Council Disbands Planning Agencies

The D.C. Council, at the urging of Mayor Adrian Fenty, has disbanded two semi-public corporations that have overseen development projects.

The Fenty administration argued successfully that the city should directly control millions of dollars of redevelopment projects along the Anacostia and Southwest waterfronts. The projects had been administered by the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. and the National Capitol Revitalization Corp., both of which have been criticized as ineffective.

There are two reasons to be concerned about this. First, as Carol Schwartz noted, the mayor and council have just taken the school system under their direct control, so they already have taken a fairly heavy administrative burden for this term. Second, coordinating development under these two agencies gave the redevelopment process more transparency and made it easier for citizens to voice concerns. Whether that will be the case under the new structure remains to be seen.