What Happened with the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan?

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UPDATE ON THE CHEVY CHASE SMALL AREA PLAN AT THE DC COUNCIL

See below the expedient announcement from the Mayor’s Office of Planning that the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan (CCSAP) was adopted unanimously by the Council today (click here).

This small area planning process has shown that in the hands of the Mayor and Council Chair, growth of the city is fundamentally a factor of real estate speculation and online social media showboating and not actually about traditional planning.

The passage of the CCSAP demonstrates that desired profit driven private development takes far greater precedent over long term care of our public land, services, and communities, and that studying the interconnected planning issues and principles (as basic expectation in the American Certified Planning Code of Ethics) comes second to the parroted #buildmore dogma.

However, there is hope in a remaining layer of defense that you may not know about and I encourage you to examine and send me any questions: The DC Comp Plan lawsuit (click here).

WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY THIS RECENT WEEKEND CAMPAIGN ON THE CCSAP?

I want to share some results and news of this quick campaign to bring about some last minute measure of the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan:

  1. More than 70 DC residents, almost all from Ward 3 and Ward 4 sent letters for the public record to the City Council asking them to pause the vote, or simply vote down the CCSAP as not based on planning data and not including modern residential development alternatives such as “social housing.”

    Your letters represent an amazing wellspring of activity in just a few days time and it indicates others really care to a bigger degree than you may have imagined.  We put out a press release to this effect (click here).
  2. In response to your collective flurry of activity, at this morning’s legislative breakfast (the Councilmembers typically gather over breakfast to talk about the legislative session to follow), Council Chair Phil Mendelson was compelled to explain what the rush was with the CCSAP and he was moved to discuss the role and scope of what a Small Area Plan is.

    Mendelson’s meandering response and subsequent omission of what happens and doesn’t happen next (particularly at the Zoning Commission) is something to attune yourself to. Listen to Mendelson’s legislative breakfast comments (click here) and also listen to today’s City Council hearing debate (click here).
  3. Councilmember Janeese Lewis-George was moved by your letters of concern enough to try and pin down what role and effect the CCSAP Plan has on your community’s future and that of nearby Ward 4. Perhaps CM JLG is really someone to ally with so to eagle-eye how the Mayor’s planning officials and Zoning Commission act next.
  4. There was some interesting dialog that your letter writing caused among some heavy names in Ward 3, namely ANC Commissioner Lisa Gore (click here) and Ward 3 Council Democratic nominee, Matthew Frumin (click here). Mr. Frumin is on vacation, but he called me to say he can’t go from “0 – 60 mph” on issues like this and would not ask Phil Mendelson to pause today’s vote. His statements to me likely indicate he probably hasn’t been paying too much attention to the CCSAP process given the elections, however, he seemed open to a Zoom meeting with his constituents when he returns.

How did we get here — Some background

When I found out about ten days ago that the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan had been sent to the DC Council by the Mayor, I perked up. For, this was the first small area planning process since the Fall of 2021, when the Mayor signed into law sweeping changes to DC’s central planning document, the DC Comprehensive Plan and its planning maps.

Chevy Chase, along with the entire Ward 3 Conn. Ave. corridor, is located in a new Comp Plan policy map designation called a “Future Planning Analysis” area. Looking at the second map on this page, you can view all the “Future Planning Analysis” areas around the city as indicated on the new DC Comp Plan Generalized Policy Map.

The DC Office of Planning created these areas on DC’s planning maps back in 2020 to respond to DC’s good-planning advocates who said the Mayor wasn’t doing the evaluations and impact study needed to substantiate all of the Comp Plan changes, including 200 million square feet of land set to be upzoned (aka upFLUMed) around the city.  

The Future Planning Analysis areas legally require additional study and small area planning before any property owner in that area (including the city) can go to the Zoning Commission to ask that their properties be upzoned for more density.  

The CCSAP is the first such “future planning analysis” completed post-Comp Plan approval, thus fulfilling the new requirement. It’s safe to say that an avalanche of upzoning applications submitted by property owners along the corridor will soon be hitting the desks of the DC Office of Zoning and folks should be reviewing the Zoning calendar every week to keep watch.

The Zoning Commission is notorious for quickly approving upzoning applications (aka Map Amendments) and they do so in a way that also forgoes any premise of planning or study, just a rubberstamp for any density projects that comes their way.

CHANGING THE CURRENT HARMFUL UNPLANNED DEVELOPMENT POSTURE TO PLANNED SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

So, the above passages show how we got here now with the major theme of concern being the non-planning happening in this city.

All areas of the city that are upzoned for the Mayor’s desired density increases, like in Chevy Chase, means a substantial inducement of population growth. More people means more use and abuse of already at-capacity public systems and services. More humans means additional adverse effects on the environment. It means a dynamic change of the longstanding built environment that is a permanent decision.

All of these impacts, according to basic tenants of good planning, including many policies in the Comp Plan itself (click here), require evaluation and study to mitigate and plot the best course forward so that there are no surprises. 

City planning officials and some politicians have flipped upside down basic planning tenants — replacing planning with PR spin, substituting data analysis with popular tweets and social messaging madness, and walking back from real life scenarios to simply promulgating empty and redundant consultant-speak.

The planning data needed and expected to substantiate major planning initiatives and development changes are simply not on the record in this case or at all in DC. Planning seems something this city does as part of its growth culture, yet, but meanwhile permanent decisions are being made that will affect our lives very concretely.
We can change that if we continue to press the city to do better, collectively. 

THE ONGOING COMP PLAN LAWSUIT

I suggest taking a deeper dive into the complaint & arguments found in the ongoing Comp Plan lawsuit (click here).

Please consider joining as a plaintiff. We also need help with fundraising and donations, and are on the lookout for additional legal help, planning experts, and land use professionals, etc.  Please support us in any way you see best, but either way I strongly suggest getting involved in some way. Contact me using my info below.

The Comp Plan lawsuit may be the case that holds up all of this unplanned risky density-for-density sake construction, as our complaint has already survived the Mayor’s motion to dismiss.

IN CONCLUSION

I applaud all of your strong efforts, especially over these last few days.  I hope my assistance was of service and I continue to be available for any feedback, continued energy and ideas, tactical assistance, and seek your support on the Comp Plan lawsuit.

Chris Otten, DC4RD
Steering member, DC Grassroots Planning Coalition
202-810-2768
dc4reality@gmail.com

APPENDIX

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