FY 2024-25 DC Budget Oversight Hearing on WMATA
TO: Council Committee On Business and Economic Development
March 3, 2025
I am Meg Maguire, Chair of the NW Opportunity Partners CDC, an organization devoted to racial equity through affordable housing and minority business development within well-planned neighborhoods. We believe that if you work in Ward 3 you should be able to live in Ward 3.
As a powerful counter narrative to the Trump administration’s bullying of our city, WMATA should relaunch a visionary 2 Sites/1 Plan for a new bus garage, affordable housing and community facilities in Friendship Heights which can be accomplished with zero residential or business displacement.
Two years ago, WMATA held the first planning meeting for a new garage and mixed use development. Since that time, no meetings, no process, and no planning. So, there sits the vacant and unsightly Lord and Taylor site providing nothing more than pickleball courts while the potential for affordable housing and community revitalization languishes.
We call on WMATA to work with the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to re-initiate 2 Sites/1 Plan — development of the all-electric bus garage, and an innovative mix of housing and other uses on both the Lord and Taylor and existing garage sites. Councilmember Frumin has a long-standing interest and many creative ideas for a dynamic and unique new community on these sites. Neighbors deserve a say in the impact on their residences. But nothing will happen until WMATA and the city together create a robust collaborative planning process.
In partnership with noted Washington architect, Phil Esocoff, FAIA, NW Opportunity Partners and Ward 3 Housing Justice studied these sites and determined that, with careful planning and acquisition of several smaller adjacent parcels, the site could yield 1,222 apartment units in high rise buildings and 14 homeowner units in seven Habitat townhouses facing 45th St. By requiring 30% IZ+ and 10% public subsidy, 489 new affordable units could be created. This is more than double the current IZ output of new units in Ward 3. (Please see our entire study at www.nwopcdc.org at https://nwopcdc.org/2-sites-1-plan-2/ Only a few slides are shown here.)
I want to stress that our work is a study, not a plan. WMATA must lead the way in bringing all parties to the table. But our study convinces us that there is enormous potential on these sites for the city’s most innovative and visionary development.
It is in everyone’s self-interest to lift our spirits and stir our imaginations to create something great.
- It is in the city’s best interest to develop this land for affordable housing, for redevelopment of Friendship Hts. and for increased tax revenue.
- It is in WMATA’s best interest to plan now for a new bus garage and for revenue from redevelopment.
Below is a letter on the opportunities presented at this site that was published in the Washington Post on Sept. 5 in response to Vice President Harris’ call for new housing.
We ask the Council as a condition of future funding to require that WMATA resume planning with and for the community for one of the best development opportunities in our city.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Meg Maguire
NW Opportunity Partners CDC
4000 Cathedral Ave., NW
Apt. 221B
Washington, DC 20016
202-546-4536
We believe in the power of shared vision and sustained commitment to create dynamic communities for all people, regardless of income.
Email: info@nwopcdc.org
NW Opportunity Partners Community Development Corporation
NWOPCDC 