D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 10-A, § 202
202
202.1 Since 2006, the District has re-established its position at the center of an economically dynamic metropolitan area. Rapid growth in population and jobs has made the District one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States, following prior decades of population and job loss. Now the District is regaining its share of the region's vitality.
202.2 Between 2006 and 2016, the Washington metropolitan area grew by over 19 percent, increasing from 5.2 million to 6.1 million residents. More than 260,000 jobs were added during this period, an increase of almost nine percent. Greater Washington is the fastest growing large metropolitan area in the country outside of the South and West. It is the sixth largest metropolitan area in the nation. Metropolitan Washington now sprawls across 4,500 square miles of the Middle Atlantic States.
202.3 The District has captured a greater share of regional growth than expected. In 1950, the District had 46 percent of the region's population and 83 percent of its jobs. By 2000, it had just 12 percent of the region's population and 25 percent of its jobs. In 2006, the perceived difficulties of in fill development and other factors led to even the most ambitious projections showing the District with a diminishing share of the region's population and jobs in the future.
202.4 Instead, our position as the nation's capital, our historic and unique neighborhoods, our cultural offerings, and the benefits of density, such as transportation and urban amenities, placed a premium on Washington and distinguished it from the surrounding suburbs, reflecting renewed interest in living and working in the city. With this renewed interest, the District can maintain a growing share of the region's population and jobs.
202.5 There are signs the region will better balance growth between jobs and households in the future. In 2006, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Fairfax Counties planned to add 620,000 jobs during the next 25 years but only 273,000 households, with similar imbalances in other regional jurisdictions. If this regional jobs-housing imbalance had continued, more workers would have sought housing outside the region, creating more congestion and sprawl, while also raising housing costs in the region's core as people sought to reduce their commuting times by moving closer to their jobs. However, regional projections now indicate a shift toward more housing within the inner suburbs that should moderate the jobs-housing imbalance, described below in the Cooperative Forecasting section.
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 Framework Amendment Act of 2019, effective August 27, 2020 (D.C. Law 23-127; 67 DCR 001360 (February 14, 2020)).