Yes.

Welcome everyone.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule for those of you who are here at the temple, and those of you who are online, thanks so much for taking it.

I'm gonna quickly go through what our agenda is for the evening.

We're going to talk a little bit ahead to everybody else for those of you who are just starting with us or who forgotten where we are in the process.

We are going to let you know what we've accomplished so far and where we're going next.

Give you a summary of the community feedback we've received over the last few months.

Introduce a couple of new topics that we're going to be working on over the next few months, and then give you some case studies related to these boards that you were just looking at.

I forgot to introduce myself.

I'm Carrie Beach.

I'm division team for neighborhood planning and community development.

I'm with the uh department of planning and stand on the side so you're closer to the owl.

All right.

So as a reminder, our Deep Street corridor, where our plan area is located, it runs from Union Station on the east side of the plan area to the uh former landmark mall, um now becoming the west end uh sector.

Um this is about three and a half miles of major corridor in the city.

Go ahead next slide.

Um so where have we been?

We started uh this plan in June of last year.

We uh launched a big community meeting and uh community survey.

We got um a ton of responses both online and in person at our community meeting at pop-ups throughout the corridor.

We um that was kind of our big outreach push.

Hopefully, many of you learned about this planning process when we were when we were making that effort back in the summer.

Um last fall, we took the feedback that we had heard from all of you over the summer and developed some draft guiding principles.

The intent of these principles is really to set the um sort of parameters for where we're going with this plan.

What do people hope uh for the future of the big street border?

And this plan will be shaped by those principles.

Um we also in December presented some draft land use themes for the community to start um providing their feedback on, and that's where a lot of the feedback you see here tonight, and what Christian's going to be telling you about comes from.

He's gonna give you a summary of how we evaluate that um feedback and generally what we heard.

We're also going to hear about border districts tonight.

And where are we going?

So, up next, we will be developing a draft framework plan.

And as you can hopefully are getting the picture, basically, we're we're layer, we're creating layers that are building a draft plan.

So we the guiding principles, the themes, the districts, um, eventually the framework plan, and then in the spring or late spring, probably June time frame, we'll be developing draft recommendations, and that's where we start to get more and more specific um with the plan.

And then in September ish time frame, we'll have a draft plan for community review.

And you'll notice all of this says draft because we're really building and evolving this plan as we go, and we're building it with the community.

What is a draft framework?

Everything else is self-explanatory.

Good question, and you're gonna learn about that in a few more slides.

Um, so what are we going to do to get to our next steps to that draft framework?

We're gonna be doing more evaluation of some of the comments we heard, testing, evaluating whether things work, um, incorporating those into this building of the plan.

We're gonna do some additional analysis and more engagement.

So you'll be this is not the last you'll hear from us.

And with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Christian.

I don't think you need a mic.

Oh no, I have a lot of um okay, everyone.

So I um am going to talk a little bit about the uh community ideas that we collected uh over the last couple of months.

So um we on the screen you can see a map, and the map has oh the I mean I can see it.

So um, yeah, so on the screen you'll see you see the map.

Each X represents a community idea that we received that had a specific uh location associated with it.

But in total, we had almost 300 discrete community ideas, and these range from something really specific, like I want to uh crosswalk at this location.

It also included things that were much broader, like we need to have better access to parks.

So we got ideas in the full range of that sort of breadth of comment.

Um these ones are tend to be more specific just because they're geographically located.

Um common themes started to come out from these ideas.

Uh and I think probably some of these are not gonna be surprising to those of you who did participate, uh, especially if you attended one of our workshops and were able to talk to uh your fellow community members.

But um the four that we kind of pulled out as the is the most frequent were the preference for mixed use development.

Um we heard a lot of comments about how folks wanted to be able to live where they could shop and go to the grocery store, or at least walk to with close proximity.

Um we also heard that people wanted better access to more and different kinds of amenities, um, specifically retail, public open spaces, that type of thing.

Um we also heard a lot about wanting to have a little bit more of a sense of identity on the corridor, um, something that has more of a neighborhood feel.

That was a phrase that came up a lot.

Um, and you can think about that as sort of a more cohesive looking and feeling corridor.

Um, and then in addition, we heard uh a lot of really specific comments about corridor-wide bike and pedestrian improvements.

And so this is like we want to crosswalk here.

Maybe it would be nice to have a bicycle connection here or a trail improvement here, or or like a traffic light here, or something like that.

