Takoma Park’s vacant hospital campus could become new homes…one day

Four years ago, Takoma Park’s Washington Adventist Hospital moved away, leaving vacant buildings and a 15-acre site in its wake. Montgomery County planners soon began examining ways to bring new homes, shops, and usable green space. And soon enough a handful of neighbors in the famously lefty town are trying to block it by making some pretty wild claims.

This amendment to Montgomery County’s master plan has two basic goals: upzone the site of the former Adventist hospital, which opened in a new facility in White Oak in 2019, and tweak zoning requirements along Maple Avenue. That street is home to much of Takoma Park’s affordable housing, so that the rules match the high-rise apartments that are already there and to encourage re-investment in some aging buildings. Also, Maple is a key connector between the former hospital site and the rest of Takoma Park.

The Takoma Park Minor Master Plan Amendment would change what could be built at the Adventist site and parts of Maple Avenue, but it’s not a development plan and does not trigger any construction. It is simply a vital first step toward building in the area. It’s also a somewhat complex process of good governance, made possible by the expertise housed in Montgomery County’s institutions.

Bounded by Maple Avenue, Carroll Avenue, Flower Avenue, and Sligo Creek, close to bus stops and the future Purple Line at Piney Branch Road, the hospital parcel screams out for more housing where families of modest means would have access to enjoy good schools, plenty of green space, and proximity to jobs and transportation.

The plan also jibes quite nicely with Thrive 2050, the comprehensive plan that the County Council approved in late 2022, over the objections of County Executive Marc Elrich, to alleviate the region’s terrible housing shortage. Thrive envisions a Montgomery County with more affordable housing, more housing between the cheaper options and the multimillion-dollar single-family homes, and more development on transit routes.

And like Thrive, which Elrich criticized as a gift to developers and detrimental to racial equity, opponents are using similar language to describe these zoning changes. One opponent circulated an email urging residents to “Stop the Steal!” – a scaremongering reference to what developers allegedly might do. A group with an Orwellian name, the Community Equity Coalition, is claiming that the plan is “systemic racism at work” and will lead to massive displacement.

The stated, and – at best – highly speculative, fear is that upzoning will bring developers like a plague of locusts, sparking a wave of redevelopment in which affordable housing, mostly occupied by Black and Latinx residents and senior citizens, is torn down to make room for luxury high-rises. But there are notable barriers to that nightmare scenario.

Many apartments in the area in question are owned by affordable housing non-profits in the region, who operate under a mandate to serve low-income tenants. Even if these owners decided to sell, many of these buildings were built or renovated using government subsidies that impose strict income limits for tenancy, and these restrictions would remain in effect even with a change in ownership. In addition, the county’s rules setting minimum requirements for affordable units in new development and the city’s tough rent stabilization ordinance will apply to any redeveloped properties, as will the county’s new law. And many buildings are already tall; no owner will tear down a whole building just to add a few more stories that new zoning might allow.

In fact, the proposed amendment to the master plan changes could help create a diverse ecology of housing that would avoid an over-concentration of affordable units on Maple Avenue and open opportunities for people who can’t hope to buy a home in Takoma Park, where the median home price hit $820,000 in July. Scarcity of housing in the United States might be the most deleterious form of systemic racism right now; studies and news reports have documented how a hot market squeezes out Black homebuyers. Forget Takoma Park’s lefty reputation; the city needs significant upzoning to avoid becoming a high-end retirement community for mostly white single-family homeowners with a small enclave of aging affordable housing occupied by people of color.

What happens next?

While the final decision lies with the Montgomery County Planning Board and Council, the Takoma Park City Council looks likely, according to its draft resolution, to support the plan while urging county planners to hold work sessions on Flower Avenue (which curves northward to a bustling commercial district on Piney Branch Road), on affordable housing, and on public spaces in the area. So far, Mayor Talisha Searcy and most members of the City Council seem intent on avoiding a drawn-out process that would exhaust supporters and embolden opponents and are steering toward a vote on a resolution this week. The city staff has put out blog after highly readable blog about the basic facts, while rebutting myths propagated by the opponents.

Searcy, Takoma Park’s first Black mayor, also knocked down a number of the go-to arguments for upzoning critics at an informal meeting on Aug. 16. To a complaint that there had been no outreach to residents of Maple Avenue – not frequent attendees at city meetings, to say the least – Searcy responded that she had deployed city staff and interns to go door-to-door to ask about the plan and related issues. She has also insisted on the need for more housing at many levels, and with good reason. Right now, Takoma Park has residential segregation, with most affordable housing clustered in a single area, and a polarized housing stock. There are expensive single family homes and highly affordable apartments, but little in between.

The simple truth behind this amendment is prosaic, but opponents and the undecided need to hear it often. The plan is a necessary but far from sufficient step toward alleviating Montgomery County’s housing shortage. We need many more just like it – not only in Takoma Park but in every part of the county.

The Montgomery County Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the plan Thursday, Sept. 14. Sign up here to comment, virtually or in person. Supporters can also sign onto a letter drafted by Takoma For All, a local YIMBY group, that will go to the Planning Board, at this link.