1. Columbia Heights:
Implementing the Vision of an
Inclusive City
Partners in Innovation:
Including Affordable and Workforce Housing
within Transit Oriented Development
National Housing Conference
Denver, CO
September 27, 2010
Art Rodgers
Senior Housing Planner
Washington, DC Office of Planning
2. What is Columbia Heights
Metro station opened in 1999
Now the most used station in
DC outside of downtown
Since opening
1,697 Net new housing units
(596 are affordable)
1,542 Rehabbed units ½ mile
(1,476 are affordable)
One Million square feet of
non-residential
Zip code with the largest price
appreciation in DC (279% 2000-
2007) and one of the lowest
declines since (-9.7%)
Columbia Heights: Implementing
September 27, 2010 2
the Vision of an Inclusive City
3. Public Role
1998 Community Driven
Charrette
9 large vacant parcels sold for
specific program uses
including: housing (20%
affordable), retail, cultural, and
historic preservation ½ mile
Strategic Neighborhood
Investment Plan (SNIP)
Affordable housing preservation
Five new public spaces, parks,
and/or recreation centers
Three new or totally remodeled
public education facilities
Targeted acquisition of scatter site
$138 million in public investment
properties for blight reduction
immediately surrounding the metro
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September 27, 2010 3
the Vision of an Inclusive City
4. Confluence of Factors
Metro station
Available land
Demographic shift to urban living
Regional transportation issues
Pent up market rate demand
Low interest rates
Growing confidence in local government
Like comedy, timing is key
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September 27, 2010 4
the Vision of an Inclusive City
5. Lessons Learned
Land, Land, Land
Local financial resources (Housing
Production Trust Fund)
Affordability Pricing
Other public efforts (Schools, Public Space,
Cultural Institutions)
Parking
Family Housing
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the Vision of an Inclusive City
6. Other DC Examples
Georgia – Petworth
Metro Station
Shaw-Howard
University Metro
Hines Public School
Eastern Market Metro
West End
Minnesota-Benning
Metro
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the Vision of an Inclusive City
7. Applying the Lessons Learned
Inclusionary Zoning
Street Car Land Use Study
Identifying corridors of high quality bus
service
Estimating impact on household
transportation costs
Live Near Your Work
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September 27, 2010 7
the Vision of an Inclusive City
8. TOD & Inclusionary Zoning in DC
DC’s IZ started with a TOD approach
(additive)
Mapping was very complicated
Potential to shift development investment
decisions
Chose citywide approach with specific
exemptions (subtractive)
Pricing & Permanent affordability
Zoning review is taking other steps to
improve affordability (parking
maximums)
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the Vision of an Inclusive City
9. Columbia Heights: Then & Now
2005 NCAC-APA
Public Space Plan
2010 ULI Award for
Excellence in Design
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September 27, 2010 9
the Vision of an Inclusive City
Editor's Notes
Give thanks,For many years DC’s comprehensive plan has stated goals of creating diverse neighborhoods with access to jobs and public and private services.To date, the Columbia Heights neighborhood comes the closest to exemplifying these goals which are stated in the District’s framework document for the 2006 Comprehensive Plan, A Vision for Growing an Inclusive City.Columbia Heights also strives toward the six livability principles of:Provide more transportation choices. Promote equitable, affordable housing. Enhance economic competitivenessSupport existing communities. Coordinate and leverage federal policies and investment. Value communities and neighborhoods. Found in the federal government’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities
This slide gives just a few brief highlights of the Columbia Heights neighborhood. The buildings you see in blue are larger new construction or rehab projects of 10 units or more than 10,000 sf non residential space built since 2000. The 1,697 new construction units represent a 10% increase over the existing number of units. Well over 600,000 sf of the non-residential development is retail. While DC has been very successful in building or rehabbing affordable units around the Columbia Heights metro station, the neighborhood also saw a tremendous investment in the rehab of the surrounding row houses, which often resulted in the loss of previously affordable, market rate units. The 279% change in price appreciation is just one indicator of the tremendous forces changing the neighborhood, and while surrounding jurisdictions saw decline in values of 50% since 2007 , the Columbia Heights zip code only declined 9.7%. This highlights one of our lessons learned of permanent affordability which I’ll go into later in more detail.
I think its important to mention the full set of efforts the District took and the dollars invested in Columbia Heights. In addition to selling approximately 13 acres of land with specific requirements including ground floor retail and 20% affordable housing, the District invested $138 million immediately around the metro station for a new middle and high school, a parking garage, historic preservation of a key building and the public space infrastructure. The dollars do not include the amount of subsidies used for financing the affordable housing subsidies.
Columbia Heights also benefitted from a confluence of other factors that made it a success. While many of these factors remain, The district, like other areas of the country is suffering from the scarcity of construction financing. Its just been within the last two months that several multi-family projects have broken ground or announced plans to.
Land is critical for a achieving a comprehensive neighborhood visionOur Tax–Exempt bond cap is never fully leveraged, so developing HPTF from deed and recordation taxes to create a more flexible source of equity and debt financing for affordable housing is key.Poor controls on pricing of affordable units early on have affected ability to resell and conflicts with condo fees increasesCommutes represent only 15% of trips, so make include a mix of uses to keep household transportation costs low. I’ll go more in that later.DC used a revenue bond to finance 1,000 spaces in three levels of parking. Only the first deck gets used. 66% of DC households own cars.Very few three bedroom units and only a smattering of two-bedrooms
That said, the city is actively trying to duplicate the success of Columbia Heights in other TOD neighborhoods. In addition, when issuing Notices of Funding Availability the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development includes as part of the competitive scoring the degree of transit accessbil