Game of Zones: Your chance to decide the best zone in each quadrant
Image by Peter Dovak used with permission.
Zoning laws shape the buildings that surround us, leaving some land with tall office buildings and other places with only single-family houses. But they also seem mysterious to many people.
Since March is mad for tournaments, we've teamed up with the DC Office of Zoning to devise Game of Zones: a fun way to learn about zoning districts that shape neighborhoods across the DC. Read up in their Zoning Guidebook about what makes each zone special, vote for your favorites, and root for your team in the comments!
Today in Round Three, our readers will decide the quarter-finals for our championship — and the quadrant finalists. As you can see below, mixed-use zones at a neighborhood scale did very well last week, which means that many of the contenders left on the board are very closely matched.
The games were called as of 3 PM on Monday, and you can review the earlier posts to see who was eliminated in the Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, or Southeast quadrants.
Northwest Quadrant
MU-5A vs. ARTS
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
MU-5A and the four ARTS zoning districts triumphed in the first round, and perhaps it's no surprise since they're both real crowd-pleasers that allow pedestrian-friendly, multi-story mixed-use buildings. These zones are very similar; MU-5A and ARTS-2 were both called C-2-A before 2016, and remain almost identical except that the latter (which includes the Howard Theater and the 9:30 Club) has a few regulations to encourage, well, arts. The other ARTS districts are similar, but allow either less or more density.
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Vote for one!
Southwest Quadrant
RA-4 vs. RA-2
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
In the tiny Southwest quadrant, it's a match between two apartment zones: RA-4 and RA-2. Tens of thousands of Washingtonians come home each night to these two zones, whether they wave to doormen in the “distinguished apartment houses” that characterize high-rise RA-4 or climb up front stoops to the Sesame Street-scaled rowhouses and walk-up flats of RA-2.
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Vote for one!
Northeast Quadrant
MU-4 vs. NC-9 to NC-17
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Vote for one!
Southeast Quadrant
MU-7 vs. HE
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Image by District of Columbia Office of Zoning used with permission.
Vote for one!
Come back later this week to for the Game of Zones semi-finals!