PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2021
Contact: Meg Maguire
202-546-4536
C100 Urges DC Council To Table Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2020 (Bill 24-0001) Because it Perpetuates, Accelerates Racial Inequity.
The Committee of 100 on the Federal City (C100) is urging the Council to “table,” i.e., postpone further action on, the Committee Print of Bill 24-0001 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2020 because the current draft “…perpetuates and accelerates failed policies that have led to gross racial inequities and citizen disempowerment.” See our April 28, 2021 letter to the Council on this matter HERE.
In its letter to the Council, C100 quotes from the new Council Office of Racial Equity’s (CORE) report which found that the bill “…fails to disrupt the status quo of deep racial inequities in the District of Columbia [and] perpetuates the status quo” including the conditions that have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Black DC residents. The CORE report further concludes that the bill distorts history, conceals data that reveal inequities, excludes Black and other groups from decision-making, lacks forceful policies, actions and accountability, and ignores the disproportionate effect of the COVID-19 public health emergency in exacerbating a divided city.
“We support CORE’s conclusions.,” said Kirby Vining, Chair of C100. Unmasking the Rewrite: How to Make the Comprehensive Plan Work for DC, C100’s December 2020 74-page analysis of five Comp Plan elements, stated:
- The Plan fails to reckon honestly with the city’s inequities and past failures, laying the groundwork for repeating the same mistakes in the future.
- Faulty data, missing data and discredited theories underlie the policies and actions promoted in the Plan.
- The amendments will further disempower residents and undercut the Council by transferring power over land use decisions to the Executive and the Zoning Commission.
- The Plan is astonishingly weak on policies and actions to achieve affordable housing or build generational wealth.
- The Plan is not a plan at all but a pastiche of problematic prescriptions. Conceived through a chaotic process, it is not based on a foundation of good data, community visioning, evaluation of alternatives or building consensus.
The C100 letter to the Council concludes with a request for a NO vote on the current draft and for the Council to start planning for the 2026 Comprehensive Plan rewrite based on better data and real community involvement that will “…guide us to a more equitable and prosperous future for all.”
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