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

District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning
Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc.
3 Existing Conditions Analysis
3.1 INDUSTRIAL LAND AND PUBLIC POLICY
3.1.1 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN POLICIES
The District has a Comprehensive Plan that guides land use and zoning in the District. It was
adopted in 1985 and updated in 1999, and is currently under a major revision process, which
began in 2003 and is scheduled to conclude in mid-2006 with its adoption. The District’s Office
of Zoning and Zoning Commission is directed to consult the Comprehensive Plan to ensure that
zoning and zoning amendments are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
The existing Comprehensive Plan’s Land Use Element sets the following objective for
“production and technical employment areas:”
The objectives for production and technical employment areas are to encourage
the growth of centers of high technology, research and development, and to
provide for essential support services and nonpolluting production activities.
The Plan’s Generalized Land Use Map designates most of DC’s industrial land for “production
and technical employment,” or PTE. The Plan describes this land use category as follows:
“Restructured industrial land use intended to encourage growth industries and industries
with a high ratio of employees to land area occupied, such as office support systems,
communications, printing and publishing, wholesaling, transportation services, food
services and tourism support services; warehousing; and other commercial activities that
generally do not occur to a substantial degree in other commercial areas.”
As is clear from this description, the Comprehensive Plan envisions these areas not as
traditional industrial districts, which generally have a low ratio of employment to land area, but
rather as areas to locate all manner of production, distribution and repair activities (hence the
PDR moniker used throughout this report). The Comprehensive Plan also identifies the crucial
support role that these districts can play, by accommodating essential uses that are not typically
found in office and retail areas.
The Land Use Element prescribes that industrial areas shall be designated in:
Areas where buffering can protect adjacent residential areas from adverse impacts or
where no residential areas are present
Areas adjacent to railroads and major highways
Certain areas where there is sufficient land to meet the needs of production and
technical employment users, and
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