The National Capital Planning Commission has announced that it plans to launch a joint task force to aid in the implementation of recently released recommendations advising a major rehabilitation of the South Capitol Street corridor.

The seven-member South Capitol Street Task Force, which in addition to NCPC officials will include representatives of the D.C. Office of Planning, the National Park Service, and other local and federal agencies, hopes to ensure that the findings of a six-month Urban Land Institute study — jointly commissioned by NCPC and DCOP — are realized.

Key ULI recommendations include promoting mixed-use development along the corridor, improving the cleanliness and accessibility of the Anacostia River and its waterfront and replacing the dilapidated Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. It has also advised giving the area a new name, in an effort to improve the corridor’s potential as an urban destination.

The ULI report comes on the heels of several earlier studies of the area, including NCPC’s South Capitol Street Urban Design Study and the District Department of Transportation’s South Capitol Gateway and Corridor Improvement Study.

The task force will meet throughout the summer and will also consult with Members of Congress, DDOT and the Architect of the Capitol in hopes of submitting a report to the NCPC by fall. The full NCPC will then make recommendations to Congress and the administration with the aim of eventually helping craft legislation to fund the corridor’s transformation.

Barracks Row Main Street to Receive Vision Award

Barracks Row Main Street will be honored for its efforts to improve the city’s oldest commercial corridor at a ceremony Friday at the Dickson Mansion, located at 5000 14th St. NW.

Barracks Row Main Street, which works to revitalize the area running along Eighth Street Southeast between Pennsylvania Avenue and M Street, is one of several organizations to have been selected to receive a Visions Award from the respected planning and preservation citizen’s group, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City.

The award recognizes individuals, plans, and projects which improve the District’s quality of life, while demonstrating sensitivity to the historic, community and natural aspects of a given area.

— Bree Hocking