Category: CSG in the News

VDOT Plan to Add Tolls to I-66 Gets Tough Reception

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

The plans developed for a 25-year upgrade of Interstate 66 inside the Beltway by the Virginia Department of Transportation were presented at a heavily-attended public meeting at the Henderson Middle School in Falls Church Tuesday night, and left the audience more than a little unsettled, based on the comments and grumblings from many there.

The plans include the introduction of tolls for all vehicles carrying less than three passengers during rush hours in the morning and the evening, and going both ways.

The presentation faced a lot of angry criticism from the public that spoke up Tuesday night, including from Falls Church Vice Mayor David Snyder, who, even though he welcomed the audience on behalf of the City, issued a statement that exemplified the sharp criticism that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and other planning officials were subjected to.

Snyder criticized the “lack of clarity and assurance” in the proposals, including “whether people will actually pay the tolls on avoid them and further clog already congested roads such as Route 7 and 29…The only long-term solutions lie in alternatives to more lanes to serve single occupancy vehicles.”
Others assailed what they called “a money grab” and “holding Falls Church and Fairfax hostage to tolls.” Whereas the comprehensive plan is not slated to be completed until 2040, the tolling will come in the first phase set to go by 2017, according to the planners Tuesday.
The overall purpose of the plan, officially called the “I-66 Multimodal Project,” is three-fold: to move more people, “enhance connectivity” between travel modes, and to provide new travel options.
Its benefits, according to VDOT and its partner in this project, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), are to “move more people and enhance connectivity in the I-66 corridor, provide congestion relief and new travel choices, manage demand and ensure congestion-free travel, provide a seamless connection to nearly 40 miles of express lanes in the region, create a ‘carpool culture’ on I-66 by providing free, faster, more reliable trips for HOV-3, van pools and buses, and provide support for multimodal improvements in the corridor or on surrounding roadways that benefit mobility on I-66.”
It is not related to another plan which calls for the widening of I-66 west of the Beltway, although they interface and of course are on the same highway.
The more specific data many citizens demanded Tuesday night will be forthcoming in the fall, insisted VDOT officials. The studies of various components of the plan for more precise numbers will be coming over the next months.
Snyder’s concern for the spill-over effect onto side roads, like Routes 7 and 29 that criss-cross the City of Falls Church, was expressed at a Falls Church City Council work session Monday night, and was the concern of a number of those who spoke Tuesday.

However, in comments e-mailed to the News-Press following Tuesday’s meeting, Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth wrote, “We are generally supportive of the VDOT proposal. It is a viable alternative to widening which would do more harm to homes, neighborhoods, parks, schools and the highly utilized commuter bike trail.”

He added that “peak hour congestion pricing in both directions will ensure the road works effectively and with HOV and expanded transit could carry far more people per hour,” and would “certainly help to address the current severe congestion in the ‘reverse commute’ direction.”

Pending more data, he added, the “diversion of traffic…might turn out to be no more than the diversions prompted by the current traffic congestion on I-66,” and “is counterbalanced by the fact that currently single occupancy vehicles are barred from I-66 for the peak hours and have been using parallel roads. With the option to pay for a free moving facility as compared to navigating local arterials with stoplights, the toll option could help local streets.”

Robert Puentes, a planner and former member of the Falls Church Planning Commission, wrote online at FCNP.com that “The VDOT plan is the right one to deal with the intractable problems in the I-66 corridor. There’s a long way to go to refine the proposal and the devil’s in the details but the general plan is a good one.”

In an anonymous response to Puentes on FCNP.com, a commenter complained that “reverse commuters face no restrictions now and in fact some have considered this in establishing their places or residence.”

He argued, “We need a comprehensive and robust mass transit solution to the traffic quagmire…We could focus on making Northern Virginia a showplace for light rail and bus networks designed so that people actually could use them instead of cars.”

Read the original article here.

