The DC Office of Planning faces an exciting and complex planning process as it embarks on the important and challenging task of preparing an amendment to its Comprehensive Plan. Since the last amendment cycle in 2009, the District has experienced rapid growth and development and has completed a number of innovative citywide and area-specific plans that are not currently reflected in the Comp Plan.

To address the need for change, the District Office of Planning hired Raimi + Associates to provide technical support for the Amendment process. A central part of R+A’s effort is to prepare a new resilience element for the Comp Plan. The resilience element included participation from a diverse number of agency and community stakeholders and addresses a wide range of challenges including climate change, sea level rise, flooding and disproportionate impact of events among the population. Additionally, the R+A team is assisting with an aggressive community engagement process that is designed to reach 25% of the District’s population. R+A’s work includes a detailed Engagement Plan, branding and communications strategies, preparation of area- and topic-specific fact sheets, and community meetings. Finally, R+A is providing technical support to the Office of Planning on the development of the map and text amendments, including preparing an evaluation methodology for the potential amendments, mapping land use changes, and tracking changes proposed to the Comp Plan text from the public and agency partners.