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Congressman Darrell Issa handed D.C. a big cup of shame at a hearing today on the proposed changes to the Height Act.
“I heard separately to my astonishment, for the first time ever, a rejection of Home Rule,” the California Republican said at the congressional hearing on the law that limits building heights in D.C. “I expected you all to say, ‘Gosh, this will take years and years.’ … I did not expect, for the first time ever, to have people say, ‘Please don’t give me authority. I can’t be trusted.'”
Issa, the chairman of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was referring to the D.C. Council’s proposed resolution that rejects any changes to the 1910 law, including giving D.C. more of a say in the process. All members but Marion Barry supported it.
Office of Planning director Harriet Tregoning and Council Chair Phil Mendelson debated the topic of Home Rule at the final National Capital Planning Commission meeting in late November. “I don’t understand why we would leave it to congressmen who are all too often indifferent and in the future may never entertain any interest in advancing our issues of Home Rule,” Tregoning asked at the time. “Would a future Congress care if longterm residents couldn’t afford to live in the city anymore?” Mendelson countered by saying Home Rule is about congressional representation, adopting laws without legislative review and budget autonomy.
In his written statement to the congressional committee, Mendelson states plainly “Citizens of the District do not support any change to the federal Height of Buildings Act of 1910.” He calls the Office of Planning’s Home Rule argument “troubling, because all elected officials support greater self-governance. But for over a year the Office of Planning emphasized that amending the Height Act is about development, not Home Rule.”
He continued, “Other Home Rule issues … are exponentially more important than a right to change heights – a right that citizens don’t want and that the Office of Planning now claims it may not want to exercise.”
But today’s hearing was not all doom and gloom. While Issa noted that the Office of Planning and NCPC did not seem to agree on much, beyond changing penthouse regulations, he did say, “We will not close the Height Act consideration without full consideration.”
He also said in certain areas, like parts of Northeast D.C. and Cleveland Park, views of the monuments are not an issue, so there’s not a need to ban taller buildings.
“I’m not done looking at this, or listening, or reading,” Issa said, also adding he will not “let it go to sleep for another 100 years.”