We heard a lot of comments about that.

So, in terms of how we are um thinking of how we were sort of taking in these ideas and really thinking about how they might be represented or how they could be represented within the final plan.

We uh sort of broke it down into six different um evaluation categories.

You can think of them as that.

So the first one is whether or not the idea was consistent with the plan's principles, which we introduced back in September last year.

Um, so really this is just making sure that the idea that we received connected with one of the principles.

I would say the overwhelming majority of ideas that we got connected to one at least one, many of them connected to multiple.

Um, we also understand that there are competing principles and um on the board on some of these boards, you will be able to see uh some discussion about that.

Um, and so we tried to uh use the principles to understand where the idea was kind of satisfying one but not satisfying another principle, um, how we could balance that conflict.

Uh we also looked at market feasibility.

Um this was essentially trying to understand whether or not the idea was financially feasible to do in the current market, either from the city's point of view or from a property owner's point of view.

Um we also looked at geographic and policy scope.

We did get some community ideas that were outside of the plan, sort of general plan area that we're looking at, and so not something that we would necessarily implement through this plan.

Um we got, for example, some uh great bicycle and pedestrian suggestions on Eisenhower have.

Uh those that's sort of not necessarily in the plan area, but it is under a different small area plan, and a few of those ideas at least were discussed in that small area plan.

Um then we also looked at implementation feasibility, so not necessarily the same as market feasibility, but these are sort of thinking about in addition to financial regulatory and infrastructure considerations that might make a particular idea feasible or not.

So terrain, whether or not a piece of like if there was an idea on a specific piece of land, whether the terrain would make it difficult to accomplish that idea, for example.

Uh, and then lastly, we got a bunch of suggestions that were relevant to already approved plans or were covered in already approved plans.

So this would be Duke Street in Motion is probably the biggest one that we had ideas sort of pointing towards.

So overall, of those 300 or so ideas, 50% of them are things that we are planning to include or are already being worked on by the city, planning to include in the plan or already being worked on in the city.

So these were what I would describe as an easy yes.

Uh so some examples are building housing on empty lots in exchange for preservation.

Uh this was a strategy that we employed in the Alexandria West small area plan.

Uh, more outdoor spaces, certainly something that that this plan will um will aim to accomplish.

25% of the remaining ideas are ideas that we want to say yes to, but need to understand a little bit more for whatever reason.

Either it might come with a pretty big price tag, or there's complications associated with it.

And so we need to evaluate it more.

So these are things that we're still looking at.

Um, and so three quarters of the ideas that we received are ideas that we are planning to or would like to implement through the plan.

And then the last quarter are community idea, a collection of community ideas that even if they were good are sort of outside of the plan scope, or they are infeasible for one reason or another, or they conflict with the principle.

And it's categorized in these three categories.

So you'll be able to, you you might be able to go look on that and say, Well, I had this idea.

What did the city say about this?

And you can go find the thing that you said and then see sort of what principle it might we think it might satisfy, and you know what type of um outcome we envision it for the plan.

I'm gonna turn it over to Jeff Farner and stand on this side so that they can pick you up an owl.

Excellent.

Um good evening, everyone.

I'm Jeff Barner and Deputy Director of the Planning Department.

I see some new faces here, some folks who have been to previous meetings.

Um how many people show hands first meeting for the Duke Street Plan?

Um welcome, welcome.

Um the one thing I would say, Christian, uh, if you have questions, comments, what follow our process?

So Christian is leading that effort.

So reach out to him, his email is on our website.

Um this is a really important phase for you to be here because we're at a point where we're beginning to prepare a plan.

And I think what Christian just talked about in that previous graphic is we're listening.

And in that pre-figured, Christian, I think we took all the comments really, really seriously and said, let's address as many of these as we can.

So 75% is probably everything we're gonna include, and if it's not feasible, we're gonna tell you why we can't.

Um, but we tried to listen and incorporate as much as we could.

So the next slide uh is really a beginning part to address some of the things we've also heard.

So some of the things we've heard about Duke Street is it doesn't feel like other parts of the city.

It feels like one thing could it be more attractive?

Could it be safer?

And so one of the things when we talk about some of our plans, if you think about our city, I think one of our strengths is our diversity in people, but also our diversity in place.

