DC Legislation
Legislative Highlights

David W. Briggs, Esq.
Holland & Knight LLP
Co-Chair, DCBIA Legislative/Government Affairs Committee

 

These last many months have been very busy in the legislative and governmental arena in the District of Columbia. Here are some highlights of what the Legislative/Governmental Affairs Committee of DCBIA has been addressing recently.

Urban Forest Preservation Act of 2002

Since the Committee's last report, the District has adopted the “Urban Forest Preservation Act of 2002,” which, for the first time, provides City policy on preservation, maintenance and replacement of the District's urban forest canopy. The Act imposes restrictions on tree elimination and establishes a fund to introduce new tree stock into the District's inventory. All sides of the issue agreed that, as the Casey Foundation had determined, the District's tree canopy had been appreciably dwindling over the last ten years. The discussion on this matter became one on how to best address the clearly identified problem. Ultimately the program enacted by the Council provides for a regulatory program, which, while restrictive, does not appear to be burdensome nor does it impose material delays or hurdles on proposed construction projects. The program also provides for a funding pool to provide new tree stock and qualified District personnel to care for the city’s public tree inventory. DCBIA joined other business organizations in working with Councilmember Carol Schwartz' staff to modify the original legislative proposal that would have imposed substantially more regulatory burden and would have materially and adversely impacted real estate development activity by adding burdensome application requirements and processing delays. While we have hope that the approved legislation will not have adverse effects on real estate development in the District, we will not really know the answer to that question until the administrative regulations – to be proposed by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs and the Department of Transportation – are released, which is not expected to be until late summer. Our committee will monitor the release of these regulations and will review them carefully. We’ll also keep you informed.

Comprehensive Plan

DCBIA participated in a task force assembled by the Office of Planning at the direction of the Mayor to review the Comprehensive Planning process in the District. As many of you know, the Comprehensive Plan adopted quadrennially was intended to be the grounding document for many policy decisions of the District that were to follow, including those related to zoning, historic preservation and other land use related matters. Ably represented by Steve Sher of Holland & Knight, the task force made recommendations to the DC Council to strengthen the Comprehensive Plan process so that in the future, any plan that is produced under a revised process would be a credible planning tool upon which District policy decisions could be legitimately based. As many of you are aware, the quality of the present Comprehensive Plan varied from Ward to Ward and for subject matter area to subject matter area within the Plan, with the document often times becoming a vehicle for special interests to gain preferential treatment without application of true planning principals or an overarching vision. The Office of Planning, with the support of the Council, is now embarking on a two-year process to establish the new planning process, which can produce a legitimate planning vehicle for District policy decisions.

DC Budget Issues

In the face of a burgeoning budget crisis in the District, along with actions by the Mayor and the Council to address a blossoming budget shortfall, our committee worked together with the DCBIA Taxes and Impositions Committee to moderate the impact of certain changes in taxation of real estate enacted to help address the budget short fall last fall (FY ’03 budget). If the Council's initial enactment had been left unchallenged, much of the non-residential property in the District would have been classified in a new class of real property to be taxed at the highest tax rates set, i.e., $5 per $100 of assessed value. This included all new construction.

While apparently neither the Mayor nor the Council intended to create so burdensome a taxing regime, the reality of the legislation, as initially passed, created a Class 3 of real property without any of the exemptions and exceptions that had been found, and had benefited many real property owners, just a few short years ago when there were five classes of real property for real estate taxation purposes, including a Class 3 classification. Our Committee members worked closely with the staff of the Council's Committee on Finance and Revenue to draft supplemental legislation that included exemptions and exceptions to Class 3, thus helping many of our Association members avoid substantial increases in real property tax liabilities for the current and upcoming tax years.

Master Business License Program

Another area of legislative action, still pending as this Article is being written, is the status of the Master Business License Program. Born out of the reform mantra of the mid and late 90's to improve the climate for doing business in the District of Columbia, the Master Business License Program was promoted as a licensure simplification measure to make obtaining business licenses in the District less confusing and time consuming. Prior to that time, based upon a licensure structure that went back to the early days of the last century, a business could find itself having to obtain two, three or maybe more licenses to operate in the District, with varying expirations dates and renewable annually. The intent of the Master Business License Program was to show businesses that in a vast majority of instances, only one license would be required and that license could be obtained biannually.

Instead, what developed out of this vary laudable goal was a program that made doing business in the District even more frustrating. Those earning more than $2,000 annually had to obtain a Master Business License, whether he or she was the owner of a large store or just the local neighborhood baby sitter; a business’s “doing business” name had to be registered with the District if it varied from your business's legal name; it was necessary to prove that you had ‘clean hands’ with regard to financial obligations to the District; and you had obtained a certificate of occupancy for your business site. Trying to satisfy of all of these requirement frustrated citizens, businesses and regulators alike. The deadline for implementation was postponed many times, while simultaneously licenses under the old system expired and could not be renewed.

Two competing positions have emerged to address the Master Business License fiasco—those seeking an outright repeal of the program and re-implementing the earlier licensure process, and those seeking to reform the Master Business License program by removing the most offensive and frustrating aspects of it. At this time, those urging outright repeal have had the upper hand in Council deliberations. DCBIA with other business organizations, such as the DC Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Board of Realtors, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Consortium of Universities, and the Apartment and Office Building Association, have been supporting the more reasoned approach of reformation, believing that to return to the past, while apparently simple to accomplish, would be fraught with problems, many of which were sought to be eliminated when the Master Business License Program was first adopted. Also, there could be adverse budget consequences for the District with repeal, and the practical matters of how to re-institute an outdated and outmoded licensure program.

Among other things, the reform proposal would have removed many of the hurdles to licensure that were introduced by the MBL Program, and it raised the threshold at which licensing would be required. In any case, I will leave to the next issue of the Pipeline the saga of the Master Business License Program.

Housing Issues

On the horizon is pending legislation that could materially impact the operation of rental housing in the District, rulemaking related to adoption of an inclusionary zoning process to encourage “workforce housing” production, and new labor policy initiatives. Keep your eyes to the papers and ears to the ground.

DC Business Legislative Group

DCBIA has joined with representatives of ten other business organizations in the City to form the DC Business Legislative/Government Affairs Group to address legislative, regulatory and other government initiatives that specifically impact the business community and the members of our respective organizations. To date, we have worked together on the FY ’04 Budget, the Master Business Licensing Program and Baseball. The thought behind this more structured group is that we will all become better informed about specific issues and/or government initiatives if we work together; and second, we believe the business community can only benefit from working towards mutually agreed upon positions whenever possible on specific issues. We realize that we may not always agree with each other, but we have agreed to at least become fully aware of the views of the participating organizations.

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