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

• Chevy Chase Small Area Plan document (click here)
• See this online folder for all materials associated with this recent campaign (click here)
• Explore the DCGrassrootsPlanning.org website for backstory on the DC Comp Plan

Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto Supports Defunding The Giveaway of McMillan Park, Further Exposing Greater Greater Washington as a PR Team for Mega-Real Estate Speculators

Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto has been added to the growing list of DC officials and candidates calling for the controversial McMillan Project to be defunded and/or competitively re-bid, seeking substantial changes to the project like including much more public green space and much more truly affordable housing for families. For example, there isn’t one affordable housing unit for a family of four with an income less then $60,000 specifically set in the current project, among many other issues.

Pinto’s position on McMillan was highlighted by the Elections/Endorsement Committee of the online bloggers, Greater Greater Washington, in a post about the 2020 Ward 2 City Council race in a section called, “Brooke Pinto gives some very concerning answers.”

That Pinto suggested the McMillan project as a cost burden to DC demonstrates one of two things: either she is opposed to new housing and offices in DC on sites that have gone through years of public review (probably unlikely), or she is so unaware of long-running District issues, having never voted in DC before running for office, that she is basing her position on a fringe element that supported her in the primary rather than a detailed understanding of the issue.

Greater Greater Washington Elections Committee on Brooke Pinto Ward 2 Council Race 2020.

GGW just added a seventh person (a former Jim Graham staffer) to their Elections Committee. Four of the seven committee members are white men who describe those who support public open green space and a competitive rebidding of the McMillan project as a “small group” and “fringe element” of District residents.

GGW desperately supports the city’s current plan to pay private developers $75M to take the 25-acre site from the public and construct 2+ million square feet of medical office space, parking garages, retail, housing, and recreation space.

In part, GGW’s desperation to #BuildMore is determined by those who sit on the GGW board, like Mr. Adam Weers a principal for Trammell Crow who’s company is set to profit in a big way from the giveaway of McMillan Park.

Sometimes stats are publicized in a way that can diminish real impacts of market rate growth and displacement of Black folks from DC.

But, US Census numbers don’t lie, and may likely be conservative. Between 2000-2010, about forty thousand Black residents left DC.

In 2011, soon after the 2000-2010 Census numbers were in and reported by the Federal government, local and national policy analysts began their crunching and talking about the results.

The census numbers affirmed what we were seeing with our eyes, the disturbingly high Black displacement being fueled by DC planning policies is real and it started under then new Mayor, Anthony Williams who put out the call to entice wealthier younger people to the city starting after his election in 1999.

But suddenly in recent years, these numbers about Black displacement have been halved in the corporate media (40k –> 20k). But why?

2019: THE STORY AND NUMBERS ABOUT DISPLACEMENT CHANGE

In the past year, the shocking numbers of displacement of Black folks from their DC homes had suddenly shifted downward using what seems a devious sleight of data manipulation and language that hasn’t been openly discussed. This has confused alot of people involved in the work of fighting displacement.

That is, the fact that 40,000 Blacks have been displaced from DC between 2000-2010 is now being shrunk back to a figure closer to 20,000 over a longer period of time between 2000-2013.

The following are articles that presented the new displacement figures:

• D.C. has the highest ‘intensity’ of gentrification of any U.S. city, study says :: More than 20,000 African American residents were displaced from low-income neighborhoods from 2000 to 2013, researchers say. By Katherine Shaver, March 19, 2019, Washington Post.
  
• ‘It’s primarily racial’: Study finds DC has the most intense gentrification in the country. New York City had the most gentrification in terms of sheer volume, but D.C. was the most gentrified by percentage of eligible neighborhoods that experience gentrification. Between 2000 and 2013, 20,000 black D.C. residents were displaced, the study found. Hallie Mellendorf, April 18, 2019. WTOP news.
  
• D.C. Has Had the Most Gentrifying Neighborhoods In The Country, Study Finds. D.C. had the highest percentage of gentrifying neighborhoods in the country between 2000 and 2013, according to a study from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that works to “increase the flow of private capital into traditionally underserved communities.” It estimates that around 20,000 black residents were displaced over that period. Mar 19, 2019. Cordilia James. DCist.
  
