1707.1 This section summarizes the opportunities and challenges residents and stakeholders prioritized during the 2006 Comprehensive Plan revision. During large community workshops, residents shared their feedback on District-wide and neighborhood specific issues. Since the 2006 community workshops, however, some of the challenges and opportunities facing the community have evolved. The following summary does not reflect new community priorities or feedback from either amendment cycle but summarizes the most important issues during the 2006 Comprehensive Plan revision.

1707.2 Four Comprehensive Plan workshops took place in Far Northeast and Southeast during 2005 and 2006. These meetings provided an opportunity for residents to discuss both District-wide and neighborhood planning issues. The Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) and groups such as the Ward 7 Leadership Council also provided a voice for local priorities and concerns. There have also been many meetings in the community not directly connected to the Comprehensive Plan, but focusing on long-range planning issues. These meetings have covered topics such as Kenilworth Avenue road improvements, the future of Watts Branch, reuse plans for Skyland Shopping Center, and the upgrading of Great Streets like Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

1707.3 The community delivered several key messages during these meetings, summarized below:

1. The low-density character that typifies most Far Northeast and Southeast neighborhoods should be maintained. While it is recognized that the area contains much vacant land with the potential for infill development, this development should generally be similar in density to what exists today. This is one of the few areas in the District with opportunities to build three- and four-bedroom homes suitable for families with children. Whereas the neighborhood lost families to Prince George's County and elsewhere in the past, it may gain families from these areas in the future if it builds appropriately designed housing, provides quality schools, and improves public services.
2. While preserving established single-family neighborhoods is a priority, Far Northeast and Southeast recognizes the need to provide a variety of new housing choices. More density is appropriate on land within one-quarter mile of the Metro stations at Minnesota Avenue, Benning Road, and Deanwood, and on the District side of the Southern Avenue and Capitol Heights stations. The commercially zoned land along the Nannie Helen Burroughs,

Minnesota Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue Great Streets corridors also offer opportunities for somewhat denser uses than exist today. These areas may provide opportunities for apartments, condominiums, townhomes, assisted living facilities and other types of housing, provided that measures are taken to buffer adjacent lower-density neighborhoods, address parking and traffic issues, and mitigate other community concerns.

1. The neighborhood is underserved by retail stores and services, including the basics—such as sit-down restaurants, banks, hardware stores, drug stores, and movie theaters. These uses should be accommodated in the future by encouraging both public and private reinvestment in the established commercial districts. The upgrading of Skyland and development of Capitol Gateway should go a long way toward meeting these needs—but these centers are not conveniently located for everyone in the community. Neighborhoods like Deanwood and Fairlawn would benefit from additional quality retail services. The Minnesota-Benning commercial district, in particular, should evolve into a stronger, more vital shopping district in the future, attracting customers from both sides of the Anacostia River.
2. Renovation and rehabilitation of the housing stock should continue to be a priority, especially for the aging post-war apartment complexes and for developments with affordable units. Steps should be taken to preserve affordable units in these complexes as they are renovated. In some cases, as was the case at East Capitol Dwellings and Eastgate Gardens, the best approach may be to replace deteriorated multi-family housing with new housing that better meets community needs. In other cases, the renovation of older apartments could be coupled with conversion to owner-occupancy, with provisions to help tenants become homeowners.
3. Code enforcement continues to be one of the top issues in the community. Residents are concerned about illegal dumping and unpermitted construction, inadequate notification of zoning changes, and the need for cleanup of underused and abandoned properties. While these are operational issues that cannot be resolved through the Comprehensive Plan, the District should strive toward responsive, effective enforcement, maintenance, and customer service in the future.
4. More steps should be taken to improve environmental quality, especially along Watts Branch. Far Northeast and Southeast was

impacted for years by the now defunct Benning Road incinerator and continues to face noise, air pollution, and truck traffic from I-295 and other thoroughfares. Programs to reduce these impacts, while improving physical connections to the Anacostia River, the Civil War Defenses of Washington, DC, otherwise known as the Fort Circle Parks, and other open spaces in the area are high priorities. Indeed, much of the discussion at public meetings during the Comprehensive Plan revision focused on the need for better parks, cleaner streams, and more trees. While the community has more green space than many other parts of the District, this space has been neglected. Greater stewardship by Far Northeast and Southeast residents, coupled with more attention from the District and federal governments, will help restore the natural landscape as a place of beauty, spiritual enrichment, and diverse habitat.

1. Additional improvements are needed to reduce traffic congestion, especially around the I-295/Pennsylvania Avenue intersection and along Kenilworth Avenue. Parts of Far Northeast and Southeast are more than one mile from Metrorail and need better, more reliable bus connections to Metro. The safety of pedestrians and bicyclists continues to be an issue in many neighborhoods and at many intersections.
2. Schools, libraries, recreation centers, and other public facilities in Far Northeast and Southeast should be upgraded to meet the needs of the community. The recent modernizations of Kelly Miller Middle School and Randle Highlands Elementary School are a promising start, but there is more to accomplish. Investment in schools should take place in tandem with investment in new housing, shopping, libraries, and other services, as it is at Eastgate Gardens, to create whole communities and not simply tracts of homes.
3. With an unemployment rate that is twice the District-wide total, more should be done to strengthen the occupational skills of the Far Northeast and Southeast labor force. Job training, adult education, and vocational education programs are an essential part of the equation. Good access to Metrorail is also critical, to connect residents to jobs downtown and elsewhere in the region. As noted in the District-wide elements of the Comprehensive Plan, establishing a community college or branch campus of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) would go a long way toward helping Far Northeast and Southeast residents prepare for good, quality jobs in the District economy.

1. Additional facilities and services for children and youth are needed in the Far Northeast/Southeast Area. More than one in four residents of the in the Planning Area are under 18. Further increases in the number of children are likely as additional family housing is completed. New and expanded recreation centers, playgrounds, child care facilities, and similar facilities are urgently needed today and will continue to be needed in the future. The District should place a high priority on investment in these facilities to create a healthy environment for children and all residents. 1707.3

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)).