The Mazza Gallerie shopping mall, pictured in August of 2022, was sold in a foreclosure auction in 2020 and is slated for redevelopment. Image by Erica Flock

In 1977, when the newly opened Mazza Gallerie Mall in Friendship Heights failed to find tenants, it was an omen of things to come. The neighborhood would struggle with more vacancies in the late 2000s, mirroring other communities across the US that were overbuilt with retail. COVID-19 has finished off much of what’s left, including Chevy Chase Plaza, Nordstrom Rack, Lord & Tayor, and the Fox 5 headquarters. Local officials and residents are now wrestling with what’s next.

A flurry of reports—the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Reimagining Friendship Heights, DC’s Rock Creek West Roadmap, and Thrive Montgomery 2050—are all pointing to the same conclusion: the transit-rich neighborhood needs less retail space and more housing. Such a change would benefit affordability, liveability, and the environment.

Although no housing has been built in Friendship Heights in 15 years, developers are lining up. The neighborhood is poised for a spate of new multifamily projects, including those at 5500 Wisconsin (380 units), Friendship Center (350 units), Mazza Gallerie (325 units), Fox 5 (214 units), and Lisner Home (~130 units).

A path to upzoning on the DC side

When Tishman Speyer, a New York developer, presented their Mazza Gallerie redevelopment plans at a July ANC3E meeting, commissioners wondered if the development could be taller than seven stories to accommodate more affordable housing than the 40 inclusionary zoning (IZ) units planned. The DC side of Friendship Heights currently has just 540 residents—10x less than the Maryland side (known as “The Village of Friendship Heights”).

Illustration of planned Mazza Gallerie development by Tishman Speyer. Courtesy of Tishman Speyer

ANC3E Chair Jonathan Bender says that under DC zoning laws, developers can either deploy downscaled new projects quickly by-right (currently capped at 65 feet in Friendship Heights), or pitch a taller development and chance a comparatively lengthy Planned Unit Development (PUD) approval process with no guarantee of success. Bender typically encourages developers to pursue PUDs (height allowances aren’t the only thing PUDs can be used for).

Since 2016, a planned mixed-use development in nearby Spring Valley which sought a PUD has been so tangled up in local opposition from nearby homeowners, that the developer sold the property in late 2021. The former grocery store and parking lot occupying the site have been vacant for years. Housing opponents have successfully deployed zoning fights to squash many planned multifamily and affordable projects in Montgomery County as well.

Other PUDs, such as those for the Dancing Crab and Broadcast redevelopments in Tenleytown, have gone forward without significant legal challenges.

DC’s 2021 Comprehensive Plan update allows for additional height and density in Friendship Heights through its Future Land Use Map. The DC Office of Planning (OP)’s Wisconsin Avenue Development Framework plan will, among other things, provide guidance on how that height and density can be achieved, including through possible zoning changes.

According to OP’s associate director of neighborhood planning Melissa Bird, they intend to have a draft study ready in early 2023, with zoning changes to follow 8-12 months later. Residents can provide feedback through a survey here and public meetings starting in the fall.

In the case of Mazza Gallerie, Bender would like to see more units and says the ANC would likely support it, but also sees significant value to the community in getting the vacant mall redeveloped as soon as possible under existing zoning laws.

In Maryland, a village and county at odds

The Village of Friendship Heights has more relaxed height restrictions than DC with many buildings rising to 200 feet, but Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager at Coalition for Smarter Growth says that opposition to new housing there is fierce, longstanding, and organized.

Norman Knopf founded the Citizens Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights in 1971 to oppose development. The Village Council recently hired Knopf to sue the The Montgomery County Planning Board for approving a 380-unit project at 5500 Wisconsin Avenue. The case is set for a hearing on August 24 at the Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville (Village Mayor Melanie White declined to comment for this piece).

“For the council, it’s not about winning so much, it’s about delaying the project,” said Village resident Daniel Dozier who wrote an op-ed supporting the development in Bethesda Beat and is a co-respondent on the case. He emphasized that Friendship Heights has a long history of racial segregation and that opposition to new housing today often has the effect, if not always the intent, of deepening racial inequality.

5500 Wisconsin would provide the Village’s first designated affordable units—15% or over 50 units—under Montgomery County’s Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit Program. Across the border, DC’s Rock Creek West Roadmap pointed out that the study area has the smallest number of affordable units in the city—only 470 out of 51,960, although that’s slowly improving.

Making Friendship Heights mixed-income and affordable

Private development with dedicated IZ is usually the easiest way to add affordable housing, but it isn’t the only way—governments can also use tax abatements, municipal housing bonds, subsidies, home purchase assistance, and more. DC’s Housing Production Trust Fund is creating 93 affordable units in Friendship Heights for seniors at the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home.

WMATA intends to redevelop its nearly 4-acre Western Bus Garage which could potentially incorporate new housing. “We think it’s possible to add housing everywhere. It becomes a design and operations question and whether those partnerships are there to make it happen,” says OP Senior Neighborhood Planner Erkin Ozberk.

Another WMATA bus garage redevelopment on 14th St NW in Petworth will include retail. Community members there successfully pressured WMATA to transition the garage to all-electric buses to address pollution.

A new advocacy group, Ward 3 Housing Justice (an outgrowth of DC Grassroots Planning Coalition and of Empower DC), has criticized the DC Comprehensive Plan as not doing enough for affordable housing, and wants the city to prioritize community land trusts and social housing, including around the WMATA site.

Lord & Taylor lot on left (now vacant) and WMATA bus garage on right. WMATA is considering moving facilities to the Lord & Taylor site. Satellite Image: ESRI

Early racist FHA lending practices and displacement of Black communities created the predominantly White, wealthy region that Ward 3 and neighboring Montgomery County is today. With this racist history, does the neighborhood even merit the moniker “Friendship”? Writing in the Washington Post, members of the Washington Interfaith Network, a multifaith nonprofit advocating for affordable housing, argue that it could if things change:

“The moral fiber of any community is not necessarily determined by what its members believe in private (though that’s important), but by who and what its policies promote in public. Where there is a wrong, we are obligated to fix it. Where there is an opportunity to do right, we want to seize it.”

Lyons is hopeful for the future. “There’s lots of energy in Ward 3 and around housing through things like Ward3Vision and the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan. Montgomery County is also embracing urbanism,” she said. “There’s such an incredible opportunity here that shouldn’t be squandered.”

To share your thoughts on the future of Friendship Heights and the Wisconsin Avenue Corridor, fill out DCOP’s survey here.