Office of Planning seeks cleanup of Subtitle U building-form text; Committee of 100 objects

The Office of Planning proposed removing building-form descriptions for single-family residential zones from Subtitle U on the grounds that the language is redundant with the R-zone development standards and purpose statements.

Mister Lawson said the building-form descriptions (detached, semi-detached, attached) are misplaced in Subtitle U and duplicate content already in Subtitle D, so deleting them would be a non-substantive cleanup. "This change would not result in any change to permitted use or to building form in these zones," Lawson said.

Meg McGuire of the Committee of 100 disagreed. She told the commission the Subtitle U provisions are "relevant information related to how the zone is to be used" and argued there is no redundancy. McGuire said she feared the amendment could be a step toward removing distinctions among building heights in R zones, though OP said deletion is strictly organizational and would not alter permitted forms or heights. Commissioners asked for written comments and noted the record includes support from several ANCs and land-use firms as well as objections from the Committee of 100.

The commission accepted testimony and will consider the written record and OP's hearing report as deliberations continue.