Author: Emily Maurer
Montgomery County Smart Growth Advocacy Manual
Click to download our Montgomery County Smart Growth Advocacy Manual, featuring information on how the County Council works, what exactly the Planning Board does, the difference between a sector plan and functional master plan and much more!
CSG News: Major Updates
We hope you and your family are well. Summer seems to have flown by, and much more quickly than a normal summer would. We have much to share with you about CSG, our policy work, and upcoming events.
In pandemic-related news, we recently closed our physical office at 316 F Street NE. It was sad to say goodbye to our “smart growth operations center,” but we’re excited to find a new home once it is safe for our whole team to come together in person again.
This summer, activists in cities across the country rose up to demand racial justice and equity. CSG unequivocally supports this fight and is committed to continuing to center these ideals in our work, including our partnerships and ongoing focus on affordable housing, inclusive communities, and transit. Read our statement on racial justice and equity here and our call to action on sustainability and equity we issued in mid-May.
Introducing our new CSG team members
Some new faces have joined our team this summer! Emily Maurer, who worked with us as a communications intern during the Spring 2020 semester, joined our team in June as our Communications and Administrative Assistant. Bill Pugh, a longtime supporter, has kindly volunteered his expertise as a Senior Policy Fellow to make the case for using land use, housing, and transportation reform to fight climate change. We’re thrilled to welcome Emily and Bill to our team. Next up: raising funds to hire our first full-time Prince George’s Advocacy Manager.
Successful summer events
After the pivot last Spring to a virtual workplace, CSG ramped up our online event offerings, including:
- Our first ever virtual Livable Communities Leadership award event, featuring moving remarks from our honoree, Celeste James, and great discussions with our Community Heroes. Watch selected remarks.
- Our Courageous Conversations series on the legacy of redlining in Montgomery County. View here, with participant materials here.
- We co-sponsored a webinar series on Active Transportation in Northern Virginia to address the need for safer streets for biking and walking. View here.
- In DC, we organized a series of webinars to help homeowners learn about accessory dwelling units. View here.
Ongoing Campaigns
Rescuing transit
One of the big challenges we’ve been tackling with transit advocacy groups across the U.S. is the existential threat facing public transit. Nationally, transit needs $32 billion from Congress to avoid devastating budget and service cuts.
One of the big challenges we’ve been tackling with transit advocacy groups across the U.S. is the existential threat facing public transit. Nationally, transit needs $32 billion from Congress to avoid devastating budget and service cuts.
Take Action: Contact your representatives to request $32 billion in relief funding for transit.
Fighting for more housing and more affordable housing in DC
We are campaigning to win time-sensitive amendments to the DC Comprehensive Plan before the end of 2020. The amendments prioritize affordable housing to make DC a more inclusive place to live.
Take action: 1. Ask your DC Councilmember to adopt the Comp Plan amendments
2. Sign up to testify at the Nov 12th and 13th hearings
This summer, we urged the DC Office of Planning to prepare a proposal to the Zoning Commission to expand Inclusionary Zoning by increasing the percentage of affordable homes during upzonings. DCOP just released their report here. We’ll keep you posted.
Campaigning for an inclusive Montgomery County
In addition to hosting Courageous Conversations on residential racial segregation, we organized Montgomery for All to ensure the update of the General Plan will create more equitable, inclusive communities.
Take action: Sign up for Montgomery for All’s smart growth advocacy workshop September 17th and testimony writing workshop October 15th!
Given the county’s significant housing needs, particularly near transit, we successfully advocated to the Planning Board to recommend ending the housing moratorium policy within the Subdivision Staging Policy (SSP).
Take action: Email the Council to call for an end to the housing moratorium.
Championing a more sustainable and inclusive Northern Virginia
In Northern Virginia, we’ve been working on multiple fronts to address critical land use, housing and transportation issues. Coordinating with our Fairfax Healthy Communities coalition, we’ve been pressing for faster action on stormwater management, fighting for safer road design, seeking more housing options, and weighing in on Fairfax County’s development of a climate plan.
Fairfax’s Community Engagement and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) is being developed to reduce county carbon emissions and plan for resiliency in the face of flooding and other effects of climate change. We’re asking that the plan include walkable, transit-oriented communities as a key strategy for reducing transportation emissions.
Take action: Fill out the climate survey before September 13th.
We’re also supporting more affordable housing by advocating for missing middle housing options like accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Fairfax has proposed a limited approach to ADUs in their zoning modernization project, the City of Alexandria is studying ADUs, and Arlington County is kicking off a missing middle study. We’ll share future updates on these initiatives.
Looking ahead
It’s been a busy summer, and we have no plans to slow down. Our full fall event calendar is still being finalized, but look out for events on the DC Comprehensive Plan, the Thrive 2050 General Plan update in Montgomery County, NoVA planning issues, and our annual (but temporarily virtual) Smart Growth Social!
