NEW ZONING RULES SHRED TRANSPARENCY, NOTICE AND RACIAL EQUITY
NW Opportunity Partners CDC (NWOP) calls out the Zoning Commission’s (ZC) proposed new rules (ZC Case #22-25) as forming the foundation for a culture of fear-based development. NWOP comments that the proposed rules reveal a ZC that fears the time and effort it would take to engage with the public, to answer hard questions, to hold developers accountable, or to be held accountable for codified racial equity regulations. The new rules would limit public notice to tenants, neighbors and ANCs about projects affecting their communities and would fail to stand up mandatory regulations for racial equity analysis, and use of that analysis in making and enforcing zoning decisions.
“This is exactly the wrong time for zoning to become opaque,” said Meg Maguire, Chair of NWOP CDC.“The recently released Wisconsin Avenue Development Framework sets the table for massive up zoning along this corridor. But what will be served on this table is very much in question and subject to negotiation. The ZC’s proposed rules open the door for developers and public officials to say one thing and deliver something else, eviscerating transparency, community engagement and racial equity.”
The new rules:
- Severely weaken requirements for notification of zoning changes for ANCs, tenants and neighbors within 200 feet of a proposed project;
- Fail to codify racial equity standards or procedures, enabling applicants to ignore the results of their projects on direct and indirect displacement; and
- Place community benefits negotiated through Planned Unit Developments in jeopardy of change without public notice.
“Adoption of these rules will only fuel the wide-spread suspicion that zoning is rigged in favor of developers and that the Zoning Commission prefers to operate in the shadows,” said Maguire.
Gail Sonnemann