• Study finds over 20,000 Black DC residents displaced between 2000 and 2013. The Weekly WRAG (Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers). 22 Mar 2019.
  
• Who Can Afford to be a Washingtonian? Gentrification isn’t just about the proliferation of pricey salad shops and craft breweries. According to a 2019 study, gentrification in D.C. has pushed more low-income residents out of their homes than almost anywhere else in the country. Between 2003 and 2013, 20,000 black residents were displaced from D.C. By Caroline Hamilton. February 28, 2020. Georgetown Voice.

So if the census between 2000-2010 says 40,000 Black folks were displaced by DC’s development policies, then why do recent headlines suggest only 20,000 Black residents being pushed out?

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Executive Summary of “Shifting Neighborhoods, Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities” dated March 19, 2019, shows a nuance in language that has the effect of diminishing the scope of displacement, actually halving the numbers despite the study evaluation happening over a longer time period.

The term of art at fault here are the words “eligible neighborhoods” that show an “intensity” of gentrification as explained in the NCRC study but not divulged by the press outlets.

Digging down a bit, we see in the study’s Executive Summary how the scope of the study was limited to “eligible neighborhoods” where, “neighborhoods were considered to be eligible to gentrify if in 2000 they were in the lower 40 percent of home values and family incomes in that metropolitan area.”

And, the study goes on with a DC focus, “Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage of gentrifying neighborhoods. Nearly half the neighborhoods in the city were eligible for gentrification in 2000, and 41 percent of those neighborhoods gentrified by 2013, displacing more than 20,000 people. The continuation of a robust real estate market since 2013 means it is likely that this trend is continuing to this day.”

So in effect, the NCRC “intensity of gentrification” study is saying that between 2000-2013, the displacement of Black folks happened the most in existing Black DC neighborhoods, with 20,000 people being pushed out of their longtime homes and away from families and friends.

However, this nuanced statistic in no way can nullify the reality that according to the Census, overall, 40,000 Blacks have been displaced citywide between 2000-2010 and not just displaced from “eligible neighborhoods.”

Primarily, its strange to say what neighborhood is more eligible than any other for gentrification. Seems a racist concept on its surface.

But it’s highly disconcerting that just a slight shift in language and scope of study (“eligible neighborhoods”) will result in substantially diminishing the actual reality of real impacts on real people by DC’s pro-development policies and the planning decisions made throughout the City.

40,000 Black People Have Been Displaced from DC Between 2000-2010

The following are articles that broke the shocking news that DC’s Chocolate City was disappearing.

Number of black D.C. residents plummets as majority status slips away By Carol Morello and Dan Keating, March 24, 2011. Washington Post

The number of African Americans residing in the District plummeted by more than 11 percent during the past decade, with blacks on the verge of losing their majority status in the city for the first time in half a century.

According to census statistics released Thursday, barely 50 percent of the District’s population was African American in 2010 — a remarkable shift in a place once nicknamed “Chocolate City.”

The black population dropped by more than 39,000 over the decade, down to 301,000 of the city’s 601,700 residents. At the same time, the non-Hispanic white population skyrocketed by more than 50,000 to 209,000 residents, almost a third higher than a decade earlier.

The census statistics showed a steeper change for both blacks and whites than had been estimated. With the city ‘s black population dropping by about 1 percent a year, African Americans might already be below the 50 percent mark in the city.

In a city that prides itself on being a hub of black culture and politics, a majority of residents have been black since whites began moving to the suburbs en masse at the end of World War II. By 1970, seven out of 10 Washingtonians were black.

The loss of blacks comes at a time when the city is experiencing a rebound, reversing a 60-year-long slide in population and adding almost 20,000 new residents between 2000 and 2010.

The Post breaking the story about 40,000 Black folks were followed on by other press and policy forums.

NEXT CITY: https://nextcity.org/features/view/separate-and-unequal-in-D.C

JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26146094?seq=1