Evening star., 1928-03-10
Home Building Washington and Its Suburbs
REZONINC UNUSED COMMERCIA
AREAS AS PRESIDENTIAL" URGED
Commission Studies pa. fcr Eliminating
Oversupply of Sections Designated
for Business.

mercial of individual lots where the
circumstances surrounding these lots
justify the change.
My plea is that just as a man is
considered innocent until proved guilty
Of crime. land should be considered
fit to live on or residential" until it is
proved otherwise and vacant land
should be zoned accordingly. Where a
change is made, 1t should be stipulated
that If the land is not used for the
changed purpose within one or two
years, it shall revert to residential
coming"
Mr.. Carter submitted for considera-
ton of the Zoning Commission a sug-
gested amendment to the zoning regu-
lationS to the effect that all lots and
parcels now zoned for commercial pur-
poses and which are not actually SO
used and for which there is no pend
ing application for commercial building
or occupancy permit be rezoned resi-
Dental: that hereafter when coming is
changed from residential to COM
mercial and within two years there
after no commercial building or oc-
cupancy permit is applied for, the land
revert to residential zoning.
While pointing out that 1t would
be very difficult because of practical
questions involved to put this sugges-
ton into effect as proposed. Maj.
Covell states that 1t may be that some
new regulation based on this proposal
can be shaped which might be applied
in the near future and which might
help to solve the many problems now
existing in coming here.
"Too Much Commercial"
Even though there may be four
times too much first commercial prop
erty in this city, nevertheless there
may be certain areas in which the
first commercial area is insufficient" !"
Mai. Covel said. Therefore. there
will be cases where residential prop
erty should be changed to first COM
merciai. in spite of the general rule
to the contrary. believe the Zoning
Commission fully understands this.
ings, en- February Is. 1928; January
T. 1928; December 7. 1927, and Novem-
ber 9, 1927. find that there were three
changes from residential to first COM
mercial and two changes from resi-
dental to second commercial. these
Notwithstanding the clearly expressed
belief of the Zoning Commission that
there is too much first commercial and
second commercial property.
The study prepared by our coming
engineer shows that not only have We
entirely too much first commercial
coming, but also too much second COM
mercial and industrial coming.
1T is evident from surveys made for
the Zoning Commission that over 10
per cent of all certificates OF oc-
cupancy for first commercial enter
priSes were issued for locations In the
second commercial zone. This would
clearly indicate that many and prob
ably most of these locations were i'm
properly zoned second commercial and
that there is decided excess of Sec
ond commercial zoning as compared
with first commercial With theoreti-
cally perfect .zoning there would prob
ably be a few. but only a very few.
permits for FIRST commercial In second
commercial zones. With perfect zon-
ing all first commercial enterprises
would be located in first commercial
and all second commercial enterprises
zones"