Soooo, how is high-density looking to everyone now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC, and I'm really liking it. It's not like NYC where it's hard to find space. I can go for a walk and maintain plenty of distance, but I can also have a porch happy hour where I can chat with all my neighbors while we are all on our own porches. I can be by myself yet not feel lonely.

+1

DC is livable. NYC is not.

I vote for less density. More green space, fewer condo buildings.

Please provide a single example in DC of green space that was converted to condos or any other type of housing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fear mongering on this thread is laughable and deliberately inaccurate.

The DC Office of Planning proposing to allow some 7-9 story buildings along Wisconsin Avenue is not going turn DC into Manhattan or even Bethesda both of which have significantly taller buildings over much larger areas.

In fact Connecticut Avenue have significantly taller buildings along its entire length than what is proposed for Wisconsin Avenue and that hasn't turned that corridor into anything resembling Manhattan.

BTW nothing has been proposed upzoning any portion of DC that is currently zoned for single family homes.

But keep on scaring people with misinformation.

You are joking right? You don't understand how turning a bunch of three story buildings into seven to nine story buildings will change the character of a street?

I agree with you that Connecticut Ave already has plenty of taller buildings, as does Cathedral Ave. Not too mention the apartment buildings and condos along Wisconsin. Not sure why density advocates love saying that Ward 3 needs more density.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fear mongering on this thread is laughable and deliberately inaccurate.

The DC Office of Planning proposing to allow some 7-9 story buildings along Wisconsin Avenue is not going turn DC into Manhattan or even Bethesda both of which have significantly taller buildings over much larger areas.

In fact Connecticut Avenue have significantly taller buildings along its entire length than what is proposed for Wisconsin Avenue and that hasn't turned that corridor into anything resembling Manhattan.

BTW nothing has been proposed upzoning any portion of DC that is currently zoned for single family homes.

But keep on scaring people with misinformation.

You are joking right? You don't understand how turning a bunch of three story buildings into seven to nine story buildings will change the character of a street?

I agree with you that Connecticut Ave already has plenty of taller buildings, as does Cathedral Ave. Not too mention the apartment buildings and condos along Wisconsin. Not sure why density advocates love saying that Ward 3 needs more density.

Connecticut Ave and Cathedral Ave already have taller buildings, but taller buildings on Wisconsin Ave will be the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

When I recently changed the fence around my NW DC backyard, I did it in consultation with my neighbor as she was concerned it would impact the afternoon sunlight into her garden. We came to an agreement, I built and then I ended up moving several slats as as there was still more impact on her vegetables than we had anticipated.

Now, imagine the impact of the two and three story buildings being replaced with seven to nine story buildings. It would transform my particular part of the natural sunlight neighborhood into a morning sun only with afternoon building shadows neighborhood.

I understand that community planning is not focused on individuals, but this is a micro example of a larger macro issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fear mongering on this thread is laughable and deliberately inaccurate.

The DC Office of Planning proposing to allow some 7-9 story buildings along Wisconsin Avenue is not going turn DC into Manhattan or even Bethesda both of which have significantly taller buildings over much larger areas.

In fact Connecticut Avenue have significantly taller buildings along its entire length than what is proposed for Wisconsin Avenue and that hasn't turned that corridor into anything resembling Manhattan.

BTW nothing has been proposed upzoning any portion of DC that is currently zoned for single family homes.

But keep on scaring people with misinformation.

You are joking right? You don't understand how turning a bunch of three story buildings into seven to nine story buildings will change the character of a street?

I agree with you that Connecticut Ave already has plenty of taller buildings, as does Cathedral Ave. Not too mention the apartment buildings and condos along Wisconsin. Not sure why density advocates love saying that Ward 3 needs more density.

Bowser’s Office of Planning is pushing to permit buildings up to 13 stories in the Cleveland Park historic district on Connecticut Avenue, including the site of the Uptown Theater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fear mongering on this thread is laughable and deliberately inaccurate.

The DC Office of Planning proposing to allow some 7-9 story buildings along Wisconsin Avenue is not going turn DC into Manhattan or even Bethesda both of which have significantly taller buildings over much larger areas.

In fact Connecticut Avenue have significantly taller buildings along its entire length than what is proposed for Wisconsin Avenue and that hasn't turned that corridor into anything resembling Manhattan.

BTW nothing has been proposed upzoning any portion of DC that is currently zoned for single family homes.

But keep on scaring people with misinformation.

You are joking right? You don't understand how turning a bunch of three story buildings into seven to nine story buildings will change the character of a street?

I agree with you that Connecticut Ave already has plenty of taller buildings, as does Cathedral Ave. Not too mention the apartment buildings and condos along Wisconsin. Not sure why density advocates love saying that Ward 3 needs more density.

They are calling Ward 3 a “high opportunity zone.” Meaning high profit opportunity for the mayor’s big developer/contributors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood (Cleveland Park in Washington) is called the “village in the city.” We love that. It doesn’t have to be Bethesda.

