Walk Down Worthington / Massachusetts Ave. with neighbors and Andrew Friedson on April 21
By Ann Telma
The “New Options for Workers” piece of legislation known as “N.O.W.” doesn’t do what it purports to do which is to provide workforce housing for our teachers, fire fighters, and nurses. It disrupts existing neighborhoods, has not been put through the master plan process, and takes into account neither the existing cuts to the federal workforce which might reduce the demand for housing in Montgomery County nor the already approved housing units which have not yet been built, but are already in the pipeline. It’s expensive too because it includes a 20-year tax holiday for developers that some have valued at $2.5 billion!
This issue has literally come very close to home for me as one of the parts of this whole package of legislation includes the upzoning of Massachusetts Ave. between Westmoreland Circle and Little Falls Parkway, my neighborhood and an area where I frequently walk and drive. If this measure goes forward, about 40 lots would be upzoned to allow duplexes, triplexes, or quadplexes to be built where now a single-family home stands. Lots could potentially be “chained” together to allow an even bigger building such as a small apartment building to be built.
Despite increasing density, traffic, congestion in the schools, stormwater run-off, etc., if duplexes are constructed, not one single unit of affordable housing would be required to be built. If triplexes or quadplexes are built, each such building would be required to have one affordable unit. There is no provision for providing parking for any of these higher- density buildings which will only mean more cars on already narrow side streets such as Worthington, making it less safe for children to walk to school and to play and more difficult for emergency vehicles to pass.
We invited Councilmember Friedson who is both our representative for District 1 as well as the sponsor of this legislation to come out and walk the neighborhood with us so he could see for himself. We tried to show him how Mass. Ave. isn’t as wide as 100’ as the proposed legislation states it should be for upzoning (currently it is 68’ wide at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Baltimore). We also pointed out that Mass. Ave. is not “transportation rich” as the legislation states it should be to provide easy access to jobs. At the closest point, it is at least 1 mile from the nearest metro station, Friendship Heights, and is currently served sporadically by one Ride-On Bus, the 29.
There are other alternatives—the soon-to-be available GEICO site which is literally nearly a green field / parking lot right on top of Friendship Heights metro as well as the already-available White Flint site, both of which could be developed “Pike and Rose” style with higher density, a variety of housing, amenities, and shopping.
If Andrew Friedson is our representative, he needs to be faithful to the clearly-stated wishes of the people who elected him and at least pause N.O.W. until proper consideration can be given to its many consequences. Otherwise, Friedson is only enriching developers at the expense of his voting base.
Please contact our councilmembers about this important issue by using the JotForm link below.