Council of the District of Columbia Approves Significant Increase in Transfer and Recordation Taxes

Effective October 1, 2019, the transfer tax and recordation tax for real estate sales of commercial and mixed-used property on transactions of $2,000,000.00 or above will be significantly increased.

On May 28, 2019, the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously voted to approve Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget.  This budget includes an increase of the current 2.9% transfer and recordation taxes to 5% on sales of commercial and mixed-use property valued at $2,000,000.00 or more.  The increase will also apply to transfers of a controlling economic interest in entities that own commercial real property. Read more ›

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Comprehensive Plan Amendment Process Now Seeks to Evaluate the “Values” of DC Residents

It’s ALIVE!  The Comprehensive Plan amendment process comes back: Almost three years on, the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning (“OP”) wants District residents to identify key values to direct the Comprehensive Plan amendment process.

As many of our readers know, the Comprehensive Plan is a 20-year framework that guides future growth and development.  As part of the ongoing amendment process, OP wants to know: “What are the ‘values’ of District residents?”  “How should those ‘values’ direct the District’s long-term planning?”

Spearheaded by its new director, Andrew Trueblood, OP launched an online survey called “DC2ME” to find out.  The survey will be “live” only until June 30, 2019, so now is the time to act.

The online survey asks participants to rank a list of “values”, which includes: “accessibility”; “diversity”; “equity”; “livability”; “opportunity”; “prosperity”; “resilience”; and “safety”.  OP will use the feedback from the survey to “guide decision making” for the Comprehensive Plan amendment process.

The survey is meant to jump start the process to update the Comprehensive Plan, which stalled after the big District Council hearing in March 2018.  Next, OP plans to conduct multiple “outreach activities” this summer to “share” the feedback from the DC2ME survey.  We will keep an eye on the schedule for those meetings.

Unfortunately, it appears that this survey and the new round of meetings will only extend – not end – the Comprehensive Plan amendment process.  Do people remember the 2017 “Open Call” to solicit amendments to the Comprehensive Plan’s map and text? Read more ›

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Successfully Integrating Tree Protection with Development in the “City of Trees”

person measuring tree circumferenceThe District of Columbia (“D.C.”) has a relatively long history of being known for its trees, stemming back to the planting of 60,000 trees initiated by the last Governor of D.C., Alexander “Boss” Shepard in the 1870s.  While his tenure was brief, his vision of D.C. being the “City of Trees” endured as tree planting efforts were continued by the Federal Government, National Park agencies, citizens, and leaders such as Lady Bird Johnson.  (See City of Trees by Melanie Choukas-Bradley 3rd Edition.)

Today, the goal of preserving and increasing D.C.’s tree population continues.  One of D.C.’s top sustainability goals is to increase the tree canopy of the city from 35% to 40% by 2032.  (https://doee.dc.gov/service/canopy-3000.)  In furtherance of this goal, updates to the Urban Forest Preservation Act, as set forth in the Sustainable D.C. Act of 2014, were enacted formally into law by Mayor Muriel Bowser in in 2016.  (D.C. Code § 8-651 et seq.)  “Sustainable D.C. 2.0” (http://www.sustainabledc.org/in-dc/sdc2-0/) continues to prioritize green space and trees and incorporates both into its climate mitigation strategies, along with strategies related to energy efficiency, healthy communities, and increased access to nature.

The D.C. Code now sets forth specific laws to protect “Heritage” and “Special Trees” that are governed by District Department of Transportation (“DDOT”), as will be explained below.  (https://www.dcregs.dc.gov/Common/DCMR/RuleDetail.aspx?RuleId=R0020859.)

However, these are not the only tree protection laws that developers must be aware of – the 2016 Zoning Regulations set forth even stricter tree protection standards for certain residential neighborhoods.  These neighborhoods are those that the D.C. Government considers important for tree canopy, air quality, soil protection and erosion, storm water management, and cultural significance.

Below are four types of tree-related issues to be aware of when planning a development project in D.C.  Knowing how these four issues apply to a specific project will save both time and money and will help ensure the overall viability of a proposed project, as just one relatively large tree in an inopportune place can have an immense and costly impact on a project. Read more ›

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DC Mayor Challenges Residents and Agencies to Remove Barriers Preventing More Housing

DC buildings constructionIt all started in 1894, when the famous architect Thomas Franklin Schneider designed and constructed the Cairo.  At 164 feet tall, the Cairo was the first residential skyscraper in the District of Columbia (the “District”), causing an uproar among the District’s residents.  The concern was the safety of the structure of such buildings and the ability to fight flames in the event of a fire.  In response, the District’s Board of Commissioners passed a regulation limiting the height of all future residential buildings.  By 1899, Congress passed a law, amended in 1910, commonly known as the Height Act, limiting the height of District buildings to 130 feet.

While the fear that skyscrapers in the District could cause the whole city to burn down may have been rational in the late 19th century and early 20th century, today, many believe the Height Act is holding the development potential of the District back.  Mayor Bowser appears to agree that the Height Act is outdated as she has alluded to a possible change in the near future. Read more ›

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Top Four Value-Adds for Hotels in the District of Columbia

The District hotel market is hot.  Statista.com states that 9.58 million people in the U.S. visited Washington, DC overnight within a period of 12 months and that, in 2014, Union Station was the fourth most-visited tourist attraction in the world, with 32.9 million visitors.  Here are four areas where developers, asset managers or private equity funds can look within the hospitality industry and seek to deploy a high risk-return strategy by renovating and repositioning existing hotel assets: Read more ›

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In DC, “H” Is Not For a Hairy Deal But, Rather, For Dealing with Historic Districts

It does not matter whether or not you are looking for a “hairy” deal – in DC, you will most likely find a deal that is “historic”.  More likely than not you will encounter (or already have encountered) the complexities of the DC’s Historic Districts.

