440 residences next to Takoma Metro station in DC near final approval

HousingNews/AnalysisBy Ethan Goffman (Contributor) July 11, 2023

The Takoma Station development site, as seen in the Takoma PUD Submission by TM Associates LLC.

At its July 13, 2023, meeting, the zoning commission approved a proposed action for ZC 22-36. The applicant will now go through the next stage of approval for its proposed planned unit development, the benefits and condition process. You can watch the commission’s discussion of Takoma Station here.

It’s been a 25-year odyssey, but a mixed-use development directly adjacent to the Takoma Metro station may soon be moving forward. The latest, Takoma Station, is a proposed planned unit development (PUD) that needs final approval from the District’s zoning commission on July 13, 2023, and its Historic Preservation Review Board, on July 27, 2023.

Either body may mandate changes to the PUD, although these are likely to be only “facade simplification and/or color changes,” according to Evan Goldman, executive vice president of development and acquisitions at EYA, which is leading the project team. If the zoning commission approves the PUD on July 13, it will take six to eight months for it to then approve a written order for a map amendment, according to Goldman. Construction could begin about a year later and should take two or three years, so the building may be up and running in 2027.

In an area primarily zoned for single-family homes and small buildings, Takoma Station will advance the District’s goals to add market-rate and income-restricted, subsidized housing in all of its planning areas, particularly near transit. It will provide 440 residences and new retail in a leafy, walkable area, according to the project team’s PUD application, and aims to achieve LEED Gold certification. The developer, EYA, is working with WMATA, which owns the land, on a revamped bus loop easily accessible to Metrorail. A bikeshare station will be installed nearby, as well as a new traffic signal and curb bump-outs for those crossing on foot.

According to Takoma for All, an advocacy group for more and denser housing in the Takoma Park area, “Adding hundreds of new homes on top of our Metro station will mean hundreds of new neighbors who can live car-free or car-light lifestyles, helping the region meet our climate goals.”

The project’s “affordable housing proffer alone” justifies the project, Alexandra Cain, an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General’s equitable land use section, said at a recent zoning commission meeting, and will help fulfill the District’s housing production goals (36,000 new units, of which 12,000 are to be affordable, from 2019 to 2025; Montgomery County, for its part, has determined that it needs 60,000 new units by 2040).

Takoma Station’s amount of income-restricted, subsidized housing is indeed crucial. It will create 70 units, mostly for people earning 60% or less of the District’s median family income (MFI), or $59,750 or below for one person and $85,400 for a household of four. Those 70 units will include 10 units — six of which will have three bedrooms — restricted to those earning under 30 percent MFI, or $29,900 for one person and $42,700 for a household of four.

The project team is also applying for a tax abatement from the District’s HANTA program that would transform about 70 of the market-rate units into income-restricted, subsidized units for people who earn up to 80% of MFI ($79,700 for one person, or $113,850 for a household of four).

A slow train to Takoma Station

Earlier plans for a development next to the Takoma Metro were less ambitious, said Cheryl Cort, policy director for Coalition for Smarter Growth. In 2000, there was a plan for 95 units of townhouses—which was, for that era, ambitious. Over the years, proposals have fluctuated with changes in administrations and political moods, been stalled by the Great Recession and other economic downturns, and garnered plenty of opposition from some nearby residents. According to Cort, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B—to which several GGWash-endorsed candidates have been elected over the past six years—has changed from opposing such a development to supporting it, at least when the proposal includes a considerable amount of income-restricted, subsidized housing.

The project team is applying for a planned unit development, which allows more density in exchange for “community benefits.” Following amendments approved by the DC Council in 2021 to the 2006 Comprehensive Plan, income-restricted, subsidized housing beyond that mandated by the District’s inclusionary zoning requirements is given extra weight as a community benefit. Rezoning the parcel from MU-4 to MU-5A, which the project team has requested, will allow for more units in the PUD, in addition to a setback and publicly available park. The project team has argued that this is consistent with the area’s character, and improves cohesion and livability by knitting together economic areas previously divided by the Metro station and tracks.

According to Cort, the Takoma Station PUD is a far superior design than previous development plans for the site. “I think it works better as a transit station and a transit hub, and it works better as a public space,” she said.

