By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

D.C. residents had one last chance yesterday to tell planning officials how to shape the city's comprehensive plan before the proposal goes to the D.C. Council later this summer.

Residents and special interest groups attended a public hearing about the draft plan that will guide where the District should build housing, schools, transportation and parks during the next two decades.

Unlike the city's last two comprehensive plans, the proposal has requirements mandating that the plan be used as the city's master development design, said Dwight Kirk, a planning office media consultant. As a result, groups advocating smart growth and affordable housing have lobbied the city's planning office to have their priorities reflected in the 500-page document.

Residents from Chinatown to Benning Road in Northeast spoke at the hearing about ensuring that development does not overwhelm the character of their neighborhoods. Like the organized groups, many said they advocated increasing housing for low- and middle-income residents and for development around public transportation.

During the past two years, the Office of Planning has held 60 meetings and briefings on the plan.

The planning office will give a final draft to the council, which will hold hearings and could adopt the plan by November, said Barry Miller, associate director for comprehensive planning.

The plan calls for more mixed-use development around Metro stations and encourages affordable housing through inclusive zoning. That means developments would have differently priced units, some going for the market rate and some designated "affordable," which would be sold for less to purchasers who meet established income limits.

Cheryl Cort, executive director of the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities, said her group backs the plan for its transit-oriented development, which would create communities where people can walk and ride bicycles.

But representatives of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, a private, invitation-only group that works to influence the city's planning, said that the comprehensive plan is overly broad and lacks clear policies.

"Every Metro stop is different," said Ann Hargrove, a former chairman and current member of the committee's board. Without clear ideas on how to develop property around the stops, she said, "it's a cliche and meaningless."

Some residents of the area between Friendship Heights and Tenleytown complained that the comprehensive plan calls for too much -- and the wrong kind of -- development.

But Allie Hajian, a Tenleytown resident and mother of two, said she favors diversifying housing in the area to make it more affordable to residents of different income levels.

Friendship Heights resident Sue Hemberger said one reason she moved to the neighborhood was for its access to Metro. "I've never had a car," she said. "Never had a driver's license."

But she does not want to see high-rise development in her neighborhood just for the sake of its proximity to a Metro station.

She said the planning office should give the public more time to examine the draft of the comprehensive plan. "This is high-stakes legislation. . . . It's important to get it right," Hemberger said, adding that the draft "reads like a marketing plan."