12-14-2023: Testimony of Meg Maguire, Chair, NWOP CDC

Testimony on B25-39 Common Ground Amendment Act of 2023

12-14-2023

Testimony of Meg Maguire, NW Opportunity Partners Community Development Corporation

TO: Committee on Facilities and Family Services

I am Meg Maguire, Chair of NWOP CDC, a Ward 3-focused non-profit organization devoted to racial equity through affordable housing and minority business development in well-planned neighborhoods. We commend this Committee for proposing the Common Ground Amendment Act to foster better stewardship of the public lands we hold in common, and to strengthen affordable housing set asides and requirements for multi-bedroom units.

While we have very little public land in Ward 3 to repurpose, we have seen firsthand how badly broken the current surplus and disposition system can be. Nowhere is the cost of this dysfunction more apparent than at the Chevy Chase civic center where neighbors are at each other’s throats over redevelopment. It is unreasonable to ask communities to turn over the future planning and ownership of public lands to private developers before more deeply engaging themselves.

Based on the Chevy Chase experience, and our testimony at the first public hearing last January (please include the attached for the record), I will focus on an important omission from your bill:  ensuring that tightened procedures also produce substantive planning resultsbefore surplus and disposition are on the table and well in advance of a Request for Proposal (RFP)?

Planning Deficit #1:  Even when active public uses are to remain on the site, robust community engagement in planning currently does not take place before the city initiates action to surplus the land and hand it over to a developer.

Example: In Chevy Chase, DC Public Library and the Department of Parks and Recreation should have engaged the community before the initial surplus hearing to lay out their full requirements for both indoor and outdoor space and to seek ideas from the community about how this responds to user needs. This dialogue has never been formally held and that many residents are still unclear about the needs and visions of those agencies.

Legislative addition:  If any current public uses on the site are to remain, at an initial public hearing the agencies administering these uses must present a detailed statement about their present and future needs and requirements including expansion/contraction of services or space; and how these uses will be compatible/incompatible with other types of development on the site. The agencies will be responsible for creating an opportunity(s) for neighboring residents and businesses to engage in public discussion and feedback about the ongoing needs and requirements.

Planning Deficit #2:  City agencies are relying on development jargon that conveys different meanings to different people. But they are doing virtually nothing to foster consensus through a common visual language and understanding of development options (including density). ‘Sticky note planning’ and static massing diagrams limit public understanding and dialogue. Creating various scenarios using ArcGIS City Engine and Urban, the gold standard of interactive visual simulation software, is now possiblebecause the Office of Planning has licensed and trained staff in its application.

Example:  In Chevy Chase, two camps have squared off with differing views of the future civic site – with and without an apartment building. There has been no opportunity for residents to participate in visualizing different scenarios of how the site might or might not accommodate a variety of uses including the Library and Community Center along with varying amounts of affordable housing.

Legislative addition:  Using the best interactive visual simulation technology available, the Office of Planning, in collaboration with the Public Lands Ombudsman, will hold an initial public meeting to model development options (including density) and their visual impact on the surrounding neighborhood. Development options may include continuing public uses on the land; new public uses such as affordable housing, education facilities and open space; and private development. Both the simulations and the community responses will become part of the record and made available to the Council for consideration in its final decision on surplus and disposition of the site.

We believe that diversity and equity can be achieved only when communities are meaningfully engaged in planning for change. As Council adopts new and better procedures to dispose of scarce public land, correcting these planning deficiencies through legislation can provide a far better future outcome for our beloved city.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

(202-546-4536; megmaguireconsultant@msn.com )