So as we think about moving through our city, there's a real sense of moving from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Old town feels very different than Old Town North, which feels very different than Braddock, which feels very different than Delren, which feels very different than Rosemont, which feels very different than Del and Run.

I think that's a strength of our city.

We are a collection of neighbors.

So as we have begun sort of thinking about this plan, how do we organize it?

So as you're moving up and down the corridor, Terry talked about how long this corridor is.

How do we introduce placemaking elements consistent with the rest of the DNA of our city?

And if the DNA of our city is neighborhoods, how do we begin thinking about doing that?

So this is again working draft of potentially areas that function more like a units.

And if you think about how we all live and work in our neighborhoods, uh generally you walk a certain distance, um you have parks within a certain distance, probably within a quarter or a half mile.

And so what we try to do is divide this very long corridor into units that we think are going to function more like a neighborhood unit.

And so the other thing we tried to do on the right-hand side, pretty shade comments on this, is to weave in history into some of the naming of the neighborhoods.

There's a lot of history out here.

Uh, we're in one of the civic elements on the corridor.

So the first neighborhood, neighborhood number number one on the right, it's called temple district.

Maybe that's a better name.

Um, but that is that's the beginning part of sort of organizing this plan.

And I think the other reason these are so important as we think about the plan, our hope is to have broad categories, menus, high open space, and then when we have individual elements that we've heard from many of you, for example, Christian pointed out some of these.

This crossing is really important for us.

Or this new park or a new park connection displays is going to be really important to us.

So those are only things you can sort of zoom in to at a neighborhood scale, not a multi-mile long corridor.

So sort of bigger elements and smaller elements.

So that's how we're thinking about organizing the plan.

Again, working draft, happy to hear comments, feedback tonight.

And then the next slide.

And so great question.

So as we think about preparing the land use plan, what are some of the sort of bigger framing elements that we need to pull together?

What is a lane use plan?

A lane use plan, of course, starts with land use.

So what are the uses we as a community want to see on these properties?

So for example, one of the things we've heard from many, many of you is we want to keep a grocery store, we want to conserving retail, we want to be able to walk to retail.

That's a very clear lane use comment that we've heard from probably almost everyone.

So we need to make sure that's in the plan.

Building heights.

We've heard from many of you of we want height air density or excuse me, you want height air transit, or we're concerned about hiking this location.

So how do you accommodate heights along the corridor?

Parks and open space.

I think many of you have been really clear about what you want.

So our goal was to try and we're working on that.

And as Carrie pointed out, hopefully in April, we can bring some draft proposals back to you.

And then what is our circulation network?

How are we moving around the corridor?

Um that's vehicle, um, head, bike.

Um so how are we moving around?

It's not just one user, we're all moving around in different ways.

So, how do we do that around the corridor?

Images on the right are not new tree, they are from a recent plan, the Oxwest plan, which is everything in our city west of rein bodied.

And we included that.

So if you're like, what the heck's the framework plan?

What are they talking about?

These are some diagrams that you can look at from a previous plan of probably the level detail we're thinking about your chief.

Uh so next slide.

And with that, I'm gonna turn back to Christian.

I do want to say thank you if this is your first meeting, and if it's not your first meeting, thank you for staying engaged because we are heading into sort of the next couple months where your input is really gonna shape this plan.

So thank you.

Um all right, so we are uh we've got a lot more stuff uh to talk about with with you throughout the rest of this plan.

So there's plenty of opportunities left to plug in.

Um so on the schedule that you can see uh we are currently at that yellow February 25th meeting.

Um coming up, uh, we're taking a little bit of an engagement break in March so that we can play um catch-up and analysis.

Um, but then in April, uh tentatively, these dates are all tentative, but um, in April 22nd, we are aiming to release the uh framework plan that Jeff was just talking about.

In March, um, we are planning to uh hope focus in on how I'm sorry, in May.

Excuse me, I could see a carry uh mouthing in the audience.

But um, so in May, uh, we are planning to focus in on housing and health uh components of the framework plan.

Um, and then in June, we'll be focusing in on transportation parks and sustainability.

Umce we get into July, our our goal is to release the uh recommendations in the middle of July with an ultimate uh goal of releasing the draft plan in September.

Um, so that's kind of what you can expect in terms of what's coming up.

Uh hopefully this gives you a sense of which meetings would be good to plug into for you based on your interests.

Um and I also will just say the schedule is on the web page.

Um, so you don't need to write these dates down, you'll be able to access it online.

