The Committee of 100 on the Federal City, locally referred to as the Committee of 100, is a private, nonprofit membership organization which promotes responsible land use and planning in Washington, D.C., and advocates adherence to the L'Enfant Plan and McMillan Plan as a guide to city growth. It is one of the most influential private land use planning bodies in Washington, D.C.
About the organization
The goal of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City is to promote responsible land use and planning in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post has characterized the committee's approach as conservative, which is to say desiring to maintain the status quo. The committee believes its goals can best be achieved by adhering to the 1791 L'Enfant Plan and the 1902 McMillan Plan. The committee is also strongly interested in historic preservation.
The group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its members are primarily white collar professionals, although not necessarily professionals involved in urban planning, real estate development, or architecture.
The Committee of 100 is one of the oldest citizen-based urban planning groups in the United States. It is generally considered one of the most effective and highly influential private planning bodies in Washington, D.C. Reporter Lydia DePillis, writing for the Washington City Paper said in 2010, "Thanks to their relentless advocacy, D.C. remains a walking-scale city, retaining many of the elements of a healthy urban environment..." The committee is credited with keeping superhighways from being built in the city, and for winning passage of the Washington Metro in the face of intense congressional opposition. But it has also been criticized as too wedded to the status quo. Washington City Paper reporter Lydia DePillis characterized it in 2011 as "crusty" for its vehement opposition to change and its members as "civic worthies" for representing only wealthy, white residents. The Committee of 100 has strongly denied it is anti-development. Rather, it claims to merely want well-planned development.
Vision Awards
In 2002, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City began awarding an annual "Vision Award". The award recognizes "innovations and lifetime achievement in planning and land use by individuals or organizations in the District. A guiding principle is that planners follow the vision of the McMillan Plan and the city's original planner, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, while responding to modern challenges." Nominees are suggested by the public, and the award is generally bestowed in June.
Usually, anywhere from two to five Vision Awards are distributed. Additionally, one or two Lifetime Achievement Awards are also bestowed, as well as one Barbara Zartman Award for Planning and Zoning Advocacy. The Lifetime Achievement and Zartman awards are granted solely at the discretion of the Board of Trustees, and in some years no award is granted.
History
On December 8, 1886, a group of businessmen residing in Washington's Northwest quadrant convened a meeting to appoint a "Committee of 100 Representative Citizens" to promote development of the city (then largely undeveloped woodlands). Although formed to promote the needs of citizens only in the Northwest quadrant, the organization quickly broadened its organizational structure and promoted a plan for the entire city. Its first meeting was May 16, 1887. this Committee of 100 disbanded in 1917.
However, in 1922, Frederic A. Delano (uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt) became president of the American Civic Association. Delano organized the Committee of 100 on the Federal City as a successor to the group which had disbanded in 1917, and became its first chairman. The Committee of 100 on the Federal City was founded in 1923. The Committee's goal was to support the 1791 L'Enfant Plan and the 1902 McMillan Plan for the development of the capital. One of its first legislative goals was to establish a parks and planning commission for the District of Columbia, which it achieved in 1924 when Congress created the National Capital Park Commission.
Delano stepped down as chairman at the end of 1944, and Owen Roberts, Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, was appointed his successor.