DC Zoning Update: Planned Unit Developments and Community Benefits

The DC Zoning Update process allows for improvements of particularly weak areas of current practice.

One such area is the monetization and realization of "community benefits" as part of the process of awarding developers zoning changes, density increases, and variances and exceptions ("relief") which increase the value of a project.

This is covered under the "Planned Unit Development" topic, which is now under review in the process. The issue group started meeting, and will meet every couple weeks through May.

In my experience, the process is very weakly defined, and much of the time it doesn't generate much in the way of significant long term improvements. I think this is deliberate, a part of how the Growth Machine focuses on creating a pro-development environment. The less the system is defined, the easier it is for developers to get out of paying much into it. Note that there are community minded developers who do good for the community as part of their projects. Sure it's done in part because it makes a project more successful and valuable, but that's ok.

I have written a policy paper on the subject, which gets revised from time to time. The most current version is here: Community Benefits Agreements (revised, 2009). The piece "The Agony of Defeat" (2005) recounted a particular example of the unseemliness of the process which I experienced dealing with one such project, and how they greased the system.

A couple of other resources include this paper by the New York City Bar Association, "THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY BENEFIT AGREEMENTS IN NEW YORK CITY’S LAND USE PROCESS" (Thanks to Dan for bringing this resource to my attention) and writings by Amy Lavine, a staff attorney at the University of Albany Law School. She has a law review article on the topic, as well as a blog, Community Benefits Agreements--the blog's goal is to link good jobs, social justice and livable neighborhoods to development projects.

Note that the issue of how to monetize the value to the community of zoning bonuses and relief, as well as sweetheart development deals, tax abatements, gifts of property and/or buildings, and questions surrounding eminent domain all involve similar questions, and should be evaluated and addressed in a similar fashion.