Reply to Bowser proposes to add over 1,500 new affordable housing units to "Rock Creek West"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Mayor Muriel Marion Barry Bowser, big developers’ best friend and fixer[/b].[/quote]owse

Again with this.

I don't like Bowser at all but please explain in what manner rent controlled units are being threatened by developers or any Bowser policies?

Maybe you can offer a citation?

Or even a theory?  Even a conspiracy theory at this point would be better than the arguments posited in this thread.[/quote]

Have you ever had a problem with a developer? Just try to get the city to help you. It is impossible. [/quote]

DCRA has long been terrible at taking enforcement action against any property owners so your complaint doesn't really prove anything.

And unsurprisingly no one chimed in to try to explain this grand pro-developer anti rent controlled conspiracy the Mayor is somehow engineering.[/quote]

It seems like a ridiculous question. Bowser is profoundly pro-developer. Do you even live in DC?[/quote]

Yes I do.

And I happen to know quite a bit about how zoning works in DC and how developments that require approval wind their way through the system.

How is Bowser "profoundly pro-developer"

Her proposed changes to the Comp Plan are actually pretty modest given the housing and global warming crises we are facing.

And she doesn't control the Zoning Commision, the BZA or the Courts which is where all relevant decisions are actually made.

I get that her plan to build homeless shelters across the city was terribly conceived and wasteful and clearly benefitted people connected to her and she deserves criticism for that but that plan had nothing whatsoever to do with the boom in housing we are seeing in some neighborhoods.

FWIW I don't like Bowser and wish the city were adding more housing than it is.

I'll check back for a substantive response.[/quote]

I don't mean to be rude, but you sound like you know nothing about any of this. If you have a problem with a developer, no one on the city council will help you because Bowser has laid down the law, i.e. they support developers. Don't believe me? Try it. Ask your representative for help on something -- anything. They won't lift a finger if helping you would mean hurting a developer. [/quote]

I'm sorry if this sounds flip but you have no idea whatsoever how projects get approved or the role of various elected officials and agencies/boards.

Almost all of the new construction in DC in the last 5 years has been by right construction which is to say that the projects don't require any review.  And the zoning laws those projects have been built under are decades old.

Your council member can't help you because they'd have to change the Comp Plan to do so which would take years and there is currently a process to update it anyway.  Besides that most DC Council members are committed to building more housing in DC - both market rate and affordable so even if they had the power to help you (which again they don't) they likely wouldn't.

Projects that require some relief are approved by either the BZA or the ZC (again this is a small number of projects) and 3 of the 5 commissioners are appointed by the mayor and approved by the council but the Mayor cannot fire members of either commission and can only replace someone when their term is up and the current chair has been on there since 1998 and was originally appointed by Anthony Williams.

The mayor has some influence on projects through the office of planning whose advice to applicants that will need relief is pretty critical but OP almost never approves more than slight increases above allowable by right development and I'm not aware of a case where they've supported maxing out what can be built on a lot and again most projects being built in DC don't require relief or other reviews.

But enlighten us please - how have you been "hurt" by a developer or development?  I can see two new developments that have gone up in my neighborhood in the last 10 years from my house and neither has caused me any harm and there is another hopefully coming soon.

I am familiar with some of the complaints from people in my neighborhood about some developments in both multi-unit buildings and single family homes that were opposed and where DCRA came out and did surveys to make sure they were compliant with zoning. Turns out they were, the projects were finished, we have new neighbors, everything is fine and property values continue to rise in my neighborhood.

Tell me again what the perceived problem is and why you hate having new neighbors so much?  Oh and I assume since you hate developers that you live in a teepee you made yourself on your ancestral lands?[/quote]

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