Racial equity is central as DC builds out three neighborhood planning documents

The Comprehensive Plan update currently being debated in the DC Council isn’t the only planning document in the works. Also on the Office of Planning’s to-do list are three Small Area Plans — supplements to the Comprehensive Plan that provide more detailed guidelines for development in a given area.

The Comprehensive Plan is, well, comprehensive, but Small Area Plans (SAPs) are granular. They scope out existing conditions, survey stakeholders, and hold public meetings to come up with very specific recommendations to guide development in a given area. The plans are approved by the DC Council as legislation.

Like the Comprehensive Plan, Small Area Plans don’t change zoning. Instead, they provide guidance to the Zoning Commission as they consider development proposals and build out action plans for government agencies to plan public investments.

Previous SAPs have focused on issues such as placemaking, commercial revitalization, and transit-oriented development. Diversity was sometimes in the plans’ goals, but equity — in particular, racial equity — didn’t show up much in the final documents.

According to the Office of Planning, that is changing. In a December town hall meeting, planner Faith Broderick told participants that the Comprehensive Plan update, with its increased focus on equity, is bringing about a “new generation” of SAPs focusing on community participation and racial and economic equity.

In December, DC announced three new SAPs, the last of which kicked off this month. Here’s what’s currently in the works.

Congress Heights

The Congress Heights SAP was the first new plan to start, with a kickoff “town hall” December 3.

Valecia Wilson, lead planner for the Congress Heights SAP, said in the kickoff meeting that ongoing development in the area, as well as impacts from the pandemic, have created a “planning gap” in Congress Heights, one made all the more urgent by the institutional racism and disinvestment that have shaped the majority-Black neighborhood over the years.

“We also recognize that Congress Heights has been shaped by inequitable policies and practices, both at the hands of the private sector and also the government,” Wilson said.

According to the SAP’s webpage, the plan will study: “social equity and community resilience; historic and cultural preservation; real estate and business opportunities; schools, libraries and public space; transportation and access; housing opportunities and affordability; and parks, streets, and public space.”

A “quality of life survey” is currently live on the webpage, and a second virtual town hall is planned for May 6.

Chevy Chase

On nearly the opposite end of the District, an SAP is taking shape in Chevy Chase. This one, too, has racial justice and equity as goals — but in a very different context.

Some residents of Chevy Chase, largely white and neighborhood west of Rock Creek Park, have been grappling in the last year with the neighborhood’s racist past. The neighborhood’s ANC (3/4G) formed a “Task Force on Racism” that in March released proposed recommendations for building more affordable housing in the neighborhood — a challenge across DC’s “Rock Creek West” planning area.

In this context, the intention stated on the Chevy Chase SAP project web page is for it to be “a guiding vision for inclusive growth rooted in a people-centered planning and design approach that aligns with citywide priorities of housing production, economic recovery, and equity and racial justice.”

Officials are describing the Chevy Chase plan as a way to address the housing equity goals Mayor Muriel Bowser laid out in 2019. The project’s lead planner, Erkin Ozberk, said currently the neighborhood is not projected to add any housing between now and 2045; the Comprehensive Plan update could change that by encouraging more dense mixed-use development along Connecticut Avenue.

The SAP is also timed to coincide with the renovation of the Chevy Chase Community Center and the formation of a Chevy Chase Main Street, as well as DDOT’s potential changes to Connecticut Avenue.

Surveys, workshops, and a design charette are planned through the summer, according to the project timeline, with a draft slated to be released for public comment in the fall.

Pennsylvania Avenue East

The last of this round of Small Area Plans to kick off, the initial meeting for the Pennsylvania East SAP took place on April 14.

The plan focuses on the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor east of the Anacostia, with a goal to “develop recommendations that enhance a safe, accessible, and vibrant public realm; encourage economic development and retail opportunities; improve transportation access and connectivity; and drive socio-economic resiliency.”

The SAP builds on a previous planning document from 2008, the Land Development Plan for Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

A survey is live on the project page, and the plan development is scheduled to run through October before moving through the legislative process.