D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 10-A, § 1024
1024.1 Financial incentives are beneficial and sometimes necessary as a means of achieving preservation of historic properties. Incentives can also help to preserve affordable housing and protect neighborhood diversity. Existing preservation incentives include the federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and New Market Tax Credits. District programs include the Targeted Historic Homeowner Grants. Private nonprofits have also created programs and funds to support historic preservation work.
1024.2 The OP’s 2015 report on Pairing Historic Tax Credits with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in DC, prepared jointly with the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, is among the recent analytical studies highlighting the value of state and local incentive programs that piggyback on federal historic tax credits, thus leveraging federal resources for local development. Since 2003, at least 25 projects in the District have used these federal tax credits to help finance the production or renovation of more than 2,100 affordable housing units in historic buildings. This demonstrates significant potential for using these credits to create affordable housing.
Develop and maintain financial incentives to support preservation of historic properties in private ownership. Give priority to programs to assist owners with low and moderate incomes. Encourage private sector initiatives, such as revolving funds and targeted financing programs, to support rehabilitation of historic properties, especially those in severe disrepair.
Develop specialized incentives to support preservation of historic properties like schools, places of worship, theaters, and other prominent historic structures of exceptional communal value. Use a variety of tools to reduce development pressure on these resources and to help with unusually high costs of maintenance.
Monitor the effectiveness of transfer of development rights (TDR) programs included in the ZR16 zoning regulations and consider any appropriate revisions to enhance their utility for preservation.
Encourage the coordinated use of multiple tax credits to support rehabilitation of existing affordable housing in historic buildings and to create new affordable units in historic buildings. Support such projects through historic designation of buildings meeting the eligibility criteria.
Evaluate the secondary preservation impacts of District policies and programs that support affordable housing, aging in place, and maintenance of homes in good repair. Identify and implement any improvements that could encourage use of these programs for projects involving historic buildings.
See the Land Use Element for additional policies and actions on row house preservation.
SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR 1049 (March 9, 1984)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Element Amendment Act of 1984, effective March 16, 1985 (D.C. Law 5-187; 32 DCR 873 (February 15, 1985)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-129; 37 DCR 55 (January 5, 1990)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989 NCPC-Recommended Amendments, and Closing of Public Alleys in Square 669, S.O. 88-452, Act of 1990, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-132; 37 DCR 2213 (April 6, 1990)); as amended by District Government Land Use Temporary Amendment Act of 1994, effective October 1, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-190; 41 DCR 5360 (August 12, 1994)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1994, effective October 6, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-193; 41 DCR 5536 (August 19, 1994)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Amendment Act of 1994, effective March 21, 1995 (D.C. Law 10-235; 42 DCR 30 (January 6, 1995)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 18, 1996 (D.C. Law 11-110; 43 DCR 530 (February 9, 1996)); as amended by Second Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-255; 44 DCR 1271 (March 7, 1997)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 1998, effective April 27, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-275; 46 DCR 1441 (February 19, 1999)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1999, effective April 12, 2000 (D.C. Law 13-91; 47 DCR 520 (January 28, 2000)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2006, effective March 8, 2007 (D.C. Law 16-300; 54 DCR 924 (February 2, 2007)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 2008, effective March 25, 2009 (D.C. Law 17-353; 56 DCR 1117 (February 6, 2009)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010, effective April 8, 2011 (D.C. Law 18-361; 58 DCR 908 (February 4, 2011)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 006918 (July 16, 2021)).