{"id":1091,"date":"2024-05-20T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T00:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:36:05","slug":"high-density-luxury-rezoning-at-1617-u-street-still-being-pushed-by-dc-office-of-planning-threatening-imminent-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/2024\/05\/20\/high-density-luxury-rezoning-at-1617-u-street-still-being-pushed-by-dc-office-of-planning-threatening-imminent-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"High Density Luxury Rezoning at 1617 U Street Still Being Pushed by DC Office of Planning Threatening Imminent Harm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mayor’s Office of Planning “Shoved in Earplugs” By Continuing to Push High Density Luxury Rezoning at 1617 U Street; Three of Four Zoning Commissioners, Meanwhile, Suggest OP’s MU10 Rezoning is “Inappropriate”<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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\nWashington, DC — Wards One & Two<\/b> — The District of Columbia Office of Planning (OP) has pursued high-density luxury rezoning across 2-acres of public land at 1617 U Street for more than eighteen months. OP originally filed their rezoning application<\/a> in January 2023 and it was docketed as Zoning Case No. 23-02.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Now, OP recently filed an amendment to their application<\/a><\/b> and despite overwhelming opposition, OP persists in pushing the controversial MU10 zone district.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Background<\/u>: <\/b>Over six zoning hearings that started earlier this year<\/a><\/b>, more than fifty residents testified in person their clear resistance to OP’s proposed luxury rezoning. Neighbors also submitted more than two hundred written letters and more than 1,000 signatures on a petition in defiance of OP’s proposed dramatic land use changes. And, an unprecedented five opposition parties are in the case<\/a> and they brought certified planning experts to the zoning hearings who demonstrated that high-density MU10 rezoning will lead to more displacement<\/a><\/b> of nearby vulnerable businesses and residents.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On May 9, 2024,<\/b> the Zoning Commission deliberated<\/a> about OP’s zoning application and three of four Zoning \u00a0Commissioners suggested the MU10 high-density zone is “not appropriate” given the context of the low-rise community nearby and won’t “strike a balance” among other concerns. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Commission seems to be hearing us, but it sounds like the Mayor’s Office of Planning has shoved in their earplugs,”<\/b> <\/i>stated Debby Hanrahan with Save DC Public Land: Working for a Truly Affordable, Safe and Racially Equitable U Street.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nHanrahan points to the recently filed request by the Office of Planning to the Commission seeking to amend their application for a brand new split-zoning approach<\/a>, with a lower density zone along V Street (MU4) and the same controversial high density zone (MU10) along U Street.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/b><\/span>More community disregard:<\/b> The Office of Planning didn’t serve their request to amend their zoning application to all the parties, choosing not to notify the next-door Tenants of Rochelle Apartments party.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Par for the course, OP continues to be sloppy and continues to discard neighbors even now procedurally,” <\/b><\/i>said Hanrahan who pointed to how OP has treated the Black Neighbors party (click for video<\/a>). <\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Zoning Commission may take up OP’s request at their next zoning meeting, Thursday, May 30, 2024, starting at 4PM. Watch here: <\/span><\/i><\/span>https:<\/a>\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DCOfficeofZoning\/streams<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/span>
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Mayor’s Office of Planning “Shoved in Earplugs” By Continuing to Push High Density Luxury Rezoning at 1617 U Street; Three of Four Zoning Commissioners, Meanwhile, Suggest OP’s MU10 Rezoning is “Inappropriate” Washington, DC — Wards One & Two — The District of Columbia Office of Planning (OP) has pursued high-density luxury rezoning across 2-acres of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1617u","category-publicland","category-zoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot_2024-06-17_19-44-23.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedcpublicland.org\/the1617project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}