Frequently Asked Questions

 

What does ARD mean by rational development?

Rational development envisions the successful mix of single-family residential neighborhoods intersecting with pedestrian-friendly and environmentally respectful commercial corridors.

Rational development means ensuring that we maintain the character of our neighborhoods, strongly supporting local businesses and development that benefits and enhances our community rather than overwhelms it.

Rational development means that vibrant, transit-oriented city living does not threaten or diminish the family-friendly, human-scale lifestyle our neighborhoods embody.

Development and protection of neighborhoods can and should co-exist and support each other.

What are some examples of development projects that ARD has supported or opposed?

ARD and its predecessor organization, CSTO (the Coalition to Stop Tenleytown Overdevelopment), have a history of supporting development along Wisconsin Avenue. Projects supported  include Tenley Hill, Cityline, the former and current Babes projects, and the current Bank of America multifamily housing project at Wisconsin and Harrison. ARD supports development that supports the community.

ARD opposed the proposal for 9 stories of apartments at the Martens site and the Akridge project to radically increase the footprint, height, and density of the Buick site. ARD, and 92% of members of the abutting community, believed that site could be better used for a building that allowed some set-back and public green space. For both the Martens and Akridge sites, ARD (previously CSTO) paid an architectural designer to draw an alternative design that would have brought substantial new development, on a scale more appropriate for the neighborhood.

Tenleytown and Friendship Heights are Red Line Metro stops. Doesn't transit-oriented growth require building to the maximum around a Metro station?

ARD strongly supports the Smart Growth focus on using public transportation. ARD members are some of the Metro's best customers, the real Metro frequent flyers. We believe that making public transportation convenient, pleasant, and easy to use is crucial to increasing its use and getting more cars off the road.

Ensuring that public transportation is a resident's first choice requires looking carefully at a number of things including capacity, current use, and infrastructure.

Capacity for growth is not unlimited. (WMATA) Residents here have a choice—drive or take Metro? If Metro cars are so full you can seldom sit down, if the platforms are so crowded you can barely move, if you have to wait for several trains before you can get on, many more people will drive. It's that simple. How many more riders can we add before many decide it’s just not worth it? Planners need to look at potential capacity very carefully if they want to maintain and increase ridership.

Current use is something else planners must consider in plotting future growth.(WMATA Study) Both FH and TT are highly used Metro stations already, with ridership that far surpasses the ridership of most other stations on the Red Line, including Cleveland Park and Woodley Park.  Common sense requires balancing the passenger load so that every Metro stop is built to its optimal level.  Smart Growth literature emphasizes the need to use development as a tool to bring new businesses and residents to areas that are underserved and stations that are underutilized. Working to increase density in already dense and successful upper Wisconsin Avenue may come at the expense of other neighborhoods that are sorely lacking in retail and in need of the boost further development would give them around their Metro stops.

Smart Growth principles also require planners to look carefully at the infrastructure surrounding a potential site. Are the roads, emergency services, schools, water supplies, and sewers adequate to support increased development? How much development is ideal at that site? How much is too much? These are not foolish questions. ARD believes it is irrational to create development without asking those questions and answering them satisfactorily.

Our infrastructure along Wisconsin Avenue is stretched thin. There is numbing congestion along Wisconsin Avenue, as everyone who lives near Wisconsin knows. Fire trucks and ambulances already get gridlocked in traffic.

ARD advocates careful studies of our infrastructure to see exactly how much growth is optimal to both bring in new businesses and residents and preserve the quality of life that makes our community such a treasure for us and for the entire District of Columbia.

So, yes, it makes sense to build around a Metro stop, but to build what the area can absorb. We believe it is the height of irresponsibility to advocate unlimited growth. Growth must be based on careful study beforehand of capacity, usage, and infrastructure, and planning that limits new development to what is rational for the preservation of the existing community.