A DC Planning Commission

Is a proposal by a number of groups, including the Committee of 100 for the Federal City. My general points have been:

1. A Planning Commission needs to be charged with oversight over all planning activities. That would include efforts such as by the Public Schools, the Library System, the Parks and Recreation Department, the putative effort for a National Capital Medical Center, etc.

Otherwise, it's "just" about land use, and that isn't enough.

2. My other criticism is that it would be an appointed body, and it would be "extremely unlikely" for people with a more neighborhood and city-wide advocate-activist perspective to get appointed.

(Lately I have been thinking about this broad issue, about the circumscribing of thinking and approaches on city issues, and how much that costs us in terms of achieving quality. There is a scene in the book Andromeda Strain about how it's important to have an "odd person out" (not the language used in the book) to guard against limiting creativity and objectivity.

3. So how about an elected Planning Commission, with serious limits on campaign financing? Or if not, so developer-backed candidates win...it's not like they wouldn't get appointed anyway.

Index Keywords: civic-engagement; urban-design-placemaking