Riders ‘Take Five’ – for a 3-hour tour

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

In recent years, the River City Saunter has showcased local redevelopment and revitalization initiatives in communities ranging from Shockoe Bottom and Jackson Ward to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor – with an eye toward highlighting success stories as well as challenges related to sprawl, affordable housing and regional transportation.

But at the 7th annual Saunter, eastern Henrico County’s much-celebrated historic and scenic byway was the star of the show – while sharing a bit of the spotlight with its equally historic and scenic supporting star, the James River.

Sponsored by the Partnership for Smarter Growth (PSG), the May 9 tour of Route 5 drew approximately 80 participants, who set out from Main Street Station in twin buses for a three-hour trip through Varina.

Among Henrico officials joining the tour were Varina Supervisor Tyrone E. Nelson and County Manager John A. Vithoulkas. Leighton Powell of Scenic Virginia provided the narration on one bus, while Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (and PSG) acted as tour guide on the other.

One of the first points of interest along the route was the property of Virginia Lipford, a passenger on the bus who recently won an award from Henrico’s Historic Preservation Advisory Committee for establishing a conservation easement on her almost-ten-acre site.

Lipford was the first to take advantage of a new partnership between the Capital Region Land Conservancy and the Henricopolis Soil & Water Conservation District, in which the organizations co-hold conservation easements so that small-acreage land owners can preserve their properties and protect them from subdivision just as large-acreage owners can.

Living within sight of the James River, and just off Route 5, Lipford has set an important precedent in a county that loses hundreds of acres of green space and farmland each year, according to tour participant and Varina neighbor Nicole Anderson-Ellis of the Henricopolis Soil and Water Conservation District.

Considering that Virginia’s number one industry is agriculture, and the number two industry is tourism, said Anderson-Ellis, those acres are resources the county cannot afford to lose.

As Leighton pointed out that the Varina District contains 48 percent of Henrico’s land, but only 20 percent of its population, Lipford also drew laughter with a droll observation.

“Yeah, but we can be real loud,” she said of her Varina neighbors.

Nicole Anderson-Ellis points to photos of Napa, Tuscany and Route 5 as part of a guessing game at the Malvern Hill stop on the Saunter.

‘A Civil War playground’
At Fort Harrison, the first stop on the tour, riders disembarked to hear from speakers such as David Ruth, superintendent of the Richmond National Battlefield Park, and Neil Luther, director of Henrico Recreation and Parks.

Pointing out a number of the fort’s more distinctive features, such as its listening wells and earthworks, Ruth cited it as an example of some of the strongest Confederate defense lines during the Civil War – as well as a sterling example of attractions that boost the region’s battlefield tourism and generate an estimated $11 million in economic impact.

Among the more successful recent events cited by Luther was the September reenactment of the Battle of the New Market Heights, which marked the 150th anniversary of the battle. In preparation for the weekend, Henrico Recreation and Parks built a replica fort and Union and Confederate campgrounds that became the focal point for a gathering of more than one thousand re-enactors.

“We basically created a Civil War playground,” Luther said of the event, which generated a figure approaching $1 million in economic impact in one weekend alone.

Not surprisingly, he added, Henrico officials are exploring the possibility of future reenactments. Not only are there abundant heritage sites in Henrico, he explained, but heritage tourists are especially desirable, because they tend to favor books and collectibles and thus spend more than the average traveler.

At the next stop, Deep Bottom Park, riders gathered on the banks of the James to hear from speakers such as Nathan Burrell, superintendent of the James River Park System. Burrell touted the role of the James River and its parks and other recreational assets in the revitalization of Richmond and the reversal of the city’s “downward spiral” of a decade or two ago.

But although the city may enjoy the more visible economic benefit of renewed population growth, Burrell said, it’s imperative that residents of the area view the river as a regional asset — and its stewardship as a regional responsibility.

In spite of the park’s location primarily within city limits, he emphasized, a majority of the visitors – 60 percent – come from surrounding localities.

