A Congressional committee is considering giving the District authority to raise the height limit on its buildings but reassured detractors on Thursday that skyscrapers would never replace the low-slung buildings of the nation’s capital.
“This committee has no desire to turn D.C. into the next New York [City],” said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House subcommittee that has oversight of the District. “Our nation’s monuments … will not be overshadowed by condos.”
The committee heard testimony from six people, including city officials and planning experts. The hearing was held to consider changing the federal Height of Buildings Act of 1910 to allow conversions of the roof space into occupied space. This would essentially add one story to buildings and put some beyond their height limit.
That roof space on many taller District buildings is occupied by elevator penthouses, which can be up to 18 1/2 feet tall but don’t count toward the building’s maximum height. The Height Act limits building heights to the width of the adjacent street plus 20 feet, generally totaling 130 feet.
City leaders say the District is disadvantaged because 40 percent of the city’s land is owned by the federal government and is thus not taxable. D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said the city would raise more revenue, benefiting lower-income people, by allowing taller buildings.
“We have to have enough taxable revenue to take care of the needs of our people, and when we don’t have the revenue, that is a problem,” Gandhi said.
The city has boasted a revenue surplus for the past two fiscal years.
But D.C. still has plenty of room to grow as-is, said Marcel Acosta, executive director of the National Capital Planning Commission. Even changing the height limit outside the monument core “could degradethe public character of Washington’s skyline” and put strains on the city’s infrastructure, he said.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said after the hearing that she expected Congress’s next step would be deciding whether to give the city authority to change the federal act’s height limits. Even then, building heights would still have to go through the local zoning process, where residents can weigh in.
“I don’t think you’ll see any changes very quickly,” Norton said.
