Government Activity
District of Columbia
Chevy Chase Zoning Prompts Procedural Fight
On April 2, the lawyer for Chevy Chase Voice submitted a Notice of Intent to Sue the Zoning Commission if it proceeds to consider the proposed rezoning of the Chevy Chase Civic Core (one of the lots at issue in Case No. 23-25) as a rulemaking rather than a contested case. Zoning Commission Secretary Sharon Schellin explained in a March 13 email to counsel why the Commission believes it is following the appropriate procedure. The Office of Zoning also explained the Commission’s position in an April 9 letter (page 3) to the Office of Open Government in response to a complaint filed there by Chevy Chase Voice.
The Zoning Commission’s public hearing on the proposed rezoning is scheduled for April 29 at 4:00 p.m.
Virginia
Loudon County Approves Big New Residential Development
On April 10, the Loudon County Supervisors voted 7-2 to approve rezoning for Village at Clear Springs, a big planned community with a major tennis facility, near Leesburg Executive Airport, Washington Business Journal [subscription req’d] reports.
The project will include nearly 1,100 residential units plus a multicourt campus and new headquarters for the U.S. Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section. Twelve of the 667 townhomes will be for-purchase affordable units, plus the plans contemplate 180 affordable multifamily rental units, which are expected to be financed through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). “Some supervisors balked at the project’s density, especially the multifamily piece, saying that part of the county isn’t suited for that housing type.”
Prince William to Look at Helping County Employees with Housing Costs
According to Inside Nova, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Deshundra Jefferson has directed staff to study the feasibility of a program to help county employees afford homes in Prince William so they can live closer to work. The move is primarily aimed at law enforcement, teachers and fire responders — all county service workers who are often not high earners. Many employees in those groups commute north from Stafford or Spotsylvania counties, where they can afford to own a home.
Federal
Supreme Court Issues Narrow Ruling in Impact Fee Case
ScotusBlog reports that on April 12, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California. In 2016, George Sheetz wanted to erect a modest manufactured home on a lot that he owns in Placerville, California. The County told Sheetz that he would be required to pay $23,420 in “traffic impact mitigation fees” before he could receive a building permit. Sheetz paid the fee under protest, and sued to challenge the fee’s constitutionality.
Sheetz argued that the fee violated the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, which bars the government from taking private property for public use “without just compensation.”
In state court, Sheetz argued that the county was required to make a case-by-case determination that the $23,420 fee was necessary to offset the impact of congestion attributable to his project. The state courts declined Sheetz’s suggestion, concluding that his proposed legal standard only applies to fees imposed on an individual basis, rather than fees — like the traffic impact mitigation fee — authorized by legislation.
The Supreme Court reversed, in an opinion by Justice Barrett, holding that nothing in the text of the Constitution indicates that the takings clause does not apply to fees imposed by legislatures. And nothing in the Supreme Court’s precedent interpreting the takings clause distinguishes in any way between legislation and other official acts. The Court returned the case to the state court to resolve remaining issues, “including whether a permit condition imposed on a class of properties must be tailored with the same degree of specificity as a permit condition that targets a particular development.”
Supreme Court to Hear Case on Criminalizing Homelessness
On April 22, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a case about whether an Oregon city can enforce its ban on public camping against homeless people. The Court’s ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson could affect how other cities address their own epidemics of homelessness. According to HUD, encampments are increasing at levels not seen in almost a century.
The question is one that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, has grappled with repeatedly in recent years. In an earlier case, the court of appeals held that punishing homeless people for public camping would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment if they did not have access to shelter elsewhere. The court of appeals reasoned that, just as the city could not punish someone for their status — being homeless — it also could not punish them for conduct “that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless.”
The City of Grants Pass argues that the 9th Circuit’s rulings have created “a judicial roadblock preventing a comprehensive response to the growth of public encampments in the West.” Without the ability to act, the city wrote, such encampments have led to “crime, fires, the reemergence of medieval diseases, environmental harm, and record levels of drug overdoses and deaths on public streets.”
After the Grants Pass suit was originally filed, Oregon made it illegal for cities to punish camping in public. Oregon now leads the nation in unsheltered families and unsheltered youth, according to the 2023 point-in-time count.
Diana Lind at The New Urban Order blog says, “The problem in Grants Pass is that the city sought to both prohibit camping and also wasn’t willing to house the homeless — an awful combination.”
News/Commentary
District of Columbia
On Fossilizing the Past in Chevy Chase
In Washingtonian, longtime Chevy Chase resident Ike Allen writes about the application to designate a portion of Chevy Chase as a historic district, and the city’s plan to develop the library and community center site.
Allen points out that D.C. has 37 neighborhood historic districts, meaning that about one in five buildings in the city is within those protected zones. “It turns out that a single application spearheaded by one person can result in a significant transformation of how a whole segment of the city functions.” But, he says, Mary Rowse’s and Chevy Chase DC Conservancy’s efforts to have Chevy Chase designated “have met strong resistance.”
Many residents are unconvinced. Why should they be beholden to Rowse’s vision of the future? . . . [T]he debate also points to questions about what a city should be. It’s okay for things to change, opponents say, and Chevy Chase DC isn’t genuinely historic like, for instance, Capitol Hill. There’s no real reason to encase this neighborhood in amber.
Allen notes that, over the decades, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has seldom turned down a historic-district nomination. In the past 15 years, the body has received 19 proposals for new neighborhood historic districts or expansions of existing boundaries, and has denied just one (while shelving seven for additional research and community engagement). Most have been approved relatively quickly, sometimes in spite of significant community opposition. But Allen says the fact that the Chevy Chase application has now been put on hold by the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) suggests “changes could be in the works at the HPRB.”
Allen opines that, “Chevy Chase DC is an attractive place, but it hardly strikes me as historically significant enough to join the ranks of Georgetown and Capitol Hill. . . . It’s hard for me to see why . . . the area should, as of this moment, become forever locked in place. Neighborhoods—even rich-people ones adjacent to the suburbs—grow and evolve.” Allen concludes by noting that HPO’s “freshly announced equity study—and the apparent pause on the Chevy Chase nomination—may be an attempt to answer a question housing activists have been asking for years: Is fossilizing the past really more important than planning for
the future?”
D.C. Area Needs to Build 87 Homes a Day, But We’re Only Averaging 60
A story in The Washington Post says most D.C.-area jurisdictions aren’t on track to meet housing targets set by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) in 2019. The group said the region needed to build at least 320,000 housing units in the next decade to accommodate the region’s growth, which would have required the addition of more than 87 housing units per day. But from 2020 to 2023, the region produced an average of about 60 units per day, already creating a deficit of more than 40,000 units.
The Post found that D.C., Arlington County, Falls Church and Alexandria are on track to meet or exceed their share of the targets, while Fairfax, Prince William, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Charles Counties are way behind.
The Urban Institute has recommended that half of new housing should be affordable to households earning roughly 80% of the region’s median income — amounting to no more than about $2,300 in monthly housing costs. No jurisdiction is even at 20%; D.C. is closest at 16%.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has criticized COG’s targets, saying they don’t accurately capture the region’s housing demands. Montgomery County requires developers to set aside 15% of the units in new projects for low-income households, a target the county is meeting. But Elrich said the county is drawing high earners amid a life-science industry boom, adding, “There’s not a chance in hell I would incentivize low-wage jobs to come to Montgomery County.”
The jurisdictions that are on pace to meet their targets lie in the region’s urban core. In those that aren’t, many neighborhoods are not zoned for dense housing development and have historical protections that block new development, said Leah Hendey, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute. “There is just a lot of land where greater density is not allowed,” she said.
