What is an Advisory Neighborhood Commission?

Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) are locally elected bodies which consider a wide range of policies and programs affecting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, liquor licenses, zoning, economic development, police protection, sanitation and trash collection, and the District's annual budget.

In each of these areas, the intent of the ANC legislation is to ensure input from an advisory board that is made up of the residents of the neighborhoods that are directly affected by government action. The ANCs are the body of government with the closest official ties to the people in a neighborhood. The ANCs present their positions and recommendations – "advice" – on issues to various District government agencies, the Executive Branch, and the Council. They also present testimony to independent agencies, boards, and commissions, usually under the rules of procedure specific to those entities. Under certain conditions, ANC advice must be given "great weight" by those agencies, meaning that they must acknowledge the advice and explain why they do or do not accept it.

ANCs may also present their positions to Federal agencies, but those agencies are under no obligation to act upon ANC advice.

How are ANCs divided up?

There are currently 46 ANCs, up from 40 prior to the 2022 redistricting. Each ANC area is subdivided into a number of smaller areas. Since only one Commissioner is elected per area or district, each is called a Single Member District (SMD). Each SMD consists of about 2,000 people. Although the SMDs should have equal populations, ANCs may vary widely in size. The largest ANCs have 10 SMDs. The smallest has just 2. As a result of the population growth shown in the 2020 census, the number of SMDs has increased from 296 to 345.

What does a Commissioner do?

The ANCs’ main job is to be their neighborhood’s official voice in advising the District government (and Federal agencies) on matters that affect their neighborhoods. Although they are not required to follow the ANCs’ advice, many District agencies are required to give the ANCs’ recommendations “great weight.” Moreover, District law says that agencies cannot take any action that will significantly affect a neighborhood unless they give the affected ANCs 30 days advance notice. This includes zoning, streets, recreation, education, social services, sanitation, planning, safety, budget, and health services. The ANCs may also initiate recommendations for improving city services, conduct neighborhood improvement programs, and monitor resident complaints. The ANCs began operating in 1976.

What is “Great Weight”?

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission system is based on an additional provision which involves the kind of response government must make to ANC recommendations. This is the “great weight” requirement. The law requires that all "District government entities" that are required to give ANCs prior notice of their actions must also, in most cases, give "great weight" to the recommendations the ANCs submit in response to their notices.

The “great weight” requirement is sometimes misunderstood to mean that the recommendation of an Advisory Neighborhood Commission must be binding on the decisions of government agencies, or that an ANC has failed to receive “great weight” if the agency did not accept the ANC’s recommendation. This is not the case, however. Agencies do not have to follow the ANC’s recommendations. However, they must show that they paid attention to those recommendations and took them into account in a serious way before they made their decision.