Survey: What kind of D.C. do you want to live in?

Local politicians are mulling potential changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the guiding framework for future growth and development that was last updated in 2011 as the District’s population continued to balloon. In the meantime, the D.C. Office of Planning (OP) is asking residents whether it has accurately articulated eight “values” that should inform the process.

OP released an online survey earlier this week seeking feedback on those values as part of its own work in revising the planning document, already hundreds of pages long: “accessibility, diversity, equity, livability, opportunity, prosperity, resilience, and safety.” OP’s survey will remain open through June, during which period the office says it will also host community meetings across the city to gather more-granular information from residents on their views.

In a prepared statement, Andrew Trueblood, the recently appointed director of OP, said: “We are seeking to re-engage the public about the big picture and the most important concepts in the Comp Plan [as the document is colloquially dubbed] to ensure we produce an amended Comp Plan that represents all DC residents.” OP originally received upwards of 3,000 total proposed amendments to the Comp Plan, from residents and other groups, in spring 2017.

In 2018, it submitted legislation comprising the plan’s opening chapter to the D.C. Council. The office also expects to submit more-specific pieces of the plan to policymakers this year.