D.C. Homes in Demand
Washington Business Journal [subscription req’d] had a story about the rebound in demand for homes in D.C., saying that “after a Covid-related dalliance with the suburbs, where the homes are extra-large and the land extra-sprawling,” homebuyers are coming back to the District.
One realtor said, “D.C. had one of the healthiest population rebounds in the U.S. last year. It was the first year since 2019 that more people moved in, rather than out.” Another told WBJ she’s seeing a return to pre-Covid buying patterns, including more people relocating for jobs or downsizing from a suburban house into a smaller house or condo in the city.
In terms of neighborhoods, “American University Park, Shepherd Park, Palisades and Chevy Chase are all averaging a week or less days on market, which validates their popularity. These neighborhoods offer lush outdoor space, roomier homes than city-centric neighborhoods, yet remain convenient to downtown when getting into the office is important.”
One realtor predicted that prices will go up a lot in the upcoming months as the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates.
Meeting the Need for Affordable Housing in the DMV
HUD publication PD&R Edge has an article summarizing a March 21 Urban Institute event discussing the state of affordable housing in the Capital Region.
It first discusses the launch of the fourth iteration of the Housing Indicator Tool (HIT 4.0), a digital dashboard project by the Urban Institute and the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND). The dashboard tracks housing production data and 21 different policies to capture what localities across the greater D.C. area are doing to produce, preserve, and protect affordable housing units. Of the 19 jurisdictions participating in HIT, 13 produced fewer units in 2023 than they did in 2022. From 2019 to 2023, the greater D.C. area produced 13,522 new, committed affordable units and 109,000 housing units overall.
The article then summarizes two panel discussions. The first addressed cross-sector approaches designed to increase housing production and affordability, with panelists describing several challenges involved in developing affordable housing, including rising costs, funding complexity, and regulatory fragmentation.
The second panel featured the perspectives of elected officials and housing directors on the effect of local policies on regional housing goals. Several panelists cited the challenging loss of federal stimulus relief money and deep local resistance to affordable housing.
Virginia
New Development Proposed for Landmark
ALXnow reports that a developer has filed for a permit to redevelop an office building and parking lot on Stevenson Avenue in Alexandria’s Landmark neighborhood into a seven-story, 270-unit residential building. The development plans include 26 units (17 one-bedroom units and 9 two-bedroom units) affordable at up to 60% of area median income for 40 years. The developer will also provide a $433,962 contribution to the Housing Trust Fund.
Advocates Rally for Affordable Housing in Alexandria
On April 13, about 50 people demonstrated for increased affordable housing outside Alexandria’s City Hall during the City Council’s public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget, ALXnow reports. The protest was organized by African Communities Together (ACT), a D.C.-based nonprofit that has advocated for Southern Towers residents over the last several years.
There was a 62% decline in market-affordable rental units in Alexandria between 2000 and 2021, according to the city. An ACT speaker said that the city needs to make permanent its guaranteed basic income pilot, and to approve a housing voucher fund grant program.
Nationwide
What Makes Housing So Expensive?
At a blog called Construction Physics, Brian Potter has a post titled, “What Makes Housing So Expensive?” He says that “for most American housing, the largest cost comes from building the physical structure itself. However, in dense urban areas — the places where building new housing is arguably most important — this changes, and high land prices driven by regulatory restrictions become the dominant factor.”
Potter goes into some detail explaining hard costs — those inherent to constructing the building itself: digging and pouring the foundations, building the framing, installing the HVAC system, and so on. He then turns to soft costs, which include financing, permits, inspections, design work, and other administrative tasks not directly associated with building the physical home. Both hard costs and soft costs involve many different elements, with no one dominant item, and few obvious paths for cost reduction.
That leaves land costs, which typically make up only 20-25% of the cost of a new home. For existing housing, land value makes up 30-40% of the overall home value — as a national average. But land fractions tend to be much higher — over 70% — in dense urban areas. The land value is made up of the “hedonic” value of the land — the value people get from being able to enjoy the space itself. The second is the “permission slip” — the right to build a certain amount of housing that comes attached to the plot of land. And Potter says the permission slip is what’s expensive. The high cost of land isn’t because people value having lots of space for their kids to play on — it's because of regulatory and zoning restrictions that limit how much housing can be built on a given parcel or in a given place.
