PRESS ALERT: Before the City Council Vote Today, Residents From Around the City File a Lawsuit Against the Mayor’s DC Comp Plan Changes

Washington, DC — Just before the City Council takes up a second vote on the Mayor’s changes to the DC Comprehensive Plan today, 12 District residents from 6 of 8 Wards around the city filed a civil complaint in DC Superior Court today calling out the changes to Plan as lacking “planning” and unlawful.

“We will be directly affected by the Comprehensive Plan up-zoning via the streetcar extension on Benning Road NE . . . [which] will displace the long-time African-American residents in this residential zoned community,” said David Belt, longtime Ward 7 resident and plaintiff in the case.

“I am a senior citizen and I live very close to the Howard Divinty School University Campus grounds,” said Shirley Shannon, plaintiff and 60+ year Ward 5 resident. “I do not wish to endure the proposed increased construction and traffic noise and pollution and forced disruption in our lives [brought on by these Comp Plan changes].”

“I live within a few blocks of proposed FLUM upzoning on at least three Connecticut Avenue parcels that would grant to private parties, for no consideration, valuable property rights that belong to the community and the citizens thereof,” said Allen Seebler plaintiff in Ward 3.

“Certainly, to acknowledge the harm and planning mistakes of the past, legislation and policies can and must be passed within the Plan and alongside the Plan to ensure a portion of the value generated by changes to the [planning maps] is wealth that is specifically passed from Wards 1, 2, 3 and moved to the communities that have been historically disinvested in, such as Wards 5, 7, 8. We are tired of hearing we don’t have the money to fill the gaps in community services, don’t have hospitals, clinics, grocery stores, etc. etc, especially when we see the wealth and value that could fund these community needs being given away like with these changes to the Plan and its maps.”

“At the very least we need impact assessments of the proposed changes to the Comp Plan and the accompanying future land use map (FLUM) which are calling for generally increased densities, especially along commercial corridors. … In the last decade as the overall population of the city has grown, tens of thousands of lower-income and renting African Americans and Hispanics left the city due to affordability and displacement by property conversions.  If I am wrong, will someone please correct me.  I am all ears,” stated Graylin Presbury, President of the Fairlawn Citizens Association in Ward 8.

The lawsuit against the passage of the Comprehensive Plan will be heard in DC Superior Court as lawyers and other plaintiffs come on board soon.

There’s been no response by Councilmembers to the warnings and now submission of the Comp Plan claims yet.

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