Want input on DC’s Comprehensive Plan update? Contact your ANC

Updated to add two videos from the Dec. 7 land use discussion following OP’s public Comp Plan meeting.

DC residents are once again being asked to study and weigh in on changes to the Comprehensive Plan that will guide future land use in the District.

Adopted in 2006 and amended in 2011, the District’s Comprehensive Plan is going through another round of updates in response to the swift population growth the District has seen in recent years. You may have participated in a meeting or read about proposed changes during a long public process that ended in spring 2018. (Van Ness Main Street and ANC 3F submitted comments to the DC Office of Planning (OP) at that time. Read more here.) On October 15th this year, OP restarted the public information/comment phase with the release of an amended draft of the plan.

Since then, the agency has held public meetings in each ward. The Ward 3 community meeting on the amended draft is Saturday, December 7th from 10 a.m. to noon, at Wilson High School, (3950 Chesapeake Street NW). To prepare for the meeting or generally educate yourself:

• You can find the draft comprehensive plan update at plandc.dc.gov. And Greater Greater Washington published a good overview of the changes in the amended plan.
• Click here for the timeline of this phase and information on what is presented at these meetings.
• Click here for the boards in the “gallery walk” portion of the meetings.
• Click here for a map of recommendations for our area (what OP refers to Rock Creek West).

Following this meeting, OP and the DC Department of Housing and Community Development will host a conversation that “will explore the impact of the District’s land use policies from a racial equity lens, discuss the way segregation has been experienced in neighborhoods across the city, and highlight the continued legacy of these policies on residents’ economic opportunity.” That’s also at Wilson High, and begins at 12:30 p.m. You can learn more and RSVP here.

12/7/2019 update: The OP and DHCD panel opened with the documentary short “Segregated By Design.”

And here is the discussion:

The Ward 3 Comp Plan meeting offers a chance for the public to provide feedback. Otherwise, OP is requesting that the District’s advisory neighborhood commissions (ANCs) shepherd community comments on the draft update (email ANC 3F at commissioners@anc3f.com). The deadline for ANC resolutions is January 31.

This is one of the frameworks through which the District will tackle housing availability and affordability in a growing city while also grappling with preservation.

Others include new rent control legislation since the current law is due to sunset next year. (There are several rent-controlled apartment buildings in ANC 3F.) Also, Mayor Bowser’s Housing Equity Plan sets goals for adding affordable housing in each ward. By the mayor’s analysis, Ward 3 has the lowest affordable housing stock, and her administration is pushing the equity issue hard.