Potter concludes:
It’s only in dense urban areas that the cost of land begins to dominate the cost of new housing, driven by regulatory and zoning restrictions that limit how much housing can be built in a given area. Another way of looking at it is that in the areas that we need housing the most, zoning and regulatory factors are responsible for the lion’s share of housing costs.
Rent Inflation May Be Helping Deter Fed from Lowering Interest Rates
Bisnow says that continued apartment rent increases are helping deter the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates, driving up inflation at a time when the Fed is seeking signs of a cooldown. Shelter inflation, the government’s measure of home and apartment rents, rose 5.7% in March from a year prior. This is notably higher than the average shelter inflation rate of about 3.3% from 2015 to 2019 and was a large driver of March consumer price index results that will likely delay an interest rate cut.
Citing a Wall Street Journal article, Bisnow says rent increases for renewals are rising more than rent increases for new leases. Renewal rents in January rose 4.6% compared to the same month a year prior. Meanwhile, asking rent increases are close to zero for the year.
Homeowners Locked in by Low Interest Mortgages
The New York Times [gift link] says a huge number of homeowners have mortgage rates too good to give up. While the current interest rate of roughly 7% is not historically remarkable, about 70% of American households with a mortgage are sitting on a fixed rate that’s at least three points lower.
“The gap that has jumped open between these two lines has created a nationwide lock-in effect — paralyzing people in homes they may wish to leave — on a scale not seen in decades.” According to new research from economists at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, this lock-in effect is responsible for about 1.3 million fewer home sales from the spring of 2022 through the end of 2023.
These locked-in households haven’t relocated for better jobs or higher pay, and haven’t been able to downsize or acquire more space. They also haven’t opened up homes for first-time buyers. And that’s driven up prices and gummed up the market.
What if We Turned Abandoned Malls into Housing?
At Vox, Rachel Cohen touts the possibility of converting vacant or failing malls into housing. She describes a couple of successful conversions, but says similar conversions are rare because local zoning laws often preclude them. Many communities have laws barring homes and businesses from coexisting on the same parcel.
In the Boston area, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) analyzed the potential for more strip mall conversions and found over 3,000 strip malls sitting on thousands of acres of land across the Greater Boston area. If just 10% of those were converted into mixed-use development, more than 125,000 new housing units could be built. Enterprise Community Partners replicated that analysis to estimate that over 700,000 new homes could be created nationally by repurposing strip malls.
Many strip malls nationwide are already more than seven decades old and need long-backlogged repairs. The maintenance cost for these older buildings is often more expensive than the cost of just demolishing them and rebuilding. Strip malls are also typically built on property that includes large amounts of surface parking, which can make it easier for developers to build new projects.
Single-Stair Apartments Can Improve Fire Safety
In an opinion piece in Greater Greater Washington, Payton Chung argues that changing building codes to allow more “single-stair point access blocks” in multifamily buildings would actually improve fire safety by getting more people into modern buildings with sprinklers and other fire safety features.
Second staircases are a holdover from early fire codes, which focused on evacuating occupants; since then, material and building science advances have improved our ability to isolate and suppress fires, and firefighting equipment has improved. Because of those advances, the commercial code’s continued insistence on extra staircases amounts to a “belt and suspenders” approach to fire safety.
Older houses have countless fire safety disadvantages, including inadequate electric wiring, leaky gas pipes, exposed structural beams, and non-fire-retardant materials. Allowing smaller single-stair flats to be built would open up many new housing choices for many Americans who want newer, safer, lower-maintenance, denser housing.
