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. are paying higher rents for less suitable space than many of their suburban counterparts, evidencing a need, and willingness to pay premiums, to be located in the District. Yet the role these industries play in the District economy is poorly-understood. The relatively lower real estate value generated by such users has made it easy to dismiss their relevance to a national and global capital primarily concerned with the business of government and policy-making. Clearly, there are increasing demands to make policy decisions regarding the District’s inventory of industrially-zoned lands, decisions which are currently being made on a site-by-site basis without the benefit of a comprehensive strategy. Decision-making is further hampered by a lack of basic information necessary to make knowledgeable choices. Gaps in information— information necessary for understanding the opportunity costs of rezoning industrial land—that existed at the start of this study, included the following: The amount of industrially-zoned land, including how much is vacant, and how much is underutilized. The types of users occupying industrially zoned land in the district, and their geographic distribution. The role and importance of these users, and PDR businesses generally, in the District’s economy. The current state of the market for industrial land and buildings. On the municipal and government space needs side, the gaps in knowledge and data are even more pronounced, and some can not be fully addressed in this report. As part of the research undertaken, it was discovered that: Many District agencies are not able to produce a complete inventory of what properties they own or lease. Inventories put together for this report lack such key details such as the size and use of the property, the square footage of any improvements, and the property’s zoning. Property site identification is currently undertaken both by DC’s Office of Property Management (OPM) and individual agencies; sometimes, representatives of OPM and a specific agency are both looking for sites at the same time. There is inadequate coordination between agencies when developing plans for improving current operations and providing for future space needs. Opportunities for shared facilities and other synergies may therefore be lost. The purpose of this report is therefore twofold: (1) to provide the factual and analytical base for future land use decisions impacting industrial land and PDR land uses; and (2) to provide a set of recommendations for strategically managing the District’s scarce supply of land suitable for accommodating PDR users and certain municipal, utility, and governmental functions. - 15 -
District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. 1.2 METHODOLOGY The findings and recommendations contained in this report are founded on a detailed and comprehensive methodology examining the District’s industrial lands from a land use, economic, and market perspective. The study “areas” for this report refer to blocks of land delineated by the DC Office of Planning (OP) to correspond roughly areas surrounding CM or M zoning or containing a concentration of industrial businesses and/or industrial land. OP further divided these areas into analytical sub-areas. 3 The accompanying Study Areas Map indicates each area and its OP-given name. The sub-areas provide the geographic organization for the land use analysis and for the specific recommendations. However, the methodology for the report went far beyond land use studies to incorporate the following tasks and investigations: Field surveys and mapping. Each of the delineated sub-areas was surveyed to identify existing land uses, major tenants, and other physical planning issues such as access, building typology, and intensity. Land uses and tenants were then mapped onto base maps showing building footprints and paved areas. The Office of Planning’s existing land use layer provided the surrounding land use context. (The Study Areas Map illustrates the District’s industrially zoned areas and shows the sub-area names). Opportunities and Constraints Analysis. Based on the field surveys and mapping, an Opportunities and Constraints matrix was prepared to assess particular attributes of each industrially-zoned sub area. The purpose of this analysis was to provide qualitative bases for differentiating areas appropriate for PDR retention from areas suitable for land use change, as well as to suggest specific strategies aimed addressing identified issues. Scoring Matrix. After being surveyed, each sub-area was scored on criteria including adjacent land uses, access and circulation, parcel size, and existing PDR users to determine its overall fitness as an industrial area. This scoring exercise was meant to provide a quantitative basis for our findings. Industrial Users Survey. A survey of industrial users was mailed to every address located in an industrial zone. Almost 2,000 were mailed out, and several hundred were returned—182 in usable condition. The surveys asked questions regarding the nature of the respondents business, their reasons for locating and remaining in the District, the importance of a District location to their business, relationship to the District’s economy, and their future plans for expansion or relocation Market analysis. An investigation of the market for industrial land and buildings was undertaken. The analysis included a review of market summary reports issued by large commercial real estate brokerages active in the region, such as CoStar; as well as 3 These sub-areas are predominately zoned C-M or M in the City’s zoning ordinance, but in many cases they include areas zoned for residential or commercial use. The accompanying zoning maps indicate the precise zoning designations within each sub-area comprising this study. - 16 -
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INDUSTRIAL LAND IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY District of ...

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