With the exceptions hereinafter provided, the Mayor of the District of Columbia shall have the exclusive charge and control of all wharf property belonging to the United States or to the District of Columbia within said District, including all the wharves, piers, bulkheads, and structures thereon and waters adjacent thereto within the pier lines, and all slips, basins, docks, waterfronts, land under water, and structures thereon, and the appurtenances, easements, uses, reversions, and rights belonging thereto, which on March 3, 1899, were owned or possessed by the United States or the District of Columbia, or to which they or either of them was on that date or may thereafter become entitled, or which they or either of them may acquire under the provisions hereof or otherwise; and said Mayor of the District of Columbia shall have exclusive charge and control of the repairing, building, rebuilding, maintaining, altering, strengthening, leasing, and protecting said property and every part thereof, and all the cleaning, dredging, and deepening necessary in and about the same within the pier lines. The Council of the District of Columbia is authorized and empowered to make all needful rules and regulations for the government and control of all wharves, piers, bulkheads, and structures thereon, and waters adjacent thereto within the pier lines, and all the basins, slips, and docks, with the land under water, in said District not owned by the United States or the District of Columbia; provided, that the following described property shall be placed under the immediate jurisdiction and control of the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army: the banks of the Potomac River from the north line of the Arsenal Grounds to the southern curb line of N Street South; also 500 linear feet of shoreline in the Flushing Reservoir at the foot of 17th Street, West, and west from the western curb of said street, including a levee 100 feet wide.
(Mar. 3, 1899, 30 Stat. 1377, ch. 458, § 1.)
Prior Codifications1981 Ed., § 9-101.
1973 Ed., § 9-101.
Section ReferencesThis section is referenced in § 6-321.03 and § 10-501.02.
Cross ReferencesFish wharf, jurisdiction and control over, see § 37-205.01.
Harbor regulations, see § 22-4401 et seq.
Title to housing redevelopment property, transfers from mayoral jurisdiction, see § 6-321.03.
Delegation of AuthorityDelegation of authority to National Capital Revitalization Corporation and Anacostia Waterfront Corporation Reorganization Clarification Emergency Act of 2007, see Mayor’s Order 2007-172, July 25, 2007 ( 54 DCR 11600).
Change in GovernmentThis section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 402(186) of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to the District of Columbia Council, subject to the right of the Commissioner as provided in § 406 of the Plan. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.