Low-Cost Housing May Ride Market's Coattails

The coalition has pushed for inclusionary zoning for more than a year, and the concept was unanimously supported by the D.C. Council this month. After the coalition submitted its proposal to the Zoning Commission in November, the D.C. planning office consulted with developers, advocates and other land-use experts before submitting its proposal.

The proposals differ on such issues as how much affordable housing to build; how to measure it -- number of units or square footage; which parcels should be exempt; and whether developers should be able to fulfill some of their requirement by creating affordable housing at another site.

The city's proposal would exempt the lowest-density areas, where projects of 10 or more units are uncommon, and downtown, where land prices are highest and few sites are left to develop. The coalition would include projects of 10 or more units anywhere in the city but exempt downtown until 2008.

After the hearings, the Zoning Commission -- a five-member panel made up of three local and two federal appointees -- will schedule a session to debate the proposals and decide whether to propose one and how it should be structured. The proposal would be circulated for public comment before a commission vote.

Some developers have said the current proposals do not increase the size of new buildings enough to offset the cost of including low-priced units and questioned whether the sometimes slow-moving D.C. government could efficiently administer an inclusionary zoning program.

They warned that developers would stop building in the District if the program is too costly or burdensome -- a prediction that has been made in other jurisdictions but has not come to pass.

Christopher J. Donatelli, whose Bethesda-based firm is building several projects in the District, said balancing the concerns of developers and city residents is crucial.

"You can't really argue with the fact that there's a need" for lower-priced housing, he said. "There just need to be adequate trade-offs."