Do Something: The week of January 15, 2024

Weekly, Regional Policy Director Dan Reed and DC Policy Director Alex Baca will share with you an action you can take in the immediate future that has the potential, sometimes great and sometimes small, to increase the number of homes in our region, decrease the trips people take by car, make all of it safer, and not screw people over in the process. This week: rezoning 1617 U St NW, learn how to participate in DC’s upcoming performance oversight hearings, a split-roll/land-value tax for the District, a parking miracle in Montgomery County, and how to make it easier for churches and nonprofits to build affordable homes in Maryland and Virginia.

If you have any questions, email dreed@ggwash.org about Maryland and Virginia Do Somethings, and abaca@ggwash.org about Washington, DC, Do Somethings—or, about whatever you want to talk about.

DC

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to watch today’s ZC 23-02 hearing, which starts at 4:00 pm, and not get annoyed with the cross-examination questions of those who have party status. I would bet one (1) month of a Max subscription (necessary to watch The Righteous Gemstones, and therefore to understand Dan’s references below) that the zoning commission will not vote on the proposed map amendment to rezone 1617 U Street NW, and 1620 V Street NW, from MU-4 to MU-10. You may as well sign yourself up for the already-planned overflow date, next Monday, January 22, if you live nearby and want to support higher density at the site in question. Remember: There is no proposed project yet. Email me at abaca@ggwash.org if you have questions.

What will probably be more fun than five more hours of party-status cross-examination is the training on how to participate in the DC Council’s performance oversight process that I’m running via Zoom next Wednesday evening, January 24 at 6:00 pm. Sign up here.

Performance oversight is what it sounds like: Council committees hold hearings on what agencies have done in the past year, and if they’ve done it well or not. The public can testify, so I’ll go over what makes for effective testimony, how to decide if you want to testify at a hearing, and what the point of oversight even is! Oversight hearings are starting now, but the agencies most relevant to GGWash’s interests—the District Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Community Development, etc—aren’t on the calendar for a little bit longer. I hope you can join me, because this is the kind of thing that benefits from a group discussion, but we will, of course, record and post the training.

I also recommend watching the recording of yesterday’s tax revision commission meeting, in which former mayor Tony Williams watched the consensus he’s insisted on throughout the process slip through his grasp. By not dismissing as inappropriate late-stage meltdowns by former at-large councilmember and current lobbyist David Catania, and Edens CEO Jodie McLean, Williams lost control, and lost the plot, of the TRC’s role in District policymaking. The TRC’s final report is so far past its initial submission deadline to the council that it will not be possible to meaningfully factor its recommendations into FY25 budget deliberations; the commission, and by extension Williams, is seriously risking its credibility by giving as much airtime as it has to Catania and McLean. They’re representative of the types who tend to project extreme paranoia about the District’s economic condition so as to couch their own preference for extensive, right-wing-ish tax cuts—which, in my experience, are a consistent feature of their worldview, not something recently spurred by genuine concern for the health of DC’s budget.

There are good ideas in the “chairman’s mark” draft of the TRC’s proposed recommendations: our beloved split-roll/land value tax, of course, but also a business activity tax (which would repeal a mish-mash of not-very-good business taxes with “a low-rate, broad base ‘value-added tax’ on gross receipts minus the sum of purchases from other businesses, rent, and capital expenditures”), and a local refundable child tax credit (!). If the TRC doesn’t get it together on the revenue-neutral proposal that, up until yesterday, it was refining, I would not be surprised if the council raises taxes to fund legislative priorities in some way, shape, or form that is far less palatable to “the business community” than whatever the TRC—an assuredly moderate entity—could produce. There’s an ostensibly final meeting of the TRC on Friday, January 19, at 2:00 pm, which you can stream here. If you’d like to suggest that the TRC get a move-on with a revenue-neutral package, you can do so via the commission’s comment submission form here.

In addition to next Wednesday’s testimony training, GGWash will be hosting a happy hour on Sunday, January 28, from 3:00–5:00 pm, at Grand Duchess on 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan. We do this bimonthly, and, for 2024, I’ve rebranded it as the Mid-City/Near Northwest/Rock Creek West happy hour. I am not going to stop trying to make planning areas happen, because they are a useful way to conceptualize the District’s geography. Sign up here.

