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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes.

Most zoning in Ward 3 prohibits duplexes or even rowhouses now.

That is what the so-called Urbanists are trying to help address.[/quote]

What the DC Smart Growth lobby is pushing are 10-12 story buildings on major streets, even in low-rise historic districts in Ward 3.  On the side streets, they push soothing-sounding “gentle density.”  This means that a developer could build a small apartment building of 8 or 9 units in a SFH zone.  So instead of a tear down that results in a mini-mansion next door to you, an apartment building could be built next to SFHs on a side street, with no parking requirements. All of this is “matter of right” which means no review of plans by the zoning commission and no challenges by neighbors.[/quote]

You realize that most American cities that people love, NY, Philadelphia, Boston - have an intermix of SFH and small apartment buildings, right? And yet, people clamor to live there and love it.

And...there are ways of designing and building multi-family buildings, maybe 2-4 units, that actually LOOK like SFH, but are designed to simply house more people. If your concern is massing and aesthetics, then that is achievable.

And yes, there should be 10-12 story buildings on our transit corridors. Why is that a bad thing?[/quote]

It’s hard to see how one can add infill development of 12 stories to historic district blocks that vary from one to four stories without basically saying that the historic district shouldn’t really matter anymore.  Even DC’s guidelines for infill in his Otis districts generally limit height to within one additional story of the adjacent structures.[/quote]

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