Tonight: Zoning Regulation Revisions Meeting for Ward 2

Ward 2 residents can offer feedback on proposed revisions and reorganization of the District's zoning regulations at a community meeting Tuesday. These regulations could impact a wide range of every day issues, like parking, building height, acceptable use and more. 

The Office of Planning (OP) has been working on the new zoning regulations for four years, hoping to provide a simpler guide for future development in the city. DC's current Zoning Ordinance was approved in 1958.

According to a website dedicated to the OP zoning update:

"The countless amendments to the ordinance over the last half century have served to keep the regulations relevant.  However, piling amendment on top of amendment over the years has problems of its own. Even the simplest of text amendments have become extremely complicated as 50 years of changes have made it very difficult to cross-reference interwoven sections and prevent unintended consequences."

In 2010 the Citizens Association of Georgetown hosted Travis Parker, a development review specialist from OP, to speak about how potential zoning changes would impact the neighborhood.

At the time Parker called Georgetown a "model neighborhood" because of its mix of community-serving uses. Many local small businesses, like Sara's market and Georgetown Wine and Spirits, pre-date the 1958 regulations and would technically be illegal to rebuild should they have a fire.

Parker told CAG that the way current code it is written, "doesn't allow [other neighborhoods] to become more like [Georgetown]."

The new regulations could create a wider mix of uses, similar to what one finds in Georgetown.

The public meeting for Ward 2 is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at
421 7th Street NW (2 blocks south of the Gallery Place Metro Station).

If you cannot make the meeting Tuesday, OP is hosting Twitter Town Halls at noon Friday and Jan. 14.

Additional information about the Zoning re-write can be found here: www.DCZoningUpdate.org