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OP is continuing to focus on supporting the review and approval of the Mayor’s proposed Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) update. The proposed Comp Plan update positions the District to achieve critical goals around economic recovery, housing, equity, and resilience. In addition to providing a suite of tools and approaches that can be immediately applied in response to the economic, social, and public health impacts caused by COVID-19, an updated Comp Plan is a critical component of the Mayor’s goal to build 36,000 new homes by 2025, including 12,000 affordable homes.
On October 27th, OP and the Georgetown Global Cities Initiative co-hosted an event that brought together DC’s five most recent planning directors to discuss 20 years of comprehensive planning in DC and to look forward to the next 20 years. You can read more about this event below and watch the recording of the virtual discussion.
Earlier this month, Mayor Bowser underscored the critical need for the Comp Plan update to be approved this year. The Council’s Committee of the Whole has opened the record for feedback on the Comp Plan through December 3rd. We urge all interested individuals and stakeholders to participate in the Council’s process, which allows for feedback to be provided by writing or through a phone message, as well through virtual hearings on November 12th and 13th. In addition to comments about the Comp Plan, it offers an opportunity for you to share with Council the importance of prioritizing passage of the Comp Plan in 2020 to ensure critical work can continue in line with our long-term vision and values. You can learn more about Comp Plan major themes and updates by following the #CompPlan2020 hashtag on Twitter or visiting the PlanDC website.
Please feel free to share this newsletter 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 27th, the Georgetown University Global Cities Initiative and OP brought together DC’s five most recent planning directors, spanning over two decades, to discuss the legacy of twenty years of comprehensive planning in the District, with the Comp Plan update at Council, and explore the next 20 years. The virtual roundtable discussion, attended by over 300 participants from across the city and region, included a robust discussion with former OP directors Andrew Altman, Ellen McCarthy, Harriet Tregoning, Eric Shaw, and Director Andrew Trueblood which was moderated by longtime community engagement and mediation expert Don Edwards. The discussion went back to the work of the Office of Planning that was empowered after the sunset of the Congressionally-appointed Control Board and discussed the various approaches to planning and comprehensive planning in that time. It also examined how the proposed Comp Plan update positions the District for a new set of challenges over the next twenty years.
You can watch a recording of 20 Years of Comprehensive Planning in the District of Columbia here.
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The 2020 Census ended on October 15th with a total enumeration of 99.9% nationally as well as in the District. Due to the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, self-response rates across the country were lower than in 2010. Still, almost half of DC’s census tracts exceeded the 66% self-response rate from 2010.
The Bowser Administration remained committed, through the very end of the census operations, to ensuring a complete count of all residents. For a year and a half, the DC Census team, comprised of government and community partners, engaged with residents in all eight wards. Even with the obstacles of the public health emergency, the team turned to new and creative ways to reach residents.
Mayor Bowser launched the first DC based Census grant program, awarding over $924,000 to 16 local organizations to support community engagement and outreach for the 2020 Census. The organizations selected as grantees have extensive networks and often are the trusted community leaders in the communities they serve. Grantees used innovative, hyper local, culturally relevant outreach and education methods to reach hard-to-count communities. Census information was shared at over 500 community events in DC with a total of 883,000 engagements with hard-to-count residents.
DC Census also carried out an extensive marketing campaign that included print, radio and television ads; as well as store billboards, bus shelters, metro stations, bike share stations, interior and exterior bus wraps, 60,000 CVS bag inserts, 5,000 door hangers, Nationals Park digital billboards, and more. DC Census had over 5 million social media impressions through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube; and produced 25 PSAs, in 6 languages, featuring Mayor Bowser, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and other local officials and celebrities.
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On September 28th, OP submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on June 12, 2020, for the proposed Washington Union Station Expansion Project, in accordance with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). OP has been an active participant in the NEPA process and has identified key concerns with the DEIS. The comments include concerns noted in the Statement from Director Andrew Trueblood, released in August, and a more-detailed comment matrix.
OP has identified several areas of critical concern for the FRA’s DEIS:
- Parking
- Urban Design
- Optimizing Land Use with a 100-Year Vision
- Pick-Up-and-Drop-Off
- Circulation and Access
- Proposed Mitigation Measures
Complementary to OP’s comments, Mayor Bowser transmitted a letter urging the FRA to accept and incorporate the comments from District and federal agencies. “As currently proposed in the DEIS, the Project falls far short of what District residents, visitors, workers, and other stakeholders need and deserve,” said Mayor Bowser.
More information on the proposed Washington Union Station Expansion Project, as well as OP documents related to this process, can be found at planning.dc.gov/washington-union-station.
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In an effort to support local small businesses and local artists, Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), in partnership with Cities of Service and OP, launched RESILIENT TOGETHER.
RESILIENT TOGETHER is a creative placemaking initiative designed to support local artist and small business partnerships. Its goal is to spur creative and safe resiliency strategies small businesses can employ to attract and sustain their customer base as they continue to adapt to the changing circumstances of COVID-19. The initiative is specifically targeted to businesses located in Ward 8.
Each winning artist/small business partnership will be awarded up to $5,000. The award will be paid directly to the business, and the business will be required to reimburse the artist as agreed upon on the award MOU. RESILIENT TOGETHER will award 3-5 grants in total.
For more information, visit: www.lisc.org/dc/regional-stories/resilienttogether/
To apply, fill out an application using this link.
To view the full Call for Proposals, click here.
LISC will host two information webinars:
- Information Webinar 1 - Thursday, October 29 at 7PM; Register here
- Information Webinar 2 - Monday, November 16 at 3PM; Register here
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The proposed Comprehensive Plan update recognizes that the most sustainable growth is dense urban growth. The District’s compact urban form and transit-oriented development help keep household emissions at less than half that of other areas of the region. Without 36,000 homes built in our city, we will see additional sprawl and congestion, and erode District, regional, national and global efforts at mitigating climate change.
For more about the Comprehensive Plan update, please visit plandc.dc.gov.
Image Source: coolclimate.org/maps
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