What's an ANC?
An ANC is a non-partisan, neighborhood body made up of locally elected representatives called Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners. They are a unique feature of the Washington, DC's Home Rule Charter, and they began operating in 1976. Commissioners serve two-year terms and receive no salary. The current term began on January 2, 2025.
In the words of The 51st, "At a very basic level, your Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner is the neighborhood's eyes and ears, and the mechanism to tip people higher up in the government if something isn't working. That relationship also flows in the other direction: D.C. agencies often have to come before ANCs to, say, present plans on a new traffic pattern for a specific street, allowing for residents to be notified and share their input in one place."
Each of DC's eight wards consists of multiple ANCs. Each ANC consists of multiple single-member districts (SMD). There are 46 ANCs consisting of 345 single-member districts in DC. Each single-member district includes about 2,000 residents. OpenANC.org is a great website that maintains an updated map and list of ANCs.