The Coalition for Smarter Growth endorses the East Falls Church Plan while making recommendations for enhancement and implementation of the plan. We commend the extensive process that has gone into the development of a sustainable, walkable vision for the future -- including a citizen task force that included representatives of neighborhood associations and other stakeholders, as well as additional analysis and refinement by county staff based on feedback from the community.

Revitalizing Richmond Highway with mixed-use walkable development, while linking revitalization, stream restoration, and better stormwater management – priceless! These interconnected issues were featured at our community forum, co-sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh, Lee District Association of Civic Organizations, and Audubon Naturalist Society.

We would like to express our strong support for SB 623. This bill will help the state and local transit and transportation agencies save limited funds while providing better transit service. By moving buses faster (or light rail vehicles), transit agencies can simultaneously save money, improve service for passengers, and attract new riders and fares. This bill would direct MDOT to establish the tools needed to assess when and where to deploy roadway operational improvements for transit vehicles so that we can take full advantage of efficiencies and make the most of existing transit service. Road-running transit service can realize cost savings, travel time reductions, and reliability improvements through a suite of measures that can be applied incrementally or all at once.

Letter to Secretary Connaughton and the Commonwealth Transportation Board Letter expressing concerns about the Tri-County Parkway, as well as the proposed north-south corridor in Northern Virginia as a Corridor of Statewide Significance.

Our position on HB 1001 is derived first from the Transportation for Maryland principles which call for smarter investments of our limited transportation funds. We believe that before we can ask Marylanders to pay more, we must ensure that we know our money will be used wisely. The proposed bill does not address how proposed increased revenues will be used. We need assurance that the new funding will be used to meet the state’s most urgent needs such as maintenance and support smart growth outcomes. Simply putting more towards money the existing list of transportation projects will not achieve this goal, nor will we ever have unlimited money to maintain our existing transportation system and build new facilities to support our community and economic development objectives. We must choose wisely.