Zoning Commission Approves Omnibus Text Amendment to the Zoning Regulations
The Zoning Commission for the District of Columbia on May 28, 2026, took final action to approve omnibus text amendments to modify and clarify various provisions of Subtitles A through I, U and Y of the Zoning Regulations for the District of Columbia (Title 11 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations) (the Omnibus Text Amendment).
The Omnibus Text Amendment was originally filed by the Office of Planning (OP) on June 20, 2025, in an effort to clarify and/or simplify certain provisions of the Zoning Regulations that were generally considered to be inconsistent with current planning priorities, unnecessarily limiting on the provision of new housing opportunities and/or responsible for generating Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) cases with typically little to no opposition.
The Omnibus Text Amendment approved 22 amendment topics, including the following:
- expanded the Zoning Administrator's authority to approve minor deviations to approved projects
- exempted exterior balconies from gross floor area (GFA) up to a projection of eight feet (increased from six feet) and added a new exemption for inset balconies that are open on at least one side, also up to eight feet in depth
- excluded open exterior balconies up to eight feet deep from lot occupancy, except in the residential flat (RF) zones, which were carved out because of privacy concerns
- removed green area ratio (GAR) requirements for projects that consist solely of interior renovations, provided the project does not increase GFA by more than 10 percent and involves only minor exterior alterations; a new exemption for split-zoned lots was also added, with GAR calculated on a weighted-average basis
- removed provisions requiring that parking spaces mandated under the former 1958 Zoning Regulations be retained for the life of the building and as long as the use generating the requirement exists; the Commission found that eliminating this legacy requirement could lower housing costs and advance equity
- updated the list of bus corridors qualifying for the parking-exemption buffer to reflect current Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) high-frequency bus corridors, replacing outdated route numbers with geographic descriptions; several new corridors were also added, including routes serving Anacostia, Southeast D.C. and Northeast D.C.
- clarified that stairwells and elevators serving entirely non-residential or lodging buildings do not count toward penthouse habitable space for purposes of the affordable housing production calculation; service spaces devoted exclusively to communal rooftop amenities for residents are also excluded
- removed the requirement for special exception approval to voluntarily opt into inclusionary zoning (IZ) in the R-2, R-3 and RF zones; the IZ modification tables for those zones now combine mandatory and voluntary developments into a single set of reduced lot-dimension standards available as of right
The Commission took proposed action on the Omnibus Text Amendment after six public hearings held between October 30, 2025, and November 13, 2025, and deliberations at special public meetings on November 25, 2025, and December 18, 2025. The Commission took final action on May 28, 2026.
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact the author or another member of Holland & Knight's D.C. and Northern Virginia Land Use Team.