‘Celebrate these assets’
Along the route, bus riders enjoyed views of another regional asset: newly-completed portions of the Virginia Capital Trail for cyclists and pedestrians. Due for completion this fall, the under-construction portions will soon join with finished sections in Richmond, Charles City County and Jamestown to form an unbroken link between the modern capital and the original capital of Virginia.

Luther mentioned that he and his family are among the Capital Trail fans excitedly anticipating its completion, having already ridden the entire 52-mile length several times.

The final stop of the day, hosted by Meade and Randy Welch at historic Malvern Hill, included refreshments and a guessing game created by Nicole Anderson-Ellis.

A founding member of the Route 5 Corridor Coalition, Anderson-Ellis said the group recently initiated a “Take 5” campaign to induce more visitors to travel the scenic byway. She got the idea for the guessing game, she said, while browsing tourism brochures for Tuscany and the Napa Valley, which featured rustic and pastoral scenes almost interchangeable with those along Route 5.

And she was not at all surprised, as she announced following the guessing game, that most of the tour participants were unable to distinguish the scenic photos of Italy and California from those taken along the Virginia route.

As speakers wrapped up their remarks at Malvern Hill, Stewart Schwartz commented that when he and his wife moved to Richmond a few years ago, he was “stunned” to find scenery like Route 5’s within only a few miles of the city.

“Having seen these landscapes today,” Schwartz said, “we want you to contemplate . . . and to celebrate these assets. You don’t have this in Northern Virginia, or in Washington, D.C.

“And your free tour today,” he added, “is a lot cheaper than that trip to Napa or Tuscany!”

Read the original article here.

AS I SEE IT: In Princeton, think small for affordable housing

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

On Sunday, May 17, Princeton’s Community Democratic Organization (PCDO) hosted a symposium on what many residents feel is Princeton’s central issue: how to keep — or, depending on your perspective, how to make — Princeton affordable.

What are some of the barriers to affordability in Princeton? Our property taxes, for one thing. We learned, from estimates prepared by Councilman Patrick Simon, that the 2015 property tax on an average Princeton home, which is assessed at just over $800,000, will probably be just under $17,700.

Where will that money go? Some 48 percent of our property taxes will go to the schools, 22 percent to the municipality, and 30 percent to the county. Startlingly, 50 percent of the county’s budget is spent on corrections. If everyone in Mercer County behaved themselves, in other words, our taxes would drop by 15 percent.

Our taxes could drop even more depending on the outcome of a lawsuit brought by attorney Bruce Afran on behalf of local taxpayers who challenge Princeton University’s tax-exempt, nonprofit status. At the May 17 meeting, Mr. Afran stressed that the university has done nothing illegal or immoral. But the university shares profits with many of its science faculty and undertakes other commercial activities. It cannot be deemed a nonprofit according to New Jersey law. The university has agreed to non-binding mediation in the case.

Meanwhile, the May 17 meeting addressed not just legally defined affordable housing but what some Princetonians call “housing that’s affordable.” By “housing that’s affordable,” I mean me and maybe you, or anyone who’s ever wondered whether they can afford to stay in Princeton.

How can Princeton — or any town — supply enough housing that’s affordable for middle- and low-income residents? Let me discuss rental housing, but similar arguments would apply to housing for sale rather than for rent.

According to Cheryl Cort, policy director for Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington, D.C., conservatives and liberals offer different solutions to providing rental housing that’s affordable. Republicans argue that zoning and other building regulations constrict supply and drive up costs, so we should eliminate regulations. Then the free market will build housing for both high- and low-income households.

The argument that market supply-and-demand applies to housing is partly correct, Ms. Cort writes: “If there’s not enough housing on the market to meet demand, higher-income people will bid up prices and out-compete lower-income people.” This is already happening in Princeton.

And, yes, regulations do increase development costs and risks. Projects may be denied, delayed, or decreased. Developers need to make a return for investors. Housing won’t get built if the return isn’t high enough.