Also, if you live in Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, or Van Ness, fill out this survey from Cleveland Park Smart Growth. It’s about gentle density. —AB

Maryland

On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Council had a public hearing on legislation that would allow new homes near Metro or Purple Line stations to be built without parking spaces. We worked on this bill, called ZTA 23-10, and here’s our testimony and some talking points. Not gonna lie, I was anticipating more opposition—too many years in the trenches, I guess—but of 15 speakers, most were in support. Maybe it helped that the hearing switched at the last minute to virtual because of the snow, and everyone was happy to Zoom in from their homes, warm cup of tea in hand, and in the background, the sounds of shoveling and kids playing outside. (Maybe that was just me.) You should let all 11 county councilmembers know they’re doing the right thing by sponsoring this. Here’s where you can tell them that.

So: At Alex’s suggestion, I got into The Righteous Gemstones over the holidays. It’s a comedy about a family that runs a megachurch and while it is over-the-top and absurd, it really hits home for me. Growing up, my mother was a Methodist pastor for several years, mostly at a small congregation in Prince George’s County that had been losing members for decades.

While it was far from the Gemstones’ multimillion dollar empire, a problem they both share is keeping the church financially solvent. We didn’t have an on-site amusement park, but our church did have some land and a parsonage for the pastor’s family to live in. She sold it to pay the bills, but that still wasn’t enough to keep the church from closing a few years later.

Many faith communities in the DC area find themselves in a similar situation: shrinking congregations, aging buildings, rising costs, and valuable land in prime locations. Some churches will partner with developers to build housing on their property, giving the congregation a stream of income while taking a bite out of our regional housing shortage. But while houses of worship are sort-of exempt from zoning, that doesn’t apply if they’re in a single-family zone and want to build an apartment building.

Lawmakers are responding with YIGBY, or Yes In God’s Backyard bills, which make it easier for faith communities (and typically other nonprofits, like private schools or colleges) to build housing on their property. This spring, we’re working on several YIGBY bills across the region, praise be to He.

In Maryland, Governor Moore’s Moore Housing package offers “density bonuses” for faith communities and other nonprofits building housing on their land where at least 50% of the units are subsidized and income-restricted. Delegate Vaughn Stewart is sponsoring another bill, HB 3, that would speed up the permitting process for affordable housing on land owned by charitable institutions or government agencies. While the governor’s bill hasn’t been introduced yet, HB 3 has a public hearing in the House Environment & Transportation Committee January 30, and I’ll share our testimony and information on how to send yours as the date approaches.

This week at the Montgomery County Council, council president Andrew Friedson and council vice president Kate Stewart introduced the FAITH Act, which will make it easier for nonprofits who want to build affordable housing on their land. It would allow 100% income-restricted affordable housing projects as a “conditional use” in single-family zones. Property owners wouldn’t need to apply for a zoning change, which can rack up thousands in legal fees and months of delay, but there would still be a public hearing. All 11 councilmembers support the bill.

The councilmembers’ offices produced a map of the county’s 600 houses of worship and some of those faith communities are in really good locations: in sought-after neighborhoods or near major roads and transit lines, popular shopping areas, or high-ranked schools. (Incidentally, I live next to a property owned by a church, allowing me to say that I literally support more homes in my backyard. You love to see it.) This bill could unlock places that many working people otherwise couldn’t access due to high home prices. It can also help people stay in their neighborhoods, close to family, friends, and faith communities.

The County Council will hold a public hearing on the FAITH Act February 27, and I’ll let you know when signups open. Here’s our testimony.

Virginia

Virginia’s General Assembly will also take up a YIGBY bill this winter. Introduced by Richmond-area state senator Ghazala Hashmi, SB 233 would make affordable housing by-right on land owned by faith communities and nonprofit communities, including residential and non-residential zones. In other words, if it fits the density and height allowed by local zoning, and at least 25% of the homes in the development are income-restricted, it’s already approved. This goes a step further than the Maryland bills, which shorten the approval process but still create opportunities for local officials to deny a project.

SB 233 has a public hearing in the Senate’s General Laws and Technology Committee this Wednesday, January 24 around 1pm. If you’re close to Richmond, email me at dreed [at] ggwash [dot] org and I can connect you to folks planning to testify in person. If not, you can let the committee know you support this bill. Here are some talking points for writing testimony, and you can use this link to contact all 15 committee members.

On a related note, SB 233 is one of several bills in Virginia we’re supporting as part of the Commonwealth Housing Coalition. The coalition consists of over a dozen organizations who support building more homes across Virginia, including AARP, the Virginia Interfaith Center, and our friends at the YIMBYs of Northern Virginia. I’m excited to announce that we’re part of this group, and look forward to sharing more about other bills in the near future. —DR

Your support of GGWash enables us, Dan and Alex, to do our jobs. Our jobs are knowing how development and planning works in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. If it’s appropriate to take action to advance our goals, which we hope you share, we can let you know what will have the most impact, and how to do it well. You can make a financial contribution to GGWash here.