Posts about Planning
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YIMBY? Smart Growth? New Urbanism? Understand the various movements for sustainable urban planning
If someone supports more housing in a city, are they a YIMBY? A New Urbanist? A Market Urbanist? Which is GGWash? Articles in the popular press throw around these names, sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly. They’re not all the same, but the differences can often be subtle. Here’s a quick primer. Keep reading…
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This project aims to let residents guide how lower Georgia Avenue develops
A frequent complaint residents have about new development in their neighborhood is that things changed without their input. A new initiative called the Lower Georgia Avenue Equitable Development Project aims to let community members guide how their neighborhood will develop. Keep reading…
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What’s the future of Arlington’s Route 29? You can help decide.
Arlington county wants to overhaul US Route 29, a vital corridor that serves as North Arlington’s main street. The project is in the early stages, and there’s a lot of opportunity for residents to shape how it unfolds. Keep reading…
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With its superstreet plans, Chesterfield is doubling down on suburban sprawl
The traffic engineers, it appears, have won. Chesterfield County is doubling down on suburban sprawl with plans to build a series of “superstreets” at a cost of tens of millions of dollars over the next decade. While the massive infrastructure investment likely will reduce traffic accidents and improve traffic flow on the streets themselves, they will literally cement into place the county’s dysfunctional land use patterns. Keep reading…
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Updates to DC’s Comprehensive Plan fit together housing and preservation
When Mayor Muriel Bowser and Office of Planning (OP) Director Andrew Trueblood released citywide targets for affordable housing production by neighborhood planning area, they also made public amendments to the rest of the Comprehensive Plan—all 24 chapters of it. The Comp Plan guides how the city will grow in the years to come. Keep reading…
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The “Call Your Mother” fight highlights the absurdity of Georgetown’s zoning
Last week, the owners of the popular bagel shop, Call Your Mother, appeared before the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) to request a variance to operate their shop at 3428 O Street NW, on the corner of O Street and 35th. While the ANC voted to approve the variance, and the Office of Planning also supported it, but some neighbors objected. Keep reading…
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Montgomery planners will survey every street to see how safe they are for pedestrians
Earlier this fall, Montgomery County started to develop a Pedestrian Master Plan, which would provide a roadmap to improve safety and comfort for those getting around the county on foot or in wheelchairs, strollers, tricycles, or training bikes—that is, our most vulnerable road users. The next step is for county employees to walk every road and street in the county to take an inventory of pedestrian safety. Keep reading…
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Arlington banned rowhouses in 1938, and we’re suffering the consequences now
The Washington region’s dramatic undersupply of missing middle housing is a serious problem. One reason it’s so severe: Arlington once banned rowhouses trying to preserve its suburban character. Keep reading…
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These maps illustrate how public housing was manipulated to segregate DC
Since it was created for white families during WWII, public housing has been used as a tool to segregate cities, and whites in power continued to use it for this purpose as more black residents moved in over the following decades. A recent map project from the historians at PrologueDC illustrates the ways public housing has been manipulated. Keep reading…
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DC’s clean energy law requires buildings to become more efficient. How will they adapt?
Nine months ago, the DC Council passed one of the most ambitious clean energy laws in the country that mandates, among other things, that buildings become more energy efficient. Some experts and building owners are apprehensive about the task of adapting to the new regulations, but DC officials say they will facilitate the process. Keep reading…