Alright well you guys can live in your cramped apartments, deal with the rampant crime and weed smokers. I will continue to live in my nice SFH with a large yard. I have to worry about getting murdered on public transit or assaulted walking around my neighborhood. Have fun with your UN resolutions lifestyle lifestyle and don’t force It on everyone else. This is not appealing to most Americans. |
No. The apartment buildings along CT Ave, many of which are rent controlled, can’t fill vacancies. |
You worry about being assaulted in CC DC? You know there is a time in everyone’s life when the answer is to move. If you live in fear in CC, then you need to leave. |
I don’t have to worry |
you can’t both argue that the market should decide (apartments “are not appealing to American consumers”) and that it should not decide (ie keep zoning restrictions). lift zoning restrictions and we’ll see what American consumers actually want. |
I don’t live there already and I have no interest in doing so. Don’t force other people to live like you do that’s all in saying |
I didn’t say that. I’m telling you let local communities democratically vote on what works best for them. I don’t agree with the top down decision making that is being forced on local communities by urbanists. Some communities will want high density and others won’t. |
That’s a crazy suggestion and is the reason you have zoning. You can’t govern through hyper local decision-making. That’s like putting every local issue to a ballot and would be a disaster. You do realize that there are hundreds of local decisions that have nothing to do with housing and zoning, right? |
It’s a decision that affects everyone in the county, and affects the things that are at very center of the choice that they made to live in a community, their housing. Housing, roads, schools, the nature of why they chose to live where they live. If anything deserves input from voters, it’s this. We voted these people into office, and they should be held accountable for their decisions. Not one of them ran on a platform of that included upzoning. Now we know how little they think about the good of the residents we can treat them accordingly in the next elections, but until we have that chance, we should have the opportunity out to vote on actions that might negatively affect the county and our neighborhoods. |
Except there could be 10 other people behind you that are angry about 10 different issues. So, you are saying that this issue gets direct input, but not the others? BTW, this thread is about Chevy Chase, DC. What “county” are you talking about? I guarantee if you put upzoning on a ballot initiative it would win easily. |
well that still doesn’t determine what consumers want - just the small portion of consumers who vote. given the low housing vacancy in places like NYC it seems like many people in fact do want to live in apartments. |
Don't lose site of the bigger picture. Although Chevy Chase may be known for its houses, there are a lot of apartments there, too -- including a very large building that opened a few years ago at the corner of Military Rd and Connecticut. Developer advocates act like there is no multifamily housing, which is a crock of horse sh#$. |
Yes, DC is a little weird because it’s government structure is unique. I’m not saying zoning measures should be decided via ballot measures. I’m saying that the city, or county should determine zoning through locally elected representatives. I don’t think the state or federal government should interfere with local land use decisions. I don’t think zoning reforms as implemented at the state level by California or Washington are a good idea. Washington DC only has one level of local government so the only practical way to have local land use is at the council member level. However, I am concerned that Bowser and the council are prioritizing the interests of developers rather than focusing on DC residents. |
tl; dr “I want housing to be unaffordable forever” |
Land Use in DC is decided by a zoning commission which is majority appointed by the DC elected Mayor. |