D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 10-A, § 503
503.1 Expanding the housing supply is a key part of the District's vision to create vibrant neighborhoods. Along with improved transportation and shopping, better neighborhood schools and parks, preservation of historic resources, and improved design and identity, the production of market rate and affordable housing is essential to the future of the neighborhoods. It is also a key to improving the District's fiscal health. The District will work to facilitate housing construction and rehabilitation through its planning, building, zoning, permitting, inspection, and taxation programs, recognizing and responding to the needs of all segments of the community to achieve an adequate and diverse housing supply. The first step toward meeting this goal is to ensure that an adequate supply of appropriately zoned land is available to meet expected housing needs. Public investment in high-quality public infrastructure, including transportation, public space, schools, and libraries, is also critical to ensuring that all neighborhoods provide a high degree of access to opportunity. Regulatory processes should encourage, not discourage, the creation of new housing.
503.2 The supply of housing should grow sufficiently to slow rising costs of market rate rental and for-sale housing. Expanding supply alone will not fulfill all of Washington, DC's housing needs at lower income levels, but it is one important element of the strategy to ensure unmet demand at higher price points does not further hasten the loss of naturally occurring affordable housing.
503.3 Policy H-1.1.1: Private Sector Support Encourage or require the private sector to provide both new market rate and affordable housing to meet the needs of present and future District residents at locations consistent with District land use policies and objectives.
503.4 Policy H-1.1.2: Production Incentives Provide suitable regulatory, tax, and financing incentives to meet housing production goals, prioritizing affordable housing production in support of the targets in Policy H-1.2.2. These incentives should continue to include zoning regulations that permit greater building area for commercial projects that include housing than for those that do not, and relaxation of height and density limits near transit. Strongly encourage incentives and strategies that result in the production of more deeply affordable housing, such as the use of income averaging across a range of affordable housing income levels.
503.5 Policy H-1.1.3: Balanced Growth Strongly encourage the development of new housing, including affordable housing, on surplus, vacant, and underused land in all parts of Washington, DC. Ensure that a sufficient supply of land is planned and zoned to enable the District to meet its long-term housing needs, including the need for low- and moderate-
density single-family homes, as well as the need for higher-density housing.
Promote moderate to high-density, mixed-use development that includes affordable housing on commercially zoned land, particularly in neighborhood commercial centers, along Main Street mixed-use corridors and high-capacity surface transit corridors, and around Metrorail stations.
Require the design of affordable and accessible housing to meet or exceed the high-quality architectural standards achieved by market-rate housing. Such housing should be built with high-quality materials and systems that minimize long-term operation, repair, and capital replacement costs. Regardless of its affordability level, new or renovated housing should be indistinguishable from market rate housing in its exterior appearance, should be generally compatible with the design character of the surrounding neighborhood, and should address the need for open space and recreational amenities.
Absorb a substantial component of the demand for new high-density housing in the Central Washington Planning Area and along the Anacostia River. Through regulation and incentives, encourage affordable housing production. Absorbing the demand for higher-density housing within these areas is an effective way to meet housing demands, maximize infrastructure and proximity to jobs, create mixed-use areas, and minimize the cost pressure on existing residential neighborhoods throughout the District. Market rate and affordable mixed-income, higher-density downtown housing also provides the opportunity to create vibrant street life and to support the restaurants, retail, entertainment, and other amenities in the heart of Washington, DC.
See the Land Use, Urban Design, and Area Elements for related policies.
Accommodate a significant share of the District’s projected housing demand in new neighborhoods developed on large sites. Prioritize housing, particularly affordable housing preserved for long-term affordability. These neighborhoods should include or have access to well-planned retail, public schools, attractive parks, open space and recreation, as well as needed supportive services for older adults and persons with disabilities and enable resilient, innovative neighborhood-level energy systems. The new neighborhoods should include a variety of housing types, including housing for families, older adults, and other needed types, serving a diverse population and a variety of income levels.
Encourage development of both market rate and affordable housing in high-cost areas of the District, making these areas more inclusive. Develop new, innovative tools and techniques that support affordable housing in these areas. Doing so increases costs per unit but provides greater benefits in terms of access to opportunity and outcomes.
See also the Land Use Element policies on transit-oriented and mixed-use development.
Encourage and prioritize the development of family-sized units and/or family-sized housing options which generally have three or more bedrooms, in areas proximate to transit, employment centers, schools, public facilities, and recreation to ensure that the District’s most well-resourced locations remain accessible to families, particularly in areas that received increased residential density as a result of underlying changes to the Future Land Use Map. Family-sized units and/or family-sized housing options include housing typologies that can accommodate households of three or more persons and may include a variety of housing types including townhomes, fourplexes and multi-family buildings. To address the mismatch between meeting the needs of larger households and the financial feasibility of developing family-sized housing, support family-sized housing options through production incentives and requirements that address market rate challenges for private development that may include zoning, subsidies or tax strategies, or direct subsidy and regulatory requirements for publicly owned sites.
Develop an annual State of the District Housing Report, which improves the quality of information on which to make housing policy decisions. Include information on current conditions, trends and needs, such as the availability and affordability of units by income, tenure, building type, number of bedrooms, and production patterns and capacity by Planning Area and other characteristics. Include information on the demand for, housing for low-, very low-, and extremely low-income households. Assess the availability of housing for Black communities and other communities of color, seniors, families, people with disabilities, and vulnerable communities. The report should also include a framework for evaluating progress toward measurable goals. Create a Housing Oversight Board composed of residents representing different incomes and household types, and for profit and nonprofit developers, that would review this report and provide an assessment each year on the effectiveness and outcomes of the District’s housing programs.
Pursue intergovernmental agreements and initiatives with the jurisdictions of the metropolitan region that expand the housing supply and broaden affordability
throughout the region, and that do not leave the responsibility solely to any one jurisdiction.
503.14
Continue research to expand market rate and affordable housing opportunities in Washington, DC, such as expanding existing zoning tools and requirements and evaluating housing concepts that emphasize permanent affordability, such as social housing and community land trusts. Consider a broad range of options to address housing constraints, which could include updating the Height Act of 1910 (a federal law) outside of the L'Enfant Plan area, if it can promote housing production.
503.15
Complete the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing to advance fair housing, more equitably distribute housing, and take steps to address identified impediments and remedy residential exclusion, described in more detail in Section 514.
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)).