avenue Northeast where the District’s 2021 Comprehensive Plan added a PDR stripe along the corridor. The applicant says the project will bring jobs, multimodal streetscape improvements and environmental measures to a long‑dormant site; opponents say rezoning the frontage to PDR‑1 will lock in industrial uses that could preclude future housing and worsen air and truck impacts for nearby neighborhoods.

Most important developments presented at the hearing

Applicant presentation: Lila Batiste of Holland & Knight led the applicant team. Paul Milstein of Douglas Development described the property’s development history since Douglas acquired it in 2014 and the company’s shift from a larger mixed‑use scheme to a “flex” building concept after public financing (TIF and HUD 108) proved unavailable. Architect Reynaldo Venancio (Powers Brown Architecture) described a two‑level, 180,000‑square‑foot building with about 20,000 square feet of ground‑floor office/showroom/retail, roughly 126 parking spaces on one side of the office area and roughly 198 parking spaces overall in the current design. The building…