And of course, for every meeting, we'll send out um an e-news announcing it and make sure that everyone um gets information about that.

Um, so I know that a lot of you have already spent time at these boards, so I'm but I'm gonna go over this in case there's those of you who uh joined us right as the presentation was getting started.

Um, but we developed these boards as case studies based on some of the specific pieces of feedback that we received.

And these case studies are really intended to illustrate how uh the city makes decisions about some of these things.

Um, so it's really thinking about when people give us bicycle and pedestrian connections, how do we uh think about those and whether or not they're feasible or where you know what where they should go?

Similarly, we got a lot of feedback about Wheeler Avenue.

Um, and so that board is specifically discussing some of the feedback that we got um with regard to Wheeler.

Um so if you haven't had the chance to um look at these, I highly recommend that you spend some time um perusing them and talking to the staff who are at those boards, and again, they're also um on the web page.

We're gonna go into um uh uh QA.

I actually, before we do that, I'm gonna skip to the next slide because I want to make sure we cover this before the um QA.

Uh but like I said, we have these additional meetings.

Um, and this is relevant for those of you who are online.

We do have a something called the engagement hub.

Uh, I know a bunch of you have used it.

The engagement hub has all of this material on it, and then it also has a map with the districts on it that you can zoom into and explore.

Um, so it's not just a static image map, it's like a live Google map that has the um has the uh districts on them.

Um the uh materials are on the web page.

Um, and then also in this presentation, but also on the web page and also on the um uh engagement hub, we do have the list full list of community ideas um that you can that you can sort of search through.

So we're gonna start the we're gonna do the QA.

We have some the way that for those of you who have not been to a community meeting that we've done before, we like to do the QA with note cards.

This helps us make sure that we get physical copies of all of your questions so that we can then compile them and then publish the answers uh on our website um for the ones that we answer, but also for the ones that we don't answer.

Um so the note cards are Carrie has some of the note cards, and we have a bag of pens.

If you have a question that you'd like to ask, raise your hand and we'll make sure to get that to you.

Um for folks who are online, please use the uh Zoom QA to ask any of your questions, and then we will distribute the microphone so that everyone can hear you uh and we'll go from there.

So give us like a little pause to make sure everybody gets note cards, and then we'll get started.

Can you explain it again what a framework plan is?

Yes, we can get to that, but I would can you write it on the note card so that we can make sure to write the answer down for you.

Thank you.

Um raise your hand and we'll collect your questions.

Is it just any question?

Any questions?

No question is off limits.

Hey, why did you decide to wear this shirt today?

Anyone anyone uh ready for any other questions?

Just raise your hand.

There's two questions.

Anyone else questions?

I see some folks still working.

All right, anyone else?

I am just gonna go in the order.

So first question is what is being done to reduce the burden of small business owners of parking mandates on long street.

So what a great question.

So one of the things in our work program, city work program, our transportation staff are looking at parking standards in our city.

So one of the things they're gonna be looking at as part of that effort is what parking is required citywide.

And so I think the important thing for us when we look at parking standards is to make sure we write size parking uh that it's appropriate for the business and the use and where it's located.

So that's in process.

Um love this question.

Uh, can Duke Street be a boulevard?

I think I think the short answer is yes.

I think the um, you know, one, I think it was the last meeting or maybe in the meeting before that we talked about the transformation of Route One in front of Potomac Yard.

And um it was four to six lanes, it was very few sidewalk accommodations, very few street trees, and in the past 10 or 15 years, it has transformed to what I would call bullet sidewalk street trees much safer.

Uh, so it can be done.

Can greenery be added between the lanes versus yellow lanes?

I love that comment question.

I think we are looking at that.

I think one of the things we have not yet talked about, and I hope this part of this plan is how we can incorporate sustainability into this plan.

And one of the ways we do that is to help reduce imperfect surface that does lots of things, including heat.

So to the extent we can make more green and have less than pretty surface, it helps the neighborhoods of the corridor and have sustainability.

But happens to housing that have gates and fences that are old and unusable.

Um is that you?

Yeah, it is you want to explain that one?

Yeah, are there along Duke Street?

There's quite a few homes that have gold fashion chain link gates or fences, and then there's a house that has you know white picket fence, and there's no consistency.

Can there be consistency in that bill?

I think um I think in new development, I think that's something we usually regulate for existing housing.

