Good citizens seeking good planning in the District , here’s the latest update from the DC for Reasonable Development team.
Menu:
1) Upcoming City Council Hearings
2) DC’s Infrastructure Collapse
3) McMillan Park :: Climate Folly
1) UPCOMING COUNCIL HEARINGS
http://dccouncil.us/news/entry/performance-oversight-and-budget-hearing-schedules-slightly-updated
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TOMORROW, FRIDAY, MARCH 6 — 12PM
Oversight hearing on DC’s Planning Agencies
http://dccouncil.us/events/committee-of-the-whole-boh3
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There may be a hearing tomorrow about DC’s planning agencies, the Deputy Mayor’s Office on Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), the DC Office of Planning (OP), and the DC Office of Zoning (OZ). The hearing starts at Noon in Room 500 of the Wilson Building located at 1350 Pennyslvania Avenue NW.
In the case you are not able to come to the Wilson Building to testify tomorrow, or if the Wilson Building is closed tomorrow, you can send in your testimony about the bad planning in the district to the Committee Clerk, Cynthia LeFevre, clefevre@dccouncil.us or call her directly at 202-724-8092.
In shaping your testimony, DC4RD suggest the following points and topics. If you want to send us your testimony draft, we’d be glad to support you with case studies, data, links, and any edits to help.
DC4RD offers these suggested points of contention with DMPED:
* DMPED is brokering deals, terms of which are not made available to the public either before or after the deal is signed. DMPED will not put details of the deals on their website as required by law.
* DMPED’s deals tend to giveaway public assets, like DC land and public buildings. Once DC’s limited public property is given away, its rarely ever comes back.
* DMPED defines affordable housing as studio/one-bedroom units at $1,500 a month.
* DMPED is hiring private firms to discredit the communities that are opposed to their deals.
* DMPED mischaracterizes public amenities which they say the developer pays for, but which ultimately the public pays for.
* DMPED purposely undervalues the price of public land, so when the deal is struck developers are paying for our land at significant discount, sometimes getting our assets for a $1.
DC4RD offers these suggested points of concern with the Office of Planning:
* OP does not conduct robust studies of projects, particularly large luxury projects so to identify and attempt to mitigate displacement pressures and to evaluate infrastructure needs.
* OP is pushing forward 1000+ pages of zoning changes using a one-size-fits-all model without meaningful review of possible impacts their changes will have on DC’s future.
* OP disregards community outreach and input from many Wards where low income families predominantly live, like in Wards 5, 7 and 8.
* OP does not use the work and efforts of planning initiatives of other jurisdictions to model their work from.
* OP has done nothing to mitigate the affordable housing crisis in the District, despite being a central planning organ which is supposed to raise up the principles of “Building an Inclusive City” as found through the DC Comprehensive Plan.
* Planning should be removed from under DMPED. DMPED is focused on “economic” development and the best deal they can give developers, whereas municipal planning encompasses many points of evaluation to improve the built urban-landscape such as parks, infrastructure, and mitigating displacement. OP should not have to report to DMPED on major planning projects.
DC4RD offers these suggested points on the Office of Zoning:
* The Office of Zoning ought to have a People’s advocate or commission so to help everyday laypeople get a sense of their rights in administrative cases before the Zoning Commission. Right now the structure at OZ is set up to serve developers rights, but there is little in the assistance in guiding DC residents to the rules, to their rights, and to better outcomes for the interests of the people.
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TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2015 — 10AM
Oversight hearing on DC Public Schools and the DC PUBLIC LIBRARY.
http://dccouncil.us/events/committee-on-education-poh4
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Please testify about your public schools and libraries on Tuesday. In particular, we want less charter schools and more charter-school accountability and we want to make sure the programmatic planning of what’s happening inside MLK library is done by all Eight Wards and by people of all backgrounds, including teens and children.
2) DC’s INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE
DC’s municipal infrastructure is failing and the under belly is collapsing under its own isht. Literally >> http://www.dc4reality.org/updates/148#up4
Here’s John Oliver’s great satirical take on how important municipal infrastructure is, and why we need the City to prioritize upgrading and improvements to our utilities structures instead of funding private soccer stadiums >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpzvaqypav8
Let’s make infrastructure sexy.
Wow, with the recent news of the Mega-Drought, its making DMPED’s decision to tear out McMillan’s underground and historic water storage and filtration facility seem like foolish folly that will bite us in the not to distant future. Where will Congress get their water when the drought comes east.
Here’s some solutions and ideas:
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Save McMillan Park >> http://friendsofmcmillan.org/
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Get this going locally now >> http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/26/8112889/vertical-farm-wyoming-hydroponics-grow-food
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The City can install these awesomely cool pipes >> http://magazine.good.is/articles/portland-pipeline-water-turbine-power
PLEASE SEE ALL OF DC4RD’S UPDATES HERE >>
http://www.dc4reality.org/updates/category/updates
Please see DC4RD online Resources here >>
http://www.dc4reason.org/resources