Redistricting Compromise That No One Wanted Is Back

The DC Council Subcommittee on Redistricting passed out of committee a bill to update the ANC and SMD lines for the next decade. In Ward 3, one change was made to the Task Force recommendations. The legislative report outlines what happened:

Ward 3: The Subcommittee print keeps the vast majority of the task force recommendations, and only moves one SMD.  Following the release of the task force recommendations, the Subcommittee heard a significant amount of feedback from residents, primarily from residents of the Cleveland Park neighborhood, who were concerned their neighborhood was being split between two ANCs.  The Subcommittee supports the vision of the Ward 3 redistricting task force, which generally sought to structure ANCs around population density, such as Wisconsin Avenue and Connecticut Avenue.  Additionally, the Subcommittee is not persuaded that having a historic district spread across two ANCs will have a detrimental impact on the historic district; for example, the Capitol Hill historic district currently stretches across three ANCs, to no apparent ill effect.

However, in an effort to reach a compromise between the task force and neighborhood groups who supported an alternative map, the Subcommittee is recommending moving one SMD, 3A05, from ANC 3A to ANC 3C, without changing the borders of the SMD. This returns a portion of the Cleveland Park neighborhood to ANC 3C, while still maintaining the commercial corridor vision of the task force.  It also shifts the Woodland-Normanstone neighborhood back from ANC 3A to ANC 3C, which was a near-unanimous request from residents of the neighborhood.  This compromise was suggested by a vice president of the Cleveland Park Historical Society and has approval of the ward councilmember.

Sound familiar? It should! It is roughly the same compromise that I had made in early March, that was flat out rejected by CPCA and CPHS. In fact, my compromise had more residential blocks in Cleveland Park included in ANC 3C. The committee report indicated this compromise was suggested by the a CPHS vice president.

It appears these will be the final lines for Ward.

The new map shown below shows the change - the SMD which had been 3A05 will become 3C08.

The unfortunate outcome here is that ANC 3C will continue to be overburdened with HPRB cases, rather than dividing the workload between 3A and 3C.

I am glad the ANC 3A will represent both sides of Wisconsin Ave between Tenley Circle and Woodley Road.

Lastly, while I think the compromise will work, it’s troubling that the outrageous behavior by the likes of CPHS board Member Judith Kennedy are being rewarded by the Council. Privilege has its privileges for a reason!