Change For OP’s Ward 3 Coordinator

by Ken Terzian

His work has guided efforts to change and improve the Connecticut Avenue streetscape and make our neighborhood greener.

A transition has taken place with DC’s Office of Planning (OP). Ward 3’s neighborhood planning coordinator, Andrea Limauro, has transitioned out of his role of the past 5 years to concentrate his planning efforts on serving Ward 2.

His achievements include the creation and management of the Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Project (NSIP), which won the 2010 Sustainability Leadership Award from the ICLEI-Local Government for Sustainability. This pilot program defined sustainability goals and developed benchmarks to measure positive change in environmental challenges.

Limauro also worked to engage a concerned group of citizens, now organized as Green Living DC, to continue the work outlined in the NSIP program. A steering committee of this group continues to organize and promote the annual Green Living Expo hosted at the University of the District of Columbia. This event has included up to 60 green product and service exhibitors, panel discussions, press conferences, bike tours, as well as music and activities for children. More information is available at GreenLivingDC.org.

His work focusing on sustainability, the green economy, innovative communication and participatory planning assisted ANC 3F’s Van Ness Vision Committee in our work to improve Connecticut Avenue. The Van Ness-UDC Metro Commercial Corridor-Enhancement Study (PDF) that he arranged through the Office of Planning provided a strategy for guiding improvements in the landscape, and today provides a useful reference when development opportunities along the corridor are being considered.

Prior to working for OP, Andrea worked in Baltimore as the community planner for the city’s Western District, worked on ex-offender re-entry programs in Chicago’s West Side, researched the impact of a World Bank loan in a small town in Honduras, analyzed the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, and managed rural community development projects in war-ravaged Angola.

He earned his Masters in Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was the recipient of the Provost Award for Graduate Research for fieldwork on a World Bank project in Copan, Honduras. Andrea holds a B.A. in Politics and Sociology from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and a graduate diploma in International Cooperation and Development from the University of Padua in Italy.

We thank him for his years of service to Ward 3, and will remember how he engaged us and helped us understand how our city can support community interests and needs. While his talents may now be focused in Ward 2, the continued improvements in Forest Hills that we commit to pursue will surely bring him back for visits, and he will be welcomed.

OP’s new neighborhood planning coordinator for Ward 3 introduces himself here.