DC's Plan to Build 33,000 Housing Units on New York Avenue by 2043

• March 25th 2022

by Nena Perry-Brown

The DC Office of Planning (OP) is turning its attention to the New York Avenue corridor for a series of planning efforts intended to facilitate additional development and housing production with the goal of adding 33,000 new housing units over the next two decades. 

On Friday, OP released the New York Avenue Roadmap, focused on transforming the three-mile stretch between Florida (map) and South Dakota Avenues NE (map), which includes neighborhoods like NoMa, Brentwood and Ivy City, into a "Gateway Corridor" for the city. To kickstart these efforts, OP will launch the public process for a "New York Avenue Vision Framework"; a Small Area Planning (SAP) process for Ivy City; and a Production, Distribution, and Repair Land Use Needs and Opportunities Report this year.

The latter refers to the PDR (production, distribution and repair) zoning designation that has historically dominated most of the New York Avenue NE corridor and has enabled industrial-heavy uses that have long posed an environmental justice issue for nearby residents. The latest Future Land Use Map via the city's Comprehensive Plan added designations forecasting high-density mixed-use development. If that forecast is implemented, the corridor is expected to be able to support an additional 33,000 housing units (one-third affordable) over the next 20 years.

Conversely, the Vision Framework will be a 20-year guidance document intended, in part, to prescribe design guidelines and identify transportation improvement opportunities for the corridor. The Ivy City SAP will build on the Framework with a more specific neighborhood-level vision for how to accommodate development while minimizing displacement and improving walkability and quality of life for existing residents.

The Vision Framework is expected to be completed in 2023, followed by the Ivy City SAP in 2024, and the PDR Report along with the aforementioned guides will be used to inform the Comp Plan rewrite process in 2025.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/how-office-of-planning-wants-to-gets-33000-housing-units-built-on-new-york-/19442.