The grant for FTZ #137 was obtained in 1987 at the request of the Economic Development Authorities in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties and Washington Dulles Foreign Trade Zone, Inc. was created as the Grantee. The Grantee's board of directors consists of the Executive Committee of the Task Force, as well as economic development representatives of Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Winchester-Frederick Counties.

The primary service area of FTZ #137 is the Port of Washington, D.C., which includes the District of Columbia, the City of Alexandria, and the Virginia counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, Prince William, Frederick, Clarke and all independent cities and towns within those counties. As the zone based at Virginia's (and, in fact, the Washington, DC region's) major international airport, FTZ #137 has a responsibility to provide zone services, particularly with respect to air related international commerce.

Zone #137's approved general purpose sites are:

1. an approximately 264-acre site on Washington Dulles International Airport. This acreage includes the airport's existing cargo activities.


2. an approximately 3-acre site off-airport and approximately two miles from the airport's cargo area.


3. An approximately 141.66 acre site adjacent to the western border of Washington Dulles International Airport and the site of the airport's future cargo expansion area which was approved in March 1999.
4. An approximately 490 acre site in Winchester, VA comprising acreage in three separate industrial parks, near or adjacent to the Winchester Regional Airport.
   

Use of the on-airport site was limited to aviation related activities by the federal law which transferred operation of the airport to local control in 1987. As a result, the majority of activity applicable to a general purpose zone cannot be undertaken within the on-airport site. Specifically, the on-airport site may not be used for general economic development. Businesses cannot be located on-airport unless they have a direct relationship to the operation of aircraft. Cargo moving on aircraft can be warehoused on the airport, but it cannot be processed, manipulated, assembled into a product (unless it is into an aircraft), or manufactured.

The Grantee's first action to address this problem was a boundary modification approved on September 30, 1994, to provide approximately three acres of general purpose zone space just off the airport.

The first expansion application concerned approximately 141.66 acres in Loudoun County, off-airport but immediately adjacent to the airport's future cargo development area. The second expansion application included approximately 490 acres in Winchester, VA. The Winchester region is replete with distribution and assembly activities which are conducive to foreign trade zone procedures.