Report: D.C. Housing Too Decentralized

A report from the Brookings Institution claims that new housing in the Washington, D.C. region is too dispersed, failing to take advantage of the area's "highly centralized" public transportation and job centers. "Large employment centers and transit infrastructure are durable features of the built environment that persist for many decades. Therefore, a climate-friendly growth strategy for the region would concentrate new housing, retail, and services around these existing locations." But as Jenny Schuetz and Matt Ring write, "[t]he vast majority of new homes there have been built in low-density exurban or suburban counties—well outside existing public transportation networks. The fastest-growing communities are over 20 miles from the region’s primary employment center."

The report illustrates the growth of housing in the region's different areas and concludes that the "region’s housing growth over the past 30 years has mixed implications for climate impacts," as rates of construction grow for both multi-family buildings near the urban core single-family homes in car-dependent exurban communities. The authors also warn that "[t]he absence of development in job- and transit-rich centrally located neighborhoods throughout the District, Fairfax County, and Montgomery County," a result of opposition from homeowners and low-density zoning laws, "harm[s] more than the physical environment." These anti-growth efforts "exacerbate long-standing economic and racial inequality and push low-income households into longer commutes from distant exurbs."