NEXT STEP TO SAVE PUBLIC PROPERTY:
Pass Legislation on the District Facilities Plan!
The District Facilities Plan is a planning document long required by DC’s Comprehensive Plan, yet never completed by the city government. The plan is needed to identify the facilities needs of DC government agencies – and to ensure the fair and equitable placement of services needed by our communities!
Due to the demands of the People’s Property Campaign, Councilwoman Cheh has introduced legislation on the District Facilities Plan and is holding a hearing January 14th. We need your help! Turn out, testify or submit a written statement in support of passage of the bill *with key changes* that are needed to strengthen it.
RSVP to Parisa@empowerdc.org or (202) 234-9119
SIGN UP TO TESTIFY!
Public Hearing on the District Facilities Plan, Bill 18-592
Tuesday, January 26th 10:30 AM
John A Wilson Building – 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Room 120
To Sign up contact Aukima Benjamin at:(202) 724-8062 or abenjamin@dccouncil.us
Submit written testimony to abenjamin@dccouncil.us by Jan 21, 2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS THE DISTRICT FACILITIES PLAN?
The District Facilities Plan (also referred to as Master Facilities Plan) is a planning tool long required by and referred to in DC’s Comprehensive Plan, yet never completed by the city. The plan is meant to guide the allocation of facilities for DC government agencies, and can impact the use of public property. For lack of this plan, the city has established a trend of entering into wasteful leases, renting private space for DC government offices, at a cost of over $140 million per year. The Office of Property Management’s data shows that operating out of rented spaces costs the city approximately 3 times more than operating out of city-owned public property.
SERVING PUBLIC NEEDS
Beyond bricks and mortar, the facilities plan is an opportunity for the city to explore the equitable placement of facilities and amenities needed by DC residents. Residents and advocates often find themselves testifying at oversight and budget hearings about the needs of their communities – such as recreation, senior services, literacy programs, youth services etc – yet, those discussions rarely if ever address the issue of where these services can be located. Public property is a public asset which can and must be used to further to provision of public services to address community needs. The facilities planning process is an opportunity to identify the needs of our residents, and link these needs to potentially available public spaces.
TALKING POINTS – IMPROVING BILL 18-592
1) It is a positive step that the Council is pushing forward legislation to ensure that a facilities plan is at long-last created, to ensure better stewardship of public property, better delivery of services to the public, and to save taxpayer money and assets.
2) Changes to 18-592 are needed to ensure that the facilities planning process is transparent, and offers multiple opportunities for community input, to ensure that the final plan adequately assists the Council with its oversight duties – including the important question of whether public properties are in fact “surplus” (no further public use), prior to their disposition.
3) A primary goal of the plan must be the equitable, accessible and adequate placement of services. As such, the bill must provide guidance for how agencies craft their facilities needs requests. The bill should require agencies to state a) the population that are charged with serving, b) how that population is geographically distributed throughout the District, c) what if any special accommodations are needed by this population, and d) how the agency will serve equitably serve this population through its space request.
4) The bill must require that some agencies, particularly those charged with human services (homeless services, health care, etc) hold a public hearing prior to submitting their facilities needs to the Office of Real Estate Services for inclusion in the facilities plan. Facilities needs are rarely raised during budget and oversight hearings, and thus the facilities planning process should be opened up to the public so that residents and advocates can call attention to facilities issues.
5) The Council must hold a hearing on the final plan, allow for public testimony, make changes to the plan as necessary and finally approve the plan.
For more information, contact:
Parisa Norouzi, Empower DC
(202) 234-9119 parisa@empowerdc.org