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Craig Hudson

An outdated police station. An equally forgettable fire house. A roofless, two-level parking garage that could have been imported from the suburbs, if not another era.

D.C. officials insist that this sprawling hodgepodge of city-owned real estate on a well-known Washington corridor could be so much more.

Better, certainly. Buzzy, even — a high-rise with sleek public safety facilities, a sparkling public library and scads of apartments, 30 percent of them set aside as affordable.

In a city where even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092802861.html" target=_blank>speed humps</a> can trigger dyspepsia, the prospect of reimagining the low-slung U Street NW property — one everyone agrees is unsightly — is driving a fierce debate that is devouring hours of public hearings and clogging up neighborhood email lists.

At issue is what often rattles long-established neighborhoods — the mere prospect of change. But there are also wonkier concerns, including whether D.C. should lease public land to a private developer, even if what is built adds to the stock of sorely needed affordable housing.

“It’s a sin to do this,” said Edward Hanlon, an attorney helping to make the case for the opposition, a diaspora of immediate neighbors, activists and community groups. “The land is the patrimony of the people.” If zoning officials approve a change the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is seeking, opponents predict that the surrounding two-story rowhouses would be swallowed by shadows.

Never mind that the city has not yet chosen a developer and that no proposal for a high-rise exists. The only question before members of the city’s zoning commission is whether to allow a building as tall as 100 feet — or about 10 stories, not including the possibility of a penthouse.

Yet that kind of question also taps into deeper anxieties that have percolated across D.C. for years, as new apartment towers have transformed entire vistas, making the familiar seem unfamiliar and leaving many Washingtonians feeling less connected to their hometown.

There are also those who see gold in new horizons, including supporters of the U Street zoning change who say it could infuse the neighborhood with a new pool of economically diverse residents.

“U Street was meant for this,” said D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), whose district includes the nearly two-acre property on the edge of Adams Morgan, between U and V and 16th and 17th streets. She and other supporters of the zoning change point out that the corridor is lined with high-rises, including several a couple of blocks from the site.

The dispute is unfolding as poor and middle-class Washingtonians navigate a housing market that ranks among the most expensive in the nation. Bowser (D) has vowed to foster the creation of 12,000 affordable units by 2025, relying in part on developers to set aside a portion of their projects for subsidized units. As of December, city statistics show <a href="https://open.dc.gov/36000by2025//" target=_blank>a total of 8,620</a> affordable units had been created since the start of 2019, or about 72 percent of the mayor’s goal.

Mary Claire Molloy

On Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, Bowser’s team hopes to enlist a developer to add a blend of market-rate and affordable housing atop a redeveloped community center and public library. As is the case on U Street, the administration’s vision has provoked<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/18/chevy-chase-affordable-housing/" target=_blank> a contentious debate</a>, with supporters arguing that the affordable housing would help diversify a neighborhood with a history of excluding Black Washingtonians.

A group opposing the plan in Chevy Chase was sufficiently impressed by Hanlon’s tactics on U Street that it hired him in September to make their case. “Ed was vocalizing the same idea — that this is corruption on a grand scale, a giveaway of public land to private developers,” said Sheryl Barnes, a co-founder of the group, Chevy Chase Voice. “We love him.”

D.C. officials invoke Economics 101  to make their case that increasing housing supply will bring down prices. As undeveloped land in the city has grown scarce, they also have sought innovative ways to spur the creation of affordable units. The U Street fire house is one of four that the city is targeting for projects that could include housing. Bowser also is seeking to amend zoning regulations along Connecticut Avenue to allow for taller buildings in affluent neighborhoods such as Woodley Park and Cleveland Park.

But pushing for change in areas that have looked the same for generations is all but certain to roil residents, many of whom complain that the city is already overstocked with luxury housing. “It’s understandable, but from my perspective there’s change happening regardless in D.C.,” said Peter Tatian, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has written about affordable housing. “We have seen how much it has changed, and we have to respond constructively to those changes. Building more housing isn’t the only answer, but it’s an important part.”

Since the Bowser administration applied to change the U Street zoning a year ago, the zoning commission has received roughly 400 letters about the proposal, with missives from supporters narrowly outnumbering those from opponents.

Bridget Hunnicutt, a documentary filmmaker who has lived in the neighborhood for two decades and whose 17th Street NW rowhouse faces the police station, is among those opposing the zoning change. Hunnicutt describes herself as pro development and affordable housing and said she feels “disappointed” and “misunderstood” by supporters of the zoning change who cast opponents as anti-development NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard).

Still, she said she is against the change in part because she’s afraid that a 10-story high-rise would overwhelm the neighborhood and upend its communal vibe. “You’re not just talking about the architecture. It’s about the size and the scale and the density that allows for close relationships,” she said. “I don’t think we should dismiss the importance of being connected to the natural cycles of life — the sun, the moon, natural light. I’m not saying you don’t build something. But I don’t think you need a 10-story building when it’s surrounded by rowhouses.”

