National Harbor's Housing Boon

Zoning for the National Harbor site originally allowed residential construction, and Peterson incorporated it into his 1997 plans. But Curry discouraged it and pushed the council to change the zoning to preclude homes. The concern was that the result would be an assemblage of $150,000 homes along the Potomac.

"I think there was a perception years ago that that was what it would be," said County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), who supported Curry's push for better-quality housing.

That no longer is the case, he said.

"Now, you can't find $150,000 homes in the county anymore."

Oxon Hill residents who had been staunch opponents of National Harbor support the addition of housing. They regard it as a hedge against the project becoming too much of a disruption. People buying half-million dollar homes, they reason, are going to want the same quality of life as their neighbors.

"We didn't want Orlando, and we didn't want Atlantic City," said Donna Edwards, who said that housing fits in with the community's effort to extend a proposed Metro Purple Line across the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.

"We're working very hard with the community and with Peterson to bring rail across the bridge with a stop at National Harbor and a stop at downtown Oxon Hill," said Bonnie Bick, who once posted a sign in front of her home questioning the project.

Last summer, Bick and Edwards's group, the Campaign to Reinvest in Oxon Hill, dropped its lawsuit against Peterson after reaching an agreement that required the developer, among other things, to set aside a specific portion of the site for housing.

"I always thought it was a mistake," Edwards said of Peterson's initial plans to exclude housing. "True mixed-use includes residential. . . . It needs it to be successful."