Sometimes we hear deprecatory comments about conservation easements,
assertions that they have no real value because D.C. preservation laws do the

same thing. First, they don't do
the same thing. Preservation
laws sometimes can't accomplish
what easements can.

The photo on the left shows the
900 block of F Street, N.W. In the
foreground is 918 F Street, the
intact 1892 office headquarters
of the National Union Fire Insurance
Company, protected by conservation
easement. Down the block are front
walls, the propped-up facades of other
equally important historic buildings
protected only by D.C.'s strong
historic preservation laws.

Second, preservation laws are only as strong as the political will that keeps them in place. Today we sometimes take for granted our city's well-run preservation office and the dedicated people who work there. But tomorrow a new generation will alter the political landscape and preservation laws may yield to the economic and development pressures of the day. Unlike preservation legislation, the private property rights embodied in a conservation easement are largely insulated from such pressures.

Third, redundancy sometimes helps. In our easement enforcement activities we pick up things the city doesn't, and vice versa. Our private preservation efforts support the government's public ones.