The Connection

Fairlington Presbyterian Church (FPC) says its mission includes putting “our whole lives, and our collective resources as a congregation, at God’s disposal, so that we might be a blessing to our community and our world.” But community pushback against the church’s proposal to build affordable housing on its property demonstrates that pursuing its mission is no clear-cut matter.

The church wants to build as many as 81 low-income apartments on a portion of its property, located in the West End at 3846 King St. The congregation sees affordable housing as a critical social mission. So does its nonprofit development partner, Wesley Housing Development Corporation (WHDC), which also emerged out of the faith community. But residents worry about the effects of increased population and building density in their community — especially on traffic, parking, public schools, and aesthetics.

FPC’s pastor, the Rev. Juli Wilson-Black, described the church’s impetus at a May 23 community meeting. More than 50 nearby residents attended.

“We sit on very valuable property, and sitting on it without exploring how it could be used creatively for mission and ministry did not seem like good stewardship,” she said. “As we learned about the shortage of affordable housing in our community, we realized that by partnering with an affordable housing developer, we could impact the lives of families in need in our community in a more powerful way than we currently are able to do through our volunteer efforts .… We know that people within our own congregation have had to move out of the area because of the high cost of housing here, and the shortage of affordable housing is the number one driver of all other human need in the city.”

For its part, FPC would gain about $4 million from the sale to WHDC. Some of this cash would buy new church parking. The rest would go toward “relieving our congregation of some financial and building-related maintenance concerns … and free up more time and energy to focus on our mission,” said Wilson-Black in an email.

A resident expressed skepticism about the shortage, saying, “I see cranes all over the city … I don’t really see the demand when there’s plenty of projects going on.” But most development is priced out of reach for lower income households, according to Tamara Jovovic of the city’s Office of Housing. As an illustration, she pointed to Jackson Crossing, a recent affordable development near Potomac Yard: when it opened, 500 households were on the waitlist for its 78 units. “For a 1-bedroom apartment to be affordable, a minimum wage single person must work 3.5 minimum wage jobs,” according to a WHDC flyer distributed at the meeting.

Some residents asked about the project’s subsidization. Federal tax credits would fund the bulk of the project. These credits are public subsidies for private investors, encouraging the private sector to finance affordable development that would otherwise be uneconomical. And the city would contribute about $4 million in the form of a low-interest loan, said WHDC’s Paul Brown. But public assistance wasn’t the overwhelming point of contention — population and building density were the major concerns.

The new development would add about 160 people and 60 cars to the neighborhood.

Community members worried that increased traffic would detract from community safety: More people driving through the neighborhood would endanger children.

Residents also worried about parking. The city allows three spots for every four units in affordable developments of this kind — in this case, in an underground lot. This ratio, which is lower than the requirement for market-rate developments, reflects the city’s findings that affordable households own fewer vehicles. But residents doubt the city can guarantee these lower numbers in their specific case.

Residents expressed concern about added pressure on public schools. Trends suggest that FPC’s size of development would include a little over 30 school-age youth. Children from FPC’s development would attend Douglas MacArthur Elementary School and George Washington Middle School, which already exceed their collective student capacity by 20 percent. The public school system plans to rebuild Douglas MacArthur to accommodate more students, but construction will not occur for several years.

Several also protested the building’s size. Zoning allows 81 apartments on FPC’s land. But because the housing development will occupy only a portion, the building will have to be taller than if the whole property were redeveloped. Neighbors say the proposed four-story building would not fit in with the surrounding two-story homes and would obstruct their lines of sight.

In general, residents lamented that they have not been included in the planning process. One resident asked if the church would include community representatives on its internal Design Work Group.

“We are still discussing this,” said Wilson-Black in an email. “We would want to make sure the community representative would be willing to help us … improve the project and not just try to derail the project because they are against any type of development on our site. A community representative would also have to be willing to balance all concerns from the community and not just address issues that affect their own property.”

All in all, “We know we are not going to have total consensus, but to the extent we can be in conversation with our community, hear their concerns and do our best to address them, we really want to be that type of neighbor and live our values of seeking to embrace and reflect the diversity of God's kingdom. However we recognize that this is hard work and not the easiest path to take.”

Interested parties can follow the project and provide comment at https://courb.co/fpc