INDUSTRIAL LAND IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY District of ...

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District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. Vigilantly enforce zoning use regulations and performance standards to ensure mixeduse areas remain “good neighbors.” 4.6 GOVERNMENT FACILITIES As discussed in Section 2.4, the public sector demand for industrial land is great, but large developments and the superheated regional land market are shrinking supply at the same time that increasing service requirements are raising immediate and long term demand for land. As such a significant user of industrial land in the District, clearly government has the potential and responsibility to better manage its own industrial land resources. 4.6.1 POTENTIAL LOCATIONS FOR GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS Several locations, illuminated in Section 4.4 above, are appropriate for consolidated public sector uses. The District should strategically plan for its own industrial land demands—the identification and acquisition of industrial areas is absolutely necessary for a government that must meet growing service demands while being constrained by its own zoning. DC Village and Blue Plains, for example, are now and should remain important locations of municipally controlled industrial land. Other industrial areas should be acquired for government use and more intensely built. The PEPCO site on Benning Road is one excellent example—the District may have the opportunity acquire large portions of this underutilized and strategically located site and use it to meet immediate space needs or bank the land for future needs. Scattered Site 1, and portions of the 11th Street, SE, Water Street, SE, and Anacostia Poplar Point areas are also underutilized, and strategically located industrial areas which should be considered for municipal uses such as school bus storage under highway overpasses or secure records storage. The District should act on these opportunities promptly, and consider designating them under a new Municipal Use Zone category to ensure access for strategic public use. 4.6.2 CHANGING THE WAY ASSETS ARE MANAGED 4.6.2.1 Property Management Of course, strategically planning to meet municipal space needs requires knowing exactly how much land and of what type each District agency requires. But this study found three major flaws in the way District assets are managed. These are: 1) The absence of a comprehensive inventory of District land and property holdings, including leased properties; 2) A dearth of information regarding immediate and future space needs; and, 3) District agencies compete against each other in the industrial land market, sometimes for the same properties. - 105 -
District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. To address both issues, a stronger role for the Office of Property Management (OPM) is recommended as the single most important solution to these problems. Currently OPM is the one agency that is authorized to acquire and dispose of District property, but it is not able to provide sufficiently comprehensive planning, budgeting, or real estate services. It also does not have jurisdiction over all District agencies in this regard. One model for OPM to follow is the U.S. General Services Administration or, more appropriately, the Chicago Department of General Services (DGS). The Chicago DGS manages, operates, leases, disposes, and budgets for each municipal facility, for all agencies (except for agencies not wholly subject to the city budget, such as schools and transportation authorities). DGS is also the lead agency for capital budgeting, and it is the only recipient of capital budget funds, which it then distributes to agencies, thereby giving it the ability to prioritize needs, pursue cost savings, and maintain direct accountability. It is also the lead agency for directing environmental programs such as green buildings, because it can, through the capital process, reward with funds or provide incentives to agencies that pursue cost savings through environmental initiatives. An OPM re-formed into a Chicago DGS-type agency could thus benefit the District. Importantly, it would be able to plan for future space needs, shift assets as needed, and have the authority to acquire and bank land for future municipal use. Working with the Office of Planning and the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, this one agency would centralize or decentralize facilities as the city grows and needs shift, helping to best serve citizens’ needs. This partnership can also help locate facilities in neighborhood growth centers to spur economic development. This type of comprehensive facility planning can also ensure the equitable siting of municipal facilities, helping to promote fair shares and environmental justice. While most existing agencies have a good working relationship with OPM, there is bound to be some resistance to this proposal, particularly from agencies currently heavily involved in property transactions. It must be stressed, however, that centralized property management is the only alternative to destructive competition for land resources among agencies. There simply is no other option for addressing this issue. Opposition to a strengthened OPM is essentially an endorsement of the current system by which property allocation decisions are made on the basis of who was quickest on the draw, not on considerations of need and appropriateness. 4.6.2.2 Fleet Management Another possibility for asset management is consolidating the acquisition, fueling, maintenance, and repair for all District vehicles under one agency. Currently DPW handles most of these functions, particularly the acquisition and service of light-duty vehicles, but several agencies such as Police (MPD) and Fire (FEMS) service their own fleets at separate locations. - 106 -
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