Ms. Cort calculates (these figures are from March 2015) that the baseline cost of building a one-bedroom apartment in D.C. requires a rental of “$2,000 a month to meet the level of return [an investor] demands.” Your income must be about $38 per hour, or $80,000 annually, for $2,000 to be only 30 percent of monthly income, which is the generally-recommended level of spending on housing. People who earn $15 an hour, or $32,000 a year, the new minimum wage in some states, can afford only $800 apartments.

One “solution” is for lower-income people to live in older housing, and this is what usually happens — except in places like Greenwich Village, Hodge Road, or Georgetown.

Meanwhile, Democrats, who argue correctly that new development mostly provides high-end housing, may oppose any new market-rate development. Perhaps they mistakenly ignore the law of supply and demand because they remember when local governments could supply below-market-rate or public housing. Those days are largely gone — although, as Bruce Afran implied, they may come again for Princeton.

Nevertheless, another, modest way to increase rental housing that’s affordable is by means of Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs.

ADUs — sometimes called granny flats or in-law apartments — are smaller, secondary dwellings on the same lot as a primary dwelling. They offer shelter, bathrooms, and cooking facilities. ADUs may be completely new construction, like a new addition or a garden cottage. Or they might be existing garages, basements, or attics converted into living space, maybe just by adding a hotplate and a microwave.

ADUs offer new housing units while respecting the look and scale of single-dwelling neighborhoods. They can be added to cottages or mansions. They use existing housing and infrastructure more efficiently, providing smaller housing for today’s smaller households (in Princeton, think retirees or the university’s post-docs). They free up larger apartments for families with children. And — most important — in return for some amount of investment, they offer the homeowner income. That is, they let two families find housing that’s affordable.

Our zoning should not only permit but actually encourage them. In particular, zoning should relax the parking requirement for new dwelling units since many young Princeton residents rely on bicycles or buses. ADUs should be allowed to homeowners as of right, and lot-size requirements should also be relaxed.

As I’ve written in this space before, my favorite kind of ADUs are tiny houses — as in “Tiny House Movement” — structures built like houses but perhaps only 250 or even 150 square feet, the size of a very small trailer. In fact, tiny houses are often built on wheels so they’re movable. If you could build a tiny house for $15,000, you could probably recoup your cost with one year’s rental. Here’s how easily zoning could encourage housing that’s affordable: make it legal to park tiny houses in Princeton’s driveways.

But let me mention that it’s already legal in Princeton to rent as many as two rooms in your home to two people per room, without adding extra kitchens or bathrooms. Rooms with shared facilities seem to rent for $750 to 1,000 monthly in Princeton. If you’re seriously worrying whether you can continue living in Princeton, please consider this option. We don’t want to lose you! 

Read original article here.

Call It The Hogan Line: Maryland Seeks Study Of Baltimore-To-D.C. Maglev

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan might have found a pricey train worth pursuing. You just won’t be able to ride one in this country, at least not for many years.

During a 12-day trade mission to Asia that started May 26, Hogan is visiting Japan, where he will take a ride on the famous maglev (short for magnetic levitation) train that tops 300 miles per hour. There is more to the governor’s trip than mere curiosity about the fastest train in the world.

The Maryland Department of Transportation has applied for a federal grant to study a maglev line between Baltimore and Washington. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is reviewing the application for $27.8 million and is expected to make a decision later this year. Maryland is the only state interested in the maglev grant dollars.

The request comes as Hogan is threatening to cancel the suburban Purple Line and Baltimore’s Red Line transit projects because, in his view, they are too expensive, and the state’s representatives on the Metro board of directors are pushing the transit authority to tighten its budgets, potentially jeopardizing a planned expansion of Metro’s rail fleet in favor of bringing the existing fleet into a state of good repair.

Only a few states are even eligible to apply for the maglev grant. Under a 2008 federal law, three potential maglev projects were identified east of the Mississippi River: in Pittsburgh, Atlanta-Chattanooga, and Baltimore-Washington. Pennsylvania transportation officials returned the grant money to FRA, making it available to another state. Maryland went after it.