The opposition’s arguments have been heard before

Much of the opposition to the Takoma Station development comes from Takoma Park residents living in Maryland near the project, and not in the District, where it is actually located. “The city of Takoma Park has lost 200 housing units over the last decade,” said Cort. “So to expand housing opportunities to live in this very desirable neighborhood, we’ve got to count on DC.”

The group Historic Takoma, along with three nearby homeowners, have sought party status, meaning they must demonstrate that their interest “will be more significantly, distinctively, or uniquely affected by the proposed zoning action than that of other persons.” This gives them the “right to cross-examine witnesses, submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, receive a copy of the written decision of the ZC or BZA, submit a Motion for Reconsideration or Rehearing, and exercise any other rights of parties as specified in the Zoning Regulations.”

Historic Takoma, in its party status application, claims, “The sheer size, scale and bulk of the Project … is incompatible with the historic districts and the surrounding and adjacent buildings and neighborhood,” and charges that the project will increase traffic on roads not built for that many cars and exacerbate stormwater runoff, though the project does include new bioretention facilities.

David Brown, Counsel for the Opponent Party, argued at a zoning commission meeting on June 15, 2023, that a smaller footprint and a less dense zone, which would require the removal of a proposed top level, would better balance affordable housing and neighborhood character.

Cort, however, said that one shouldn’t be so sanguine about removing 60 to 120 units of housing, 17 of them restricted to individuals who make less than $29,900 per year, in a desirable neighborhood, at a Metro station. “That’s a huge number of units that we’re losing for this really important site,” Cort said.

Others, too, have objections to additional elements. The 230 parking spots proposed — 163 for residents — are more than twice as many as required by the MU-5A zone. Sara Green, a former ANC 4B commissioner, said in a letter of opposition, “Large numbers of residential parking spaces do not support DC’s long‐stated goal of reducing auto use, air pollution and congestion.”

The PUD includes pedestrian paths and public art, though the green space, while open to the public, will be privately owned and managed. Green argued in her testimony that, “The park should be owned by the public — NOT the developer.” Whether the total green space will be increased or decreased is unclear, but according to the application, “The open spaces that currently exist on the Property are disjointed and significantly underutilized.” The new project is intended to make these spaces more usable by the public.

DC’s zoning process is most likely to seal Takoma Station’s deal

An earlier project on the Maryland side, Takoma Junction, was undone largely by opposition from Takoma Park, despite the formation of Takoma For All to support it.

Opponents to Takoma Station have couched their protests in language that acknowledges the need for low-income housing and growth around transit stations. They are, they say, asking for less density, and agree otherwise with the project. If taken genuinely, this kind of rhetoric indicates a win for the smart growth lobby; a more skeptical observer might just see goalposts being moved.

More relevant than the tenor of the discourse, however, is the role of the zoning commission in DC, whose process and standards differ from Montgomery County’s. The zoning commission is charged with “preparing, adopting, and subsequently amending the Zoning Regulations and Zoning Map in a means not inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan.” Indeed, the proposed PUD is not, according to the DC Office of Planning’s set-down report, inconsistent with the Comp Plan, which, via the Future Land Use Map, designates this parcel medium-density residential and low-density commercial. Commissioners can factor in the emotional sentiment of comments, and they may request revisions to a proposed PUD, but the denial of a request that’s consistent with the Comp Plan would likely violate their mandate.

Project supporters see disingenuousness on the part of some who are pushing back on Takoma Station. “A lot of the refrain of opponents is, ‘It’s not that we don’t want development, just not this development,’ and yet it becomes awfully hard to find development that gets a clear endorsement,” said Carter Dougherty, who cofounded Takoma for All. “In Takoma Park […]nobody who opposes new development can take for granted that they’re going to have the undivided attention of local and county government.”

To submit a written comment on Takoma Station, ZC 22-36 to the Zoning Commission, contact the Office of Zoning no later than 4:00 pm on Wednesday, July 12 (24 hours before the commission’s meeting) at zcsubmissions@dc.gov or via the process below. Watch the meeting on July 13 at 4:00 pm here.

To submit a comment on the Office of Zoning’s Interactive Zoning Information System page: