Reply to Scrapping the DC Height Limit

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's weird to me that all the talk of zoning and such is concentrated on Ward 3.  Obviously parts of Ward 3 are sparse SFHs, and parts are dense along the main corridors.  I totally support making the corridors denser, and probably relaxing zoning elsewhere too.

But the truth is there's lots of slightly-less-expensive-than-Ward-3 land elsewhere in DC.  I understand why people don't want to live in those places!  But to have a discussion solely about Ward 3 without providing an (or the) explicit reason to discuss only Ward 3 is dishonest.

Rezone everything! [/quote]

The dirty little secret that the DC government, its Office of Planning, and their influencers in the Smart Growth lobby don’t want to talk about is that Ward 3 in fact contains the second highest number of rent controlled units in the District.  They don’t like to talk about it because it complicates their simplified narrative that DC needs to “build, baby, build!” lots more market rate apartments and condos with the expectation that some minimally required number of inclusionary zoning (IZ) units trickle down.  The rent controlled housing stock in Ward 3 currently provides an important source of workforce housing with access to better schools, etc.  Most of these are in older, more modest buildings in Ward3.  The DC government through its new comprehensive plan and other programs (like the poorly structured voucher program) perverse incentives for these buildings to be bulldozed or converted to market rate, upscale housing. Even if the renovated or newly constructed buildings contain a handful of IZ units, those are fewer than the rent controlled units lost and tend to be at lower price points. The DC government should be doing all that it can to preserve and expand rent controlled housing, particularly in already-expensive areas like Ward 3, which is important to fixed income seniors and lower wage workers.[/quote]

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