It basically is Bethesda...

Also, other people would also like to live in Cleveland Park.

There are apartment vacancies and condos and houses on the market right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just found this thread. So fun. I have NEVER really understood the argument for increasing density in the name of saving the planet and global warming. Maybe at the expense of humanity as we are seeing.

Anyway, why does there seem to be an assumption in this thread that Single Family Homes are being occupied by predominately singles and empty nesters? There seem to be LOTS of families with kids of all ages in green leafy DC neighborhoods.

My family has been getting a daily walk or two over the course of this event. I must say that I am very grateful that I am walking through green neighborhoods and not concrete canyons that the "make it denser and build it higher" lobby are always pushing for. Whoever passed the current height laws was a visionary and knew that people needed to breathe.

Good luck to all. Enjoy your wide quiet streets in these times.

This is so true! Let’s keep Washington low-scale, green and walkable.

Washington has a great quantity of green space and always will and additional development won't remove any of Washington's green space so its unclear what you are even talking about.

And there is nothing about density that is incompatible with walkability - in fact generally speaking it is the opposite that is the case as dense areas have to be walkable to function while low dense areas tend to be car dependent and hostile to pedestrians.

In any case even the dense areas of DC are pretty low scale by just about any measure - global, national or even regional.

But hey keep on being misinformed and conflating things!

The Office of Planning is pushing a plan with the soothing sounding name of “gentle density” that would change single family house zones. The OP proposed future land use map in fact identified a large swatch of the Wisconsin area, including residential streets of Tenleytown, AU Park, McLean Gardens, Cleveland Park, etc several blocks from the Avenue as a special zoning study area in which the planning agency could upzone density by directive (according to the map key).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just found this thread. So fun. I have NEVER really understood the argument for increasing density in the name of saving the planet and global warming. Maybe at the expense of humanity as we are seeing.

Anyway, why does there seem to be an assumption in this thread that Single Family Homes are being occupied by predominately singles and empty nesters? There seem to be LOTS of families with kids of all ages in green leafy DC neighborhoods.

My family has been getting a daily walk or two over the course of this event. I must say that I am very grateful that I am walking through green neighborhoods and not concrete canyons that the "make it denser and build it higher" lobby are always pushing for. Whoever passed the current height laws was a visionary and knew that people needed to breathe.

Good luck to all. Enjoy your wide quiet streets in these times.

This is so true! Let’s keep Washington low-scale, green and walkable.

Washington has a great quantity of green space and always will and additional development won't remove any of Washington's green space so its unclear what you are even talking about.

And there is nothing about density that is incompatible with walkability - in fact generally speaking it is the opposite that is the case as dense areas have to be walkable to function while low dense areas tend to be car dependent and hostile to pedestrians.

In any case even the dense areas of DC are pretty low scale by just about any measure - global, national or even regional.

But hey keep on being misinformed and conflating things!

The Office of Planning is pushing a plan with the soothing sounding name of “gentle density” that would change single family house zones. The OP proposed future land use map in fact identified a large swatch of the Wisconsin area, including residential streets of Tenleytown, AU Park, McLean Gardens, Cleveland Park, etc several blocks from the Avenue as a special zoning study area in which the planning agency could upzone density by directive (according to the map key).

No thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just found this thread. So fun. I have NEVER really understood the argument for increasing density in the name of saving the planet and global warming. Maybe at the expense of humanity as we are seeing.

Anyway, why does there seem to be an assumption in this thread that Single Family Homes are being occupied by predominately singles and empty nesters? There seem to be LOTS of families with kids of all ages in green leafy DC neighborhoods.

My family has been getting a daily walk or two over the course of this event. I must say that I am very grateful that I am walking through green neighborhoods and not concrete canyons that the "make it denser and build it higher" lobby are always pushing for. Whoever passed the current height laws was a visionary and knew that people needed to breathe.

Good luck to all. Enjoy your wide quiet streets in these times.

This is so true! Let’s keep Washington low-scale, green and walkable.

Washington has a great quantity of green space and always will and additional development won't remove any of Washington's green space so its unclear what you are even talking about.

And there is nothing about density that is incompatible with walkability - in fact generally speaking it is the opposite that is the case as dense areas have to be walkable to function while low dense areas tend to be car dependent and hostile to pedestrians.

In any case even the dense areas of DC are pretty low scale by just about any measure - global, national or even regional.

But hey keep on being misinformed and conflating things!

The Office of Planning is pushing a plan with the soothing sounding name of “gentle density” that would change single family house zones. The OP proposed future land use map in fact identified a large swatch of the Wisconsin area, including residential streets of Tenleytown, AU Park, McLean Gardens, Cleveland Park, etc several blocks from the Avenue as a special zoning study area in which the planning agency could upzone density by directive (according to the map key).

