Thanks to the able coordination of city planners and developers, the District now boasts a few more affordable housing options. City planners chose a Bethesda-area developer on Feb. 6 to develop a new residential and retail complex above the Petworth Metro station on a mostly empty block of Georgia Avenue, N.W. This $40 million mixed-use development – consisting of 148 apartments located above 17,000 feet of retail space – is part of the city’s $111 million initiative to revitalize the Petworth neighborhood.
At the behest of community leaders, developer Donatelli & Klein reserved 30 apartments for low-income families-defined as those with yearly incomes 30 to 60 percent below the median for the area. According to the developer, all units in the building will be sold as condominiums, and the low-income units will be spread throughout the building and have the same fixtures and amenities as the others.
This is admirable because Donatelli & Klein’s other major D.C. project, The Ellington, slated for March completion, falls firmly within the sphere of yuppiedom. This 190-unit apartment complex and retail space on 13th and U Streets, N.W., is the latest in a long line of apartment buildings boasting “lofted ceilings,” “stained concrete floors” and a “rooftop terrace with outdoor grille.”
Retail space at The Ellington-already fully leased-features a Mocha Hut coffee house, a Thai restaurant and other staples of gentrification. In this development, which didn’t include any housing for low-income families, monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment range from $1315 to $2150.
A Montgomery County law requires developments of over 35 units to set aside 12.5 percent of the housing for low-income families. Because the District lacks such a law, only Donatelli & Klein’s proposal included a provision for low-income housing-20 percent. A similar law should be passed in the District to ensure new projects allocate housing for the economically disadvantaged.
Since taking office five years ago, Mayor Anthony Williams has focused on luring young professionals and their tax dollars back from the suburbs, cultivating a yuppie culture radiating out from the Whole Foods Market on P Street.
Rents in the Petworth project will to be comparable to those in The Ellington. While 30 families will benefit directly from the Petworth project, those in the surrounding area will find themselves subject to increasing housing prices-in the past decade, property values have doubled and tripled in the U Street area. Establishing a legal requirement for a percentage of low-income housing in all new development projects could help offset these increasing costs.
Additionally, new projects should allocate community space for after-school and adult education centers, which could help ensure members of the existing community can be both economically and socially embraced, instead of being pushed away.
In the quest for taxpayers, Williams has pledged to increase the city’s population by 100,000 in the next decade, but he must not neglect the needs of the District’s current residents. Requiring a minimum of low-income housing units per project and holding developers to these standards will lead to responsible development that does not alienate the existing population of the District.
