Reply to Is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC?

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Reply to "Is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC? "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Give rich people what they want, and there will be dregs for average people! In the far suburbs! Awesome. [/quote]

The rich people in Ward 3, and similar places, want to stop development.  Send the lesser folks somewhere  else, as  far away as possible.

[/quote]

It's the density people who want to push out poor people to make way for their million-dollar condos. [/quote]

No, I am a density person in Ward 3, and what I want is (a) new buildings with affordable housing in them to replace empty lots, (b) zoning that allows for apartment buildings and other multi-family housing throughout the ward instead of just big single-family homes, and (c) taller buildings in general to allow for more housing in the area. I want more poor people to be able to move TO the neighborhood.[/quote]

Right.

There is this weird part of the narrative from anti-development types that everything new that is getting built is coming at the expense of existing housing, in particular those magical rent control units.

Virtually all residential development in DC in the last 15 years, including in Ward 3, has happened on either surface parking lots or on sites that used to be occupied by older low rise commercial buildings.

The new development isn't happening on park land or on land that was previously occupied by single family homes.

The upzoning DC is proposing is so modest that there aren't going to be a lot of situations where it even makes sense to tear down a 5 story building to replace it with a 9 story one, particularly because when you start to get above 5-6 stories your building costs go way up because you get into steel and concrete structures which cost a lot more money to build but for building under 10 stories you may not recover the additional cost.

Poor people who are being pushed out is largely happening because 1)older rowhouses are being gutted, sub-divided and flipped and 2)a lot of older market rate buildings are being modernized and then the rents are being razed (DC has relatively few rent control units which is why it is so bizarre that argument is made repeatedly on here).

But constricting the supply of new housing, especially in highly desirable Ward 3, is more than anything else what creates the pressure to convert existing units to more profitable uses and that is what is squeezing out poor people.[/quote]

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