Section 10-A714. ED-3.2 SMALL AND LOCALLY-OWNED BUSINESSES

 

714.1Small goods and services businesses are an important part of what makes the District’s neighborhood commercial areas work. They provide full and part time employment opportunities for city residents and contribute to the city’s tax base. They help sustain the diversity of neighborhood shopping areas, and enable the marketplace to respond to changing business conditions and consumer preferences. It is the city’s small business proprietors that have initiated many of the District’s commercial revitalization efforts, driven by a desire and commitment to upgrade their businesses, properties, and neighborhoods. 714.1

 

714.2Approximately 95 percent of the businesses in the District have fewer than 50 employees. While these businesses represent just 34 percent of the District’s private sector jobs, they are an essential part of the city’s economic base. Sectors with high numbers of small businesses include construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, and food services. In fact, the average retail business in the city has about 10 employees and the average food service business has 17 employees. 714.2

 

714.3The success of small businesses in these sectors and others is particularly important in the city’s economically distressed communities. Small businesses in these areas can catalyze neighborhood renewal and provide local jobs. The availability of working capital and other forms of financial and technical assistance is important to promote their success. 714.3

 

714.4One of the potential downsides of revitalization is the loss of small businesses as national chains move in. This can also result in the replacement of basic services with high-end specialty shopping that is not affordable to many residents. The District recognizes that neighborhood shopping areas should evolve in response to changes in consumer tastes and preferences, but it also recognizes the importance of avoiding displacement and economic hardship for the businesses that have anchored our city’s shopping areas for years. 714.4

 

714.5New programs may be needed to reduce “commercial gentrification” in the future. Measures should include but not be limited to income and property tax incentives, assistance to commercial tenants seeking to purchase their buildings, commercial land trusts (which buy local commercial space and hold it in perpetuity for the benefit of the community), and relocation assistance programs for displaced business. Zoning strategies, such as limits on the size of businesses or the length of street frontage, and tying zoning relief (variances, etc.) to explicit requirements for the preservation of local serving small businesses also should be included. There are also federal programs like the HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone). 714.5

 

714.6Policy ED-3.2.1: Small Business Retention and Growth

 

Encourage the retention, development, and growth of small and minority businesses through a range of District-sponsored technical and financial assistance programs. 714.6

 

714.7Policy ED-3.2.2: Small Business Incubators

 

Provide low-cost rental space (“incubators”) for small, home-grown businesses and start-up companies, particularly companies that are responsive to technological and economic innovation in the marketplace. A variety of spaces should be considered for business incubators, including vacant storefronts and surplus public buildings. 714.7

 

714.8Policy ED-3.2.3: Access to Capital

 

Expand access to equity, debt capital, long-term debt financing, and small business loans for small and medium-sized businesses. These tools should be used to leverage private investment in facade improvements, new and expanded business ventures, streetscape improvements, and other outcomes that help revitalize commercial districts and generate local jobs. 714.8

 

714.9Policy ED-3.2.4: Large Business Partnerships

 

Promote collaborations and partnerships between small businesses and the District’s major employers to increase contracts for small and disadvantaged businesses, including federal outsourcing contracts. 714.9

 

714.10Policy ED-3.2.5: Technology Transfer and Innovation

 

Support ongoing efforts by the District’s colleges and universities to promote technology transfer and innovation, and provide technical and financial assistance to help local entrepreneurs and small businesses. These efforts should include small business “clinics” and small business course offerings at institutions of higher education. 714.10

 

714.11Policy ED-3.2.6: Commercial Displacement

 

Avoid the displacement of small and local businesses due to rising real estate costs. Programs should be developed to offset the impacts of rising operating expenses on small businesses in areas of rapidly rising rents and prices. 714.11

 

714.12Policy ED-3.2.7: Assistance to Displaced Businesses

 

Assist small businesses that are displaced as a result of rising land costs and rents, government action, or new development. Efforts should be made to find locations for such businesses within redeveloping areas, or on other suitable sites within the city. 714.12

 

714.13Policy ED-3.2.8: LSDBE Programs

 

Expand opportunities for local, small, and disadvantaged business enterprises through city programs, incentives, contracting requirements, and other activities. 714.13

 

714.14Small and Minority Business

 

Minority business enterprises represent an important sub-set of small businesses in the city. Their growth and expansion remains a particularly high economic development priority. The District has established a Small Business Development One- Stop satellite center in the Department of Employment Services headquarters, in partnership with the DC Minority Business Development Center. The partnership focuses on enhancing the performance and profitability of minority business enterprises and provides an important resource for minority business recruitment, seminars, business skill enhancement, incubation services, networking events, and pro bono counseling.

 

714.15Action ED-3.2.A: Anti-Displacement Strategies

 

Complete an analysis of alternative regulatory and financial measures to mitigate the impacts of “commercial gentrification” on small and local businesses. Measures to be assessed should include but not be limited to income and property tax incentives, historic tax credits, direct financial assistance, commercial land trusts, relocation assistance programs, and zoning strategies such as maximum floor area allowances for particular commercial activities. 714.15

 

714.16Action ED-3.2.B: Business Incentives

 

Use a range of financial incentive programs to promote the success of new and existing businesses, including enterprise zones, minority business setasides, loans and loan guarantees, low interest revenue bonds, federal tax credits for hiring District residents, and tax increment bond financing. 714.16

 

714.17Action ED-3.2.C: Shopsteading Program

 

Investigate the feasibility of a shopsteading program that would enable entrepreneurs and small businesses to open shop in currently vacant or abandoned commercial space at greatly reduced costs. 714.17

 

714.18Action ED-3.2.D: Small Business Needs Assessment

 

Conduct an assessment of small and minority business needs and existing small business programs in the District. The study should include recommendations to improve existing small business programs and to develop new programs as needed. 714.18

 

714.19Action ED-3.2.E: Best Practices Analysis

 

Analyze what other cities have done to encourage and foster their small business sectors, including the development of business parks and incubators. Use this best practice information to inform District policy. 714.19

 

notation

The provisions of Title 10, Part A of the DCMR accessible through this web interface are codification of the District Elements of the Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital. As such, they do not represent the organic provisions adopted by the Council of the District of Columbia. The official version of the District Elements only appears as a hard copy volume of Title 10, Part A published pursuant to section 9a of the District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1994, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; D.C. Official Code § 1 -301.66)) . In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions accessible through this site and the provisions contained in the published version of Title 10, Part A, the provisions contained in the published version govern. A copy of the published District Elements is available www.planning.dc.gov.