Community Clips
Smart Growth News for the Washington, DC Region

September 12, 2007


In this issue:

• Update from the Executive Director - Our Tenth Anniversary
• Prince George's County Guides Metro Station Development
• Walkable, Transit Communities to Better Manage Growth in Montgomery
• Fairfax County to Review Proposed Affordable Housing Rules
• DC’s First Pedestrian Master Plan Due this Fall
• Loudoun Smart Growth Platform Educates Voters
• Agricultural Reserve Among Conservation Initiatives Recognized
• Organization Works to Preserve DC Affordable Housing

Update from the Executive Director - Our Tenth Anniversary

Welcome back to cooler weather and a busy fall.  It's an exciting time for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, as we welcome new staff and celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  We welcome Alice Grabowski, our new Managing Director, replacing long-time teammate Laura Olsen, who moved to Vermont over the summer.  Alice brings to us extensive experience in non-profit management. We also welcome Kristin Purdy as our Grass Roots Organizer and Web Manager. A former intern at the Coalition, Kristin was instrumental in kicking off our Ward 3 Vision campaign last summer and is now taking on the Herculean task of completing our new website, which will be launched soon.

We are proud to also have on our staff experts in housing policy, community involvement, economic equity in regional development, transit-oriented development, transportation policy, transit, pedestrian issues, bicycle facilities, media relations, and urban design.  Our partners include our founding environmental groups, local civic groups, and businesses and government officials working for smarter growth.

To commemorate the longevity or our success, we invite you to celebrate with us at our 10th Anniversary gala event and awards ceremony, co-chaired by foundation leaders Frederick H. Prince and Calvin Cafritz, the evening of November 14, 2007.  Hold the date and look for more information to come soon.  We appreciate your support and continued involvement in your communities.  Working together to address the issue of where and how we grow has never been more important. 

Prince George's Guides Metro Station Development

Prince George’s County Council and Planning Board are poised to review and approve the new plan for the Capital Heights Metro Station, in a neighborhood much deserving of investment.  The station serves both Maryland and DC residents from its location on the border at Southern Avenue and East Capitol Street.  The plan seeks to create attractive, transit-oriented, and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.  Redevelopment is already moving forward across the street on the DC side with a new senior building, rehabilitation of a mixed income high rise apartment building and new housing and retail.  Another developer has expressed interest in building a mixed use project on the Metro station site.

By creating a more mixed use, walkable environment, long-time residents, including seniors, will benefit from strong home values and new shopping choices within an easy walk of their homes.  To address concerns about housing affordability, the Council could adopt a number of protections for existing modest income residents and create moderate-cost housing alongside market rate units. Well-known tools include property tax relief for seniors, inclusionary zoning (affordable set asides in market rate housing developments), dedicated funding for a housing trust fund, protection for residents in rental buildings when offered for sale, and encouragement of accessory apartments in owner-occupied houses. These tools would work well alongside Metro redevelopment, which will attract new businesses and higher value housing, strengthen the county's tax base, and alleviate traffic congestion by offering more housing and jobs at an inner-tier Metro station.  View the plan.

Walkable, Transit Communities to Better Manage Growth in Montgomery

Montgomery County is updating its growth policy.  This update represents a great opportunity to make well-designed, mixed-use, walkable and transit-accessible communities a top priority.  Demand to live in such communities has never been higher and the need never greater.  These community designs can not only address traffic and reduce loss of open space, but they reduce energy costs and global warming emissions.

Past policies have focused only on moving cars, leading to wider roads, a hostile environment for pedestrians, and yet more traffic.  Priority must instead be placed on creating quality, healthy and sustainable neighborhoods that offer a range of housing and transportation choices.  Transit-oriented development with well-connected street networks around stops and stations achieves a significant number of walking, bicycling, transit, and carpool trips.  Local transportation reviews should account for the gains in use for these other modes of travel.

The Coalition for Smarter Growth and local partners are recommending judging new growth based on how many vehicle miles traveled and global warming emissions are generated.   For proposed projects that generate high levels of vehicle miles traveled, the project could be required to reduce vehicle miles traveled through changes in mix of uses, design, transit and street investments, pricing parking and other approaches.  If vehicle miles cannot be sufficiently reduced through mitigation, then the project would be disallowed from moving forward. Read the Gazette's coverage of the issue. 

Fairfax County to Review Proposed Affordable Housing Rules

Next month the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is poised to review new rules incorporating at least 12% of affordable housing units in hi-rise, high-density construction. Borrowing from best practice tools such as bonus density, special exception review, and inclusionary zoning principles, these rules would create new opportunities to expand the County’s housing portfolio. In certain circumstances, residential units could also be incorporated into commercial, industrial and mixed-use districts. The goal is simple: to create more affordable housing units in higher density projects for families earning between $50,000 - $100,000 per year. The proposed rules are adapted from the recommendations of a Board-appointed panel of county commissioners, housing professionals and real estate interests. You can read all about the proposed zoning ordinance changes on the Fairfax County website.

DC’s First Pedestrian Master Plan Due this Fall

This fall, the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) will finalize the city’s first Pedestrian Master Plan.  Over the last ten months, DDOT and Toole Design, a leading pedestrian planning consulting firm, have worked with a Technical Advisory Committee to devise the plan, which will address one high-crash corridor in each ward. The plan will propose safety and access improvements and examine policies and procedures within DDOT that will foster a safer and more walkable DC. Learn more.

Loudoun Smart Growth Platform Educates Voters

In anticipation of the coming elections, the Campaign for Loudoun’s Future released a platform that details smart growth priorities to achieve more sustainable growth for the county. The Campaign, a partnership of citizens and civic groups, including the Coalition for Smarter Growth, offers a range of measures to address transportation, environmental protection, community services, and neighborhood planning.

While the Campaign for Loudoun's Future does not endorse specific candidates, the Platform for Loudoun's Future is a resource for county residents as they talk to and consider the candidates running for Board of Supervisors. To read the platform and learn more about recommended initiatives, visit www.LoudounsFuture.org.

Agricultural Reserve Among Conservation Initiatives Recognized

In a report released last week, business leaders joined their conservation partners in the Washington Smart Growth Alliance to recognize top priority conservation initiatives in the DC region.  Nominated projects were evaluated based on how each contributes to a high quality of life, supports economic health of the region, and encourages smarter growth and development patterns. This year, the Alliance recognized the Mattawoman Creek and Port Tobacco River (Charles County), Four Mile Run (Arlington), the National Mall (DC), Merrimac Farm (Prince William), and Agricultural Reserve Building Lot Termination (BLT) Program (Montgomery). 

The BLT program is designed to preserve agriculture and reduce fragmentation of the Reserve, while fairly compensating land owners.  As the Montgomery County Council considers whether to fund the BLT program this fall and as other groups and jurisdictions seek to protect their natural assets, we hope you will promote and support the Alliance's recognition.  It reflects the combined support of the business and conservation communities. To read the Alliance's full report, click here.

Organization Works to Preserve DC Affordable Housing

The National Low Income Housing Coalition is working to establish a comprehensive preservation catalog of government-subsidized rental housing properties in four jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia. As part of their efforts, NLIHC is also investigating the creation of networks of local "project monitors" to keep tabs on the short- and long-term preservation and sustainability of these affordable housing units. For more information, go to www.nlihc.org.

Upcoming Events

Past Issues

Click here to access our past issues.

Subscriptions
Our email address is To unsubscribe, please email us with "unsubscribe newsletter" in the subject line. If you would still like to receive our email alerts, please indicate that in your message; otherwise your address will be removed from our alerts list as well.

If you want to be added to the mailing list, please visit our website and complete the form.