Reply to Soooo, how is high-density looking to everyone now?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Those look fine to me.[/quote]

Yup and they are quite common all over DC including in Glover Park.  Though I don't think that is necessarily what is even being proposed.

The weird thing about Ward 3 is that it is a mix of some very high density housing and some very low density housing.  Most of the rest of DC has neither and is a mix of rowhouses and medium size housing like the pictures in the previous post.

I'm not opposed to what is being floated (I don't believe it has been formally proposed?) but think DC would get more bang for its buck and a more immediate increase in housing with zero visual/open space impact and minimal impact on schools and parking if the city really made it a lot easier to have legal ADU's.  We looked into making our basement an  ADU but it is 4 inches short of the legal height requirement for portions of the basement (but not others) but the height requirement is a fire code thing that goes back to the 1920's when we didn't even have smoke detectors.  I've asked around and apparently the 6 ft 8 inch basement ceiling height is common in DC.  And we got a couple of bids and it would cost tens of thousands to get that 4 inches.

And DC could also figure out some financing mechanisms to help people build external ADU's/convert their garages.

I think you could potentially add thousands of housing units this way with the benefits accruing to home owners and renters and not developers.[/quote]

You are in luck. Part of the Comp Plan is a streamlining of the process to build an ADU to include expedited minor zoning variances. For example, you might be able to mitigate a low ceiling with other items that ensured adequate air flow and fire barrier between floors.

[quote]Even though accessory apartments have been
permitted in all R Zones since 2016, fewer than
50 accessory apartments have been approved
each year since the regulations were adopted.36
Incentivizing and encouraging accessory apartments
has significant potential to address the District’s
goal of adding 36,000 new housing units by 2025. In
a recent report, the Urban Land Institute explained
that if 14 percent of Rock Creek West’s 17,700 singlefamily homes added an accessory apartment, they
would meet their target of 2,500 new affordable
units.37 Barriers cited to accessory apartments are not
necessarily zoning regulations, but rather construction
costs, financing, and permitting processes. DCRA will
soon issue new guidance that will make the accessory
apartment process easier to navigate. The Mayor’s
Comp Plan Proposal recommends an assessment of
barriers to accessory apartments, as well as “a pilot
program to increase the number of affordable housing
units through accessory dwelling units” [/quote][/quote]

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