Review of D.C.'s 2005 Comprehensive Plan: Trying to Be All Things to All People

The Greater Greater Washington site is undertaking a roundtable, of sorts, to review Washington, D.C.'s 2005 Comprehensive Plan. Each week, Greater Greater Washington readers are discussing the section and summarizing their discussion on the site.

David Whitehead summarizes the most recent discussion, which centered on the comp plan's priority on enabling an inclusive city.

DC's 2005 Comprehensive Plan began with a strong and encouraging vision: building a growing and inclusive city. Just one chapter later, it lists a set of contradictory guiding principles that waffle between preserving the status quo and promoting inclusive growth. Oops.

To back that argument, Whitehead digs into the plan's section on the guiding principles for growth. Readers notices that many of the guiding principles employ contradictory terms—antonyms even.

Corey Holman noticed that many of these statements use "near antonyms," like "Maintaining and enhancing the mix of housing types" (Principle #3) or "ensure that neighborhood character is preserved and enhanced" (Principle #8). He wrote, "How can something be maintained or preserved while also being enhanced? It's that wishy-washy language that allows people to see what they want in this document, instead of laying out a clear vision.

The lesson of the post is that next time around, the District will require a comp plan that makes strong statements about its principles—especially since the District is growing much faster than the 2005 plan anticipated.