The public health and equity crises have underscored the importance of the issues we’ve always advocated for: affordable housing, well-funded public transit, and inclusive, walkable, transit-accessible communities are critical for our future.
We have much more to do together, so please consider supporting our ongoing work by donating $10, $25, $50, $100 or more to CSG today. You can also sign up to be a monthly recurring donor.
Guide to Safe Voting in the DMV
The election in November will be one of the most important in American history. Our nation is facing multiple crises that are testing our democracy and rarely has it been more important that we exercise our hard-earned right to vote. We want to make sure that you have all the information necessary to ensure your vote is counted this November! Scroll for voting information in DC, Virginia, and Maryland.
If you live in DC, you do not need to request a ballot.
- If you are a registered voter, you will receive a ballot. Check your registration here to ensure the listed address is correct.
- If you would prefer to drop your ballot in an official dropbox rather than mail it, you can see a list of locations here.
- If you wish to vote early in-person from October 27th-November 2nd. A list of early voting centers is available here.
- If you wish to vote in-person on election day, a list of polling places is available here.
- Any other information you might need to vote in DC can be found at dcboe.org. All of this information is available in Spanish here.
If you live in Maryland, you must request a mail-in ballot if you wish to vote by mail, which you can do online here.
- You must request your ballot by October 20th. All Marylanders will autonatically receive a mail-in ballot application, but not a mail-in ballot.
- If you do not want to mail your ballot, a list of ballot drop boxes will be available here once locations are finalized.
- Early voting in Maryland will take place from October 26th-November 2nd from 7am-8pm and the list of early voting locations will be here once they are finalized.
- If you wish to vote in-person on election day, you will receive a mailing in October telling you where you can do so, as not all polling places will be open.
- All Maryland voting information can be found on elections.maryland.gov. This information is also available in Spanish here.
If you live in Virginia, you must request a mail-in ballot if you wish to vote by mail, which you can do so here. You must request your ballot by 5pm on October 23rd.
- If you don’t want to mail your ballot, you can drop it off at your local elections office. If it is your first time voting in a federal election in Virginia, you must include a scanned copy of your ID with your ballot application.
- Early voting in Virginia will take place from September 18th to October 31st at your local elections office. Find the location of your elections office here. You must present a valid form of ID when voting in-person. A list of valid IDs can be found here.
- All usual polling places will be open on Election Day. To find your polling place, click here.
- All Virginia voting information can be found on elections.virginia.gov. This information is also available in Spanish here.
Whichever method you choose to cast your ballot, mark the appropriate date on your calendar and exercise your right to vote! Please continue to stay safe and healthy.
Sign-on Letter to the Montgomery Planning Board Re: Thrive 2050 Outreach
August 12th, 2020
Dear Montgomery Planning Board,
The coalition of organizations and individuals undersigned request additional outreach activities for the upcoming release of the working draft plan of Thrive Montgomery 2050. Many of our organizations have worked with the planning staff and have seen their diligent and innovative ways of conducting outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, community leaders and organizations working with highly impacted communities see an interest and a need to take additional action in order to fully engage all communities. The communities of color that have been the most affected by COVID-19 in our county are the same communities where more Thrive 2050 outreach is needed, and comments are missing.
It is our understanding that the Montgomery Planning Department intends to release the working draft plan of Thrive Montgomery 2050 on September 24th, hold a Planning Board review meeting on October 1st, hold a public hearing on November 19th, and maybe allow the public to submit comments until two weeks after the public hearing.1 We propose the following extensions, recommendations, and additional outreach strategies.
• A working draft in both English and Spanish least 30 days before the November public hearing.
• We ask for a second public hearing that is scheduled 30 to 45 days after the working draft plan has been released in Spanish.
• Create more live multi-bilingual / bilingual outreach opportunities to have bilingual discussions between community members and planners on all sections of the working draft plan.
• Conduct in-person outreach that is safe, outdoors, and physically distant, such as at food distribution centers/ hubs and at parks across the county.
• Create and simultaneously release one-page multilingual informational fact sheets that highlight key sections and points of the working draft plan. Additionally work closely with community organizers to disseminate information and conduct community outreach on the working draft plan.
We appreciate and thank the Planning Board for the opportunity to provide feedback on the working draft plan. We look forward to continuing to be partners in the Thrive 2050 conversation and find new and innovative ways to conduct outreach.
1 Thrive 2050 Public Comment Timeline. (Last Updated on August 4th, 2020). Available from: https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/master-plan-list/general-plans/thrive-montgomery-2050/
Sincerely,
Denisse Guitarra
Maryland Conservation Advocate
Audubon Naturalist Society