D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Thursday announced his office will expand its scope to push for housing affordability, and is calling on the District’s Zoning Commission to make several changes that he says will help more low-income residents access housing.

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       Racine (D), who announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term as attorney general, said in a statement that in the past his office was solely required to provide legal counsel on land use development to the Zoning Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustment, two bodies within the city’s Office of Zoning. This new focus, Racine said, is aimed at “advocating for the public interest” in zoning and development cases.

       To start, Racine proposed four rule changes to the five-member Zoning Commission that he said would create more housing for the city’s lowest-income residents: lowering the thresholds for inclusionary zoning (the policy that requires developers to include subsidized units in exchange for greater density); requiring more housing benefits when a development’s affordable units are built off-site; allowing for inclusionary zoning downtown by removing an exemption; and removing minimum parking requirements for affordable housing units.

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       “The District has grown dramatically over the last seven years with significant benefits, but too often, this growth has hurt and pushed out long-term and low-income residents,” Racine said in a statement. “My office has always had tremendous expertise in complex issues of zoning and land use, and I’m proud that we are now using this knowledge to level the playing field between wealthy developers and long-term residents.”

       The four amendments were filed Thursday and must go through a hearing process before they can be enacted, according to the Office of Zoning. The office said in a statement that the Zoning Commission generally does not comment on pending cases. Racine said his office’s responsibilities as legal counsel to the commission and board were transferred to the Office of Zoning last month.

       Racine also sent a letter to the city’s advisory neighborhood commissioners, offering to provide guidance on how they can better voice their concerns and negotiate with developers. The commissioners frequently play a role and advocate in zoning decisions and other matters that affect their neighborhoods.

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       Corey Holman, a Ward 6 commissioner who has been vocal about zoning matters in the past, said he was “cautiously overjoyed” about the change, noting that members of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission hold an outsize role in planning developments but often lack experience and support.

       Last year, he recalled, a developer proposed a project that he and his fellow commissioners thought should have included more affordable units. They faced some resistance during negotiations, and he added that additional support from well-versed attorneys would have been beneficial.

       “We have limited commission funds, and could seek outside counsel, but outside counsel is not cheap,” Holman said. “To have professional attorneys that would intervene in cases in which there is a significant land-use element is going to better serve our residents, our constituents, in ways that are profoundly better than they are now.”