No other city in America is more the product of purposeful planning than Washington, DC. Created de novo in the early 19th century, today the Nation’s Capital is the very embodiment of planning concepts over a three-century period. Beginning with Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s 1791 plan, and through the 1902 McMillan Commission Plan, the 1899 and 1910 Height of Buildings Acts, to Urban Renewal in the 1960’s to the rise of historic preservation and environmental activism, planning has shaped the Nation’s Capital as we see it today.
And while Washington, DC may be the monumental world capital most citizens and visitors think of, it is also a city of neighborhoods – where over 700,00 people live and call home. The current foundation of planning in DC is the Comprehensive Plan which is composed of two parts—District Elements and Federal Elements. The Committee of 100 is engaged with plans, developments, and planning documents of citywide significance with particular attention to places that have small or no resident constituency, e.g., Downtown, the Mall, and Pennsylvania Avenue. Planning is such a broad topic, it often overlaps with transportation, zoning, parks, environment (flooding), and historic preservation.