Chevy Chase is currently facing an unprecedented number of challenges that require mass citizen participation and scrupulous representation by our ANC:
• The elimination of single-family zoning: The current Mayoral administration, under pressure from pro-development advocacy groups, is considering eliminating single-family zoning and allowing the construction, by right, of apartment buildings and other multi-family structures in single-family zones.
We will soon see whether the new administration will continue with these efforts.
• A development plan will be selected for the site of the Chevy Chase Commons (aka the Civic Core): Our library and community center will be replaced with state-of-the-art buildings, but many residents have expressed concerns about adding housing to the site and whether doing so will necessitate the construction of enormous buildings that would be out of keeping with the human-scale design of Chevy Chase. There are also concerns about whether adding private housing will change the nature of this public space, and whether the existing park, open green space, mature trees, and outdoor sports courts and facilities will all fit on the site along with housing and 8,000 SF of retail.
This plan has been controversial because resident participation in planning for this development was severely circumscribed by our former ANC and the current Mayor. The new zoning is currently being challenged legally by Chevy Chase Voice, a group of residents that formed in reaction to the lack of transparency and public participation in the planning process, and others.
There are still opportunities for residents, and our ANC, to weigh in on this matter.
• The single-family raze-and-build boom: Some residents have concerns about older, more affordable, single-family houses being razed, and the new much larger and more expensive ones taking their place making Chevy Chase unaffordable. They worry that new houses, complete with garages, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and nearly complete lot coverage, are causing a lack of privacy for neighbors and the loss of Chevy Chase’s tree cover.
• Crime: Statistics show that crime is increasing or decreasing at any given time as compared with various times in the past. Statistics aside, any crime here is too much crime. Property crime (car break-ins, theft, and shop-lifting) remains a significant problem here, but recently, we have had incidents of burglaries as well as unprovoked violence and assaults on sidewalks and other other public places in our commercial area.
We need increased community policing and more police patrols.
• Traffic calming: Next to crime, the top concern for most Chevy Chase residents is the safety of our residential streets. Parents of young children rightfully demand traffic-calming on their streets, but the DC Department of Transportation is mired in its relatively new Traffic Safety Input (TSI) system that results in Chevy Chase rarely being selected for road safety improvements.
In addition, our streets are being asked to do more and more — and now our roads and sidewalks are dangerously chaotic with car and truck traffic and pedestrians mixing with motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, electric and non-electric bicycles, scooters, unicycles, skateboards, and Segways. Frustrated drivers of all types of vehicles continue to negatively impact Chevy Chase and the rest of DC.
We need rules of the road — and police to enforce those rules. And we need to lobby the Mayor and DDOT to change the TSI system to make it more fair to Chevy Chase.
• Chevy Chase schools remain overcrowded: The Ward 3 representative of the DC State Board of Education has stated that continued development in Chevy Chase and elsewhere in Ward 3 is causing already over-crowded schools to worsen. He has recommended that no additional development take place here until an additional school is built.
Retaining teachers and ensuring that Pre-K is available to all here is also of utmost concern.
• Diminished public transportation choices: Chevy Chase does not have a Metro station and the nearest one is quite a long walk for many residents, particularly in bad weather. Buses serving our area have been reduced and their routes changed. Increasingly the City is allowing builders to reduce or eliminate parking for their developments. How are residents to get around especially as we add more housing and commercial buildings?
• Do small businesses face an uncertain future here?: Small business owners in Chevy Chase express concerns that their livelihoods will be threatened by future development on Connecticut Avenue that will make their rents unaffordable. They have also expressed concern about proposed bike lanes and the removal of parking spaces for customers by bike lanes and development.
• The needs of the mentally ill homeless in voucher housing: Chevy Chase and the rest of Ward 3 has a significant amount of voucher housing which is not supplying mentally ill residents with the medical and social support they need. These unsupported residents are suffering and end up disrupting the lives of thousands of other apartment dwellers and neighborhood residents here.
• Protected bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue: In the face of significant opposition, the Mayor has relented and DDOT recently eliminated plans for bike lanes along this evacuation route. However, this is still a hot topic among bicycling enthusiasts, and they continue to pressure the City. So Chevy Chase residents may have a chance to weigh in on this topic in the future.
• PFAS contamination of our sports fields and water and soil by artificial turf: Residents worried about the health of young athletes, and the rest of our community, have raised concerns about new and existing plastic turf sports fields that leach toxic “forever” chemicals called PFAS. Some also worry about the propensity of plastic turf to become dangerously hot for children playing in warm weather.
• Preparing for a hotter future and a healthier environment: Global climate change is making Chevy Chase much hotter. Continued development here means more concrete and glass and fewer trees. To protect our physical and mental health we need more open green space and parks here — not less. Trees and greenery provide oxygen, clean the air, and regulate temperature. Also, we cannot just warehouse people in tiny cubicles; people who live in apartments need someplace restorative to go.
Chevy Chase needs representatives who truly care about this community — representatives who trust their neighbors to know what is best for our own neighborhood.
