HISTORY OF VAN NESS MAIN STREET
A Walk
It all started with a walk in October 2012 with the DC Office of Planning and the Coalition for Smarter Growth, when a group of over 100 neighbors gathered on a bitterly cold day to stroll the Van Ness/Connecticut Avenue corridor and identify what works and what doesn’t work. Most comments that day focused on the negative: too much concrete, dated architecture, a need for more trees and low impact design, and a sense that retail was under performing. But the message from that walk was clear: while the Van Ness commercial corridor is underachieving, it possesses enormous potential, and neighbors will work tirelessly to make it better.
Van Ness Vision Committee
The idea for the Van Ness Vision Committee (VNVC) evolved from that desire. The VNVC was formed by unanimous resolution at the ANC 3F meeting on February 19, 2013. The purpose of the ad hoc committee was to build momentum in the community to work together with commercial property owners, businesses, schools, city agencies and others to make our stretch of Connecticut Avenue more beautiful and more vibrant.
The diverse membership of the VNVC met over 20 times, often including representatives of UDC, WAMU, commercial property owners and merchants, city agencies and the city council. Two design charrettes were held to encourage community input for a town hub at Windom. The ANC hired neighbor and architect Travis Price to design the hub. Two meet and greets invited stakeholders and communicated goals.
Van Ness Main Street
The work of the Vision Committee highlighted the need to create an organization to implement and manage the work, which led to the Main Streets model. Van Ness Main Streets incorporated in March 2015. Van Ness Main Street builds on the work of VNVC, continuing the momentum to include a broad range of stakeholders who are committed to economic, aesthetic and quality of life revitalization, and communicating that Van Ness is open for business. Van Ness Main Street received its first grant from the DC government’s Department of Small and Local Business Development in January 2016 and also hired its first Executive Director. In 2020, amid the global health crisis, Van Ness Main Street welcomed four new businesses and formally expanded its boundaries northward.
Current Boundaries for Van Ness Main Street
Today, Van Ness Main Street boundaries are Connecticut Ave. from Van Ness Street to Nebraska Avenue.
