Ward 3 Groups say to Zoning Commission: 'Send it Back'​

Press Release - Dec. 15, 2025 Contact: Gail Sonnemann, gsonnemann@gmail.com, 202-286-0845

Ward 3 Housing Justice (W3HJ), The Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Northwest Opportunity Partners CDC (NWOP), and Ward 3 Democrats have asked the DC Zoning Commission to reject as incomplete the Office of Planning’s massive Ward 3 upzoning proposals (ZC 25-09 and 25-13) and to send them back to OP to fix the many problems and omissions raised at December hearings. These allied groups express grave concern that OP proposes massively upzoning 100+ lots on Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues without addressing these critical issues:

1.   No real planning, just upzoning

2.   Insufficient affordable housing, and no racial or economic equity, inclusion analyses or strategies

3.   No economic impact or infrastructure analysis for 30,000 potential residents at full build out of proposed density

4.   No public, ANC, or Zoning Commission input in future developments

5.   No small business displacement support strategy

 “Publicly owned air rights are a gold mine of opportunity for ample affordable family housing, racial equity and racial diversity, thriving local businesses, design compatibility with established neighborhoods, and adequate schools and water/sewer. “Before selling the rights to mine our ‘civic gold,’ said Meg Maguire, Chair of NWOP, “OP must show how upzoning will achieve these goals.”

“Since 2011, IZ+ has required affordable housing set-asides in proportion to increases in density, but that is thrown out the window in these proposals,” said Margaret Dwyer of W3HJ. “This massive redevelopment should require significantly more affordable units for households that target the median family incomes of Black and Brown residents.”

The groups urge residents to speak to your elected officials, including your Councilmembers and your ANCs, because this upzoning would eliminate future public participation in Ward 3 neighborhood development choices and establish a bad blueprint for change throughout DC. So far CM Matt Frumin has failed to speak out to stop this in Ward 3.

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