1600.1 The Central Washington Planning Area is the heart of Washington, DC. Its 6.8 square miles include the Monumental Core of the District, with such landmarks as the U.S. Capitol and White House, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, and the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian museums. Central Washington also includes the District's traditional downtown and other employment centers, such as the Near Southwest and East End. Also located there are Gallery Place and Penn Quarter, the region's entertainment and cultural center. Finally, Central Washington includes more recently densified urban neighborhoods like Mount Vernon Triangle and North of Massachusetts Avenue (NoMa).

1600.2 The area's boundaries are shown in the map of Central Washington. A majority of the area is within Ward 2, with portions also in Ward 6. All of Central Washington is within the boundaries of L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the City of Washington, and the area's streets, land uses, and design reflect this legacy. The area's grand buildings, boulevards, and celebrated open spaces—particularly the monuments, museums, and federal buildings on the National Mall—define Washington, DC's image as an international capital. Planning for this area is done collaboratively with the federal government, and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has land use authority over federal lands.

1600.3 Central Washington is of great importance to the District, the region, and the nation. It is the seat of the federal government, and the economic, cultural, and historic core of the region. It contains the third largest concentration of office space in the United States, trailing only New York City and Chicago, with 475,531 persons employed within its boundaries. The area's preeminence is underscored by its land use patterns; it includes more than 115 million square feet of office space (almost 23 percent of the region's total), 2.6 million square feet of retail floor space, over 15,000 hotel rooms, major entertainment venues, and one of the largest theater districts in the country. It is also the center of the region's transportation network, with one of the best underground mass transit systems in the world.

1600.4 To most residents, workers, and visitors, downtown, in a broad sense, includes the area as far north as Dupont Circle, as far west as Foggy Bottom, and as far east as Capitol Hill. However, only about half of the central city workforce is located within the District's downtown. Additionally, downtown is almost completely built out. Most of the District's future employment growth will take place beyond its boundaries, in areas like Downtown East, NoMa, and Near Southeast (in the adjacent Anacostia Waterfront Planning Area).

1600.5 Washington, DC's downtown includes Chinatown, the arts district around Gallery

Place, the retail core near Metro Center, the mixed-use Penn Quarter and Mount Vernon Square areas, and concentrations of government office buildings at Federal Triangle and Judiciary Square. While these areas are distinct from one another, they all offer a blend of historic and contemporary development, a mix of uses, and largely pedestrian-friendly environments. Private office buildings, many built to the 12- to 14-story limit allowed by the Height Act, extend across much of the area. Downtown also contains many exceptional historic buildings and public spaces, including many District National Register of Historic Places landmarks.

1600.6 The transition from downtown to West End is seamless. The pattern of 12- to 14-story office buildings, hotels, ground floor retail space and restaurants, and historic landmarks continues almost as far as Washington Circle. There are concentrations of retail space along Connecticut Avenue NW and a cluster of global financial and banking institutions (including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) on the area's western edge.

1600.7 Most of the area just north of the National Mall is federal land. This includes the Northwest Rectangle of government and institutional buildings between 17th and 23rd Streets NW, the Federal Triangle, the White House and Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the Potomac Hill Campus (also known as the Observatory Hill Historic District), the U.S. Institute of Peace, and a number of parks. The Federal Triangle area, which experienced a major interior flooding in 2006 and a more minor flooding event as recently as 2019, is at a higher risk of interior flooding, and future development or retrofits of infrastructure should address this through resilient design and construction. Another major concentration of office space lies on the south side of the National Mall in the Near Southwest Federal District. This area includes the headquarters of several federal agencies, as well as private office and hotel complexes like L'Enfant Plaza and the Portals.

1600.8 On the eastern and northeastern flanks of downtown, the pattern of intense office development gives way to more varied land uses. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center occupies six square blocks north of Mount Vernon Square. A high-density residential area is emerging to the east in the Mount Vernon Triangle on land formerly used for surface parking and small businesses. After 20 years of planning, the area including Mount Vernon Triangle and adjacent Massachusetts Avenue NW corridor between Mount Vernon Square and Union Station has become one of the densest neighborhoods in Washington, DC Density on many of these sites is between 200 and 400 units per acre.

1600.9 NoMa lies north and east of the Massachusetts Avenue NE/NW corridor. This former light industrial enclave is today a vibrant and new mixed-use neighborhood between the North Capitol Street NE/NW office corridor and the row house neighborhoods of Capitol Hill, spanning over the CSX railroad tracks. Office development has moved eastward into NoMa as developable land in West

End, the central business district, East End, and Capitol Hill has become scarcer. The opening of the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metro station in late 2004 made the area more attractive for investment, and many residential and office projects have been built.

1600.10 While the office market in Central Washington has remained consistently strong in general, portions of Central Washington have experienced higher vacancy rates due to lower demand for office leases from the federal government, the general office market compression due to technological and cultural changes, and the creation of new and more competitive Class A and trophy office space in new and emerging neighborhoods. The area has also reversed a decades-long decline in its role as a retail and entertainment destination. To that end, the goal of creating a living downtown with high-density housing is finally being realized, especially in the outer edges of Central Washington, where new mixed-used and vibrant neighborhoods have emerged. The development of new residential buildings and the conversion of old office space to residential in the central business district proper have been less common, as residential prices still trail office prices in neighborhoods closer to the core, with a few notable exceptions like Penn Quarter and the old convention center sites. Billions of dollars in private investment, coupled with public incentives and plans to attract that investment, have had a transformative impact since the late 1990s. The area now has first-rate restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues that have attracted thousands of new residents.

SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR 1049 (March 9, 1984)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Element Amendment Act of 1984, effective March 16, 1985 (D.C. Law 5-187; 32 DCR 873 (February 15, 1985)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-129; 37 DCR 55 (January 5, 1990)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989 NCPC-Recommended Amendments, and Closing of Public Alleys in Square 669, S.O. 88-452, Act of 1990, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-132; 37 DCR 2213 (April 6, 1990)); as amended by District Government Land Use Temporary Amendment Act of 1994, effective October 1, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-190; 41 DCR 5360 (August 12, 1994)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1994, effective October 6, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-193; 41 DCR 5536 (August 19, 1994)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Amendment Act of 1994, effective March 21, 1995 (D.C. Law 10-235; 42 DCR 30 (January 6, 1995)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 18, 1996 (D.C. Law 11-110; 43 DCR 530 (February 9, 1996)); as amended by Second Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-255; 44 DCR 1271 (March 7, 1997)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 1998, effective April 27, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-275; 46 DCR 1441 (February 19, 1999)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1999, effective April 12, 2000 (D.C. Law 13-91; 47 DCR 520 (January 28, 2000)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2006, effective March 8, 2007 (D.C. Law 16-300; 54 DCR 924 (February 2, 2007)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 2008, effective March 25, 2009 (D.C. Law 17-353; 56 DCR 1117 (February 6, 2009)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010, effective April 8, 2011 (D.C. Law 18-361; 58 DCR 908 (February 4, 2011)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 006918 (July 16, 2021)).