After meeting with a group of ANC Commissioners led by Ward 8's Holly Muhammad, Mayor Vincent Gray agreed that the record for the Zoning Regulations Review (ZRR) should remain open until September 15, 2014. The Zoning Commission affirmed that deadline in a 4-1-0 vote last night. No additional public hearings have been announced at this point but, presumably, some will be scheduled.
At the Budget Oversight hearing on Monday, Zoning Commission Chair Anthony Hood remarked that he was seeing increasing interest in (and concern about) changes to the zoning code. What I've noticed is that, as more communities take a closer look at what is being proposed, new sets of issues emerge and they emerge in ways that demonstrate the differences among neighborhoods and the need for policies that are sensitive to those differences. The loss of single-family housing stock is one such issue. I suspect that creating livable downtown neighborhoods will become another.
One of the reasons why additional hearings are necessary (and why participation in such hearings should not be restricted to people who have not previously testified) is that the process of community engagement yields new insights. I know I've learned quite a bit in the four months that have elapsed since I testified before the Zoning Commission last November (and I expect to learn even more between now and next September). I wholeheartedly applaud Commissioner Hood's efforts to get more people (and a more diverse group of people) to weigh in on the ZRR. And I respect his desire to ensure that no one group dominates the discussion. But I sometimes wonder whether he sees the hearings as some kind of pseudo-plebiscite rather than as a vital source of information about what is (and is not) being proposed in the code and what impact various provisions are likely to have in specific situations and locations.
To put this another way, the goal here isn't to count noses or to judge which way the wind is blowing but to anticipate and prevent problems, to craft regulations that are workable and beneficial, and to ensure that new policies are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.