Evening star., 1928-02-18
Homecoming and Building Page for Washington and Its Suburbs
COMMERCIAL ZONES EXCEED
DEMANDS, MAJ. COVELL SAYS
Assistant Engineer Commissioner Believes
Too Much Space Has Been Allotted
Business Areas.

seeking to establish additional CONNER
| cial zones will kill the goose that lays
! the golden egg" by the process of ere.
ating a supply OF such areas greater
than the demand.
| Arguments for the change of resi-
dental areas to commercial zoning fall
! into three classes. records Of the Zon-
| ing Commission show:
l. That the city needs more COM
mercial area TO support necessary ousi-
ness activities. This plea. Maj Covel
believes. is not based on present condi-
tions in the District. as shown by the
study made by Mr.. Lindholm. Sev-
eral times more acres of land in the
District now are zoned for commercial
Use than actually are employed for sucl,
purpose. the survey shows.
>. That regular traffic arteries and
streets through which street car lines
/ run are Of necessity commercial rather
than residential streets While this is
logical, the Zoning Official holds. there
. would be tremendous oversupplv OF
commercial areas should all property on
such traffic arteries be zoned for COM
mercial use.
That the value Of property ad-
joining business sections is deprecated
for residential purposes though ii
would be valuable if Zoned to permit
business. The answer to this a.eu-
ment. Maj. CoveN says is that some
residential property must adioin COM
merclal area or otherwise the entire
District would be commercial in char
acter. If the proposition were carried tc
Its logical conclusion.
Lindho'm Survey.
1t is not proposed Of course. that
changes in property from residential to
commercial should be prohibited alto
gether. but coming should be regarded
as more or less permanent thing and
not one subject to constant changes.
Maj. Coveu believes Otherwise prop
erty values would fuctuate to a degree
hlghly harmful to all. he contends.
IN support of his contention that
there is about four times too much
commercial area now in the District.
MAJ, Covell cites figures from the Lind
nolm survey showing that III most Sec
Tons OF the city there are many more
acres OF land zoned for commercial use
tnan actually are so used.
Charts prepared by Mr.. Lindholm
siio" 1nls 10 be true in the section
pounded by Rock Greek Park. the Sol
~ASAAA~ E4UTiQa 2ytn,lc
and Spring road. this being a well es-
taoiisaed apartment house section
where there are 146 acres zoned for
commercial use and only % acres actu-
any used for commercial purposes. 625
acres zoned for residential use and SD
acres actually so used: and e5 acres
being vacant al %
IN the section bounded by Rock
Greek Park, North Capitol stree, and
Risgs road, Spring road and Pinev
Branch. there are 2057 acres zoned for
RESIDENTIAL purposes and l.l90 so used:
lo2 acres zoned for commercial Use and
only 40 acres actually used for this
purpose; and l,0l2 acres vacant.
In other sections Of the city similar
conditions are shown on the zone and
use charts prepared during the SURVEY
now completed. These figures are
.aKen oy MAJ. Copeu as indicative of
the need Of limiting further exfensions
OF commercial areas