Press Alert :: DC RESIDENTS ASKING NCPC TO SEND COMP PLAN BACK TO DC COUNCIL

The Mayor and City Council want to open up the flood gates and have many more people move into the city and into taller denser buildings around the city and in proximity to the National Mall, the downtown core, and along some of the coastlines and subsequently nearby federal properties, including sensitive federal agencies and bases.  DC residents believe that without impact studies the triggered increase in population will put even more burden on “already fragile utilities, sewer lines, transportation systems . . . threatening the ability and capacity for the central government to function.”

“Emergency response time will obviously be reduced or perhaps catastrophically impaired with more and more congestion in the streets and in the denser communities in the new bigger buildings to be sited newly around the federal interests and properties. Emergency egress routes such as up North Capitol past the Armed Forces Retirement Home or heading down South Capitol past Fort McNair will become less available as taller denser buildings and more population in DC make streets more congested and less passable in times of crisis.  Same goes for East Capitol Street out over the Anacostia river. … There are no walls between DC and the federal interests and properties and workforce that ensure our central government continues to operate as efficiently and safely as possible.  The significant changes made by local officials we see in the voluminous amendments to the Comp Plan and planning maps were required to be studied, but were not.” From Testimony submitted to NCPC by DC for Reasonable Development (see attached below).

NCPC Commissioners include local officials like Arrington Dixon and Linda Argo alongside representatives from National Park Service, Dept of Defense, Secty of the Interior, Homeland Security, the House of Representatives, Government Operations Subcommittee, and other important federal agencies.