The only way we get to something like fence details are generally through historic district.

So probably not um, but there are zoning ordinance requirements about fence indeed, but probably less so designed.

Okay, can you stand here?

So maybe that are on the same um excellent.

I take instructions reasonably well.

Um adding three libraries along the corridor.

I think that's the little libraries where you share books.

I love that.

Um feasible to expand telegraph exit to two lanes.

Um that's on that one.

So what I would urge everyone to look at.

Um so our transportation department, actually, our department of project implementation recently set out an email on the reconfiguration of telegraph.

Is any raise a hand that anyone tracking that following that?

Um couple of you.

So um, I would urge you to look on our website, and Christian can send you a link to that.

But essentially, what's happening is if you're going eastbound towards old town under telegraph, it's gonna be a new signal.

So today to get on to telegraph, you have to go down dub, take a big look around.

So not adding lanes to telegraph, but there is a discussion about adding a signal to get on to telegraph.

So people going eastbound don't have to loop around on that.

Um will the bike lanes be protected?

Uh bike lanes is implemented.

Uh so one of the things also as part of the tree motion that we are looking at, just trying to make sure we put them all in the same place.

Um with our transportation partners is where we have right away proven in street scale, and there will be bike facilities there.

Um, and the uh ultimate design of those, I think we're still working on.

Uh it's probably gonna vary a little bit up and down the corridor, but we're gonna have bike facilities and facilities, and they will be separate.

Um the traffic organization that you're working with.

Do they dictate where the traffic is going to go through through the plan that we're describing we're working on this evening?

No, there's a later question which I'm going to get to, which was great is how does this how does this relate to due street motion?

And one of the things we talked about sort of early in this process was there was a lot of conversation, a lot of comment, a lot of discussion about deep trees motion.

Um I know people quite strong opinions on all sides.

And so do treating motion is a planned discussion, multi-year discussion that happened with the community about putting dedicated transit and transit facilities on Duke Street.

Um, and that was debated, discussed, it was approved by city council.

And so, as part of this plan, we're not revisiting that effort.

Uh, we are acknowledging that was approved.

Uh, there will be improvements on the edges, the streetscapes, which we're working with our transportation partners on, but we're not um discussing the lanes transit configuration on Disparity.

Um is this gonna be north south or what we're gonna move to June is going to do kind of discussion about traffic, I thought I don't know if I know what that is.

Um, in June, uh transportation will be the topic of discussion, yes, and we'll have our um test colleagues will be here as well.

Yeah, so and and really what that will look at is if density land uses have changed in any way since the Duke Tree and Motion Plan was analyzed, making sure we look at that to understand the attacks.

Um this is actually that question how the new treaty motion affect the plan.

So we did talk about that, maybe that was you as well, sir.

Um excuse me, along with allowing greater height near transit, will the framework plan also allow greater heights near parks?

Um I think the greater density in your park should be a strong focus of the plan.

Um I think um, you know, one of the things when we come back with when you're height, we're gonna have to talk about a little bit about is sort of the underlying economics that are sort of um uh we're gonna have to address with this plan.

And the other thing we're gonna have to talk about are some of our um statewide and citywide limitations on requiring for hike.

And so um I think in general, I think the way we think about heights is first of all, the height should frame an individual space, a street or a park.

I need defining it.

So the street and the park are sort of the outdoor room, and the building is the wall to define that space.

And generally, when you have a bigger street or park, generally uh taller height is appropriate, but we're still looking at specific heights and economics as well.

Um help me translate this one.

Um I'm gonna read this one about north-south connections.

There's a pedestrian tunnel which goes under the metro tracks near Telegraph, any possibility of improving.

Yes, right.

Um so one of the things that uh we are also talking about the um so one of the things just to set back, one of the things every community in and around Telegraph has said to us, I've heard this a lot, is I'm gonna walk your bike to wavelength, I can't get there.

And so one of the things that we are looking at is how do we improve north-south connections to get to Eisenhower?

And candidly, the people who are living and working in I'm sorry, probably also want to get to parks and other things in your community.

So we're a city, so how do we connect?

And so one of the things we're looking at is how do we have connections on the telegraph?

Um, it's pretty challenging today.

Um, I acknowledge that, and so one of the things we're looking at is how do we make it substantially better?

Um lot of issues.

Um yes, uh, I'm missing one word, but how is the interstate commuter traffic being factored into the plan?