But the governor’s interest in maglev is puzzling to regional transit advocates who say the train’s prohibitive cost dwarfs that of the projects Hogan is threatening to cancel.

“There are so many other transit needs in the state of Maryland and the D.C. region, there is no possible way we could see going down the path of billions of dollars for a maglev,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, one of the most vocal proponents of the 16-mile Purple Line light rail project between Bethesda and New Carrollton.

The Maryland Department of Transportation did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

Hogan has called the Purple Line’s price tag of $2.4 billion unacceptable – despite the promise of nearly $1 billion in federal aid – and his administration is expected to decide this month whether to proceed on scheduled construction.

What’s practical?
At the D.C. region’s transit authority, Maryland’s representatives are pressuring the Metro board of directors to hire a financial whiz instead of a transit specialist to be the next general manager. They are behind the board’s decision to delay the full expansion of the rail fleet well into next decade in favor of replacing more of Metro’s older rail cars, a move – pending federal approval – that could save $800 million this decade.

But the estimated cost of building a maglev line between Baltimore and D.C. is $10 billion (a maglev trip between the two cities would take about 15 minutes). Although Japan has promised to put up $5 billion, Schwartz said the idea is not practical.

“What’s needed is a decision in favor of the Purple Line and the Red Line, and additional investment in Metro rail and MARC commuter rail to enhance transit for far more people far more effectively,” Schwartz said.

Hogan will be joined in Japan by his secretary of transportation, Pete Rahn, and representatives of the D.C.-based firm The Northeast Maglev, which has been advocating a Washington-to-New York maglev for years. Its estimated price tag is $100 billion, or about more than twice what the federal government spends annually on surface transportation through the Highway Trust Fund.

Going all the way
Maglev experts said the Baltimore-to-D.C. line would take five to 10 years to build and provide dubious benefit.

“It would make no sense to build such a high-speed system unless you are going to go further, presumably at least to New York if not to Boston,” said John Harding, the former chief maglev scientist at the Federal Railroad Administration. Harding retired from FRA in 2004.

“It would be very hard to imagine that the ridership and fares would be sufficient to support such an expensive system, because obviously there are other alternatives which I would think would be much less expensive,” said Harding, who said his enthusiasm for maglev has waned over the years.

“It meets opposition at every point so I think it is very doubtful that we are going to see maglev here for a long time,” Harding said.

The maglev concept in Maryland dates to the late 1990s, when Congress created a program to be administered by FRA. The idea was to build a short line to demonstrate maglev’s effectiveness before building a long-distance, intercity corridor. FRA picked seven projects for further study. Among them was the Baltimore-Washington line, but the state legislature dropped the project in 2004 and federal funding fell away.

Read the original article here.

City should expand Inclusionary Zoning

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

D.C.’s transformation from a city struggling and losing population in the 1990s to today’s increasingly popular and booming district has brought many benefits. But this transformation has created a growing affordable housing crisis. Many longtime residents and would-be new transplants without large bank accounts feel that they don’t have a place. Local leaders from Mayor Muriel Bowser on down rightly perceive this as a problem that must be addressed.

Unfortunately, there is no one magic bullet to keep our city inclusive and make sure longtime residents can enjoy the same amenities as wealthier new comers. Rather, we need to look at an array of policy solutions as we would a toolbox where a number of different tools are needed to effectively tackle any job. In keeping with this metaphor, we also need to remain ready to add to that toolbox and sharpen or upgrade existing tools.

One tool ready to be sharpened is Inclusionary Zoning, or IZ.

Adopted in 2006, IZ requires builders of most residential developments larger than nine units to set aside 8 to 10 percent of the units as permanently affordable to middle-class and lower-income house- holds. Typically these units are reserved for families making between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income. For a household of two, this equals $44,000 to $70,000 a year. IZ pays for lower priced homes in market rate developments by allowing the developer to build more units than would otherwise be allowed under zoning rules. It requires no direct subsidies. Thus we are able to use our city’s sustained building boom to create additional affordable units now and bank them for the future.

