Evening star., 1944-10-05
Fowler Urges
D. c. Hold Title
10 Park Lands
Report Takes Issue
With Planners on
Lund Valuations
By BAINBRIDGE CRIST.

Budget Officer Walter L. Fowler
today advised the District Commis-
sioners that a 80 per cent increase
in assessed valuation of land in the
past 20 years was due principally to
reassessment of downtown land and
subdivisions in outlying areas and
urged that the District hold title
to all land purchased with It's funds.
His statement took direct issue
with a claim of the National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commits
sion, that parks and Fairgrounds
are one of the major contributions
to the increase in the value of tax
able property in the District.
In a report showing that the Dis
trict has paid millions of dollars
toward park land to which the
United States holds title, Mr.. Fow-
Ter stated:
at is the opinion OF this Office
that all land acquired out of Dis,
trict funds should be titled In the
District of Columbia and that all
acquisitions of land for the District
of Columbia within this city should
be through the Office of the corpora !
ton counsel and the District Real
Estate Purchasing Committee"
Point to Act of 1880.
It was pointed out that under
an act of 1890 the NCPPC and the
Maryland National Capital Park and
Planning Commission reached an
agreement for the extension of Rock
Greek and Anacostia Park systems
under which the United States will
pay one-third of the cost, Maryland
two-thirds, with the title being
held by Maryland.
To bolster it's argument "that the
more done to make this city salts
factory place to work in is an
investment that pays dividends"
the NCPPC had argued that from
1924 to 1914 the assessed value of
land had increased SO per cent, i'm
provements had gone up 103 per
cent or total increase in assess
ments of IA per cent.
To this Mr.. Fowler replied:
THE increase of 80 per cent in
the assessed value of land is due
principally to the reassessment of
land in the downtown district and
the development of subdivisions in
the outlying districts. Much of the
land purchased by the National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commits
sion is undeveloped and of little
value for recreational purposes"
Fort Drive Project.
Mr.. Fowler said that if the con-
tention of the NCPPC that the cost
of the park drive project is con-
siderably less than would been the
cost of city Streets refers to. the
proposed Fort drive, I'VE cannot
agree"
Under our street acquisition pro-
gram, a considerable amount of the
cost is assessed against adjacent
properties. This is as it should be
for when any property is benefited
by a public acquisition over and
above a general benefit that prop
erty should be charged.
There is no reason for enriching
a few at the expense of the taxpayer
The Fort drive project should be
studied by the Commissioners to
determine if it has been worth the
cost and if there is any good reason
for continuing with the plans. AS
it stands today, hundreds of acres
acquired for this drive are serving
no useful purpose. 1t has been
estimated by our Highway Depart
ment that it would cost approx
mately s20,oOo,0oO to complete this
project.
The public should have more
knowledge of what Is contemplated,
should have an opportunity to de-
termine its feasibility, and to decide
if such a burden should be as
sumed."
Overall Picture.
The overall picture presented by
Mr.. Fowler showed that 40.8 per
cent of $1,000 acres in the District
are owned by the Federal Govern
ment, 33 per cent is owned by the
District, At per cent is exempt, leav-
ing only 51.2 per cent of land for
taxation.
"The assessed value of all land
owned by the United States within
the District of Columbia is $685.
803,472," Mr.. Fowlers report said.
AT rate of SITS per $100 of
assessed value, taxes on property
Continued on Page B-6. Column a.