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. Certain areas where there are viable industrial uses in operation. Thus the Comprehensive Plan seeks to guide industrial land uses into certain areas, and also seeks to provide spatial separation of industry with incompatible land uses such as housing. 3.1.2 DISTRICT POLICIES REGARDING INDUSTRIAL LAND USE The District recognizes that current viable land uses that provide services, jobs, and fiscal benefits are essential to the District’s economy. In the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element, District policies state that it will make efforts, through appropriate zoning and related means: To ensure that these uses are maintained and that sufficient land is reserved for production and technical employment uses; Restructure industrial areas which are not needed for essential non-PTE type industrial uses, but which are suited to continued industrial development, into production and technical employment centers; Stimulate the growth of industries providing a high ration of employees to land areas; Discourage underutilization of industrial land for nonproductive purposes; Strengthen the economy and job base of the District by designating selected areas as production and technical employment centers for research and development, high technology, manufacture and assembly, wholesaling, and service production activities, through modifications to the District’s industrial land use controls in some areas of the District, along with concentrated public efforts to retain existing businesses and to attract new ones; Determine the status, trends, and future needs for industrial land in the District and the value of both traditional uses and production and technical employment uses to the District in terms of essential services and jobs for residents and in terms of fiscal benefits to the District; and, Develop appropriate measures to mitigate or eliminate the adverse impacts caused by industrial uses. 3.1.3 EXISTING ZONING The zoning for these areas both does and does not reflect this vision. DC has two primary industrial zoning districts: C-M (Commercial-Light Manufacturing) and M (manufacturing). 13 These districts permit a wide variety of commercial uses (basically everything permitted in the C-1, C-2, C-3 and C-4 zones, which includes a wide variety of retail and services, including 13 Again, W zones also permit certain light industrial uses as a matter of right, but given that they also permit residential uses, and their relative scarcity within our study area, PPSA does not consider W zones as purely industrial zones for this discussion. - 61 -
District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. gasoline service stations) as well as industrial and production uses. A full list of uses is provided in Tables 3.1 and 3.2. The M zone is a heavier industrial district that provides for industrial uses not expressly prohibited. However, both districts permit, either as-of-right or via special exception, high-impact uses such as incinerators and solid waste and recycling facilities. All industrial uses are subject to specific performance standards. The three types of C-M district—C-M-1, C-M-2, and C-M-3—differ in terms of the building bulk permitted. All three permit buildings considerable bulkier than most buildings found in the industrial zones, where tall multi-story buildings are the exception. The height and floor area standards are summarized in Table 3.3. Even the lowest intensity district permits building bulk of three times the lot area (FAR = 3.0) and three stories/40 feet. The allowed intensities go up from there, to a maximum of 90 feet and 6.0 FAR. Likely only the Hecht building on New York Avenue approaches these densities. The C-M and M districts are part of an ordinance which follows a “pyramid” structure common to older zoning ordinances, whereby each less restrictive district incorporates the all the uses permitted in the more restrictive districts. This is seen in the C-M and M zones, which, in addition to PDR uses, permit neighborhood commercial, community commercial, major business, and central business district uses. Critically, there is nothing in the current ordinance that prohibits the development of retail and office complexes in the industrial zones. Only new residential development is prohibited. To date, retail and commercial pressures have not had a major impact on industrial lands outside of a few developments (such as the Home Depot). However, given the current real estate development climate in DC, pressures are likely to escalate even more in the near future. Revisiting this pyramid structure to consider zoning that will better protect existing PDR users is warranted. - 62 -
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INDUSTRIAL LAND IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY District of ...

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