ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A RESOLUTION
25-410
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
January 9, 2024
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend Chapter 8 of Title 47
of the District of Columbia Official Code to revise the statutes governing tax abatements
for housing in downtown to ensure the program is competitive, ensure proper recording
of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act exemption, extend the timeframe for receiving
a certificate of occupancy, and remove a calculation that is no longer applicable.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Housing in Downtown Tax Abatement Amendment Emergency
Declaration Resolution of 2024”.
Sec. 2. (a) The Tax Abatements for Housing in Downtown Amendment Act of 2022,
effective September 21, 2022 (D.C. Law 24-167; 69 DCR 9223) (“original act”), authorized the
Mayor to approve tax abatements to incentivize the creation of more housing in the downtown
area of the District.
(b) The Housing in Downtown Abatement Amendment Act of 2023, effective September
6, 2023 (D.C. Law 25-50; 70 DCR 10366) (“2023 amendment act”), made some changes to how
the abatement would function and clarified the amount of abatements authorized to be approved.
(c) During the executive branch’s process of drafting regulations to implement the tax
abatement program, it was determined that an effective program would require amendments to
allow the Mayor to award the abatements through a competitive process, ensure that all
exemptions granted by statute are properly recorded, extend the timeframe of completing
required documents to reflect more realistic estimates, and remove a calculation that is no longer
applicable.
(d) Emergency legislation is necessary to allow the Mayor, through the Office of the
Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (“DMPED”) to release proposed
regulations for public comment to advance the goals of revitalizing downtown and promoting
housing development there as embodied in the original act and the 2023 amendment act. The
regulations cannot be released for public comment before the amendments to the underlying
statute are enacted; so, any delay in the enactment of the amendments delays DMPED’s ability to
issue regulations and start offering tax abatements as the Council intended.
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 ENROLLED ORIGINAL
Sec. 3. The Council determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute
emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Housing in Downtown Tax Abatement
Emergency Amendment Act of 2024 be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
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