Rowhouses in D.C.’s Cleveland Park neighborhood. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

In her June 11 Friday Opinion essay, “Fulfilling America’s fair housing promise,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge described the Biden administration’s plan to encourage communities to advance fair and affordable housing by “relaxing restrictive zoning codes that prevent all but the wealthiest from living in certain communities” and “bringing new services — such as affordable public transit — to neighborhoods that lack them.” Yet Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase have been fighting these measures.

Cleveland Park residents opposed the mayor’s affordable housing plan because it would permit a handful of denser, transit-oriented multifamily buildings in the neighborhood and nearby. While claiming the plan would perpetuate racial inequities because it would result in more gentrifying “luxury” housing, residents also griped that the housing would change the character of the community. The classic trope was historically used to exclude non-Whites.

Chevy Chase residents fought the Purple Line project, favored by environmentalists to ease traffic congestion, promote transit-oriented affordable housing and help wage-earners get to work more easily. Why? A tiny portion of the 16-mile line would run through the village astride the cherished Capital Crescent Trail and exclusive Columbia Country Club. 

Opponents’ lawsuits claimed the project would threaten a microscopic endangered amphipod in nearby Rock Creek. When the creatures could not be found along the route, opponents shifted to citing pandemic-declining Metro ridership, the state budget impact and Clean Water Act procedures.

Exclusionary NIMBYism that thwarts fair, affordable and climate-friendly housing solutions is endemic across the country. It’s particularly galling in D.C.’s wealthiest communities where residents have inordinate influence over the nation’s policies and many post Black Lives Matter signs on their lawns.

Jeffrey Denny, Washington