The People's Property Campaign is a resident-led campaign to stop the sale of public property for private profit and to save public property for public use.
We have lost too much already!
Tell Your Public Property Story
Add to our list of what’s been lost, what’s at-risk and what’s been saved!
Our interactive map of the state of public property in DC
Take Action!
Tell the City Council to Stop the Disposition of Public Property for Private Profit!
Call/Email City Councilmembers (link to the City Council contact info)
Send the message to Mary Cheh, Chair of the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, which has oversight over the Office of Property Management – and all the other council people too!
Sample message:
Dear Councilmember,
I urge you to support a moratorium on the disposition of public property. DC’s public property laws favor disposition and do not presently offer a process for community members to identify new public uses for vacant or under-used public property.
As a District resident, I feel very strongly that public property should not be sold. It should be maintained to serve the needs of current and future residents.
Please provide a leadership role in amending DC’s public property laws to ensure that property is retained, dedicated to community uses, and leased, not sold.
Sincerely,
xxx
(I was not able to find the right link yet…still looking)
Watch Empower DC’s Testimony on the Office of Property Management
can we save the clips on our website instead of linking? I don’t know how long the link will be active…
Jabari Zakiya, Empower DC Member
Parisa Norouzi, Empower DC Co-Director
The People’s Property Campaign calls for:
- An Immediate Moratorium on the Disposition of Public Property!
We have lost too much already! Until the city reforms public property laws, we need an immediate halt to the sale, giveaway and transfer of public property!
- A Complete Inventory of Public Property, and Planning that Matches Public Property with Existing Community Needs!
We need a complete inventory of DC’s public property network (as required by law), made available and accessible to the community and used to identify where public properties are, the type of property, past and current uses, which agency manages the property, etc.
- We need to identify community needs (such as those for expanded recreation, senior services, health services, etc) and coordinate the planning of public property use with the serving of these needs.
- Changing Public Property Laws in DC to Ensure Public Property is Used for Public Use!
The law labels property as surplus with a determination that there is “no further public use” – We maintain that there is always a public use for our public property;
The law provides a process only for disposing of public property, not for retaining and repurposing it with community input. We need a transparent, community-driven process for determining new uses for public property that serve existing community needs.
- Maintaining valuable public assets and protecting the long-term needs of DC communities by leasing, not selling public property and retaining the right to reclaim those properties leased to private entities when the need arises.
What is Public Property?
Public property is land, buildings and assets that are owned by a community and maintained on its behalf by its government. Unlike private property, public property or public space is a place where anyone has a right to come without being excluded or discriminated against.
Most public property, such as libraries, schools and parks, are accessible to all and benefit the general public.
Public property is often used to meet community needs like schools, health care clinics and recreation centers. Public property also includes the land that connects us, such as roads, sidewalks, alleys and parks.
What are the differences between Public Property and Private Property?
| Public property | Private Property |
|---|---|
| Provide a forum for free speech | Forum for freedom of speech much more limited |
| Free to enter | Often requires payment to enter |
| Access cannot be restricted | Access can be restricted |
According to the laws of the District of Columbia, public property is:
Land titled in the name of the District of Columbia ("District") or in which the District has a controlling interest and includes all structures of a permanent character erected thereon or affixed thereto, any natural resources located thereon or thereunder, all riparian rights attached thereto, or any air space located above or below the property or any street or alley under the jurisdiction of the Mayor.1
What is Public Use?
DC law does not define public use. DC law allows the city to dispose of public property “which the Council finds to be no longer required for public purposes,”2 but the term “public purposes” is not defined.
Without a definition of public use or public purposes, DC often moves to dispose of valuable public assets which could otherwise be rededicated to serve any number of long standing community needs.
Public property should then, through a transparent community-driven process, be rededicated to another use which serves the community.
By our definition, a public use is:
- any use or function which serves the community at large;
- contributes to the general welfare of the whole community; and
- serves existing community needs.
Some examples include:
- Senior Centers
- Recreation Centers
- Affordable Housing
- Job Training
- Green Space
- Promoting Community Development, like:
- Space for small, local businesses
- Bringing in Needed Services (grocery store, child care center)
- Space for nonprofit organizations that serve the community
What is “Surplus Property” and Property Disposition?
Currently, DC law allows the mayor to dispose of (sell, transfer, lease, give away) public property that is “no longer required for public purposes.” Yet, there is no definition of “public purposes” or public use and a great deal of confusion within the city government about how public property decisions are made.
Currently, there is NO process for a public property to be rededicated to another public use with community input.
Because of this, DC’s public property dispositions overwhelmingly benefit corporate interests, developers and those who have close access to elected officials.
Current law does not explicitly require the city to consider using public property for other public or community uses. The only requirement is that the City Council must declare the property “surplus.”3 Pursuant to to DC law, once a property has been declared surplus it can be disposed of by any means.4
The result is that the residents of DC have been deprived of dozens of valuable public properties over many years.
The City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations has oversight over Office of Property Management and is responsible for this part of the process.
D.C. Code Ann. §10-801 (2007).