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October has not been just about the Washington Nationals planning to finish the playoff fight, it has also been about the Office of Planning making critical strides to finish some major initiatives, which we are proud to share below!
Stay tuned as future newsletters promise to be full of updates and planning news. Please feel free to share with others, who can sign up here. In addition, you can follow our work on Twitter at @OPinDC.
Sincerely,
Andrew Trueblood
Director, DC Office of Planning
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On October 15, Mayor Muriel Bowser released her Housing Equity Report and the draft Comprehensive Plan update. The report, which was the result of a collaboration between the Office of Planning (OP) and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DCHD) provides an analysis of current affordable housing distribution and proposes specific targets to achieve Mayor Bowser’s bold goal of building 36,000 new homes, including 12,000 homes affordable to low-income residents, by 2025.
The Housing Equity Report makes Washington, DC among the first cities in the nation to create area-specific goals for equitable affordable housing and dedicate an entire initiative to examining the barriers and opportunities within each area.
Recognizing the critical need to make progress toward these goals, the Mayor also released the draft Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) update. The Comp Plan is a high-level guiding document that sets a positive, long-term vision for the District, through the lens of its physical growth and change. In addition to the Framework Element, which was passed by Council as discussed below, the Comp Plan has 24 other elements and two maps, the Future Land Use Map and the Generalized Policy Map. Housing is a critical theme of the proposed Comp Plan, and achieving the Mayor’s bold goals will require changes being proposed to the text and maps. In addition to housing, the other three major themes of this update are equity, resilience, and leveraging public resources.
The Comp Plan was approved in 2006 and amended in 2011. Given how Washington, DC has changed in that time, it is important that the plan is updated with all due speed to reflect today’s conditions, opportunities, and challenges.
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The first chapter of the Comp Plan, the Framework element, was introduced to Council in January 2018. It had its first reading in July and approved by Council on October 8!
The Framework is the foundational element of the Comp Plan and through analysis of data and forces driving change, sets the context for the rest of the plan. The approval of the Framework on October 8 was a critical component for OP to move forward in the amendment process. The Framework element is a first step in managing the District’s growth to help us move toward a positive future, not only for today's residents, but for our children and grandchildren.
(Bill summary here: http://lims.dccouncil.us/Legislation/B23-0001)
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Every 10 years, the U.S. government counts every person living in the country. The nation's founders mandated a decennial census in the Constitution.
For the first time, the US Census will be available to complete online! Beginning the week of March 16, 2020, every household in DC will receive a mailed invitation inviting to go online to complete their census form. Census data is kept safe and confidential and is never shared with any law enforcement agency.
The census provides critical data that District agencies, schools, health care providers, business owners, nonprofits and many others use to provide daily services, products, and support for you and your community. Every year, billions of dollars in federal funding goes to hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads, and other resources based on census data. In one year alone, the District received over $6 billion in funding through 55 large Federal spending programs such as Medicaid, SNAP, Housing Vouchers, Title 1 Education and Headstart grants just to name a few. Over 55 large Federal spending programs are funded based on census data. The District uses census data to redraw Ward and ANC boundaries every 10 years to ensure equitable representation for residents across all eight Wards.
For more information: https://dccensus2020.dc.gov
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The DC Office of Planning (OP) welcomes our new Policy Analyst, Tariq Sheriff! Tariq will primarily be focused on DC Food Policy work, including managing a study on developing a centralized kitchen/food processing facility, supporting the DC Food Policy Council’s 2020 priorities, and contributing to community meals and discussions in Wards 7 and 8 - as well as contributing to the Citywide team’s work, specifically focusing on the nexus of health and the built environment.
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