Evening star., 1949-03-16
Local Option
Asked in D. {.
Rent Control Bill
Realty Official Urges
Giving Commissioners
Power on Curbs Here


control should contain the local
option" provision approved by the
House for other parts of the Ma
tion. Raymond M. Taylor. WASH
ington Real Estate Board presi-
dent. said today.
Testifying before q Senate Dis
trict subcommittee headed by
Senator Frear. Democrat, Of Della
ware. Mr.. Taylor said the Commis-
sioners should have the right to
determine what application should
be made Of rent control here.
Mr.. Taylor said the District
should be placed on a par with
the rest of the country in regard
to termination of controls, espe-
cially because this city has a Dis
trict rent act separate from the
law controlling the rest of the
country.
He pointed out that the House
in passing rent control extension
for the rest of the country yeSter-
day inserted a provision permit
ting each State or local jurisdic-
ton to bring controls to an end
when they so decided.
Hearing to Resume Tomorrow.
The hearing this morning ad-
journed after appearances by
more than IL witnesses and will
be resumed at $50 am. tomorrow
in the Senate District Committee
room and the Senate wing of the
Capitol.
District rent control extension
will be considered in the House
Monday under a unanimous-con-
sent agreement obtained today by
Majority Leader Mccormack. De-
bate will be limited to one hour.
Under consideration by the SUBJ
committee was a House bill now
waiting action on the House call
ender to extend rent control here.
with some important changes. to
June 80 next year. There was no
definite indication today as to
when the House would act on the
The present District rent
act expires at the end of this
The House bill was approved by
District Commissioner Guy Mason.
Corporation Counsel Vernon E.
West and Rent Administrator
Theodore Cogswell.
Coop Provision Asked.
Mrs. Louella M. Berg. a tenant
in the Altamont Apartment. who
has refused to buy her apartment
and become member of a pro-
posed cooperative, asked that the
bills provision protecting such
tenants be continued. This provi-
sion would prohibit the eviction Of
persons like herself unless IS per
cent of the tenants purchase their
apartments. The provision would
be effective retrocatively to the
first of this month.
Mrs. Anne Spector of the Broad
moor Apartments. who said she
was refusing to buy into that CO.
operative, charged that the CO.
movement here was q
widespread racket"
Mrs. Spector asked that the ef-
fective date Of March ! in the
pending District bill be changed
to April l, 1948. This would be
only fair. she claimed. because
the rest of the United States had
been protected since that date
under the national law.
Flynn Defends BrOadmoor.
The Broadmoor project was
strongly defended by Edmund j.
Flynn. who said he had been han
ding the development of such CO.
operative apartments for more
than 20 years. Charges made by
tenants in testimony against CO.
operatives, he declared, were "un-
substantiated and damaging" to
the interests of those who had
bought into cooperative apart
ments.
Mr.. Flynn told the subcommit-
tee that about 80 per cent Of
Broadmoor tenants now own
their apartments.
Elimination of the provision on
co-operatives from the bill was
asked by Eugene M. Elliott, jr..
chairman Of the Board of Di-
rectors of the Westmoreland CO.
operative at 2122 California street
NV.
Frank E. Weakly. president of
the Hotel Association of Wash
lngton. recommended the end Of
rent control and opposed the
pending bill in its entirety.
Opposes Coop Measure.
Charles j. Bauer of the Build
ing Owners and Managers Asso-
citation, opposed the provision on
co-operatives and said that the
need for rent control was rapidly
disappearing. He said it should
be extended not longer than cne
year.
For the Washington Board of
Trade, Godfrey L. Munter, chair
man of the boards Committee on
Law and Legislation, reiterated
the position Of the board given to
a House subcommittee two weeks
ago. He said District rent control
should extend no longer than ma
tional controls and that there was
no need for new features in the
act such as the cooperative pro-
vision.
Mr.. Taylor, for the Real Estate
Board, in addition to asking for
local option on decontrols here,
the cooperative amend
ment and said that the vacancies
in dwellings were increasing so
rapidly here that rent controls
should be extended no longer than
three months.
Stewart H. Robson of the Home
Realty Co. charged that the CO.
provision would be a
"horrible injustice" and asked