Well, Duke Street and Motion projects seven minute decrease and travel.

Oh this means Quaker will back up seven minutes faster.

Oh, excellent.

Um so one of the things, one of the things that uh I mentioned that as part of Duke Street Motion, there was a very extensive traffic study.

Uh, it looked at what's out there today, and it also accommodated future growth.

I think the challenge, and this came up when I was talking to some folks at the board.

Our challenge, it's not gonna surprise anyone in this room.

Our traffic challenge is primarily cut through traffic.

It is folks getting on and off 495 and 395 and 100.

And so that is a challenge many of you are living with.

I talked to you about some of you at the beginning of this, and so that is that is our ongoing challenge, and I think technology is making it probably worse because it's actually directing people to certain routes because of time.

Um, and so I think we're trying to mitigate that.

I know our transportation department is trying to mitigate that, but it's a challenge we as a city are facing because of geometry.

So um, but we're gonna look at that and a duke street motion looked at it, and uh, we're gonna we're gonna communicate that.

Are there any concerns about economic conditions delaying the plan?

Yes.

So um, I think one of the things that um when we are doing a plan, I think what's really important for us, you and the city are spending a lot of time and effort to prepare a vision of the future.

That's really what these conversations are.

How do how do we want this corridor to change over time?

And um, I can tell you our city councils and saying how do you implement this stuff?

Any pay for it, and so we're gonna have to think about short minute long-term implementation.

We are in a very unique, and someone who's been doing this a while, we are in a very unique economic planet to be fun.

Um access to capital is really challenging.

Interest rates are really challenging, however, cycles change, and so the benefit for us right now is doing the planning so that when the market comes back, we have a plan and vision together to know what we want.

So, is it gonna impact implementation?

Yes, is it gonna delay it a little bit?

Probably, but we are in a good time right now, I think, to do planning.

So I think short term um it's gonna impact us, I think mid-long term are gonna be okay.

Um consideration for bike and pet connections between youth and eisenhower.

So Melissa, you want to raise your hand, please?

So Melissa's standing by a graphic back there.

I would urge you to look at that.

So one of the things we did as part of this effort is to is to look at the context of what's in and around Duke Street.

Uh what's been discussed, what's being planned.

So there are some TED and bike bridges that are being proposed.

Uh there are improvements planned for the Van Or Bridge.

Uh, I mentioned the telegraph connection, etc.

Um, so they're on the board.

No, the part okay.

Um so I would urge you, you know, meet myself or Melissa and we can talk to you more about this, whoever raised that question, but we are looking at the context of the system, and I think the challenge whenever we are looking at more south connections, Christian both that feasibility thing.

I think the question for us, this is perfect, follow up to the last question.

How are economics impacting this?

So I think our challenge together is as we are proposing stuff.

Uh, how do we think about this?

How because we have a limited amount of money as a city as a community, how do we spend that in a way that benefits the most people?

And so that's gonna be our challenge together.

So if we want to do one really big thing or we want to do 10 other things, the that's gonna be a question conversation we're gonna have as part of this plan.

Um street in motion, tightly linked to transits.

Uh, I thought was dead until mentioned tonight.

Are there two efforts in block step and will output of the plan resolved in updates to the Duke Street and motion?

So I think I mentioned that earlier, we are not updating the street motion plan.

Uh that is funded, and it is actually in the design phase right now.

Uh, someone was asking me earlier about timing um of the Duke Street Motion plan should probably get that on our website.

Um, so that's something we'll get off as part of uh part of this process.

All right, um, the new districts replace the existing neighborhood names.

Um I don't think I don't think the intent of this was to replace neighborhood names.

He jumped in that uh graphic and say or uh uh Kristen.

Um so this is this is really about organizing principles for the plan because we heard a lot of very specific comments about I want to save connection at this signal, or I want to park at this location, and so the only way for us to sort of zoom in and do that is to have these smaller geography.

So I don't I think these are neighborhood units that are gonna be functional, but I don't think the intent was to replace the great neighborhoods that are out there today.

This is really an organizing principle of the plan.

100%, yeah, 100%.

Um business district dictates zoning or vice versa.

Um I uh I'm gonna ask who I wrote that.

Can you clarify what that we came up with a business district?

Do you do a basic resoning the principles of our available laws in the way to no, no?

So so one of the things that we are looking at right now is and this came out of both community comments and city council comments and candle air conversations with the business owners.

