Posts about Planning
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Washington Region Parking Madness continues! Round 1, Part 2
On Monday we voted on the worst parking craters in DC and Virginia. Today eight more craters will go head to head, including three in Montgomery County and four in Prince George's County. Which lots from the Old Line State are bad enough to advance to the second round? Keep reading…
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Reston’s routine zoning update is on ice for now, following an outcry
Reston's debate over a routine but nonetheless controversial zoning change may be over for now, as the Fairfax County Board deferred action on the matter earlier in March. Opponents feared the update would lead to Reston changing too much, but the zoning rule at the heart of the debate was never meant to address the issues many thought it did. Keep reading…
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What housing does the District’s workforce need?
Increasingly, DC's workforce is comprised of either high-income or low-income jobs, with few middle-income jobs available. Among DC’s most common occupations, 40% are low wage jobs that do not pay enough to cover DC’s high housing prices. Keep reading…
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City planners need to talk about race. The lives of our residents depend on it.
Historic discriminatory urban design practices, such as redlining and restrictive zoning, continue to degrade the health of communities of color. In order to build more equitable communities, planners must better understand and acknowledge this legacy of discrimination—and actively work to undo its persisting effects. Keep reading…
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The Palisades Safeway is one step closer to “non-historic designation”
In a staff report released last week, the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) largely agreed with the owners of the Palisades Safeway that their property does not merit historic designation. The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) will review the case and make a final decision this Thursday. Keep reading…
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Could “build higher” untangle a thorny Shaw school controversy?
Two groups of DC school parents are at loggerheads. In the heart of Shaw is a large, vacant building that once housed a junior high school. One group wants the school rebuilt and reopened as a neighborhood middle school, while others want to move Benjamin Banneker High School to the area. Can both get what they want? Keep reading…
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Four things accessory apartment opponents said at Montgomery County’s hearing, and why that’s wrong
We’ve written a lot lately about accessory apartments like English basements and granny flats—why they're an important affordable housing tool, how to build them, and how onerous regulations could be changing in Montgomery County. The council is expected to vote later this month. Keep reading…
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An updated Crummell School plan swaps 32 apartments for more green space
More than 50 Ivy City residents and other community members gathered at Bethesda Baptist Church on February 11 to hear the latest proposed developments for the historic Crummell School site. A bill introduced in late 2017 that received a hearing in June would lease an approximately 100,000-square-foot plot of city land to a development team for 99 years at the rate of $1 per year. Keep reading…
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Long-term visions, immediate needs: What we learned at the GGWash forum with Andrew Trueblood
As the District grows and changes, its leaders need to balance the needs of current residents with the needs of residents in the future. The Office of Planning is “the only agency in the DC government really charged with thinking about the long term,” said Andrew Trueblood, the Office of Planning's acting director, when he introduced himself at the GGWash Forum Tuesday night. Keep reading…
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How segregation in American cities shifts from day to night
After World War II, white Americans moved to suburban communities that explicitly barred black people, while many men continued to commute to their jobs in the city. But advances in civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meant that workplaces became increasingly diverse. Keep reading…