DC’s Office of Planning (OP) has released a virtual workshop to walk through its Draft Future Land Use Map (FLUM).

Visit OP’s Draft FLUM Virtual Workshop. Comment on the draft changes by April 30, 2026.

OP estimated the number of additional new homes necessary to keep housing cost increases below the inflation rate. With the Draft FLUM, OP seeks to quantify the number of housing units that would be created by each of the changes.

Draft Ward 4 Neighborhood Proposal

CHANGE AREA 4.4

Location: New Hampshire NW and Riggs Ave NE

Changes in this area include:

·        Small-scale residential neighborhoods to moderate-scale residential neighborhoods

These changes are estimated to add 1,050 housing units and 100 jobs.

Draft Ward 5 Neighborhood Proposal

CHANGE AREA 5.1:

Location: South Dakota Ave NE

Changes in this area include:

·        Small-scale residential neighborhoods to moderate-scale residential neighborhoods

These changes are estimated to add 60 housing units and 50 jobs. 

—

I attended the spring workshop and I find OP’s draft changes for Riggs Parks (Change Areas 4.4 and 5.1) to be a bit random. If the goal is to say that we need additional housing units, I think we can look to where we know large institutional properties are going to be developed into new housing, such as the Boys Town and Providence campuses, rather than looking at random parcels of existing semi-detached homes, which is what the Draft FLUM is proposing.

OP Director Anita Cozart explained that they are targeting areas near Metrorail and high-frequency bus routes (I get that). She said the idea is to make way for gentle density like small apartments. When I pointed out that Faith United Church has been trying to build on its property for decades but no change is being proposed for that property, she said OP also wants to keep the areas with proposed changes contiguous and not do one-off changes to individual lots. I get that as well, though I suspect that is exactly what will end up happening for reasons.

I still think that if there are institutional properties that will likely be redeveloped into new housing in the future, then to me it makes sense for that to be reflected in the Draft FLUM. I guess the only reason they are not doing that is that theoretically the institutional use reflected in the FLUM would not preclude developing housing.

For example, Boys Town is shown as institutional on the existing FLUM but it is zoned R-2 which will allow development of semi-detached housing by right. Developer Urban Atlantic is planning to build 166 semi-detached homes there. And 166 homes is already more than the 60 that OP is showing for the random draft change in Change 5.1. Realistically Change 5.1 is not going to result in an additional 60 housing units and that is probably fine. We already have 166 semi-detached homes going in at Boys Town and hundreds more housing units going in at Providence eventually. Furthermore, we know that the 8,000 square foot Main Building on the Boys Town campus will likely need a zoning change or exception in the future for anything to be done with it. It is not going to be torn down. So I think there are missed opportunities here.

It is worth looking at the draft changes elsewhere in the city. I participated in one of the breakout meetings. One of the questions was where to build affordable housing (I assume they were referring to income-restricted affordable housing). Mysteriously one of the assumptions they made when asking the question was that if they continue to build affordable housing in areas well below the median family income, then somehow amenities would follow by adding more low-income households to the mix. I think if the goal is to provide access to amenities, then it makes sense to build/maintain affordable housing in amenity-rich neighborhoods like neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park and to be very intentional about providing amenities in areas lacking them. Assuming that amenities will somehow simply follow with no thoughtful intentional action does not make a lot of sense to me.

Anyways, be sure to take the opportunity to review the draft map and submit your feedback to OP by April 30.