Category: District of Columbia

Testimony before the D.C. Zoning Commission: Support Case No. 04-33F Text Amendments: PUDs and Inclusionary Zoning – Termination of Affordability Controls upon Foreclosure

Posted on by Ted Van Houten

Please accept our testimony on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. My organization works to ensure that transportation and development decisions in the Washington D.C. region accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving our natural and historic areas. I also note that we have been working to create and implement a successful Inclusionary Zoning program since its inception in 2003.

We are here to express our strong support for these amendments. We concur that the proposed text amendments are needed to ensure that IZ and ADU covenants conform to FHA guidelines. We appreciate that the city can take other steps through regulations to protect the public’s interest in its investment in below market rate homes without conflicting with FHA requirements. We look forward to the District developing these regulations to complement this action.

These amendments are critical to removing a major barrier affecting the IZ program. Administration of IZ has experienced a number of substantial challenges as units have come on line in the last year. While these challenges remain a major disappointment, they can be overcome. The first challenge is the severe understaffing of both the IZ program and the management of ADUs – affordable dwelling units generated through PUDs and public land dispositions. It appears that no more than one or at most two DHCD staff members manage every aspect of the ADU and IZ programs. Elected officials have touted the benefits of these affordable housing units, but they have not provided the modest funding needed to adequately support these assets. A few more staff members and continued support for adequate housing counseling services are needed to ensure that these programs have the resources they need to work with applicants and developers.

While ADUs are largely managed by individual developments with oversight from DHCD, IZ was designed to more closely manage the recruitment of applicants and the placement process. The intention was to provide greater assistance to residents in search of a home they could afford and allow them to come to one place to find assistance, rather than chase project after project. ADUs have not experienced the problems in leasing or sales of units at 80 percent AMI that IZ has. Considering these differences, and other factors, DHCD is in the midst of revising the IZ regulations. We hope this process will take no more than a couple of months. Apparently, the regulations were too rigid to respond to obvious needs in practice, such as ensuring that an applicant who enters a lottery for a for-sale unit is qualified to get a mortgage for that unit. There appear to be a variety of glitches in the IZ regulations that are inhibiting the smooth process of connecting the right applicant with the right unit. We are hopeful that this regulations revision will resolve these problems within the next several months.

You are here today to resolve one of the other barriers that we have recently encountered – the rise of FHA as the leading backer of affordable residential mortgages, and FHA standards that conflict with affordable housing covenants common among local government programs. These amendments will allow prospective buyers to secure FHA financing and purchase affordable units subject to the Inclusionary Zoning program and ADU requirements. We welcome these appropriate and necessary text amendments to the current PUD and Inclusionary Zoning regulations to improve the effectiveness of these programs and increase the availability of affordable housing in the District of Columbia.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Cheryl Cort

Policy Director

D.C. zoning revamp stokes residents’ fears about changing city

Posted on by acustis

District planning officials are rewriting the city’s zoning rules for the first time in 54 years, a process that has hastened anxieties about growth and at times has erupted into a pitched debate about the future of the city. The proposed changes are small — allowing a corner store here, fewer parking spaces there — but the debate has grown in recent months, pitting some longtime residents and civic activists against city officials and advocates of denser transit- and pedestrian-oriented development.

Testimony to D.C. Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force

Posted on by acustis

Please accept these comments in addition to my oral testimony at the Oct. 22 hearing on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. We are a regional organization based in the District of Columbia focused on ensuring transportation and development decisions are made with genuine community involvement and accommodate growth while revitalizing communities, providing more housing and travel choices, and conserving our natural and historic areas.

Public Land for Public Good

Public Land for Public Good

Posted on by acustis

The report chronicles how the District of Columbia has used the redevelopment of public land to provide affordable housing and other benefits.

Highlighting the significant accomplishments the District has made in creating affordable housing and integrating it into larger mixed-use development, the report also details areas needing improvement. Most importantly, the assessment points to recent reduced expectations in the level of affordability in future projects. The report calls for the District to recommit to making the most of affordable housing opportunities in public land redevelopment deals, as the District seeks to build a more inclusive city as housing prices rise and more affluent residents move in.

Testimony in Support of the future redevelopment of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site

Posted on by ian

We wish to express our support for the proposed Master Plan for the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant. This plan is a carefully designed redevelopment and preservation plan that will highlight the unique historic resources while putting this significant parcel back to productive use. This 25-acre site, adjacent to the 68-acre McMillan Reservoir site helps reconnect the Washington Hospital Center complex and adjacent neighborhoods back to the rest of the city while also addressing the growing need for more housing, especially more affordable housing, local retail, medical offices, and celebration of the historic features of the site.

Testimony in Support for Zoning Commission nominee Robert E. Miller

Posted on by ian

We wish to express our support for Robert Miller to be confirmed as a Zoning Commission member. I have personally worked with Rob through several Council chairs and have always found him to be respectful of input from D.C. residents, thoughtful and diligent in his analysis, and deeply committed to making D.C. a better place for all of its residents to live and work.

Testimony Regarding Residential On-Street Parking Management Issues Before the Committee on the Environment, Public Works, and Transportation

Posted on by ian

With more effective management of the District’s on-street vehicle parking space we can foster quality neighborhoods, reduce congestion and air pollution, and enhance housing affordability. As a participant in the 2003 Mayor Williams’ Parking Task Force, I continue to support many of the reforms that were proposed in Task Force Report, including the recommendation “that parking is market priced for all users.” We still need to move forward in this direction – price parking so that supply equals demand. Where supply is ample, prices will be low. Where demand is high, price should reflect that scarcity.