Does the Height Act Actually Cost D.C. Billions of Dollars?

Since 1910, building heights in Washington, D.C. have been limited by Congress, and the subject of contentious -- but not, until now, substantive -- debate in the capital. At the behest of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and California Representative Darrell Issa, Congress has announced it will spend 10 months studying the possibility of altering D.C.'s Height Act.

As is often the case in urban design, there can be no trials or simulations, and parallels with other cities are in short supply. (That exceptionalism is one reason preservationists value the Height Act.) The debate is confined to the hypothetical, with much speculation on both sides.