Washington, your hopes of a growth spurt may have just been dashed. For a minute earlier this week, it looked like the National Capital Planning Commission had relented on the "really, don't change it" recommendations regarding 1910's Height Act. The NCPC had agreed to let D.C. Council make decisions regarding building heights over the current cap outside of L'Enfant City, although their organization and Congress still ultimately had to sign off on those decisions. It was a sign of compromise even if it all sounded a little bit like, "You can date him if I meet him and say it's okay and even then, only on Friday and Saturday nights and be home by 10:00 p.m.!" Well, you've been grounded, D.C. That provision is no longer in the version of the recommendations that the NCPC will present to Congress and most of the D.C. City Council, as it turns out, seems to agree on this mostly unchanged proposal. Mayor Vince Gray does not and went on the record saying that he was "disappointed" in this decision, saying "People don't like change." D.C. won't be growing up, after all.
· Mayor Vincent Gray on Height Act decision: 'People don't like change' [WBJ]
· NCPC Votes to Send Watered-Down Height Act Recommendation to Congress [WCP]
· All Height Act Coverage [CDC]
Filed under: