W3HJ Urges Specific Improvements for more affordable housing in Redevelopment of Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenue Corridors

Upzoning Offers Inadequate Affordable Housing for Enormous Density Increases

W3HJ Urges Specific IZ Improvements in Upzoning cases: Wisconsin AvenueZC 25-13, Connecticut Avenue ZC 25-09

Ward 3 Housing Justice (W3HJ) opposes the proposed rezoning plans for the Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenue corridors until each is modified to provide a meaningful amount of affordable housing. As they stand, the proposed rezoning plans fall far short of addressing the affordable housing needed in Ward 3, both in quantity and in true affordability. Ward 3 has paucity of available property, high land value, and extremely limited permanently affordable housing. W3HJ warns that these proposals not only grant huge density increases, they also eliminate all future opportunities for PUD negotiation or community input. This zoning change process is highly consequential as the one opportunity to ensure truly affordable housing will be built in quantities commensurate with the generous density gains granted.

Given that the District that has 1) missed many opportunities to meet the Mayor’s Ward 3 affordable housing production goals, and 2) has assured residents that redevelopment along these corridors would deliver substantial amounts of affordable housing through the Inclusionary Zoning Plus (IZ+) program, W3HJ urges the Zoning Commission to require the following two IZ+ changes be applied to zoning cases for Wisconsin Ave. ZC 25-13 and Connecticut Ave. ZC 25-09.

1.       Increase the quantity of affordable housing proportional to the full extent of the final density changes, with no ceiling at 125%.

•       These proposals as written assume the current IZ+ ladder, which pairs each 25% increase in density with a 2% affordable housing requirement, but now stops at 125% density increases without justifiable reason.

•       W3HJ calls on the ZC to use the existing laddered formula for incremental increases and to continue affordable housing set aside for the entire range of density increases.

2.      Create lower income eligibility tiers for IZ+ renters in these Ward 3 zones targeting households below 50% DC MFI ensure more equitable access to new permanently affordable housing units.

•    These zoning proposals purport to create opportunities for greater range of resident diversity; however, the current IZ+ income threshold of 60% or 80% MFI disproportionately denies Black households access to IZ units. In 2024 DC MFI was $168,799, while MFI for Black households was approximately $60,591, highlighting a persistent racial income gap that limits equitable access to “affordable” units under the current IZ+ framework1

•    W3HJ urges the Zoning Commission to establish a custom tiered affordability structure for these two corridors to enable households with incomes at or below 50% MFI to rent IZ+ units in these zones.

•   What might equitable access look like? Hold a lottery for 50% of the IZ housing for incomes up to 30% MFI and a second lottery for the other 50% of IZ housing set aside for incomes between 31% and 50% MFI.

Without these two changes to IZ+ in these zones, the District will miss enormous, once-in-a-decade opportunities to address resident diversity and equitable access to affordable housing.

1 DC Fiscal Policy Institute. (2024). Inequality remained extreme in 2024 as DC backslid on poverty. Washington, DC. https://www.dcfpi.org/all/inequality-remained-extreme-in-2024-as-dc-backslid-on-poverty/

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Prepared by Ward 3 Housing Justice, Nov. 25, 2025 Ward3HousingJustice.org Contact: Gail Sonnemann gsonnemann@gmail.com or 202-286-0845