Posts tagged Density
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Pentagon City’s plan for jobs-housing balance needn’t be sacrificed for HQ2
Amazon's second (or third, who's counting?) headquarters is coming to National Landing—or more precisely, the weird no-man's-land that currently separates Pentagon City from Crystal City. Building offices on this site will require rezoning a site currently slated to become 1,400 houses. Keep reading…
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Despite protests, Reston is moving ahead with allowing more residents
Despite some strong backlash, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is moving ahead with its original proposal to rewrite part of its zoning code to allow for more growth in Reston. Increases to certain density caps suddenly became a contentious issue last year, even though they were just technical changes to fit with the updated Reston Master Plan. Keep reading…
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No, Reston is not going to be denser than Manhattan
Reston is set to grow a lot over the next couple of decades as Metro's Silver Line is completed, transforming parts of the area from quiet, isolated office parks to denser office and apartment buildings. However, it's important to remember that density is just one measure of what a community feels like, and there are many ways to arrive at the same numbers of people per square mile. Keep reading…
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As Reston grows, neighbors want more control to say no
Reston's neighborhood association is asking Fairfax County to give it more control over future growth, as residents try to figure out how to absorb new neighbors without losing community ties. In an area that prides itself on being inclusive, a contentious planning process has revealed some big tensions over increasing density. Keep reading…
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Some in this gated community are trying absolutely everything to stop a new DC apartment building
Recently a group of neighbors along 16th Street NW, many from a gated community called Beekman Place, applied to downzone an area near Meridian Hill (Malcolm X) Park in order to stop a nine-story building from being built… despite the fact that the buildings across the street are almost the same height. Keep reading…
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At this abandoned school, can YIMBYs support fewer homes and more parkland?
The historic, long-abandoned Crummell School and the surrounding area in the Ivy City neighborhood in Northeast DC are planned for redevelopment. Out of the three proposals put forward, the city recently chose the proposal that builds the most new homes, including a significant number of affordable homes. Keep reading…
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Arlington’s Christian Dorsey says “protecting” neighborhoods often means protecting segregation and unaffordability
Christian Dorsey, the vice-chair of the Arlington County Board, gave an amazing speech at the Alliance for Housing Solutions’ annual Leckey Forum in June. He talked about historical racism in our housing policy, about environmental justice in locating infrastructure and polluting industry. And he tied it to today’s debates over housing and density in a powerful way. Keep reading…
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Anti-development groups are asking DC to downzone swaths of the city on Monday
A proposed new zone is 20% less dense than the one it's replacing, and though it is being proposed for this particular circumstance, it would be available citywide. What is more, these groups are pushing to immediately implement the less-dense zone in many locations. Keep reading…
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A tale of two 20003s: high rises or high rents
The near southeast quadrant of the District, from the Capitol dome down to the banks of the Anacostia river, has one ZIP code split in half by I-695, better known as the Southeast Freeway. Although these two areas look incredibly different at first glance, upon closer inspection they form a curious natural experiment. Keep reading…
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This is a better way to look at how built up our region is
Population density is an important measurement of how built up urban areas are, but like all averages, it has its drawbacks. To better describe how people live in urban areas, I looked at an alternative measurement called Population Weighted Density. Here’s what it means for the Washington region. Keep reading…