The States and the Stimulus - Virginia Report: Are they using it to create jobs and 21st century transportation? To read the full report click here >>

We support the vision of this plan -- “achieve a transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly community that celebrates and builds on cultural diversity of the existing and future residents.” We are excited about the coming bus transit center and future Purple Line stations. We share the county’s aspiration for this plan to spark redevelopment and boost economic development on outdated automobile-oriented strip malls; building higher density, vibrant, mixed use places that are inviting for pedestrians. We agree with the plan’s emphasis on the need to improve connectivity and create a compact, walkable environment. We believe redevelopment of key commercial parcels around the planned transit stations offers great opportunity to foster an attractive walking environment, with new jobs, businesses and housing.

This report is a product of Smart Growth America (SGA), a coalition of national, state and local organizations working to improve the ways we plan and build our towns, cities, and metropolitan areas. As part of that mission, SGA and our partners have been working with states and cities to help shape how they spend their stimulus funds. In March 2009, SGA issued Spending the Stimulus, a report describing the wide range of projects for which the bulk of the states’ ARRA transportation spending could be used.

Overall, we want to express our enthusiasm for the plan to recreate the New Carrollton station area as a great metropolitan center with a grand transit station as the anchor. We concur with the real estate experts panel report of the Urban Land Institute that “the first step in catalyzing development at the station area is to focus on the station itself.” Built in 1978, the station is one of the oldest in the system. The station, however, is a leading economic development asset for the county.

To find affordable homes, many in the workforce have followed the popular advice to “drive till you qualify” by moving to remote suburbs such as Warren and Fauquier counties, VA, in the west; Spotsylvania County, VA, and Charles County, MD, in the south; Frederick County in the north; and Calvert