Other States
Most Washington Voters Don’t Think More Housing Construction Will Cool Housing Prices
According to The Seattle Times, a recent poll of Washington voters found that 65% believed housing costs would continue to climb regardless of construction. “Twenty-six percent said building more units would help stabilize housing prices and 9% said they didn’t know. Younger respondents, Democrats and those with higher incomes were more likely to say they believed construction would help stabilize costs.”
Over the last decade, statewide home prices shot up 115% and rents climbed 65%, while median household incomes increased 62%.
A 2022 survey of King County residents found that more than half supported allowing apartment and condo buildings in single-family neighborhoods. A 2023 Zillow survey of 14,000 people in 29 metro areas across the country including Seattle found that 76% of respondents in the Seattle area supported accessory dwelling units and 61% supported duplexes or triplexes, while smaller shares supported condo or apartment buildings, particularly larger buildings, in their neighborhoods.
Elsewhere in the new survey, pollsters asked whether respondents believed all communities “should have housing options for people of all income levels” or whether it was acceptable for “some communities to only have housing options for people with higher or lower incomes.” The vast majority, 75%, said they believed every community should have housing for people at all income levels, while 19% said it’s OK for some areas to only have expensive or low-income housing.
New York City Approves Development with Soccer Stadium and Affordable Housing in the “Valley of Ashes”
On April 11, the New York City Council voted (47-1) to approve the Willets Point Phase II Redevelopment Plan — a proposal to develop city land adjacent to Citi Field (home of the Mets) in Willets Point, Queens.
The New York Times [gift link] reports that Phase II includes a privately-financed, 25,000-seat soccer stadium for New York City FC, plus approximately 1,400 units of permanently affordable housing (in addition to 1,100 housing units already under construction), a hotel, a 650-seat public school, and 80,000 square feet of retail space. The city would lease the land to the soccer club for 49 years, and the club would have an option to extend it another 25.
The project is New York City’s largest 100% affordable housing project in 40 years. Mayor Eric Adams said, "Housing is the goal – and with today's City Council vote, I'm proud to say that we just scored the goal of the decade. We're bringing 2,500 affordable housing units, 150,000 square feet of public open space, thousands of good-paying jobs, and the city's first soccer-specific stadium to a neighborhood in Queens that used to be known for its junkyards. We're building a brand-new community out of the ‘Valley of Ashes’” (referring to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s term for the area in The Great Gatsby).
In December 2023, Mayor Adams and city officials broke ground on the first phase: two mid-rise buildings comprising 880 units of affordable housing, with 40% of the units at or below 60% of area median income, including 15% of the units set aside for households for those formerly experiencing homelessness. The next housing development to commence construction will be an additional 220 affordable homes set aside for low-income seniors.
Income-Restricted Apartments in New York City Not Affordable Enough
Bisnow reports that “The rent is too damn high for a lot of tenants in New York City — even in many of its income-restricted apartments.” Under the most recent iteration of the “421-a” tax abatement program that has now expired, the majority of the income-restricted units developed have been difficult to fill because the affordability threshold was set too high.
Nearly two-thirds of the income-restricted units built between 2017 and 2020 using the Affordable New York program were reserved for those making up to 130% of the city's area median income. Those units are being listed at rents deemed affordable to individuals making more than $128,000 a year, which means the majority of one-bedroom apartments built through the program would rent for more than $3,400 per month. In some boroughs that’s higher than the market rate, and few renters who make well over six figures in annual income are interested in going through for the city's housing lottery process.
Fewer than 1,000 units affordable for those making up to 60% of AMI were built between 2017 and 2020. In one new building, 67 apartments were reserved as affordable housing under the tax abatement program — 35 set as affordable for people making 120% AMI, and the other 32 units divided among 80%, 70%, and 30% AMI. While the owner got 3,600 applications for the 35 units at 120% AMI level, it got 96,000 applications for the 32 lower-income units.
New York’s “City of Yes” Initiative Moves Forward
City Limits reported that Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” initiative will soon enter the public review process. Details on the proposal’s affordability levels were announced April 12. In order to qualify for a density bonus of about 20%, added units would need to be permanently affordable to New Yorkers earning an average of 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI)—about $76,260 for a family of three.
