Agencies choose town over country for new offices

Federal agencies continue to buy and rent office space in expensive urban centers, ignoring a law that requires them to consider less expensive facilities in rural areas, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. According to the report, "Facilities Location: Agencies Should Pay More Attention to Costs and Rural Development Act" (GAO-01-805), GAO found that only five of the 13 agencies surveyed had policies to implement the 1972 Rural Development Act. The law, which was intended to boost rural economies and save the government money, requires agencies to give rural areas first priority when deciding where to locate new office space. Real estate costs are generally lower in rural areas than they are in major cities. GAO reported that 72 percent of the 115 federal buildings studied were located in urban areas. Agencies frequently chose office space in cities to be near clients and other government and industry facilities, and to make public transportation more accessible for employees and customers, according to the study. Although most agencies said proximity to an urban area helped them better accomplish their missions, GAO said certain federal functions, including research and accounting, were conducive to rural settings. The report said agencies that locate to new sites in rural areas would benefit from lower real estate and labor costs, and might be able to take advantage of incentives sometimes offered by localities to attract new employers. According to GAO, a 1996 amendment to the law that eliminated the definition of "rural" has caused some confusion and inconsistency in the application of the Rural Development Act. GAO suggested the law be rewritten to include a single definition of "rural" that all agencies must use. GAO also recommended that agencies provide GSA with a written statement verifying that they had given rural areas first priority when locating new sites. Agencies generally agreed with GAO's findings. The Customs Service said it had difficulty complying with the Rural Development Act because many of its facilities must be located near borders, airports or seaports. For the purposes of its study, GAO defined rural areas as places having populations of 25,000 or less. The survey excluded federal sites in Washington, D.C. and 10 other cities, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.