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Nominations for City Positions Under the New Fenty Administration
CHRS Supports Tregoning to Direct Office of Planning
Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Harriet Tregoning to the Directorship of the DC Office of Planning: Testimony of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society Before The Committee of the Whole, February 22, 2007, Council of the District of Columbia
I am Richard N. Wolf, President of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society (CHRS). On February 20, 2006, the Board of CHRS authorized me to give testimony in support of the nomination of Harriett Tregoning to be the director of the DC Office of Planning. Some of us have already met with Ms. Tregoning to discuss planning issues. She will be attending a membership meeting of CHRS on March 6. We find her to be intelligent and astute. We may have some differences on policy issues, but, I am sure, we will be able to have full and robust discussions about these matters.
Our one concern about Ms. Tregoning’s background is that she has never had any experience in city planning in a built city. Her experience is that of a “smart growth” advocate. We believe “smart growth,” especially in Washington, DC, is only a part of planning for this city. On this score, we wish to remind Ms. Tregoning of the words of Professor Witold Rybczynski of the Design Department, University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Commission of Fine Arts, in reviewing a recent book about Pierre L’Enfant: “City planning in the U.S. has generally been the creature of expediency rather than artistry, the ubiquitous gridiron providing a quick and easy way to promote real estate development. The chief exception—and what an exception!—is Washington, D.C. The plan of the national capital is comparable in ambition and scope to Pope Sixtus V’s replanning of Rome in the 16th Century, Peter the Great’s Creation of St. Petersburg in the early 18th Century and Napoleon III’s reconfiguration of Paris in the 1850s. The credit for this belongs chiefly to George Washington and to the Frenchman he commissioned to design the new city: Pierre Charles L’Enfant….”
There is a plan for Washington, DC. It is magnificent; it works for developers and neighborhoods; it has withstood the test of time. Ms.Tregoning and this administration have been given stewardship of this great legacy. Let us hope it is treated with the respect it and we deserve. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard.
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