Council Votes to Close 2 Waterfront Agencies

The D.C. Council voted yesterday to abolish two quasi-public agencies that have been in charge of redevelopment along the Anacostia River waterfront and to give their duties to the mayor's office.

The 12 to 0 approval came after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and his administration pressed council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) to abandon his proposal to create an authority combining some functions of the two agencies.

The Fenty administration argued successfully that the city should directly control millions of dollars of redevelopment projects along the Anacostia and Southwest waterfronts. The projects had been administered by the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. and the National Capitol Revitalization Corp., both of which have been criticized as ineffective.

"We want to give the mayor the opportunity to do this," Brown said in an interview.

Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who abstained from voting, said the city might not be capable of handling such tasks as it also takes control of public schools. "I'm becoming more and more concerned about what we are putting on our plate," she said.

Elimination of the agencies was one of several changes to legislation controlling the city's $5.6 million local budget for fiscal 2008, which the council approved on final reading. Other changes included restoring $500,000 stripped from the Historical Society of Washington when the council took an initial budget vote May 15.

Supporters of the 113-year-old society attended the council session wearing stickers that read "History Matters."

Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) proposed to withdraw funding last month and yesterday again questioned the relevance and competence of the group.

Nevertheless, the council voted to pull $250,000 from the Department of Small and Local Business Development and another $250,000 from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to reinstate the society's funding.

In other business, the council gave initial approval without discussion to a bill to eliminate a motor vehicle regulation that forced residents 75 or older to take written and road tests to renew their driver's licenses. Seniors had complained to the council that the measure, among the most strict in the country, was an unfair burden.

The measure would affect 13,077 drivers 75 or older in the District, including nine who are 99 years old, according to Department of Motor Vehicle statistics.

The council also approved emergency legislation that allows current, nonresident cabdrivers to register their taxis and get D.C. tags. Under a law passed in 2001 that went into effect last year, nonresident cabdrivers would not be able to get D.C. tags, preventing them from operating in the city despite an 80-year practice of issuing tags regardless of residency.

The new law threatened to cripple the city's taxi industry because 4,000 out of 6,500 taxi tag holders are not District residents, said council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1).

Graham, who sponsored the yesterday's emergency legislation, pumped his fist as he entered the council chambers yesterday to the applause of the taxi drivers who filled the room. About 500 drivers descended on the Wilson Building to support the bill.

Abdul Kamus, an organizer, said the law unfairly discriminates against one group. "We have police officers living in Prince George's County," he said.

Schwartz said the drivers should pay the city more than the $376 in annual registration fees that they currently incur. "They put a lot of wear and tear on our roads that we D.C. taxpayers have to fix," she said. "They are taking money to Maryland and Virginia. We don't get a nickel from these nonresidents."