Author: Cheryl Cort

Event: Building Inclusivity in Ward 3 –What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox?

Event: Building Inclusivity in Ward 3 –What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox?

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

April 27, 2021, CSG and Ward3Vision hosted an event to learn about the many tools we have to make Ward 3 a more inclusive, affordable place to live. We discussed: “what is affordable housing?”, approaches and policies like federal and local subsidies, public land, missing middle housing, ADUs, public housing, land use policy, and inclusionary zoning. The event also helped the audience understand how affordable housing actually gets financed.

Featured speakers: Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh; Tracy Hadden Loh, PhD, Brookings Institution Fellow and Greater Greater Washington Board Chair; Stan Wall, P.E., Partner, HR&A Advisors and ANC Commissioner 3F04; Patrick McAnaney, Somerset Development; Andrew Trueblood, Director, DC Office of Planning; David Cristeal, LSA Planning, ANC Commissioner 3F01, Ward 3 Vision Steering Committee and former Housing Director, Arlington County (moderator)

View the event recording on youtube.

Introduction to the Toolbox for Affordable Housing in Ward 3Download
What Does Affordable Housing Mean? by Tracy Hadden LohDownload
What’s in the Affordable Housing Toolbox? by Stan WallDownload
Affordable Housing Development in Ward 3 by Patrick McAnaneyDownload
Planning as a Tool for Equity and Opportunity by Andrew-TruebloodDownload
We Won! Prince George’s to move ahead with long overdue zoning rewrite

We Won! Prince George’s to move ahead with long overdue zoning rewrite

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Great news: the Maryland General Assembly voted to pass HB 980, and enable Prince George’s County to implement its new zoning regulations!

HB 980 amends an existing state ethics law unique to Prince George’s. Like other jurisdictions, the County needed to repeal and replace its entire zoning map to implement its new zoning regulations. But this action ran into a potential conflict with its unique zoning ethics law that does not apply to any other jurisdiction. 

To address this, the Prince George’s House Delegation introduced HB 980 and helped advance the bill from the House to the state Senate. In the Senate, under the leadership of Senator Paul Pinsky, the bill was amended to address concerns and ensure broad support. The legislation was retitled: Prince George’s County – Public Ethics – Application Payments and Transfer and Zone Intensification Requests. Most significantly, the amended bill offers an extra safeguard by prohibiting the County Council from approving zoning intensification (to build more on a site) requests that differ substantially from the zoning category already adopted in 2019.

In addition to Senator Pinsky, we are also grateful to Senator Malcolm Augustine, Delegate Erek Barron, and Delegate Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk for their thoughtful engagement to create this successful outcome. 

The zoning rewrite is important because it helps the County better guide transit-oriented development and create more walk- and bike-friendly designs. This not only benefits Prince George’s but all of Maryland by focusing more of the region’s growth around transit stations and close-in communities. More transit-oriented development reduces how much people in our growing region need to drive, and gives us more opportunities to walk, bicycle and ride transit for more of our trips. This all reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pressure to build on greenfields. A modern zoning code also means thriving places and a stronger economy. 

We are grateful to al those who took taking action to ensure Prince George’s can use the tools it needs to guide a more sustainable and prosperous future. 

Take Action: Don’t let the MD General Assembly kill Prince George’s zoning rewrite

Take Action: Don’t let the MD General Assembly kill Prince George’s zoning rewrite

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

No matter where you live in Maryland, join us in supporting Prince George’s County. Montgomery County and the City of Baltimore recently updated their zoning codes but the General Assembly could in effect block Prince George’s from doing so.

The Prince George’s House delegation is sponsoring a bill (HB 980), on behalf of County Executive Alsobrooks, the County Council and the Planning Commission. This bill will allow the County to finalize and vote to approve the Countywide Zoning Map Amendment. This singular action is needed to repeal and replace the county’s outdated zoning code. The bill is advancing through the Maryland General Assembly but needs to get all its final votes by the end of the session on April 12, 2021.

Take action now: email your Maryland legislators!

Here’s the issue:

Prince George’s County has worked for six years and spent millions of dollars to painstakingly modernize its outdated zoning code to better support transit-oriented development, and walk- and bike-friendly communities. The zoning rewrite also makes it easier to understand; and sets time-limits on development approvals which today can last forever. But a state ethics law, which only applies to Prince George’s County, would prevent councilmembers who have received a campaign donation from any affected property owner in the County (approximately 300,000 different properties and 250,000 different owners) from voting on the Countywide Zoning Map Amendment that implements the new zoning. No other jurisdiction in the state has this very restrictive law.

The proposed legislation is limited to enabling the County Council to vote for the Countywide Zoning Map Amendment – the total repeal and replacement of old zones with the new, updated zones. The County Council and Planning Commission have established, by local legislation and approvals, a decision process that will take public feedback, evaluate all properties and make recommendations on designations to place all properties in the County into one of the new zones most equivalent to its existing zone (i.e. Residential, Commercial, Industrial or Mixed-Use zones). 

It does not affect any other zoning decision and this does not apply to everyday, individual zoning and development review matters that come before the Council currently or in the future.

Email your state legislators today!

Without this legislation, Prince George’s will be stuck with outdated zoning, frustrating efforts to make zoning more understandable and preventing the county from shaping a more sustainable and competitive future.

The fate of years of work to bring Prince George’s zoning into the modern era hangs in the balance. Please email today!

Thanks for all you do,

Cheryl Cort

Policy Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

P.S. Click here to view our testimony and get more of the details.