Attorney General Schwalb Secures Legal Win Clearing Path for New Multifamily Housing Along Upper Connecticut Avenue

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) secured a significant legal victory clearing the path for new multi-family housing in Ward 3. The ruling will allow implementation of the equitable housing directives of the District's Comprehensive Plan, including the creation of new housing west of Rock Creek Park.

OAG won the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by two DC residents and Chevy Chase Voice, a local organization, which challenged zoning changes designed to allow multifamily housing along a section of upper Connecticut Avenue NW, including on a District-owned parcel of land that houses the Chevy Chase Library, Chevy Chase Community Center, and Commons. The Court granted OAG's motion to dismiss the case, finding that the zoning changes were made according to the proper processes and did not violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.

"To keep the District strong, vibrant, and growing, and to bring down the high costs of housing, we need to expand the number of housing units across the city-both affordable and market-rate-especially in neighborhoods with easy access to transit, businesses, jobs, and amenities," said Attorney General Schwalb. "This win affirms that the District can, through a fair public process, make the zoning changes necessary to allow more homes to be built - expanding our housing supply and driving down costs for everyone."

The District's most recent Comprehensive Plan, which was approved by the Council in 2021, emphasizes the need to provide more housing and prioritizes the development of new affordable housing across the District, especially in the Rock Creek West Planning Area (RCW). RCW, which includes Chevy Chase, has the lowest number of dedicated affordable housing units of any neighborhood in the District-only 1% of housing units in RCW were affordable as of 2018, and the affordable units in RCW made up only 1% of the total affordable units in the District.

In 2023, the District's Office of Planning (OP) proposed changes to DC's zoning rules that would clear the way for multifamily housing on 41 lots along the northern corridor of Connecticut Avenue NW, including a civic campus where the Chevy Chase Library and Community Center are located. The proposed zoning changes would allow the District to move forward with a plan to completely rebuild the existing library and community center and add mixed-income housing at the site. The Zoning Commission considered the proposed changes through a rulemaking process that included public notice, public comment, and two public hearings. In June 2025, after the conclusion of the process, the Zoning Commission approved the changes.

Two DC residents and Chevy Chase Voice filed suit challenging the proposed re-zoning before it was even approved by the Zoning Commission. OAG won a motion to dismiss that initial suit. The same plaintiffs then filed a second lawsuit after the re-zoning was approved, arguing that the Zoning Commission had not followed proper procedures and that the zoning changes violated their constitutional rights.

On June 5, 2026, the Court granted OAG's Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the Zoning Commission had followed proper procedures, including properly considering community input, was entitled to deference in its interpretation of the Comprehensive Plan, and that the plaintiffs' rights had not been violated.

The Court's order granting the District's Motion to Dismiss is available here.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Gregory Ketcham-Colwill and David Wasserstein and supervised by Equity Section Chief Matthew Blecher and Assistant Chief Honey Morton.

Chevy Chase Voice has appealed, and OAG will fight to uphold the Superior Court's decision.

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