Gregory Adams, 72, a former juvenile probation officer who has lived across from the police station since 1984, organized a group of Black neighbors to oppose the zoning change. His house is within the boundaries of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1985/01/26/strivers-area-becomes-historic-district/d8f44729-d8da-482c-bfd4-8f4ace569b03/" target=_blank>Strivers’ Section</a> Historic District, which was designated nearly 40 years ago to commemorate the elegant mid- to late-19th-century rowhouses where segregation-era Black professionals moved.

Adams said he fears that the addition of market-rate apartments would drive up home prices, rents and property taxes in the immediate area and make what was once a predominantly Black neighborhood even less diverse. That 30 percent of any development on the site would consist of affordable units is of little comfort, he said.

“It’s like offering crumbs,” he said. “I’m concerned about displacement. I know that’s never the plan, but it’s often the result.”

A couple of blocks from the U Street site, Andrew Lewis, 40, a tech specialist, said he has been keeping tabs on the debate for months, in part because it’s hard to miss the fliers affixed to nearby utility poles that read: “Do U know City Officials are threatening to privatize and build a 12-story building at 1617 U Street!”

Lewis said he understands the concern that a high-rise would not match the scale of the neighboring streets. But he also said that it’s “out of character to have a one-story municipal building in one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods.”

“It looks like it’s stuck in another time — 30 years ago — before the city went through its boom,” Lewis said. “It’s just so expensive to buy a place in D.C. and to rent in D.C., and it has only gotten harder. There needs to be more housing.”

Next door to the fire station, Jorge Peña, the owner of George’s Shoe Repair, signed a petition opposing the zoning change that was circulated by a resident of The Rochelle, the apartment house where his shop is located. But, Peña said, he thought what he was signing was a protest against rats in the neighborhood. In fact, he would welcome a new apartment building and the potential new patrons for his shop.

“More business,” he said from behind his counter. “I want it. It’s better for the city.”

The main arena where the U Street debate has played out is the zoning commission, where board chair Anthony Hood and several commissioners have sat — at times fitfully — through 20 hours of hearings. At moments, the chair has grown especially impatient as he has listened to cross-examinations conducted by Hanlon, 72, a bankruptcy attorney by trade and a former Dupont Circle advisory neighborhood commissioner.

Hanlon is well known in the Dupont area, having lost his 2020 ANC reelection bid after waging a <a href="https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/179796/the-sixyear-battle-over-a-dupont-deck/" target=_blank>well-publicized</a> campaign to stop neighbors from building outdoor decks. At one point during the saga, a Superior Court judge ordered Hanlon and an ally to pay their opponents’ $30,000 legal bill.

Among his reasons for contesting the U Street zoning change, Hanlon said in an interview, is that he doubts city officials would keep a commitment to rebuild a police station in a new development that includes market-rate apartments. Residents paying high rents, he predicted, won’t tolerate living above police officers “bringing in accused murderers, shooters, and rapists.”

At a recent zoning office hearing, Hanlon repeatedly cited a planning document during a cross-examination that Hood deemed out of bounds because it had not been brought up during testimony.

“Mr. Hanlon, obviously you’re just going to disrespect me,” the chair said. “I have asked you not to use this once. I’ve asked you not to use this twice. I’ve asked you not to use this three times.”

“I will move on,” the attorney replied. A few minutes later, Hood reproached him again for the same mistake.

There also was a moment when Hood appeared to align himself with Hanlon. During questioning of a planning official, Hanlon showed that the city, while presenting the proposed zoning change to three ANCs in the area, had not met with Black business owners and Black churches, among others.

“Until this engagement is tightened up,” Hood said, “it’s a showstopper for me. I’m sorry.”

Hanlon tried to capitalize on Hood’s discontent, introducing a motion at the next hearing to dismiss the city’s application because of a lack of community engagement.

The chair was not prepared to go that far, not after the commission had heard testimony and received all those letters from residents about the proposal.

“Totally inappropriate,” Hood declared, before the commission voted 4-0 to deny the motion.

After five more hours of cross-examination, a fourth hearing was scheduled, after which yet another would be set.

“We have developed whole neighborhoods in less hearings than that,” the chair said, his tone a mix of weariness and exasperation. “I’m not talking about a parcel. Whole neighborhoods. C’mon, y’all. Let’s work together.”

Oberlin College, BA in English

Paul Schwartzman specializes in political profiles and narratives about life, death and everything in between. Before joining The Washington Post, he worked at the New York Daily News, where he covered Rudolph W. Giuliani’s rise as mayor.

Paul Schwartzman

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Anxiety swarms Bowser plan to combine housing with fire station on U Street

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