Urgent Priority – Sign by May 8th

OUR VISION

We residents of Chevy Chase DC demand a community-driven, not developer-driven, plan for any redevelopment of upper Connecticut Avenue. We seek: 

·       Infrastructure that scales up as population grows

·       A pedestrian-friendly, small-business-centered commercial corridor

·       New construction that complements the historic architecture and village feel of Chevy Chase DC

·       Truly affordable housing, including family-sized units, to welcome a diverse mix of new residents

 

URGENT PROBLEM – May 13th Key Date

If ANC 3/4G approves the Office of Planning’s Draft Small Area Plan, then the DC Council will shortly follow adding its approval.  The SAP will become law.  The result will be an ill-defined blanket increase in the density of development along Chevy Chase DC’s “Main Street”.  A developer-driven plan for Chevy Chase that will squander our opportunity to advance affordable housing production, ignore the current and future infrastructure needs of Rock Creek West, endanger our small-business community, and erase the century-old pedestrian-scaled buildings that make “the Avenue” a destination and treasured community feature.

The Small Area Plan:

·       Specifies no meaningful affordable housing goals.  How will new construction occur terms of who will be served (e.g. income levels, family sizes). and quantity? 

·       Envisions the construction of hundreds of housing units without requiring concomitant infrastructure investments, including new schools to address current overcrowding at Lafayette, Deal, and Wilson.

·       Provides no substantive protections for existing retailers, risking the loss of Childs Play, the Fishery, Magruders, Safeway, and other valued businesses that cannot afford the high rents that come with new commercial spaces. 

·       Minimizes surface parking (both on Connecticut and in parking lots) without offering alternatives and redirects both customer and delivery access to Connecticut Avenue businesses to back alleys and neighborhood side streets, impinging on residents and dealing another blow to existing businesses and adjacent residential street parking.

·       Ignores the priorities expressed in a comprehensive survey of Chevy Chase residents conducted in December 2019 by ANC3/4G that received responses from 682 individuals.  

·       Envisions the creation of a new zone based upon unproven/questionable Urban Design Guidelines.

·       Displaces and replaces residents from naturally affordable apartments in the plan area.

·       Contemplates eliminating single-family zoning on side streets off Connecticut Avenue, despite the Office of Planning having many times denied interest in increasing density there. 

We demand that:

ANC 3/4G reject the SAP because it only spottily addresses priorities set forth by the ANC in its Resolution Requesting Changes to the Office of Planning’s Proposed Amendments to the Comprehensive Plan (2/12/20) and it is so lacking in specificity and mandatory language as to be unenforceable; https://anc3g.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Comp-Plan-Res-Final.pdf

The DC Office of Planning revise the SAP to reflect previously identified priorities and authentic community input, beginning with informing all households via U.S. Postal Mail of the changes to density designation and the re-launch of a Small Area Planning process.

For all future public reviews of the Small Area Plan, the Office of Planning collect information necessary to create and present viable plans so that stakeholders can visualize the potential effects of zoning rules and compare design scenarios down to the parcel level from varying perspectives.

Our ANC and the DC Council reject the SAP in its current or similar form.  

 

CONCLUSION

To date, the City has relied upon unrelenting developers to remake neighborhoods. The rationale is affordable housing, but the effect has been to remake great swaths of the city without achieving the stated purpose. Quixotically, the Small Area Plan repeatedly lauds the vitality, variety, and popularity of the Chevy Chase “Main Street,” yet presumes that the entire district must be reworked to attain the goal of affordable housing when it only makes that commitment on public property now occupied by the Chevy Chase Library, Community Center, and recreation grounds.  

Developer-driven planning is top-down and narrow in focus. Community-driven planning is ground-up and holistic, addressing overcrowded schools, public transportation, traffic, parking, pedestrian safety, small businesses, public spaces, and the architectural fabric of the neighborhood. We ask residents of Chevy Chase DC, Barnaby Woods, and Hawthorne to sign this petition to support truly comprehensive, community-driven planning.

The SAP study area encompasses two blocks in either side of Connecticut Avenue.  The entire area is between Nevada Avenue and Reno Road / 41st Street and from Military Road across to Western Avenue. Roughly 500 homes

Picture -  The dotted area above is the total SAP area. Go to link https://publicinput.com/chevychase and click 'download the draft CCSAP here' - a larger dotted map is on page 5.

We need to remove our residential street areas from the SAP area. This expansion was unilaterally added and is only vaguely referenced in its purpose