Help ensure the Dance Loft on 14th St NW in DC can build 101 apartments with a mix of deeply affordable homes, family-sized units, and a permanent home for Dance Loft’s community arts and cultural center. The five-story Dance Loft building proposal is an ideal example of the kind of housing envisioned in the updated DC Comprehensive Plan.
After more than a year, the Chevy Chase DC Draft Small Area Plan is ready for your comments. The plan re-envisions the core of our Chevy Chase DC main street (Connecticut Avenue) with a mix of retail, new affordable and market rate homes, and a new community center/library campus. Many of you participated in one or more of the Office of Planning, ANC, Ward3Vision or Historic Chevy Chase DC events, but now we need you to weigh in on the draft plan. Speak up at the April 26 hearing, from 2 to 7 pm, or send comments to the DC Office of Planning.
The draft plan is a thoughtful approach to growing sustainably, proposing new mixed use buildings to replace parking lots and single-use suburban building types. The plan would preserve the main street character of Connecticut Avenue. It also provides for design guidelines to encourage a vibrant and active public realm. The plan welcomes new mixed-income housing opportunities in a place that has not included new homes for decades. An exciting element is a proposal to rebuild the local library and community center in a co-development with affordable housing, so people earning modest incomes could have the opportunity to live in Chevy Chase.
The plan is getting pushback from incumbent neighborhood skeptics who prefer to see little if any change. This is unfortunate given the modest scope of the changes proposed. The plan offers a blueprint for how a largely unchanged main street in an exclusive neighborhood could grow and diversify.
After the Office of Planning completes the small area plan, we are urging it to take the next step by adding implementation tools such as design guidelines or form based codes. This approach ensures well-designed development and provides a clear review process to deliver the quality buildings and public spaces that every community deserves. New building proposals that conform to these guides can then predictably be approved, without extended delays, providing additional affordable Inclusionary Zoning units (IZ Plus).
After decades of no change, the Draft Chevy Chase DC Small Area Plan offers a helpful guide for creating a more inclusive, diverse and vibrant community.
Let’s get together (outdoors) to celebrate and look forward to the upcoming election year!
Join us on December 13 from 6:00-8:00 pm to celebrate our year of work together and look to next year — which is an election year! We’ll hear from the new Hyattsville Mayor Kevin “Scooter” Ward and other presenters who can speak to our past, present, and future of creating dynamic gathering spaces (Downtowns), more affordable housing, and innovative transportation for everyone who lives, works, and plays in Prince George’s County.
Transit Directions: The market is located directly adjacent to the Riverdale MARC Station but is also just a short last-mile connection (walk, bike, or bus) from the Prince George’s Plaza Metro Station
Celebrate a year promoting our agenda of a shared, sustainable prosperity by creating safe, walkable, inclusive and transit-oriented communities.
Learn from community leaders, including Hyattsville Mayor Kevin “Scooter” Ward
Launch the RISE Prince George’s election platform to educate candidates and the public about how to build a better Prince George’s. Learn about how you can be part of winning support from our future elected officials to build a more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive County.
Photo: Mayor Kevin “Scooter” Ward, City of Hyattsville, MD
COVID-19 precautions: we encourage everyone to be fully vaccinated. This event is held outside, so bundle up! RISE Prince George’s does not endorse or work on behalf of candidates, or express any view for or against any candidate.