Critics say the program is too slow to put units on the market. To date, just over 100 units, mostly rent- als, have become available. As of late April, 61 of 105 available IZ rental units had been leased, with another 11 sold or under contract out of 13 for sale. Additionally, the beginning of the program has suffered from many administrative kinks.

Both of those initial problems are being addressed. IZ’s slow start will soon be a thing of the past, with an estimated 1,000-plus units currently in the pipeline. Many of the administrative problems are being resolved, and the city now has a fully staffed team to manage the program. The IZ program is operational and doing what it was designed to do. The Urban Institute recently pronounced D.C.’s pro- gram sound and of great potential.

IZ is about to deliver 19 affordable units in Upper Northwest at 5333 Connecticut Ave., and is now leasing 17 affordable homes at the Drake at 17th and O streets in Dupont Circle. How else would such moderately priced housing opportunities ever be possible there?

But IZ can and should do more. That’s why a coalition of housing, religious, labor and smart growth groups is urging the Zoning Commission and mayor to act. The D.C. Council just passed a resolution asking the same. We should strengthen IZ to increase the number of low-income households that qualify for the program and the number of IZ units produced.

This means bringing down the top end of the income range from 80 percent of area median income (AMI) to 70 percent AMI or lower, and increasing the number of units gained at the 50 percent AMI level (affordable for a two-person house- hold earning just under $44,000 annually). We should also ask for at least 10 to 12 percent of homes in a residential building to be affordable, and provide additional bonus density and zoning flexibility to ensure developments recover the added cost of the affordable units.

Fixing any problem as complicated as D.C.’s affordable housing crisis requires a lot of tools. IZ is one way we can make up ground in our affordable housing crisis — and one that doesn’t require millions of dollars out of D.C.’s budget. It helps working-class residents have more housing options as prices continue to rise out of reach. Other programs better address the needs of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Along with strengthening IZ, these other efforts — part of the needed continuum of help require our deepened investment and support, too. The unprecedented level of funding for affordable housing in the budget proposed by Mayor Bowser and given initial approval by the D.C. Council is a great start to the Bowser administration and council session.

We hope that Mayor Bowser and the Zoning Commission will take the opportunity to act now while our city continues to attract more people and build new housing at a rapid pace.

Cheryl Cort is policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth and a leader of the DC Campaign for Inclusionary Zoning.

Read the original article here.

Williams: Parks planning needs public input

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

A recent study of planning theory and practice … suggests that the ineffectiveness of city planning results from two key factors: the tendency of planners to be pulled along by the prevailing political currents and the consistent refusal to formulate a notion of the ‘Good City’ that draws upon the widest possible base of support.”

— Christopher Silver, “Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics and Race”

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, thought Richmond had turned the corner on planning.

He and his wife had moved here the year before, and the public engagement surrounding the Downtown Master Plan “was absolutely inspirational,” he recalled.

But a half-dozen years after that plan’s approval, the 20th century described more than 30 years ago by Silver, a former professor of urban studies and planning at Virginia Commonwealth University, sounds a lot like Richmond in the 21st century.

Last week’s forwarding of the proposed Kanawha Plaza makeover by the Planning Commission had all the traits of Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ approach to public projects — a blitzkrieg of lobbying and behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing, a dearth of public say, and a fast-track product guaranteed to leave folks asking, “What just happened?”
From the Stone brewery to the Shockoe ballpark plan to the pro football training center, there has been dissatisfaction over the level of transparency and public engagement.

The $6 million Kanawha Plaza renovation — to be bankrolled mostly by the corporate sector — will execute a plan produced in part by a design firm hired by Dominion Resources. The rehab could be completed in time for the bike race in September.

