Friendship Heights Condo Stirs Not-So-Genteel Debate

But now they face a tenacious band of residents who back the project, a group with its own organization, Ward 3 Vision. Its cause has been endorsed by council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and the District chapter of the Sierra Club, an environmental group that thinks the building, because it is next to a Metro station, will encourage residents to use mass transit.

The two sides disagree on many issues: how tall the building should be, what defines quality shopping -- even who has the right to speak for the neighborhood. The opponents refused an invitation from The Washington Post to appear in a photograph with the project's supporters, saying it would convey the impression that the neighborhood is evenly divided over the issue. (They also declined to be photographed on their own.)

"How many of your members live within one half-mile of this site?" Lucy Eldridge, a leader of the opposition, demanded of a supporter testifying last month before the zoning commission. The developer, Akridge, requested a zoning change to build a larger building. The panel could rule next month.

"I haven't polled them," said Tom Quinn, a leader of Ward 3 Vision. "I do."

Both sides are more than capable of summoning great passion, if not hyperbole, as they defend or denounce a project that would transform a block now largely occupied by a used-car lot, an auto repair garage, a Pepco substation, the rear wall of a bus garage and a Metro entrance.

"They're coming in to rape our [expletive] neighborhood," Carolyn Sherman, an advisory neighborhood commissioner and an opponent, said of developers in general as she toured the site. In a calmer moment, she added: "We're constantly under siege. They have their sights set on overdeveloping Wisconsin Avenue."

On the other side, Reed Fawell, a project supporter, compared the block where the proposed project would be to a "Third World country," albeit one within walking distance of a Williams-Sonoma.

On one level, the debate centers on design. The building would rise to five stories along Wisconsin Avenue, with a setback of two additional stories, and would feature ground-floor shops and 60 to 70 condominiums selling for about $800,000.

Opponents think the building, which would be 79 feet at its peak and occupy the entire lot, is out of scale with the neighborhood. They want a 50-foot-high building, with retail and green space, a proposal that Akridge officials say is economically unfeasible and architecturally unsuitable for the site.

But the debate invariably touches on larger issues, such as traffic and development along Wisconsin Avenue. The Akridge project, opponents say, will set a precedent for future buildings in the neighborhood.

"It's a domino," said Eldridge, an advisory neighborhood commissioner.

Eldridge, the daughter of a former New York City Council member and the stepdaughter of newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, grew up in Manhattan, where 79-foot buildings would barely be noticed in most neighborhoods.

As much as she loves her home town, she said, replicating big-city life in Friendship Heights is impossible. "You can't transform Wisconsin Avenue into Broadway," she said.

The proponents are not convinced. An apartment building will bring more residents and retail to Wisconsin Avenue, they say. "We live in an urban area. We ought to revel in that," Cheh said. "We're not Loudoun."

Sefcik, 37, who moved to the neighborhood from Capitol Hill, described himself as initially "embarrassed" that a condominium project is what inspired him to get involved in neighborhood politics.

"Shouldn't I be more focused on schools?" he asked. He convinced himself that the tax revenue generated by the project would ultimately benefit all sectors of the city.

"Why would someone be opposed to this?" he asked. "It's an obviously busy area where there should be a tall building. If I can get a couple of stores that are better than a boarded-up building or trophy store, that would be great."

Michael Link, 32, a manager at the Politics and Prose bookstore who rents an apartment around the corner from the Akridge site, said the neighborhood is already inundated with high-priced homes.

"If it was more affordable housing, then fantastic," he said. "But if it's more condos, what's the point?"