The public review process for City of Yes expedites the typical public review timeline by having borough presidents and community boards weigh in simultaneously. They’ll have two months to examine the proposal and suggest changes, and then there is a brief period for further adjustments before the plan reaches the City Planning Commission for a binding vote before going before the City Council.
In addition to the density bonus for affordable units, the proposal aims to address the city’s housing crisis by more easily allowing conversions of underused non-residential spaces into housing, and reintroducing mixed-use zoning to enable apartments above businesses in low-density areas. It would also eliminate mandatory off-street parking requirements for new residential projects, legalize accessory dwelling units (ADUs) such as garage conversions, and ease zoning limitations for faith-based organizations and universities to more easily convert their properties into homes.
Massachusetts Universities Asked to Help Alleviate Housing Crisis
Bisnow reports that in Massachusetts, state leaders are looking for universities to play a larger role in producing housing. More than 60,000 students of Boston schools live off campus, putting them in direct competition with other residents and adding pressure to the housing market.
University leaders aim to ease this pressure by creating more housing on campus for students and faculty, and some schools are partnering with developers to turn underutilized parcels into multifamily housing for anyone in the community.
Colorado Ends Residential Occupancy Limits
On April 13, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed HB24-1007, Prohibit Residential Occupancy Limits, which bans local "occupancy limit" laws that cap the number of unrelated people that can live together. Occupancy limits are often deployed by local governments to prevent single-family homes from being turned into shared rental housing, and in particular, shared student housing.
Zoning Reform Bills Not Doing Well in Minnesota Legislature
In his Rent Free blog, Christian Britschgi of Reason says sweeping zoning reforms introduced in the Minnesota Legislature earlier this year have been having a rough time.
A "middle housing" bill, H.F. 4009, that would have allowed two units of housing on all residential land (and four units in larger cities), in addition to legalizing accessory dwelling units, paring back minimum lot size regulation, and banning aesthetic design requirements is all but officially dead.
Another bill, which would allow multi-family residential development in commercial zones, was amended considerably in the committee. The new version of the H.F. 4010 gives local governments more power to require parking spaces in new developments and allows them to require that residential projects in commercial zones retain commercial space.
A separate bill that would have eliminated parking minimums statewide also appears to be dead. But H.F. 4028, a bill that would exempt local governments' comprehensive plan updates from Minnesota's environmental review law, has the support of local governments and is likely to pass.
Short Takes From Around the Country
NPR reports that many FBI agents based in cities with a high cost of living are struggling to make ends meet due to high housing costs. The FBI Agents Association is pressing for a housing allowance to support those workers who pay steep rent or mortgages because they live in New York, Newark, Honolulu, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
On April 8, the Colorado House passed a bill that would allow local governments the right of first refusal to preserve long-term affordable housing properties, KDVR reported.
In Boulder, Colorado, advocates are seeking to put an initiative on the local ballot that would close the city’s municipal airport and repurpose its 179 acres as a mixed-use neighborhood with at least 50% of its housing units permanently affordable, according to Boulder Reporting Lab.
The San Francisco Standard profiles State Assemblyman Alex Lee, who has introduced a bill to create a statewide housing agency to build social housing in California. Lee believes that the government should use public funds to take on an active role as a real estate developer to build more homes where the private market falls short. Lee’s bill managed to pass both houses of the Legislature last year, before being vetoed by Governor Newsom.
Seventeen new affordable housing construction projects reviewed by the San Diego Housing Commission in the past few years cost an average of $574,000 a unit. Voice of San Diego took a closer look at five of the projects, all with per-unit costs exceeding $600,000, to analyze what was driving up the costs. For one project, parking added about $40,000 per unit. Most projects are funded by a complicated array of federal tax credits and state and local subsidies, which add delay and overhead costs to arranging projects. And local governments typically require even affordable housing developers to underwrite upgrades to adjacent streets and infrastructure.
