Planners are discussing some big changes and some extensive development for one of the city's most historic and untouched pieces of land.

Big changes are in store for the more than 270 acres that belong to the Old Soldiers Home on North Capitol near Catholic University.

The Official name is the United States Armed Forces Retirement Home.

The Home needs money to care for the elderly and ill, and is looking to private development as an economic answer.

Gary Nurenberg's Report Green and serene, the fenced grounds of the old soldiers home were Abraham Lincoln's weekend escape, the place he wrote the emancipation proclamation.

The 271 acres remain mostly undeveloped. Former military men and women live here, the elderly, those in need of medical care.

It?s prime real estate in the middle of the booming area near New Hampshire and Georgia Avenues, with a long border on North Capitol St.

?Well, i'm concerned that that lovely green grass won?t be there. You can look thru the fence and its absolutely beautiful and now am I gonna look thru the fence and see buildings? That?s not a vision I have for the soldiers home?, says Jacquie Marlow.

But it is the vision home administrators and developers share opening up nearly half the property the dark areas, to office buildings, retail stores and new homes, the long term leases helping to pay for services tendered to the men and women who served in the military.

The number one concern is the potential scale of the development. Just the single parcel that is adjacent to our neighborhood they're talking about up to a million square feet of development, more than a thousand parking places and the streets adjacent to that cant necessarily handle that volume of traffic

This is the intersection of Michigan and North Capitol Street, already busy during most daylight hours during the week, residents worry what an additional thousand homes nearby would do to traffic here. A citizens group was handing out literature at Saturdays Georgia-Petworth farmers market, trying to drum up some consultation

There could be a happy medium, perhaps if there could be some parkland that could be gained from the area proposed for development

They want decision-makers to listen and vow to make that happen.