Chevy Chase's Connecticut Avenue Gets Decided This Winter, Mostly Indoors

One Monday in August, a neighbor stopped by a new café at 5520 Connecticut Avenue on its soft-opening day. They ordered a cappuccino and sent PoPville a short report: the shop was called Barista, it would be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with wifi, and local art for sale hung on both walls. They had one complaint. There was only one drip coffee, a medium-blond blend.

Changes on The Avenue this fall have mostly been that size. Bigger decisions are coming. The DC Council is weighing the bill that would hand the library and community center site at 5601 and 5625 Connecticut to the developer the Mayor selected in January. DDOT has also sent its proposed changes for the intersections from Nebraska Avenue up to Oliver Street to the local ANCs. Both will shape the corridor through the end of the decade, and in Chevy Chase both are still moving through hearing rooms and PDFs, with no construction on these blocks yet. The next five weeks are the busiest part of it.

Five Weeks, Six Dates

1. Monday, November 9, 10:00 a.m. Deadline to sign up to testify at the first Council hearing on the Chevy Chase Civic Site bill.
2. Thursday, November 12. The Committee on Human Services, chaired by Councilmember Matthew Frumin, holds a public hearing on B26-0801.
3. Thursday, November 19, 7 to 9 p.m. Trivia night at Chevy Chase Lounge and Parthenon, 5510 Connecticut. Ten percent of proceeds go to Chevy Chase Main Street.
4. Tuesday, December 1, 5:00 p.m. Deadline to sign up to testify at the second hearing.
5. Thursday, December 3. The Committee on Facilities, chaired by Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, holds its own hearing on the same bill.
6. Saturday, December 5, noon to 5 p.m. The Chevy Chase Winter Market returns to 5500 Connecticut, and Elsa visits from 1 to 3 p.m.

Both committees signed up to hear the bill. The Council's legislative record shows Chairman Mendelson introduced it on September 16 at the Mayor's request and referred it jointly to Facilities and Human Services. Each committee published its own hearing notice in October. Registration for both runs through the Council's Hearing Management System. The November 12 notice and the December 3 notice have the details.

What the Bill Actually Does

The bill is short. As introduced, B26-0801 would declare the District-owned land at 5601 and 5625 Connecticut Avenue surplus and authorize the Mayor to dispose of it. Officially that land is Lot 823 in Square 1866. That transfer is the step that lets the selected developer, Rift Valley Chevy Chase, LLC, go ahead with the plan the Mayor's office announced in January.

According to the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the plan replaces two buildings that date to 1968 and 1971.

The outdoor plans include a play park and public plaza, flexible sports and event courts, an amphitheater for performances, a roof terrace with an outdoor classroom, and an oak lawn with a native plant garden. DMPED says the 2022 Chevy Chase Small Area Plan identified this site as an opportunity for affordable housing in Rock Creek West.

The project is a long way from construction. The Wash reported in late October that groundbreaking is set for 2028. The District's request for proposals answers the question most library card holders will ask. It requires library service to continue without interruption from the day the current branch closes until the new one opens, through a temporary facility approved by DMPED and the DC Public Library. The agency's answers to the ANC's questions, updated in June, say the Department of Parks and Recreation plans to expand programming once the new community center is built.

Supporters and opponents are both active, and housing on the site is still the most debated part of the plan. The two hearings are where the Council takes formal public testimony before it votes.

The Intersections, Block by Block

DDOT's Connecticut Avenue Multimodal Safety Improvement Project started in December 2019. It covers 3.26 miles and 28 signalized intersections from Calvert Street to Oliver Street. Construction began this summer. DDOT expects to finish within two years and will build each intersection separately. On DDOT's status table, the only intersection under construction is Tilden Street, well south of Chevy Chase.

The Chevy Chase stretch already has a defined scope, though. In March, DDOT sent Notices of Intent to ANC 3/4G and ANC 3F that set out the proposed change at each intersection and placed them in anticipated construction phases. Design and procurement are still underway on several of them.

The Harrison Street closure is the biggest change for anyone who drives through the area. DDOT added it in its December 2025 update, along with a new signal at the Chevy Chase Parkway junction. The same update removed the hardened centerlines from the earlier plans because DDOT judged their maintenance needs to outweigh their safety benefits.

DDOT says the plans include no bike lane on Connecticut Avenue and that the intersection work does not rule one out later. Separately, the department is writing a Five-Year Strategic Bicycle Plan. So the bike lane question stays open beyond this winter. When work reaches a given block, DDOT's construction note tells residents to watch for detours and Emergency No Parking signs.

Meanwhile, at the Counter

The physical changes this fall have come from businesses. Barista was already open by the time The Wash spoke with one of its employees in late October. At 5507 Connecticut, according to a press release PoPville published, restaurateur Aaron Gordon, who is behind Little Beast and Red Light, opened a Japanese sushi and izakaya pop-up called MiShi inside BirdSong Thai on September 17. Chef Michael Kang, whose résumé includes The Oval Room, Oyamel, and Nobu, runs MiShi's kitchen, and Chef Kiti Ma runs BirdSong's Thai menu. The launch also brought lunch service to BirdSong, which had been dinner-only.

These new places sit close to the site in the Council bill. The Avalon Theatre is at 5612 Connecticut. In mid-November it is showing National Theatre Live's Golden Boy on November 17 at 10:30 a.m. and Women on Trial, from its French Cinémathèque series, on November 18 at 8 p.m. Parthenon's trivia night is at 5510. The winter market sets up at 5500. The library and community center in question are at 5601 and 5625. All of them fall within the stretch covered by DDOT's March notices, and the closest scheduled road work is phase 1 at Northampton and Military.

Chevy Chase Main Street calls its December 5 market an annual holiday market for shopping local vendors and supporting small businesses. It falls two days after the Facilities Committee hearing, and by then both public hearings on the Civic Site will be over.

If you live near this part of Connecticut Avenue and want to know how the Civic Site decision or the intersection changes could affect your block, or what they could mean when you eventually sell, The Robert & Tyler Team watches the corridor closely and is happy to walk you through it. Contact Us.