No thank you.

Write to Mary Cheh and Phil Mendelson on the DC council.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood (Cleveland Park in Washington) is called the “village in the city.” We love that. It doesn’t have to be Bethesda.

It basically is Bethesda...

Also, other people would also like to live in Cleveland Park.

There are apartment vacancies and condos and houses on the market right now.

Well, of course there are. That's how the housing market works. There are always some vacancies and some housing units on the market. But you wouldn't seriously argue that these vacancies/units on the market prove that there's no demand for additional housing, would you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I recently changed the fence around my NW DC backyard, I did it in consultation with my neighbor as she was concerned it would impact the afternoon sunlight into her garden. We came to an agreement, I built and then I ended up moving several slats as as there was still more impact on her vegetables than we had anticipated.

Now, imagine the impact of the two and three story buildings being replaced with seven to nine story buildings. It would transform my particular part of the natural sunlight neighborhood into a morning sun only with afternoon building shadows neighborhood.

I understand that community planning is not focused on individuals, but this is a micro example of a larger macro issue.

People in NY fight over 'sun rights'. How ghastly that that is now THE most valuable real estate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood (Cleveland Park in Washington) is called the “village in the city.” We love that. It doesn’t have to be Bethesda.

It basically is Bethesda...

Also, other people would also like to live in Cleveland Park.

There are apartment vacancies and condos and houses on the market right now.

Well, of course there are. That's how the housing market works. There are always some vacancies and some housing units on the market. But you wouldn't seriously argue that these vacancies/units on the market prove that there's no demand for additional housing, would you?

There’s always demand for new housing at a lower price. Many people would love to find an affordable flat across from the Metropolitan Museum or in Aspen but that’s not a realistic entitlement. Closer to home and a bit more down to earth, you could replace a lot of SFHs in the Palisades, Chevy Chase DC and Cleveland Park with taller and denser apartment buildings. Some might be cheaper but I suspect a lot would be very high end. Of course, then you would destroy a lot of the neighborhood character and change the quiet leafy streets and other qualities that people value. Then those neighborhoods will become a lot more generic looking, just another place to live in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood (Cleveland Park in Washington) is called the “village in the city.” We love that. It doesn’t have to be Bethesda.

It basically is Bethesda...

Also, other people would also like to live in Cleveland Park.

There are apartment vacancies and condos and houses on the market right now.

Well, of course there are. That's how the housing market works. There are always some vacancies and some housing units on the market. But you wouldn't seriously argue that these vacancies/units on the market prove that there's no demand for additional housing, would you?

There’s always demand for new housing at a lower price. Many people would love to find an affordable flat across from the Metropolitan Museum or in Aspen but that’s not a realistic entitlement. Closer to home and a bit more down to earth, you could replace a lot of SFHs in the Palisades, Chevy Chase DC and Cleveland Park with taller and denser apartment buildings. Some might be cheaper but I suspect a lot would be very high end. Of course, then you would destroy a lot of the neighborhood character and change the quiet leafy streets and other qualities that people value. Then those neighborhoods will become a lot more generic looking, just another place to live in DC.

This argument is basically, "I live here, and I don't want it to change, so the other people who own property here should have to do what I want."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just found this thread. So fun. I have NEVER really understood the argument for increasing density in the name of saving the planet and global warming. Maybe at the expense of humanity as we are seeing.

Anyway, why does there seem to be an assumption in this thread that Single Family Homes are being occupied by predominately singles and empty nesters? There seem to be LOTS of families with kids of all ages in green leafy DC neighborhoods.

My family has been getting a daily walk or two over the course of this event. I must say that I am very grateful that I am walking through green neighborhoods and not concrete canyons that the "make it denser and build it higher" lobby are always pushing for. Whoever passed the current height laws was a visionary and knew that people needed to breathe.

Good luck to all. Enjoy your wide quiet streets in these times.

This is so true! Let’s keep Washington low-scale, green and walkable.

Washington has a great quantity of green space and always will and additional development won't remove any of Washington's green space so its unclear what you are even talking about.

And there is nothing about density that is incompatible with walkability - in fact generally speaking it is the opposite that is the case as dense areas have to be walkable to function while low dense areas tend to be car dependent and hostile to pedestrians.

In any case even the dense areas of DC are pretty low scale by just about any measure - global, national or even regional.

But hey keep on being misinformed and conflating things!

The Office of Planning is pushing a plan with the soothing sounding name of “gentle density” that would change single family house zones. The OP proposed future land use map in fact identified a large swatch of the Wisconsin area, including residential streets of Tenleytown, AU Park, McLean Gardens, Cleveland Park, etc several blocks from the Avenue as a special zoning study area in which the planning agency could upzone density by directive (according to the map key).

Oh geeze... the new Ward 3 homeless shelter has a pretty hideous footprint. At least the developers who need extra pockets for all the free money could make an effort.