The D.C. Comprehensive Plan Lawsuit Survives Dismissal — Residents from Around the City Demand Lawful and Meaningful Planning in the Nation’s Capital
Resident-Plaintiffs from around the District of Columbia are suing D.C.’s Mayor and Office of Planning about their 1,000+ pages of changes to the D.C. Comprehensive Plan — D.C.’s central planning document that is supposed to guide how D.C. grows into the future.
The Mayor signed the Comp Plan changes into law that include nearly 200 million square feet of density upzoning on planning maps across the city, especially near vulnerable working-class D.C. communities.
What’s wrong with the Comp Plan changes?
The Comp Plan lawsuit has exposed the fact that D.C. planners under the Mayor conducted absolutely no studies or impact evaluations associated with the tome of proposed Comp Plan amendments (many of which were proposed by developers and their attorneys). Nor, did city planners ever write any progress reports showing how the existing Comp Plan policies and actions were working, or not.
D.C. residents from around the city are arguing before D.C. Superior Court that the Mayor is required to conduct progress reports and environmental impact reviews, displacement evaluation and mitigation planning, and to look at growth impacts on existing public services (overcrowding schools, clinics, libraries, parks, and capacity issue with existing transportation, utilities, pipes, etc.), problems born of the immense increase in population the changes imminently induce.
What’s the Objective & Remedy of the Comp Plan Lawsuit?
As a critical human rights issue, Plaintiffs and their supporters seek an end to bad planning in D.C.. 60,000 Black folks have been made gone from the city over the past 20-years, coincidentally the same time period when the city has given cart blanch to regional, national, and international real estate speculators by handing them immense zoning entitlements, tax gifts, valuable air rights, and deeds to our public land to build-build-build. Consistently left out of the city’s planning discussions & decisions are the people who are being directly affected and harmed by the unfettered developer-growth machine.
Plaintiffs seek an end to bad planning and the harms therein by ensuring impacts born of the city’s planning initiatives and actions (whether by major individual projects and/or substantial citywide land use policies) are truly evaluated before decisions are made. We can and must use basic AICP planning protocols & common-sense along with a racial equity lens to protect & uplift all DC residents especially those directly affected by adverse growth impacts. We seek to center D.C.’s planning apparatus on those D.C. residents and communities who are being displaced and are threatened with displacement while simultaneously ensuring we plan our city responsibly as it regards public service capacities & limitations. We also want to see D.C. develop in a way that protects & propels our environment and positive health outcomes.
What’s at Stake with the Lawsuit?
If Plaintiffs win the Comp Plan lawsuit, we can reel in the planning reigns that have stolen by developers from the people and ensure all D.C. communities are offered good planning by city officials. It’s an opportunity for a comprehensive re-examination of what planning means in D.C. (and beyond) by using basic impact study protocols that have been in place for a long time but simply forgotten here in D.C. in an ignorant effort to grow the city at any cost.
At the forefront of our efforts is the elimination, if not substantial mitigation of the massive displacement of our Black and Brown D.C. families, friends, and neighbors coinciding with the past 20-years of build-baby-build.
How you can help!
- Make a donation to our intrepid legal team, led by Renee Bowser, Esq., who has offered pro bono services. Your donation will pay for legal fees, documents, expert witnesses, and other expenses associated with the Comp Plan lawsuit and trial.
- We need experts! Do you know any environmental specialists, urban planners, land use attorneys, researchers, and the like that may be willing to help on what can be a huge impact case here in D.C. that will have reverberations around the nation. We want experts who want to propel good urban planning methods and protocols and will testify and participate in the case. Click here for more info!
- Invite our speakers team to your community meeting. If you are part of a community group in D.C. and want our speakers bureau to talk with your group by Zoom or in person, please let us know and we can schedule a time to come and discuss.
PLEASE CONTACT US WITH ANY INTEREST IN THIS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT LAWSUIT!
• Chris Otten, 202-810-2768, dc4reality@gmail.com, www.dcgrassrootsplanning.org/dclaw
IF YOU ARE AN URBAN PLANNER OR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES SCIENTIST (experts) please click here!
Documents Associated with the Case
- Press Releases about the Comp Plan lawsuit
- Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint with Plaintiff Declarations
- Other Plaintiff Pleadings
- Pleadings by the D.C. Mayor & Office of Attorney General
- DC Sup. Ct. Order Denying the Mayor’s Motion to Dismiss the Case