Sightline Institute reports that, since amending its zoning code in December, Boise, Idaho has seen a nine-fold surge in permit applications to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Among other things, the changes removed off-street parking requirements and eliminated a prior ban on owners renting out both the main house and the rental unit together.
According to Gothamist, a state court has stripped Millburn, N.J. of its ability to control where and how 75 affordable housing units will be built, saying local leaders have shirked their responsibility to build a planned development for too long. Current municipal leaders have resisted building them around the corner from their downtown’s shops and restaurants, despite a previous mayor and the township committee agreeing to do so in 2021. The judge also revoked Millburn’s immunity against a “builder’s remedy” lawsuit, which could let a developer move ahead with any project that includes up to 75 units of affordable housing, even if it violates the usual local zoning.
The Spokesman-Review reports on a bill signed into law this year in Washington State that established tax exemptions for construction of affordable housing on public lands. Developers of “transition lands” — parcels that aren’t viable for logging due to nearby development — must show that built housing serves low- and moderate-income residents in order to receive the tax exemption. The housing will also be required to be affordable for at least 20 years following construction.
Calendar
Ongoing through July 11 — Undesign the Redline, an interactive exhibit that explains the history of redlining and other discriminatory housing policies in upper Northwest D.C. and nationwide, Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. The exhibit website is here; a schedule of associated presentations and panel discussions can be found here.
April 17 — Special meeting of ANC 3/4G (Chevy Chase) to discuss and vote on resolution regarding proposed zoning amendments for the Chevy Chase commercial strip and Civic Core, 7:00 p.m., now online only. Ward3Vision and the Coalition for Smarter Growth have an explainer about the proposed zoning changes here. Zoom registration here.
April 17 — Next regular meeting of ANC 3C (Cleveland Park), 7:00-9:00 p.m., online. Agenda and registration link here.
April 18 — Presentation, Before Gentrification: The Creation of D.C.’s Racial Wealth Gap. The talk will show how a century of redlining, disinvestment, and the War on Drugs wreaked devastation on Black people and paved the way for gentrification in Washington, D.C. Presented by Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Library.
April 22 — D.C. Council’s Committee on Housing will hold its FY 2025 budget hearing for the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Housing Production Trust Fund, 9:30-6:00. Watch livestream here.
April 23 — Next regular meeting of ANC 3F (Van Ness), 7:00-9:00, via Zoom. Agenda with Zoom link here.
April 24 — D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole will hold its FY 2025 budget hearing for the Office of Zoning and Office of Planning, 9:00-6:00. Watch livestream at www.ChairmanMendelson.com/live.
April 25 — “Fostering Neighborhoods: Faith-Based Organizations and the Development of Affordable Housing,” hybrid, 2:30-5:30. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the NYU Furman Center will host a hybrid event on the development of affordable housing on land owned by faith-based organizations. The discussion will explore real-world examples of how faith-based organizations have partnered with developers of affordable rentals to expand the housing options in their neighborhoods. Details and registration link here.
April 25 — D.C. Zoning Commission public hearing on proposed zoning text amendment ZC 23-17, which would require less parking in income-restricted, subsidized housing, meaning the subsidies that fund affordable housing would not be mandated to fund so many parking spaces, 4:00 p.m.
April 25 — Presentation and discussion, “The Reno Community: How student engagement of local history has become a catalyst for action,” Assistant Principal Marc Minsker and Jackson-Reed High School students. 6:30-7:30, Cleveland Park Library.
April 29 — D.C. Zoning Commission public hearing on rezoning proposals for the Chevy Chase Civic Core and commercial strip, 4:00 p.m. A detailed hearing notice can be found here. Sign up to testify here. Submit written testimony here, or email it to zcsubmissions@dc.gov. Watch the hearing here. Ward3Vision and the Coalition for Smarter Growth have an explainer about the proposed zoning changes here.
