Evening star., 1947-02-09
Survey Is Advocated
For Tox-Exempt Lund
Study Suggested as Alternative
to Scrapping Fort Drive


to Scrapping Fort Drive
By Rudolph Knufmnnn n.
District officials have said the Fort
drive would be useless" and that we
Washingtonians would be better off II
the land bought for 1t were turned into
taxable property.
The District government has argued
this way before-that tax returns are
constantly being seriously cut by
exemption of taxable land at time
when city revenues aren't enough to
run the city. just the other day they
asked the Federal Government to put
the city's new hospital center on fed
orally owned land and not buy new land.
Now the real answer to the citys
money troubles lies in fair Fedora!
payment and in tapping sources Of tax
revenue not tapped now.
But, for the sake Of argument. let's
assume that return of tax-exempt land
to the rolls is the only answer.
Having assumed this, there are three
questions which may fairly be asked
about the Fort drive and other Govern
ment-owned land:
/. Is the Fort drive land the kind
that could be developed on any great
scale with tax-producing Improvements?
2. Would the land surrounding the
fort areas and lying along the right of
way for the drive be increased or de-
creased in x-producing value If the
drive project were scrapped?
g. Is there not other land-land which
1t might be generally agreed is un-
necessarily owned by the Government;
land in greater quantity; land more
suitable for taxable development-which
would help the city more with its finan-
cial burden?
To answer question No. 1-723.68 acres
have been bought for the Fort drive,
but about only 200 are needed for
the drive itself. The other 520-odd
were bought for parks and Fairgrounds.
Some of the parks, like Fort Dupont,
are quite large.
One reason why the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission de-
cided to buy the fort areas for parks
was that the land was rugged; lot
Of it hard to build on.
There isn't any accurate estimate Of
just how much of these parks could
be built up, but the planners argue 1t
would be small amount.
The 20O-acre right OF way, they add,
would not make particularly good build
ing sites either. In many places the
winding strip of land is so narrow that
houses already along its route would
face the back yards Of houses built in
the right of way.
This gives a partial answer to ques-
ton q for it is likely that assessed
values of houses near the right Of way
would be hurt by this half-city block
kind of building.
The main answer to question 2
lies in the well-known fact that park
land makes more desirable, and hence
more valuable, private land in the
neighborhood 1t seems fair to say
that the residential property along Rock
Creek Park, for instance, would not
bring in the tax revenue it does now
if the park weren't there.
Thus, in looking over the Fort drive
scrapping proposal, not only the type
of land must be carefully considered,
but also the effect that the loss OF
park areas would have on the tax value
of surrounding property.
The answer to question is yes;
there is other land
A bill in the last session Of Congress
would have ordered survey, for in
stance, of land held by list of institu-
tions in the District. 1t would have
set up a committee composed of the
president of the Board of District Com
missioners, the Federal works admin
istrator and the chairman Of the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning Com
mission. Their job would have been
to find if any of the institutions listed
for survey could just as we'll be moved
out of the District and the land used
for something else.
A revised list, now being made for q
bill in the new Congress, adds up to
1851 acres. Nearly all the acreage
could be developed for tax purposes or
used to save the city money in buying
school, hospital and other building sites.
The list includes the Soldiers Home,
the National Training School for Boys,
the Columbia Institution for the Deaf,
the st. Elizabeths Hospital farm, Fort
Simms, Blue Plains, the National Train
ing School for Girls, the Anacostia tree
nursery and others.
Regardless of whether these institu-
tions would like being uprooted, some
of them might be able to conduct their
affairs just as efficiently outside the
District.
Both the planners and the District
Commissioners are firmly on record in
favor of this survey.
If recapture of tax-exempt land is
the answer, it might help the city more
If District officials and the city's plan
ners would approach Congress in
common cause like this before they en-
gage in controversy over whether the
Fort drive would be useless-especially
when there is a chance that scrapping
the drive would net the city relatively
unimportant amount of revenue and
maybe lose it money in the long run.
As q Whole
"A.