Um is so we've heard a lot of we can afford to be in this location, Wheeler Avenue, and some parts of Duke Street because it's affordable, and if the rents go up, I don't know if I can stay in the city.

So one of the things we're looking at for some of the small business areas is what we do is from a zoning perspective, make sure some of the small businesses stay here.

So it's the work person we're gonna end up performing some zoning blocks.

I think that's right.

I think that's right.

And so it's interesting that I'll just say this because it came up a lot in our comments is hey, what if we redevelop Wheeler at one of the boards?

And and the challenge with that, uh, that could be a recommendation of plan.

The challenge with that, there are someone standing up around the room knows this, but there are a significant number of businesses on that court, and it is one of the last locations in our city that are $25 a square foot or less to rent.

And I can tell you from the business folks I've talked to, they can't afford to be anywhere else in our city.

Uh, as we all know, it's an expensive place to live, it's expensive place to operate, and so it's important to make sure that we keep some of that affordability here.

So, Christian talked about pension and how principle is conflict, like we want a density, we want a transit, we want walkability, but we also want a small business.

So, I think one of the challenges is we develop this framework plan together.

How do you balance that?

Because they they do compete.

Can I add one thing to that, Jeff?

Yeah, in addition to what Jeff said, a lot of the businesses that are on Wheeler are not necessarily businesses that you might find in like a traditional retail environment.

So, a great example.

This is a business who uh business owner who came to our business uh community workshop that we had in January, they run a uh medical suture manufacturing company, and you wouldn't necessarily find that company in a mixed-use building on the ground floor where you would uh you know find a cafe.

And so something that we're also cognizant of is that Wheeler Street is one of the only places in the city where those kinds of businesses exist, and we don't want to create an environment where we can't have businesses like that in the city at all.

It's also right next to a rail line, and it's also right next to the rail line, exactly.

Um, just to follow down this we're gonna try Kristen time check for us.

Um it's 811.

Okay, so we're gonna get try and get through as many of these as we can.

If we can't get through all of them tonight, we're gonna post answers online.

We're gonna try and get through all these.

Um the other sort of comment traffic is the challenge.

Um I think that is that is accurate.

And so I think I think the question for us, the question for us, this is very similar to Tony Card.

So when from someone who's involved in assignment for Potomac Yard, the comment was oh my gosh, the traffic on route one is really bad.

What if we did nothing?

And if we do nothing, the traffic will continue to get worse, and the city will not bend.

So what has happened instead on Potomac Yard?

We have a graphic on our website.

Traffic has gone down route.

We've added five million square feet, traffic's gone down.

Can you do that?

Um, there's a slide on our website that shows how you do that.

And one of so the city council just received the manager's budget lesson.

And so one of the challenges in our city is how do we grow safely smartly?

How do we add tax revenue to do the things that we all hear the community wants?

Centers, park schools, and that comes through additional development in smartways.

So if we do nothing, the traffic cut through is going to continue.

And so I think the question is are the folks using our streets local traffic?

I think it should be the case, or are we going to do nothing and allow regional cut through to be on our streets?

So I think we're gonna have to balance those two, and that's gonna impact who we are as a city from patch remote perspective, but also a place.

Um I think you had a question about community engagement.

I can so um the question we got was how else can I provide potential suggestions, ideas for the plan?

So um currently the uh method that we were using to solicit the specific community ideas that uh has closed.

It was on our community um uh engagement hub.

Uh however, if you are plugging into the process right now, or you didn't think of the idea that you have until today, uh you are always welcome to one send me an email about it.

Um my contact is on every flyer, it's all over the website.

It's sort of hard to miss, but um if you go to our web page, uh you'll be able to find my uh email and you can send that directly to me.

Um, in addition, on the uh community engagement hub, we do have a replica of this meeting, which includes a QA.

You can ask your question about the idea that you have there too.

Um and then also uh coming to future meetings.

We are the the um future meetings that I had on that slide, will have feedback opportunities at them.

So there's no set there's no time that's too late to share your community idea with us.

Um you can do it anytime you want by emailing me, but also by plugging into the other engagement opportunities we have.

That's great.

I'm gonna ask some questions from some folks on the Zoom meeting.

Why are sections uh in the district section six and seven a name?

Um very good question.

Um we thought about adding uh oops, sorry, we thought about adding names to those, and our thought was let's keep it blank and let the community wait.