April 30 — Book forum, “Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation,” 4:00-5:30 p.m., Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. In his new nonfiction graphic novel, economist Bryan Caplan makes the economic and philosophical case for radical deregulation of the housing industry. Details and registration link here.
May 1 — D.C. Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development will hold a FY 2025 budget hearing for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), 9:30-6:00. Watch livestream at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbFwXXcbCuQk3-zlwqe97mA/streams.
May 2 — D.C. Council’s Committee on Housing will hold a FY 2025 budget hearing for the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, Office of the Tenant Advocate, and Rental Housing Commission, 9:00-6:00. Watch livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@committeeonhousingdc/streams.
May 2 — “The Untold History of Cleveland Park.” Exploring the data and legal frameworks that contributed to the emergence of a largely white and relatively wealthy Cleveland Park. Presented by Bob Ward, Chair, Cleveland Park Smart Growth. 6:15-7:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Library.
May 5 — The Campaign Against Covenants: Walking Tour of Bloomingdale. Discover why the Bloomingdale neighborhood’s premier architectural corridor was also a racial barrier, and how Black homeseekers and civil rights attorneys chipped away at this dividing line. The tour highlights key sites in the legal campaign against racially restrictive deed covenants, which kept much of D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood off-limits to African Americans when it was first developed around the turn of the 20th century. Led by Historian Sarah Jane Shoenfeld, co-founder of the public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC. 2:00-5:00 p.m.; rain date May 19. Register here.
May 7 — The (NOT) Forgotten River Road Black Community. Today's activists share stories of displacement, erasure of memories, and dishonoring of the dead, while working for acknowledgement and repair. Presented by Rev. Segun Adebayo, Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church; Dr. Marsha Coleman Adebayo, President, Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC); Trustee Harvey Matthews, Sr., River Road Resident; and Mr. Robert Stubblefield, BACC Board Member. 6:30-7:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Library
May 10 — History of Barry Farm. A screening of the documentary “Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington D.C.,” followed by panel discussion of the history of public housing, the experience of residents, and the false promise that public housing has created. 6:00-7:30, St. Columba's Episcopal Church, 4201 Albemarle St., N.W.
May 14 — Presentation, 2024: Neighborhood Segregation and Modern Day Redlining, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Neighborhood segregation is no accident. Laurie Benner, Associate Vice President of Housing & Community Development, National Fair Housing Alliance, will talk about the history of housing, modern-day redlining practices, and solutions to redress discriminatory patterns and create more equity in housing. Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
May 15 — Speak Truth: A Student-Led Conversation about Undesign the Redline. Through student-facilitated conversations, Speak Truth participants learn to productively and respectfully discuss current, controversial topics. At this event, D.C. high school students will discuss their thoughts and reactions to the Undesign the Redline exhibit. Sponsored by Cosby Hunt and Jenna Fournel, The Center for Inspired Teaching. 6:00-7:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Library.
May 21 — Discussion, “Housing Abundance and the 2024 Election,” 5:30-8:30 p.m., 1275 New Jersey Avenue S.E. Rachel Cohen of Vox and Laura Foote of YIMBY Action will discuss how the housing shortage is shaping voter perception of the economy and how pro-housing policies are an essential part of the movement for abundant communities. More information and tickets here.
May 21 — Panel Discussion: The Role of Faith Communities in Repairing the Breach, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Rabbi Aaron Alexander, Adas Israel; Rev. Glenna J. Huber, Rector, Church of the Epiphany; Rev. Nancy Ladd, Senior Minister, River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation; and Dr. Talib M. Shareef, The Nation’s Mosque, explore the role of religion in social justice today and what it could be in the future. Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec St. N.W.
To let us know of something we should add, please email christopher.vaden78@gmail.com.
As always, this newsletter is so valuable. I appreciate how it is organized and formatted. It helps me navigate a lot of information quickly and I often find articles and events that I would have otherwise missed. Thank you!!