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		<span>The voices of DC’s past are once again upset with the fact that the District is planning for more housing in two of its high-opportunity neighborhoods. As usual, their plea of distress is, “Change is bad.” </span>

For the past 14 months, DC Office of Planning (OP) staff, staff in OP’s Historic Preservation Office, and a support team of architects, designers, preservationists, retail experts, and housing experts have led an extensive planning process with considerable participation from residents of Cleveland Park and Woodley Park.

This team’s task was to create development and design guidelines that would take advantage of recently allowed density at the two commercial centers along Connecticut Avenue, both of which are located within historic districts.

More housing in Ward 3: Approved, actually

In 2021, the DC Council approved changes to the District’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan, which had been opened for amendments by Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2016. The amended 2006 plan changed, via the Future Land Use Map, the potential future density of some sites in Cleveland Park and Woodley Park from low-density to medium-density and high-density, respectively. These changes indicated a clear preference by DC’s leaders for two commercial nodes, both in affluent neighborhoods, served by Metrorail, and home to numerous amenities, to be among the places where more housing is encouraged via land use regulations that legalize denser, taller buildings.

			<figcaption><i>Source: Rendering of possible development in Cleveland Park, Connecticut Ave Development Guidelines, [https://publicinput.com/RCW-connecticut](https://publicinput.com/RCW-connecticut) </i></figcaption>
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The District is 85% of the way toward meeting Mayor Bowser’s goal of 36,000 new homes by 2025, but only 67% of the way toward meeting her goal of 12,0000 of those units being income-restricted and subsidized (“affordable”). Hardly any of that success is attributable to the Rock Creek West planning area, which encompasses Ward 3. Yes, there are some projects underway, such as on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown, in Friendship Heights, and at the Wardman hotel site.

But Rock Creek West’s specific target is 1,990 affordable homes. This target is both not high enough and ridiculously out-of-reach: Only 93 income-restricted, subsidized units have been built in Rock Creek West so far.

			<figcaption><i>Source: [https://open.dc.gov/36000by2025/](https://open.dc.gov/36000by2025/) </i></figcaption>
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We shouldn’t just be disappointed in Rock Creek West’s failure to meet the mayor’s production goals. We should be angry, because commercial areas like those in Cleveland Park and Woodley Park are where housing should be built:

<li><span>Both can be lived in car-free or car-lite as they are well served by Metro and bus and are proximate to everyday shopping and services</span>
</li><li><span>They are served by excellent public schools</span>
</li><li><span>The crime rate is low compared to other parts of the District</span>
</li><li><span>There are abundant park and recreation opportunities in walking distance</span>
</li><li><span>Unlike other parts of DC where rents and housing are more affordable and an influx of high income residents has resulted in significant displacement, higher incomes are the norm here, so the risk of displacement is much less severe</span>
</li><li><span>Recent increases in allowable density triggers a greater commitment to inclusionary zoning for permanent affordable housing, which is important for an area that is overwhelmingly white</span>

Over the past several years, through executive and legislative action, the District’s elected leaders have chosen to enable more housing and affordable housing, especially along its transit corridors, and especially in high-opportunity areas like Cleveland Park and Woodley Park. Much to their credit, they did so knowing full well that both are within historic districts, a point considered during Council deliberations.

Clear housing goals face cloudy preservation gauntlet

The final step for the design guidelines is for the Historic Preservation Review Board to adopt them for use when it considers future development projects. HPRB reacted to, but did not vote on, the first draft in May, and OP and HPO staff have since made a number of clarifications, both in the text and through illustrations showing how taller buildings can be accommodated atop small historic buildings. It is possible to preserve original buildings using strategies such as setbacks and height transitions in order to produce the maximum amount of housing allowed under the Future Land Use Map. Well-designed buildings that are visually compatible with existing architecture are what will enable Rock Creek West to meet its housing target.

			<figcaption><i>Source: [Washington Post Archives via the DC Public Library](https://ggwash.org/files/The_Panic_in_Cleveland_Park_April_23_1986.pdf) </i></figcaption>
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When Metro arrived in Cleveland Park in the mid-1980s, the neighborhood’s establishment panicked when a mixed-use development—a sensible thing to exist next to a train station—was set to replace the dilapidated Sam’s Park & Shop. All that resulted in the hasty creation of the Cleveland Park historic district, followed by a downzoning of the commercial areas in Cleveland Park and Woodley Park.

Many of the same actors who were instrumental in encasing a strip mall in amber are again trying to rally opposition to change, this time against OP’s design guidelines. They have proposed, at the eleventh hour, a competing set of “guidelines” for Cleveland Park’s commercial core that are, not surprisingly, in direct conflict with OP’s design guidelines.

The overt claim from those opposed to OP’s guidelines is that of course they support more housing in Cleveland Park and Woodley Park…just as long as no one can see it. What undergirds that claim is their assumption that our elected officials were wrong to listen to the public and their own good senses when they approved changes to land use laws so as to increase density in high-opportunity historic districts. Opponents don’t want any guidelines that would conform to the will of the executive and the legislature and blend preservation policy with good land use planning.

Instead, they desire the status quo, the norms of which they’ve long since mastered. Rock Creek West’s neighborhood defenders know how to manipulate the uncertainty and subjectivity in these processes to discourage consideration of new housing, especially in historic districts.

But we don’t have to let the 1980s define our future by nipping the potential for more housing in the bud. Your advocacy can make a difference here. It already has: Many Ward 3 residents urged the mayor and the council to increase density on the Connecticut Avenue corridor during the Comp Plan amendment process, and we wouldn’t be at this stage of implementation were it not for your emails, testimony, and comments in support. Residents drove the planning process which resulted in OP’s guidelines that urge maximizing housing in high-opportunity areas, and the HPO’s guidelines for using design strategies to manage compatibility.

Ward 3 residents can show up to the upcoming September HPRB meeting to let the board hear this simple and straight forward message:

“Accept the staff’s recommendation and adopt the Connecticut Avenue Development Guidelines for future use by the board. Rely on the design strategies outlined in the report to help shape buildings that are compatible, that look like they belong, while also allowing housing at the recommended densities. And reject the competing last-minute guidelines whose only purpose is to thwart and discourage any changes.”

To register to testify for the hearing on this case, which is expected to be heard on the morning of September 28 (virtually), email [email protected] with your name, address, and phone number, requesting to speak before the HPRB at their September 2023 meeting in support of the case “Connecticut Avenue Development Guidelines.”

You can then reach out to Cleveland Park Smart Growth ([email protected]) to learn more about this project, the HPRB hearing, and get guidance on how to prepare for the hearing and submit written testimony.

Cleveland Park and Woodley Park were built over a century ago with the express purpose to exclude. By standing together in support of the future we can open a new chapter in this part of DC that welcomes people to these neighborhoods.

[Comment on this article](https://ggwash.org/view/91004/stop-yesterday-from-stealing-tomorrows-housing-on-connecticut-avenue#comments)
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Stop yesterday from stealing tomorrow’s housing on Connecticut Avenue

Stop yesterday from stealing tomorrow’s housing on Connecticut Avenue