Mayor Anthony Williams urged the D.C. Council on Monday to adopt the District’s revamped long-range plan before the end of the year, despite an impending overhaul in both the executive and legislative branches.
Under development for four years, the revised Comprehensive Plan is a broad guide designed to shape how the city and its neighborhoods will grow through 2025, from housing and transportation to the environment and the arts. The draft document was delivered to the council in mid-July, just as legislators were leaving for the summer recess.
Williams is slated to testify today during the council’s first hearing on the issue and declare, as he said Monday, “We need this now.”
“It’s a road map for the new mayor and council so they can hit the ground running and attack some of the major challenges facing our city without having to reinvent the wheel and go back to square one,” Williams said.
But there is a movement to slow down the process. Just before he won the Democratic mayoral primary in a landslide, Ward 4 Council Member Adrian Fenty said during a candidate forum that the Comprehensive Plan adoption should be delayed until January when the new council and mayor are inaugurated.
But it appeared Monday he did not have council support to stall.
“Ideally, I would have liked to have had a longer review period to ensure that the next Mayor and new council had an opportunity for their input,” Fenty, the presumptive mayor, said in a statement. “However, I respect the three-year planning process that the Mayor and the comprehensive plan task force have engaged in and their desire to move forward.”
