NIMBYs for Mendo: How Could D.C.’s Next Council Chair Affect Development?
Barring some major upset, it seems pretty likely that all-of-a-sudden Council Chairman Phil Mendelson will be able to stick around after a special election. While certainly not omnipotent, Council chairs have substantially more influence over things we talk about in Housing Complex land, through their ability to make bills move quickly or slowly, and corral votes to help them pass.
So, what does Mendelson’s record tell us about his priorities? To briefly sum it up: Mendelson is as much of a nitpicker on development as he is on everything else, and usually falls on the side of less rather than more.
“Phil Mendelson got started fighting development in Ward 3,” remembers all-purpose activist Terry Lynch. “He's tended to become ossified in being 'none' rather than making something happen. It’s easier to say no, politically.”
Lynch is right about Mendelson’s political awakening. The councilmember dates it to when he moved into McLean Gardens, a 40-acre apartment complex off Wisconsin Avenue, soon after graduating from American University in 1974. In 1979, the landlord tried to convert it to condominiums or tear it down, and the tenants fought back, eventually winning their battle to purchase the complex themselves.
After that, Mendelson played a significant role in laying the ground rules for development in upper Northwest; when he worked for Ward 3 Councilmemmber Jim Nathanson, Mendelson authored his ward’s section of the Comprehensive Plan, specifying that “infill development must be tightly controlled.” He’s also been a familiar face at the Zoning Commission, both as chairman of his Advisory Neighborhood Commission and as a councilmember. A quick scan of transcipts and news coverage turns up the following:
- In the late 1980s, Mendelson was an officer in the Tenley and Cleveland Park Emergency Committee, and got arrested protesting an office and retail development at 4000 Wisconsin Avenue NW. The reverberations were large: The organization backed a write-in campaign against Marion Barry in the 1986 mayoral election, and Mendelson attributed Barry’s poor showing in Ward 3 to a “strong antidevelopment vote.” Mendelson has since given aid and comfort to groups seeking to do the same.
- In 2000, he opposed a proposal for 13 townhouses two blocks away from the Tenleytown Metro station, saying that it wasn’t enough units to qualify as “smart growth,” lacked an environmental impact statement, and didn’t fit the comprehensive plan he’d drawn up. “The coming of metrorail here, as in Friendship Heights, Cleveland Park, and Woodley Park, was always intended to serve rather than transform the residential area,” he said. A development half the size was eventually approved.
- In 2003, he backed community opposition to a halfway house on Adams Place NE. With Mendelson’s help, the ANC’s appeal was granted, though the facility had already opened.
- In 2007, he opposed Akridge’s proposal for a five-story, high-end condo project with ground floor retail near the Friendship Heights Metro station, questioning the appropriateness of its height and density.
- During the hearings on George Washington University’s 2000 campus plan, Mendelson said that universities shouldn’t just build what they need to grow. “Campus planning should no longer start from the premise of bricks and mortar and the university's programs,” he said. “Rather, first it should define the larger neighborhood, then state how that neighborhood will be protected, and finally build the campus or the university within that framework."
- In 2004, he opposed NBC’s request for an antenna tower near Mendelson’s home in McLean gardens, saying that the company should just go to some surrounding jurisdiction if they really wanted one. “It is our public policy about limiting the skyline and I wish the region would do that and we know that's been an issue for us in terms of Rosslyn, Virginia,” he said. “But you know, if there is a need for some of these T.V. stations, I don't know if that need to be met here in the District, but if it can't be, it certainly wouldn't be contrary to our public policy if they located in one of the towers that's nearby in the region.”
- He opposed the plan for a new mixed-use Giant grocery store at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street NW, saying it should remain low-density commercial.
- This year, he submitted a letter backing community opposition to the development plan for the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant, saying that it destroyed too much of the historic site.
Aside from specific cases, Mendelson supported inclusionary zoning, which builds affordable housing into new market rate development, as well as requiring housing downtown.
“In theory he's for all the right stuff, if it's in a place where nobody lives,” says one development type who asked not to be named. “But as soon as you’re hitting a neighborhood where there’s any community opposition to stuff, he flips and it’s all about neighborhood preservation and whatever people want locally.”
I’m of the opinion that what people want locally is sometimes not the best thing for the city as a whole: While community involvement can and often does improve development, it also makes building things really difficult, and not always for good reasons. Which doesn’t mean Mendelson would be a bad chairman, especially since a lot of the big land-use battles have already been fought. But he's certainly not leading the charge for a growing city.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
8:07 pm
Maybe he will stick to the nuts and bolts of running the Council and not get involved in the hyper-local weeds.
Who am I kidding. Smart growthers are screwed.
9:07 pm
^ Deferring to the ward cm and the ANC's would be th smart move.
10:56 pm
Here you go again, Lydia -- another simplistic Nimby's bad, development good column. I really though you were beginning to be more nuanced. Did it occur to you to talk to Mendelson before you posted this?
5:13 am
Great & Special. I love it...http://ow.ly/bUiW4
6:13 am
God, when is she leaving?
9:47 am
I agree. Chairman Mendelson wrote this letter to HPRB about McMillan without talking to the community. He spoke with former ANC Salatti and the tree hugging group who is attempting to stop the development of McMillan for the 3rd time in 25 years. I along with several members of the DCDSC and the community requested a meeting with him on this topic and got no response. It would be in the interest of the Chair to respond to this request. I cannot understand why he would write a letter prematurely and then refuse to meet with other community leaders on this development. Hello Chairman Mendelson I along with other community leaders would still like to have a meeting prior to the 7-12-12 HPRB meeting!!!
9:52 am
I hate to be critical, but this article is ridiculously simplistic in its view that anyone who opposes any development is a NIMBY. I have news for you. By that definition, 100% of this country is NIMBY. If you doubt that, imagine a plan to put a garbage dump beside your house. NIMBY!
As for McMillan, the Bloomingdale neighborhood has supported some development of the site but opposed the current plan which would demolish 80% of it. Like the people who advocated for a Central Park in NY and the Emerald Necklace in Boston, we're NIMBYs.
As for Mendelson, he is doing his job when he listens to the people, and the people oppose wholesale destruction of our nation's and city's historic sites.
9:55 am
If Fox News had a correspondent job on development issues, Lydia D would fit right in. Fair and balanced? Actual reporting? Does she do 'shoe-leather' interviews of her subjects before spouting off? Nah.
10:13 am
OK, so it's simplistic when 7/8 of the articles listed are notorious NIMBY positions in Ward 3, and one of them is a slightly more complicated situation that still should probably result in development?
10:53 am
Will the new CP owner have a quota for uses of the term "NIMBY" like the current one? All development plans no matter how hare-brained or inappropriate = good, anyone addressing any concerns with developers' divine inspiration = NIMBY
10:10 am
No one injected race in this article, so I figured I'd do it just for fun. Mendelson doesn't care about black people.
LOL.
3:20 pm
Oy vey. Let us have a look at all of the neighborhoods which have had new development activity over the past 10 years (Logan Circle, Columbia Heights, Shaw, Chinatown/Gallery Place, Mount Vernon Triangle, etc.) and compare them to any of the many neighborhoods which have sat fallow. I don't even have the mental energy to enumerate the litany of reasons why (smart) development is beneficial for all. Who pays for the fire, police, library, school teachers, and so forth? Yes that's right the people living in the buildings that you opposed! Maybe we should send these people to Virginia where their tax dollars would be more welcome.
4:32 am
Comical that people expect to find facts and balanced reporting in your column. Hopefully, there will be higher standards @ your new job.
4:34 am
PS: Smart growth requires smart people, like Mendelson.