DC YIMBYS ANC Candidate Questionnaire

Much like Greater Greater Washington, the DC YIMBYs have a questionnaire for ANC candidates. Here’s what they asked and what I told them.

DC YIMBYs (Yes in My Back Yard) is excited to work with you to build a more equitable and affordable community. We are fighting for an integrated and environmentally sustainable society where every person has access to a safe, affordable home near jobs, services, and opportunity.… we have collected introductory short videos, podcasts and articles that may help inform you about YIMBY perspectives on housing: https://new.yimbyaction.org/top-resources/

• YIMBYs believe that the reason housing costs are so high in DC (and other cities) is because of a housing shortage caused by land use restrictions that make building more homes illegal. In other words, DC makes it illegal to build enough housing to meet the high demand through restrictive zoning rules.

  DC is currently short over 100,000 homes. Studies show that building new housing, even market-rate, “luxury” housing, lowers the cost of housing and, through moving chains, opens up “naturally affordable” homes for people to move into.

  Do you agree that DC is in a housing shortage and should make more types of homes legal to build to bring down housing costs?

  • Yes
  • No

• Do you have a pro-housing statement you think YIMBYs would love to hear if we endorse you?

  DC is in a housing crisis and desperately needs to build more homes, period, but we are also in a climate crisis and a traffic safety crisis, so it is particularly important that places which are relatively walkable and well-served by transit — like the U Street corridor, the Georgia Ave corridor, and the 16th Street corridor, which surround ANC 1B — must make more space for more neighbors.

  We need to create more homes for the people who are here, and then we need to make more homes for the people who are coming. DC and the region continue to grow, and will continue to grow—and if we want to do anything about our high and rising prices, we need to make more homes for those people.

  But beyond that, we are in a climate crisis. Our world is burning—DC has once again set records for heat this summer, and, as a 2024 US DOT report stated, “America cannot meet its [climate change] goals…without reducing how much Americans drive.” It is imperative that we make more housing, and make housing more affordable, in places where people can take the bus, ride a bike, and walk for most commuting, errands, and exercise.

  Further, we are in a road safety crisis. 2023 saw the most traffic fatalities in DC since 2007, 2024 matched it, and 2026 is on pace to be the third-worst year of the last twenty for road deaths. We must make our roads safer, and again part of doing that is giving people the ability to live where they don’t need to drive on a regular basis.

• Which of these do you support?

  • Building more subsidized, income-restricted affordable housing in my ANC.
  • Building more market-rate housing in my ANC.
  • Upzoning my neighborhood to allow more by-right development.
  • Making my ANC more walkable.
  • None of the above.

Comprehensive Plan

The DC Office of Planning is currently rewriting DC’s Comprehensive Plan. The new plan will set land use policy district-wide through 2050. As an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, you will play a critical role informing the Office of Planning’s work in the development of the Comprehensive Plan.

• Which of DC YIMBYs’ priorities do you support? (Select all that apply.)

  See full descriptions of each priority at https://dcyimbys.org/blog/support-more-housing-in-the-comprehensive-plan/.

  • Legalize up to Six Homes on All Residential Lots: Allow small apartments citywide.
  • Allow Parking Flexibility Citywide: Eliminate burdensome parking mandates and give homebuilders and local businesses the flexibility to determine parking based on their site and neighborhood needs.
  • Promote Transit Oriented Development: Allow buildings up to the height limit within ½ mile of Metro stations and ¼ mile of high-frequency bus lines.
  • Reduce Minimum Lot Sizes and Widths: Legalize starter homes by removing burdensome, exclusionary lot size requirements.
  • Expand Lot Coverage Allowances: Increase allowable lot coverage to at least 70% in residential zones and 80% in RA-3 and higher density apartment zones.
  • Reduce Setback Requirements: Eliminate side setbacks to legalize rowhomes city-wide. Reduce front and rear setback requirements to provide more usable building area on residential lots.
  • End Floor Area Ratio (FAR) Mandates: Eliminate FAR limits to enable flexible and efficient land use.
  • Eliminate Unnecessary Barriers to In-Law Suites: Allow homeowners to build in-law suites, providing affordable options to renters and allowing loved [ones] to age in place.
  • Allow Apartments By-Right on Industrial Land: Allow residential apartment buildings by-right on all land zoned for Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR).
  • None of the above.

• Where within your neighborhood do you believe density should be increased to support the construction of new housing?

  All of it. During the revision of the existing Comp Plan in 2020 and 2021, I submitted testimony supporting the revision of the Future Land Use Map to enable greater density — “as much…as can feasibly be added” — at public sites including the Reeves Center at 14th & U and the Police and Fire stations at 17th & U, and throughout Ward 1.

  People are going to keep wanting to move to DC, and especially our neighborhood — after all, the same things that make this place attractive to those who live here now make it attractive to those who are looking for a new place to live. Even if we don’t build more housing, people will continue moving into the District, and into our neighborhood. But unless we build more housing, the price of what housing we do have will continue to rise and push out lower-income individuals.

  As an aside, while we talk a lot about housing, particularly affordable housing, and the desperate lack of both in DC, we are also dreadfully short on small and affordable commercial spaces. ANC 1B, for example, has many bars, but not nearly enough restaurants, much less coffee shops and other places to hang out with people and drink things that aren’t alcohol, and very few places to shop for things that aren’t food or alcohol. While restaurant closings make headlines, we’ve also recently lost several stores and even our 7-11. These things too are important to making neighborhoods places can live and enjoy without needing to own or operate a vehicle.

• Is there anything else you’d like us to consider?

  ANCs have a reputation of being toxic places full of toxic people. We need fewer egos looking out for themselves and their friends and more community-minded commissioners working together, with their fellow commissioners, with their neighborhood’s Council representatives and other wings of District government, and with ANCs across the District, to move our community forward.

  I already work across the District as the Ward 1 Representative on DC’s Pedestrian Advisory Council, across Ward 1 as a Precinct Rep for DC’s Ward One Democrats, and across ANC1B as a Member of the ANC’s Committee on Transportation, Parks, and Public Space, and I work as a transportation planner, working on projects across the DMV and throughout the Mid-Atlantic. I’ve testified at Council both on behalf of the PAC and for myself, primarily but not only on transportation issues.

  I am deeply curious and collaborative, so I have both knowledge of and connections throughout the District and its agencies, and look forward to working with my colleagues on 1B, our Councilmembers, and across the District, rather than against them.