Woodley Park Community Issues: ZoningDC's Zoning Regulations play a major role in shaping communities in the city, including Woodley Park. In fact, Woodley Park has a special set of rules for its business district. From time to time, changes are proposed to these rules. We will try to flag those changes here.2910 Garfield Street. There was considerable controversy over the proposed development at 2910 Garfield Street, where one 2800-square-foot home was replaced by two houses totaling almost 10,000 square feet. Read more here. Zoning Review and Rewrite. In December 2006, the City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Plan for the City. You can see the Plan here. So the City’s zoning regulations had to be changed to conform to the new Plan. These rules control what may be built and where, and where different types of businesses may operate. They have a huge effect on how the City, and its neighborhoods, will grow and develop. The Zoning Commission has announce two roundtables to hear public comment regarding the existing Zoning Regulations and what should be done with them. To ensure public input throughtout the process, OP established of a Zoning Review Taskforce made up of individuals nominated by members of the City Council as well as others representing certain interest groups. The Taskforce provided guidance on the organization and execution of the regulation review process. It also provided OP with technical review of the policies and draft language proposals that result from the 20 Working Groups that were set up to deal with specific policy or subject areas. OP has a website with materials relevant to this process here. After hundreds of meetings of the Taskforce, Working Groups and the public, OP submitted a proposed new zoning code to the Zoning Commission. The Commission held a series on hearings on the proposals. WPCA testified at one of them in support of the proposal to ease the restrictions on accessory apartments in rowhouse neighborhoods like Woodley Park. |