{"id":55987,"date":"2025-12-15T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/?p=55987"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:03:52","slug":"growth-4-growth-sake-recent-public-hearings-reveal-who-is-fighting-for-affordability-in-ward-3-it-aint-the-yimbys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/dc\/55987","title":{"rendered":"GROWTH 4 GROWTH SAKE: Recent Public Hearings Reveal Who is Fighting for Affordability in Ward 3, It Ain’t the YIMBYs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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update by dc4reality dec 15 2025<\/span><\/div>\n
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Who Is Really Fighting for Affordability in Ward 3?<\/i> Recent Public Hearings Show It\u2019s Not the \u201cYIMBYs\u201d<\/u><\/font><\/span><\/h2>\n

Washington, D.C. December 2025<\/b> — For years, DC\u2019s housing debate has been framed as a morality play: YIMBYs want inclusion; NIMBYs want exclusion. But recent Ward 3 zoning hearings are finally revealing the fraud this false binary<\/a> has become.<\/span><\/p>\n

At two recent DC Zoning Commission hearings (Case Nos. 25-09<\/a> and 25-13<\/a>), the supposed villains \u2014 longtime Ward 3 residents, preservationists, better planning advocates and community housing activists \u2014 were the ones demanding that much more truly affordable housing requirements be clearly tied to the massive new density giveaways proposed for large swaths of Connecticut Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue, including Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, Tenleytown, and Friendship Heights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screenshot_2025-12-14_15-31-07.jpg\"\"Screenshot_2025-12-14_15-30-34.jpg\"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span>The Ward 3 upzoning proposals are being brought forward by the Mayor, through the Office of Planning, asking the DC Zoning Commission to upzone dozens of parcels in a single sweep \u2014 effectively creating hundreds of millions of dollars in new speculative land value. The question raised by the alleged NIMBYs was simple: <\/span>why should that value accrue to the market without firm public benefit?<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at these same hearings many self-identified YIMBY voices focused almost exclusively on maximizing new construction, demanding as much height and density as possible while leaving racial equity as an afterthought \u2014 something the market might deliver later, if at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: bigger, taller new buildings in Ward 3 without real requirements to <\/span>repair the harms of the past<\/span><\/b> are not progressive housing policy. <\/b>They are a choice \u2014 one DC has made for decades \u2014 with predictable results: tens of thousands of new expensive market-rate units, a miniscule amount of family-sized homes, little deeply affordable housing, and continued displacement, including the loss of roughly 60,000 Black residents over the past two decades (US Census<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

So who is actually asking for inclusion in exchange for the proposed new taller bigger buildings in Ward 3?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Not the pro-growth advocates calling for upzoning at any cost, no strings attached.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was neighbors who insisted that if the city is going to create enormous new land value along Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues with a stroke of a pen, DC\u2019s working families and public must receive something real in return \u2014 something that actually meets DC\u2019s stated affordability goals and racial equity commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n

That position was captured plainly by <\/span>Deidre Brown of the Ward 3 Democratic Committee,<\/span> who warned that affordability set at 60% of median family income does not reach most Black families in DC \u2014 and that without deeper affordability and family-sized units, equity rhetoric rings hollow.<\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/35td4HApPCo?si=sFME7EyE8PPG9AzB&t=16337<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screenshot_2025-12-14_15-44-39.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Watch the Record for Yourself<\/font><\/span><\/h2>\n

The contrast is visible on the public record:<\/span><\/p>\n