In April 2006, Mayor Anthony Williams said that “preserving buildings isn’t just about retaining architecture.  It’s about preserving our history, our culture, our way of life and our spirit of community.”

We have identified three issues created for DC real estate deals by the Historic Districts and related multi-faceted review procedures.  We refer to them as “the three H’s”:  Hard to Avoid; Hyper-Technical; and High-Quality Products.

Hard to Avoid:          According to the Office of Planning’s data on historic preservation, there are more than fifty Historic Districts in DC, including the monumental civil complexes like the National Mall.  There are over thirty local neighborhood and residential Historic Districts.  According to the chart below, DC has a higher percentage of historically-designated areas than other major American cities.  Consequently, most developers at some point will have to navigate the rules and regulations imposed on historic properties.

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Important Dates to be Aware of

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The Court of Discontent is a Whale of a Problem

A blue whale grows more than thirty pounds a day and doubles in size in its first six months of life.  Every developer wants to land the whale of a deal.  Many big deals in the District of Columbia require complicated entitlements before the Board of Zoning Adjustment or the Zoning Commission.  Unfortunately, the District’s zoning world has fallen prey to a growing number of challenges before the DC Court of Appeals, and the court is only feeding the problem.

What we are seeing is not only an increase in zoning cases that are being appealed, but also greater scrutiny from the Court of Appeals over decisions made by the Board of Zoning Adjustment or the Zoning Commission.  Simply put, the Court of Appeals is demonstrating a willingness to vacate and remand zoning decisions.  This has happened twice in April 2018 alone, including for the redevelopment of the St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish building in DuPont Circle and a PUD in Barry Farm.

The sheer number of appellate cases is startling.  Since January 2016, a period of a little more than two years, there have been fifty-three appeals of decisions made by the Board of Zoning Adjustment or the Zoning Commission.  Compare this to only seventy-one appeals in the preceding four years between January 2012 and December 2015. Read more ›

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Alley Dwellings: The Next Frontier or A Zoning Headache?

As the recent census data show, more people are moving to the District each year and sticking around.  While huge cranes dot the skyline in many areas of the city, there may be an unexpected answer to the District’s housing conundrum: alley dwellings.  Throughout the District, the development of alley lots is being embraced as a way to enliven formerly under-utilized spaces and provide a source for more-affordable housing.

Such was not always the case.  When Pierre L’Enfant was commissioned to design the City of Washington, he never planned on there being alley communities.  However, as an unexpected result of wide alleys and open plots of land, builders created lower income housing described as “mini-ghettoes” by James Borchert in his 1980 publication Alley Life in Washington.  Later in 1934, the Alley Dwelling Authority condemned many unsanitary conditions in alleys and, later, the 1958 Zoning Regulations completely restricted habitable structures on alleys.

Now in 2018, new opportunities are being seen in alleys for housing, retail and even place-making.  While the size and make up of alley networks vary from Ward to Ward, on the whole alleys present a novel opportunity for the District.  Here are three “outside the box” reasons to tout the benefits of alley development:

First, safety.  The word “alley” itself may draw up images of long, dark, narrow passages between rows of homes but, in reality, alleys are as varied in size and composition as the rest of our streets.  Nevertheless, alleys are typically less utilized and less monitored than main thoroughfares.  By providing what urban theorist Jane Jacobs calls in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities “eyes on the street,” the mere presence of alley residents would discourage loiterers or those who intend to commit property crimes or theft in the alley.  So, those who live on alley properties could play an important role in improving safety for the entire block. Read more ›

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Into the Belly of the Beast

land use attorney at DC council hearing

On the night of March 20th, 2018, I unwittingly walked into hostile territory – the DC Council chamber during the epic 13-hour public hearing on the proposed amendments to the Framework Element of the District’s Comprehensive Plan.

Perhaps the Washington Post headline said it best: “Dry DC Planning Document Fuels Hot Debate”.

While I was joined by many leaders of the development community, as highlighted in the Bisnow article dated March 20th, I think that all of us were surprised at the angry tenor of the opposition to the amendments.  Guy Durant, of the Durant case fame, went so far as to call us “devil-opers” with the emphasis on the “devil”.  And there were no punches pulled on the members of the land use bar who were called all sorts of names, none of which were nice.

The opposition used the hearing as an opportunity to air their dirty laundry on any and all issues relating (even tangentially) to land use and development.  Their concerns ranged from displacement of residents to DC Water fees.  They clearly wanted a soap box and found it. Read more ›

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Real Estate, Zoning & Land Use

Cozen O’Connor has represented residential, commercial, retail, and industrial builders in the development and redevelopment of building lots and millions of square feet of real estate. Our team handles every aspect of the zoning, land use, and development approvals process, from obtaining building permits and variances to negotiating stormwater management and traffic plans.

Head of the DC Zoning Group & Blog Editor