A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Morning Fire on Maryland Ave
An early morning fire struck some vacant buildings located at 14th & Maryland. Luckly Scott Magnuson of the Argonaut had his camera on hand and was able to send in some photos of the scene.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Reading about this fire makes me wonder (for the umpteenth time) why some people own property and just let it sit vacant. I just don't understand it. There are so many vacant buildings in this part of town - it seems half of the commercial properties on H street just sit empty. I realize that inertia is a powerful thing. I also realize that some property owners are just waiting for a windfall. But holding on to a property has costs - property tax, maintenence costs (or loss of value if you don't maintain the building), etc. Why not sell the building and park the money in the stock market, or, if you prefer something safer, the bond market? Perhaps the owners are waiting to die so their heirs can get a stepped up basis in the property? Whatever the reason, these absentee owners are really delaying the economic rejuvination of the area.
If you look at the real property assessment database you will quickly find that vacant properties are often assessed for between $100,000 and $250,000 and not assessed at Class III (5%) rates. This means that the property tax carrying cost is perhaps $2K-$3K or less per year. Then, this is DC, so you can no pay your property taxes for many, many years, so for many property owners the carrying cost is actually closer to zero.
That is why we need to get all vacant properties assessed at Class III rates, to make sure there are real costs with keeping properties vacant.
If memory serves me correctly, this building was a used car lot/used car storage lot until the occupant abandoned it shortly after DDOT refused to grant them a public space permit to sell cars on public space. Occasionally, there are still cars parked inside the fence. Last week, for example.
In some parts of the world, propery owners who found themselves stuck with derelict buildings and a lack of imagination have been known to get a "lucky" break: their buildings would burn down, so they would collect insurance on the loss, then maybe sell the empty lot for the land value. I'm not saying anyone in these parts would do something like that, but it has been known to happen elsewhere.
DDOT did the right thing. Now we just have to wait for the owner to do the right thing.
I hope that they do investigate for arson. There was a used car lot there, it was trading under a couple of names. They applied for a permit to rent cars by the hour. ANC commish Marc B. discovered that they had fenced in and were actively using a pretty big chunk of public land for their car lot. He and Cody R. worked for months to get DCRA and DOT to address the issue.
At a later point, someone applied to renovate an existing gas station. Yet again, Marc had to inform city officials that this site was not a gas station.
We are lucky to have had ANC6A commissioners in this neighborhood that actively worked for our neighborhood interests. City bureaucrats seem to do nothing without a kick in the butt.
4 comments:
Reading about this fire makes me wonder (for the umpteenth time) why some people own property and just let it sit vacant. I just don't understand it. There are so many vacant buildings in this part of town - it seems half of the commercial properties on H street just sit empty. I realize that inertia is a powerful thing. I also realize that some property owners are just waiting for a windfall. But holding on to a property has costs - property tax, maintenence costs (or loss of value if you don't maintain the building), etc. Why not sell the building and park the money in the stock market, or, if you prefer something safer, the bond market? Perhaps the owners are waiting to die so their heirs can get a stepped up basis in the property? Whatever the reason, these absentee owners are really delaying the economic rejuvination of the area.
If you look at the real property assessment database you will quickly find that vacant properties are often assessed for between $100,000 and $250,000 and not assessed at Class III (5%) rates. This means that the property tax carrying cost is perhaps $2K-$3K or less per year. Then, this is DC, so you can no pay your property taxes for many, many years, so for many property owners the carrying cost is actually closer to zero.
That is why we need to get all vacant properties assessed at Class III rates, to make sure there are real costs with keeping properties vacant.
If memory serves me correctly, this building was a used car lot/used car storage lot until the occupant abandoned it shortly after DDOT refused to grant them a public space permit to sell cars on public space. Occasionally, there are still cars parked inside the fence. Last week, for example.
In some parts of the world, propery owners who found themselves stuck with derelict buildings and a lack of imagination have been known to get a "lucky" break: their buildings would burn down, so they would collect insurance on the loss, then maybe sell the empty lot for the land value. I'm not saying anyone in these parts would do something like that, but it has been known to happen elsewhere.
DDOT did the right thing. Now we just have to wait for the owner to do the right thing.
I hope that they do investigate for arson.
There was a used car lot there, it was trading under a couple of names. They applied for a permit to rent cars by the hour. ANC commish Marc B. discovered that they had fenced in and were actively using a pretty big chunk of public land for their car lot. He and Cody R. worked for months to get DCRA and DOT to address the issue.
At a later point, someone applied to renovate an existing gas station. Yet again, Marc had to inform city officials that this site was not a gas station.
We are lucky to have had ANC6A commissioners in this neighborhood that actively worked for our neighborhood interests. City bureaucrats seem to do nothing without a kick in the butt.
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