Chevy Chase Approves Affordable Housing Project
Chevy Chase Housing and Urban Development, a coalition of incorporated towns and villages in southern Montgomery County, has announced the area's first affordable housing project will break ground next month at Chevy Chase Circle.
Scheduled for completion in mid-2026, The Underground at Chevy Chase is a transformative affordable housing development built within the circle's 1949 traffic tunnels and underground streetcar station, abandoned when streetcar service ended in 1962.
The Underground at Chevy Chase will deliver 163 high-quality, environmentally sustainable rental units available to households at or below 80 percent of the median income, including 10 studios, 57 one-bedroom, 72 two-bedroom and 24 three-bedroom earth-sheltered apartments.
Chevy Chase Housing and Urban Development (C.H.U.D.) Executive Director George Cooper said remodeling within the concrete underground labyrinth, which flooded in 2009 from a recently discovered sewer line fracture at nearby Chevy Chase Radiology, would "begin after water restoration and asbestos tunnel wall tile abatement."
Cooper says earth-sheltered construction is ideal for low-income housing as it provides insulated energy efficient savings, lower construction costs, and enhanced privacy and security for nearby residents.
The Underground at Chevy Chase entrance on the Maryland side of Chevy Chase Circle opens a whole new world for residents to explore, including a community wino cellar, race war excavation exhibits, and a neighborhood crypt. Shuttles running on former tram lines will whisk residents to secure exit-only gates in DC's vibrant Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan neighborhoods.
“The public and private sectors must work together creatively and collaboratively to increase our supply of affordable housing stock, and C.H.U.D. is doing just that," said Andrew Friedson, the District 1 Councilmember representing Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Potomac. "The Underground at Chevy Chase is a dimly lit example of a successful public-private partnership fueled by a shared commitment to ensuring everyone in Montgomery County has a welcoming, safe, dignified place to call home outside the sightlines of the 20815 and 20816 zip codes.”
Although Chevy Chase isn't known for affordable housing, its residents are more passionate about the issue than any other community, according to a recent GG Washington report that says one of every three people who signed up for one of the county's affordable housing listening sessions last year came from Chevy Chase. "Out of 1,187 Somerset residents, more than 1,300 got involved," C.H.U.D.'s Cooper told The Montgonion.
C.H.U.D. is a 501(c) nonprofit whose members include the predominantly white and wealthy towns of Chevy Chase and Somerset, and the equally starchy incorporated villages of Chevy Chase Section Three, Chevy Chase Section Five, Martin's Additions, North Chevy Chase, and Chevy Chase Village, and whose mission is to "fulfill our civic duty by sharing centuries of County land ownership experience with those newly arrived and ignorant to the complexities of splitting an early 20th century Victorian into four separate dwellings."
The total cost of The Underground at Chevy Chase, approximately 86.2 million, is supported by C.H.U.D. through its unique public-private partnership. The County contributed nearly 84 million in funding to close a critical financing gap.
