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  Community Clips Smart Growth News for the Washington, DC Region October 26, 2005 In this issue:
Vienna Metro / Metro West Public Hearing Tuesday, November 1st A new transit-oriented development proposal, Metro West, will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday night, November 1st. A key component of the project, the sale of a small parcel of WMATA-owned land, will be an important issue at the hearing. We will speak in favor of the proposal and recommend the transfer of the Metro parcel, which is essential for this development to achieve its full potential as a mixed-use, walkable and transit friendly community. The Metro West project has already been reviewed by a local task force representing nine citizen associations and separately by the Smart Growth Alliance Recognition Jury (architects, environmentalists, developers) using strict criteria. The Fairfax County planning staff, Planning Commission, and Board of Supervisors have given their approval for the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the development. We need your support to ensure that this high-quality project receives final approval. Please join us at 7:00 pm at Oakton High School in Vienna. For more information, see our Action Alert. Plans for Rebuilding Gulf Coast Offer Lessons for Everyone Earlier this month, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour put out the welcome mat for over 100 architects and planners from the Congress for New Urbanism to help define a vision for rebuilding communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The experts spent six days helping residents and officials explore their options. Their mission was to help develop plans that would respect community pride and history, while also adding convenience, travel options, quality design, and housing options for all residents. The week, on all accounts, was a resounding success. While our region
will hopefully never experience such a disaster, there is much we can
learn from Mississippi. An insight offered by Andrés Duany, leader
of the design team, for example, rings true everywhere: In challenging
officials to raise the bar for developers, he said, "If you give
the impression that you are a beggar, they'll give you their low-end
model." The point, he says, is not to just say no. "You say
that you'd rather it be done this way." DC Receives $5 Million for Safer Routes to School Campaign Walking and biking to school in the District promise to become safer options as DDOT has received a five-year $5 million federal Safer Routes to School award. By improving sidewalk and crossing conditions and promoting increased driver and pedestrian safety, among other initiatives, the District plans to actively encourage school children to walk and bike to school in every ward of the city. Read DDOT's press release to learn more. Fall Festival at Butler's Orchard Hayrides and a bonfire -- it must be autumn! Deja vu from a previous newsletter? Yes, this is our second try. Because of rainy weather a few weeks back, the festival celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Maryland's Agricultural Reserve was rescheduled for Sunday, October 30. The fun starts at 2:00 pm at Butler's Orchard in Germantown, Maryland. More information is available at www.ruralmontgomery.org. Hope to see you there! A Fair Way to Fund Metro A land tax is the best way to keep Metro financially healthy, according to Walter Rybeck, Director of the Center for Public Dialogue, in a recent letter to the editor in the Washington Post. Shifting the tax burden away from structures and on to land value would spur the kind of compact transit-oriented development that would make Metro more efficient and productive, says Rybeck. Read the letter to learn more. Agricultural Reserve Faces Large Scale Changes Although Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve is home to a number of Private Institutional Facilities (PIFs) -- a term that includes places of worship, senior housing, private schools, and day care centers -- several new proposals threaten to drastically alter the existing scale of development in the Reserve. Current proposals include auditoriums that would seat over a thousand people, and housing and school complexes with parking lots for hundreds of cars. Not only do the size of these institutions sharply contrast with the rural surroundings, but such development would take land out of agricultural production. Of additional concern are the negative impacts on water quality that would result from the increase in paved surfaces. The County Council is holding a public hearing on the PIF proposals on Tuesday, November 8th at 7pm. Please join the Coalition for Smarter Growth in encouraging the County to locate PIFs in more appropriate locations where existing infrastructure can support them. For more information, contact Andrea Arnold at andrea@smartergrowth.net. Upcoming Events
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