A plan to bring more affordable housing to D.C.’s Chevy Chase neighborhood has raised the ire of some residents, who say it will ruin the affluent area’s character.
The city wants to update the design and amenities of Chevy Chase’s community center and library, and add affordable housing to the 73,930-foot parcel on Connecticut Avenue NW. It is part of the goal of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to add 36,000 housing units — 12,000 of which should be affordable — to the District by 2025.
City officials have not yet put out a request for proposals to developers or determined how many affordable housing units will be built on the site, but that hasn’t stopped opponents from organizing against the idea. At a recent Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, critics accused the city of destroying a beloved community site to line the pockets of private developers. One group, Chevy Chase Voice, threatened a lawsuit.
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“We’re not against affordable housing,” Chevy Chase Voice co-founder Sheryl Barnes said in an interview. “We just want some proof that we need more of it in Ward 3 and this isn’t a fig leaf for a developer giveaway.”
Chevy Chase has fewer than 1 percent of the city’s dedicated affordable housing units, according to D.C.’s Office of Planning. Its residents are also overwhelmingly White in a city that is 45 percent Black — and that’s by historical design. Founded by Francis G. Newlands, a former U.S. senator and avowed white supremacist, the neighborhood kept Black people out for decades through racial covenants that barred their homeownership.
Supporters of the project see it as a chance for Chevy Chase to open its doors to those it has long excluded.
“We want to make the statement that we are a welcoming community and show it by demonstrably making it possible for people to live amongst us,” said Carl Lankowski, the president of Historic Chevy Chase DC.
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The D.C. Council approved a redevelopment plan in July for Chevy Chase. It would modernize the community center with new amenities such as a fitness center, a yoga and dance studio, an indoor playground, lecture and performance halls, a fencing room, and arts and crafts spaces. Proposed zoning changes would allow the development of 80-foot buildings — about five stories with a penthouse. Per city regulations, housing built on the site must include at least 30 percent designated affordable units, though housing advocates said they will push for 100 percent when the city seeks community input on proposals in the fall.
“The mayor and DMPED have been committed to affordable housing,” Jamie Butler, a member of Washington Interfaith Network’s Ward 3 affordable housing group, said, referring to the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. “We’re going to hold them to it.”
The community center, which opened in 1971, was mostly empty the Saturday before the Fourth of July. Humidity permeated the brick walls and scuffed staircases of a bygone era. Past a broken entrance window and an overgrown flower bed, a little girl ran around the playground with her parents. She avoided using a slide that was boarded up. Someone had written on the plywood in blue chalk: “In God we trust.”
Most residents agree the site needs to be updated, but the addition of affordable housing has proved divisive. Some are worried the development of large-scale buildings would eliminate green space and ruin the look and feel of a neighborhood that has long served as an escape from the bustle of downtown.
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“I would put my house on the market tomorrow if they told me for certain what was proposed in the zoning was going to happen,” said Connor McCarthy, 39, who lives with his wife and two daughters across the street from the community center. “It would be a big wall in front of my porch.”
McCarthy said he supports affordable housing, but within the context of the neighborhood and its character. “It’s a square peg in a round hole,” he said. “It’s not the correct site to jam in this housing.”
Others wonder why the city is focusing its affordable housing efforts on Chevy Chase.
“Downtown is full of vacant buildings,” said Kim Galli,“If you’re going to do mixed use, you can do it anywhere. Why here?”
The absence of a clear timeline, coupled with confusion over the jargon and planning process of the project, has only amplified community angst. Much of the discussion has taken place on the Chevy Chase Community Listserv, which reaches more than 5,000 people. The forum is a breeding ground for misinformation, resident Libby Martin said, and often boosts the loudest voices.
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“People aren’t feeling in control of the process right now,” Martin said. “It’s easy to misinterpret things and pass on incorrect information.”
Some residents are excited about the prospect of more affordable housing. Karrenthya Simmons spends about 40 percent of her income on rent for a two-bedroom apartment she shares with her 4-year-old son near the project site. But without generational wealth, she said, it’s impossible to live comfortably in Chevy Chase.
“As a Black woman hearing people say, 'Leave my neighborhood alone,’ that means you don’t want anything to change,” Simmons said. “You want this neighborhood to stay how it was intended to be.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly implied that the Chevy Chase Community Center was built in the late 1940s. Although a building on the site was used for recreational activities in the 1940s, the current structure opened in 1971. The article has been corrected.
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