Uh so this is a working draft.

So if you have thoughts, comments, if you live there or have thoughts and comments along the way, please help us.

Please help us do that.

Uh, second question was how is Cameron Station being handled?

Feels part in and part out.

That is true.

So this district is sort of showing part of Cameron Station, really the frontage along New Street in this district.

We're not envisioning changes there.

It's obviously build out has existing approvals.

We're not envisioning changes, but it is it is part of that functional unit.

So, for example, as we're thinking about head crossings or bike safety or other things that we've heard from all of you, there might be zoom ins along the way to sort of incorporate this.

Um you discuss the sub-district names and versus civic and business business organizations.

I think we talked about that a little bit.

This isn't intended to supersede them, these are really organizing elements from our annual plan.

Um can you show the various civic association boundaries and names with the subdistrict diagram for your comment?

Yes.

Um what is a framework plan?

Um, I think we talked about that.

Um, but I think really, Kristen, if you can go back to that one, it's really the primary elements that make up a landing plan.

Framework plan is a plenary word, but it's really what are the fundamental things that make up a land use plan?

Land use type parks and circulation.

Can you compile this together?

We're calling a framework plan.

That's our word, but it's really those four pieces put together.

Sorry.

What are the blue X's on the diagram?

Christian, take that one.

Yes.

So on the on this community ideas feedback diagram, each each blue X is a uh piece, uh, a community idea that we received that was attached to a specific location or address.

Um so we got we talked about this earlier about the at the tunnel under the the connects to Eisenhower.

We got some comments about that.

So um you might see some X's over by where that is.

Um so this isn't necessarily saying which comments, um, what comments they are, it's just giving you a sense of the geography of comments that we received.

All right, this is a great question, by the way.

Um how does the plan look at older condos in the plan area?

Will it allow condos associations to consider redevelopment at the cost and maintaining older buildings becomes feasible?

So if you made that comment, please catch me.

I want to talk to you about it.

So I think the short answer is we are very much open to that.

Uh the other thing I would add the housing master plan.

I know we have a lot going on in our city, but um hopefully that wasn't a warning.

There's a housing master plan that we are working on that uh that our housing office is working on that is looking at this very issue.

Is are there efforts that have condominiums uh work together to make improvements?

Uh I think we've heard this sort of a lot citywide, particularly for smaller condos.

Um, could you, for example, could five or six or ten condos go together and buy windows cheaper than you could if you just find them in for example, and so there might be ways to sort of consolidate condos to make more efficiency, so that's something that's in the housing master plan.

But if you're interested in being an opportunity there and you're not, uh please catch me at the end.

Um can we do anything to address equally?

It is being used as a cut through and is dangerous.

This is a Zoom question, and I edited it for brevity to save myself, but I can read the whole thing if you want me to.

And add connections.

I think the short answer is look at that.

I hadn't heard that before, but we will look at that.

Um can you share how you're incorporating BRT stuff into your consideration about land use and districts?

Uh, yes, I think one of the things that we're going to do when we bring the land use plan back to you is show exactly where the transit stops are being planned and how it integrates with the land use plan.

And so as we're working with this over the next four or six weeks, uh, that's something we're going to be looking at.

I think we covered all the questions, comments.

Did I miss anyone?

Any other um how business tax revenue from the land use area case or quality and tax revenue from the residential key pace.

Um probably explain this very simply.

Um so one of the things we do as a city, we we do something called discount tax study, and it basically says, does what how much tax revenue is generated by this?

And and the short answer is commercial revenue is generally higher than residential.

All new development that we get this question a lot, new development paper itself.

The answer is yes, it is plus revenue for the city after you deduct services, schools, police, fire, etc.

So I think one of the one of the benefits of doing this plan is that we will have a plan for commercial of where it wants to go, either retail or other commercial uses.

I will say a challenge as a city as a region, you are all seeing this as we think about new and existing offices, it's going to be a pretty challenging market short midterm for new um new office space.

But opportunity in this corridor and particularly around the transit cost.

Any other questions or comments?

All right, so we went over the slides, so we're right at the very end.

Um, but just as a reminder, there's more to uh you can explore this information in more detail on both our webpage and also on the engagement hub.

Um, and so for everyone who's joined us online, I'll direct you to the engagement hub.

Feel free to explore stuff there.

Um, but otherwise, I think we'll adjourn for the night.