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  Community Clips Smart Growth News for the Washington, DC Region November 9, 2006 In this issue:
Growth Issue Continues to Play Big for Voters Across the region, in places as diverse as the District of Columbia, Howard, Montgomery, Arlington, and Prince William Counties, voters focused on growth issues. On Tuesday, voters continued the trend of choosing candidates who are neither beholden to speculative development interests nor purely anti-development. Rather, voters are seeking candidates who will appropriately manage the location, pace, and design of development for their community, who are honest about their approaches to managing growth, and who will truly involve them in the design of their community. See our additional analysis of Tuesday's election results. Maryland Voters Pass Ballot Measure to Protect Park Land On Tuesday, Marylanders sent a strong message to the new Governor and legislature that protecting our parks, working farms, critical natural areas, and open spaces from sprawling development is important. A ballot measure to require legislative approval for the sale of State-owned park lands passed with 85% support! The amendment arose two years ago after Governor Ehrlich attempted to sell public park land in St. Mary’s County to a private developer. The measure will prevent the State of Maryland from selling off conservation land for development. A strong grassroots campaign was launched throughout the state and Governor-Elect O’Malley has pledged to fully fund land conservation for the next four years. For more information, visit Partners for Open Space. Loudoun Rejects 33,000 House Proposal On Wednesday night, in one of the most significant land use decisions in recent history, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted 6-3 to reject a proposal that would have added 33,000 houses to the County's growth plan. The proposal would have placed significant housing far from jobs and in areas with inadequate transportation infrastructure. The County was assisted in its analysis of the proposal by the Virginia Department of Transportation's traffic analysis which showed the development would not only produce traffic gridlock in Loudoun, but in the surrounding counties as well. This type of information is critical for officials faced with these major decisions. Credit goes to Governor Kaine and state legislators who made this possible by approving the traffic impact analysis tool for communities. The Loudoun County Board deserves commendation for reaffirming the County's existing growth plan. Strong citizen involvement by a community that understands the importance of where and how this region grows made the difference. It creates the opportunity for the County to focus on fixing the planning, urban design, and transportation problems in its existing communities. Community involvement in visioning efforts to address local needs will be critical. For more on this story, read the Washington Post's Loudoun Supervisors Quash Dulles South Project, check out our press release, and visit LoudounsFuture.org. WMATA Provides "Next Train" Information on Web Area transit riders just got a time-management boost from WMATA with the unveiling of its online real-time train schedule. Now, before heading down to the tracks you can check to see when the next three trains will arrive in your station. The Washington Post wrote a terrific primer on the new feature. Check out Web Lets Riders See Train Times From Afar. Volunteer Opportunities at the Coalition for Smarter Growth Think volunteering for Coalition means just a night of stuffing envelopes? We do need that occasionally, of course, but there many other ways you may be able to lend us your talents. We are currently looking for savvy smart growthers who 1) know how to run phone lines, 2) have a VHS-DVD converter to digitize our VHS collection, or 3) know how to optimally organize office spaces. Our volunteer coordinator, Lauren Campbell, would love to hear from you if you can help out. You can reach her at lauren<at>smartergrowth.net. Our volunteer program has been growing fast over the past few months. We’d like to thank our October volunteer night attendees, who helped us out by mobilizing members in Loudoun County to attend a key public hearing that led to yesterday's positive vote. Also, our thanks go out to our fantastic Green Festival volunteers. We had a great weekend there talking with people from around the region. We're already looking forward to next year's event! Our next Monthly Office Volunteer Night is coming up, Tuesday, November 14 from 6:30-8:30pm at our Tenleytown office. We'd love for you to join us! Upcoming Events
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The Coalition was selected for 2006! |
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