Who will win the Game of Zones? It’s up to you

Today is the final round of Game of Zones! This championship match is a showdown to determine which District of Columbia zoning district is our readers' favorite. Make sure you vote!

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 these two zones special (out of 101 in all of DC), vote for your favorites, and root for your team in the comments!

The two finalists are ARTS and MU-4. Like all of DC's 101 zones, both determine the size, shape, placement, and use of buildings in part of DC. But unlike any others, these two have kicked seven other zoning districts out of the Game of Zones bracket. Both of our fourth-round games were decided by just one percentage point, so your vote for the champion will definitely count.

The fourth round games were called as of noon on Monday. You can review earlier posts to see who was eliminated in the Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, or Southeast quadrants.

ARTS vs. MU-4

The four “Mixed Use Uptown ARTS” zones are found only around the bustling intersection of 14th and U Streets NW, south to P Street and east to 7th Street. Their “ground rules” are similar to the MU-4, MU-5, MU-7, and MU-10 zones, which permit a varying range of uses and restrict building heights to four (in MU-4) to nine (in MU-10) floors.

The ARTS zones layer additional rules on top of those, following a Small Area Plan's recommendations. One notable one is a limit on restaurants and bars and incentives for theaters and other arts spaces. Rules this specific can have unintended consequences: along U Street, eateries have been pushed to basements or side streets and ground-floor spaces have dull banks and drugstores instead.

MU-4 is found along many of the old streetcar routes stretching out from central DC. It permits up to four floors of mixed-use, but in many areas is developed with single-story retail or a mix of rowhouses and retail. MU-4 retail corridors can thrive amid dense or busy neighborhoods, like Georgetown's M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. and Columbia Heights' 11th Street.

On its own, though, MU-4 isn't quite dense enough to sustain consistent street life — which might explain the vacant storefronts along Benning Road, Kennedy Street, Florida Avenue and North Capitol in Bloomingdale and Truxton Circle, Rhode Island Avenue NE in Woodridge, Bladensburg Road in Trinidad, and Pennsylvania Avenue SE near Potomac and Minnesota avenues.

Which of these two worthy contenders will win the Game of Zones? Only your can decide! Voting for the championship closes at noon on Tuesday, April 4, and the winner will be announced that afternoon.