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February 15, 2001
Robert Rigsby
Corporation Counsel
District of Columbia
441 4th Street, NW
Suite 1060N
Washington, D.C. 20002
Dear Mr. Rigsby:
As ANC Commissioner 4B01, I am writing to you for clarification about an issue that has come up with the Office of Planning regarding D.C. Code 1-261(c) -- the role of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. I also have questions about the role of the City Council.
The Office of Planning is now completing its portion of the Takoma Central Area Plan (used interchangeably with the words "Takoma Small Area Plan"). This plan, as it is being developed by the planning office, proposes significant zoning and land use changes for an area around the Takoma Metro Station. (A copy of some of the materials is enclosed.)
One of documents distributed at a January 31st meeting on the Central Area Plan is confusing and disturbing. Page one of one of the handout Number 2, titled, "Planning and Implementation Process," has language that states, "The Office of Planning is the entity that adopts the SAP [Small Area Plan] at its completion. It also becomes a component of the Neighborhood Planning Initiative." The language in the handout also raises the question of "mayoral adoption or approval" and ANC involvement.
Frankly, I don't understand the meaning of the phrase "adopts the SAP at its completion" and the timing of the approval process as the planning office describes it in the document. And I have been unable to get a clear explanation from Planning Office staff.
D.C. Code 1-261(d) provides for ANC recommendations for property zoning changes and comprehensive planning proposals, and notes that the ANC's recommendations should be given "great weight."
However, the discussion at the January 31st meeting seemed to indicate that commissioners in ANC 4B will not have an opportunity to comment formally on this Central Area Plan for quite a while. Apparently, the Planning Office believes it can package the Takoma Central Plan with land use proposals for other communities in Ward 4. Completing these other neighborhood plans could take years.
Meanwhile, developers and property owners could ask for approval for their projects from city agencies, including the D.C. Zoning Commission. They would naturally cite the Takoma Central Plan to support their requests.
Such a situation is likely to happen very soon. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) owns property at the Takoma Metro Station which the D.C. City Council approved as a park, park buffer and open space in 1975 through powers it gained from the Zoning Commission as reported in the D.C. Register on January 12, 1973. WMATA has signed a contract with a commercial developer, Eakin Youngentob & Associates (EYA), to build about 95 townhouses on the land through a Federal Transit Administration Joint Development Project. EYA has said it will file a Planned Unit Development (PUD) request with the zoning commission for the site, but is waiting for the recommendations in the Takoma Central Plan before doing so.
The Takoma Central Plan addresses the WMATA site, among other parcels in the area. Several zoning changes are endorsed. Current language in the Office of Planning draft for the Takoma Central Plan supports putting up to 95 units at the WMATA site. That proposal is a dramatic change from what is on the site currently and from what is permitted by the site's current zoning. Clearly, the language in the Takoma Central Plan, as it is currently proposed, would be very helpful to EYA in their PUD application before the zoning commission.
However, many of my constituents oppose this language and have repeatedly questioned the Planning Office about the judgments they are making in the Takoma Central Plan. My constituents have always understood that whatever the Planning Office proposes in the Takoma Central Plan is only that, a proposal, until it voted on by the City Council, with recommendations from Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners in 4B.
This draft proposal should not be used by landowners and developers to support their projects prior to approval by the City Council, and prior to formal comment from Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B and its commissioners. The Office of Planning should not be permitted to thwart the protections detailed in D.C. Code 1-261(c) and (d).
So, timing is important here. I believe that the Takoma Central Plan needs to be sent to both ANC 4B and to the City Council for approval and comment immediately after the Office of Planning produces their final version of the plan. These recommendations should not be packaged with proposals for other communities that will take much longer to develop. The planning office has said that its consultants will complete their work on the Takoma Central Plan at the end of February or March 2001.
I call your attention to other language on Handout 2 (page one). "The Small Area Plan (SAP) was adopted as a new means by the District of Columbia and its Office [of] Planning to re-establish an effective community scale planning and action process in the city. The Takoma Central Plan is the first of these to be undertaken in the District."
This statement is not accurate. There really isn't anything new about the Small Area Planning Process, except perhaps a name change. The D.C. Office of Planning has drafted several neighborhood plans, beginning in 1975, for roughly the same area in Takoma that is covered by this SAP.
We need to clarify the important role that ANC's and the City Council have in the land and community planning process and the timing. This issue will come up in other communities and in other wards in the city and should be addressed now.
Many thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
Sara Green
Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B01
7106 Piney Branch Road, NW
Washington, D.C. 20012 Tele:
202 829-8802
cc: City Council Member Adrian Fenty, Ward 4
City Council Member David Catania
Barrington Scott, I, Chair, ANC 4B
Cecily Patterson, ANC 4B01
Louis Lieb, ANC 4B03
Andrew Altman, Director, Office of Planning
