The linchpin of the long-planned 10-acre Georgetown Waterfront Park, which advocates hope will transform the Potomac shoreline from an industrial mess into a contemporary riverfront playground, is nearing final approval from planning officials.
The park’s estimated $6 million, 2.3-acre second phase, scheduled for final consideration Thursday by the National Capital Planning Commission, is considered the park’s centerpiece. Stretching from Wisconsin Avenue to 31st Street, its design features a large fountain, pergola, stairs to the river and stone benches.
“We believe that it needs to be a special place with visual interests and a welcoming appearance,” said Bob Vomeigen, president of Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park. “This is a potentially aesthetic centerpiece of Georgetown, and it ought to be a special place.”
Construction started late last year on the park’s $8 million first phase, a pastoral blend of overlooks, trails and gardens fronting K Street from 34th Street to Wisconsin Avenue. The work, overseen by the National Park Service, is expected to take 18 months.
The park, sought by Georgetown residents and the park service for three decades, will ultimately extend from the Key Bridge to the Washington Harbour complex.
There remains vocal opposition to the waterfront plan from those who believe the second phase is too elaborate and ornate and from those who want to move the proposed Georgetown University boathouse from its planned location in the C&O Canal National Historic Park to the western end of the Georgetown Waterfront Park.
John Parsons, National Park Service associate regional director in charge of planning, said he has two petitions in hand, one from 500 residents who want to move the project forward and another from 230 people who want to stop it.
Georgetown resident Robert Norris, who has taken up the boathouse cause, is scheduled to testify Thursday before the commission.
“To the extent that the commission is in a position to influence the ultimate contents of the proposed park, if an environmental and land-use planning mistake has been made, it is better to correct it now than to regret the consequencesin the future when corrections may be impossible,” Norris wrote in a recent letter to the NCPC.