So much for the concerns of the Urban Design Committee, which were pretty much ignored as the mayor’s team pushed through a plan that calls for a large lawn at the center of the park, a stage like structure, a food truck area, retention of the plaza’s fountain and other grading and landscaping improvements.

At least one planner questioned what would be the lack of shade at the plaza during summer months; another was critical of the “disjointed” process and the lack of input from people who live downtown.

Even with the time crunch, it shouldn’t have come down to this.
Rachel Flynn, former director of planning and development for Richmond and now director of planning and building for Oakland, Calif., noted that numerous cities have forged public-private partnerships to address the design of public spaces, citing Bryant Park and the linear High Line Park in New York and Post Office Square in Boston as successful examples.

“The key was the hiring of excellent landscape architecture firms with very strong track records in creating beautiful public spaces, that are highly popular,” she said in an email last week. “If the city wanted to turn public responsibility over to the private sector, then they should have required the highest design standards.
“The hired firm, KEI Architects, is not a landscape architecture firm — and therefore doesn’t have the experience in designing successful public spaces,” like the aforementioned parks, she said. “Richmond deserved the best landscape architects for this project and the best design for its citizens. What a missed opportunity.”

While Flynn questioned the design, Schwartz lamented the process that led to it.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth has urged Richmond to have a more inclusive planning process, greater transparency and public involvement in the economic development process, and more sharing of information on the city’s website.

“We have a lot of creative talent in this city that we should tap. You get better decisions and outcomes in this city when you bring everyone to the table and tap their ideas,” Schwartz said.

He observed that there’s significantly more public involvement as a routine part of the planning process in Northern Virginia. And he lauded the Sacramento region’s Blueprint along with Envision Utah as broad outreach planning that we would do well to emulate. A byproduct of Envision Utah was a deeply conservative state’s construction of two light rail lines in Salt Lake City.

If that can happen there as a result of collaboration for the greater good, what can’t we accomplish here? For us to be not just a good city, but the best city we can be, we need broader involvement and fewer political power plays.

Or as Schwartz said, “We’ve got to turn away from the old way of doing things where just a few people make decisions about the future of our diverse city.”

A city guided by prevailing political currents, rather than transparency and inclusiveness, is guaranteed to stray off course.

Read the original article here.

Searching For Transit In I-66 Expansion Plans; Public Funds Give Virginia Options

Posted on by Winstina Hughes

Virginia is thinking about taking a different approach to toll roads.

After ceding future toll revenue on the I-495 and I-95 Express Lanes to the private-sector firm that built those highways in Northern Virginia, officials announced on Tuesday the results of an internal analysis on whether planned toll lanes on I-66 from the Beltway to Haymarket should remain under state control.

By fronting up to $600 million in public money for the estimated $2.1 billion project to build 25 miles of high-speed toll and carpool lanes on I-66 outside the Beltway, the state could reap hundreds of millions in toll revenue over the next 40 years to pay for other transportation improvements, said Aubrey Layne, Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation.

“The private sector is going to build this road. The private sector is probably going to operate this road. I’m not sure if the private sector is going to finance this road,” Layne said in remarks to reporters.

If the state decides to publicly finance the widening of I-66 to 10 lanes (five in each direction: two HOT lanes and three regular purpose lanes), it would mark a significant departure from the policy of previous administrations.

In the multibillion-dollar deals that built the Express Lanes on I-495 and I-95, the state’s financial commitment was small; the international road-builder Transurban took on the risk by financing the projects through a combination of private capital and federal loans. Thus, Transurban received concessions from the state to collect almost all the toll revenue on I-495 and I-95 for the next 70 years.

Such an arrangement is known as a public-private partnership, or P3, and Layne would not rule out another P3 for I-66.

‘We didn’t get transit’

“We didn’t get transit,” Layne said. “We might have made a different decision or the public might have weighed in differently had they known the project would have been different.”
Although the two toll roads may be helping drive-alone commuters and carpoolers, Layne said the benefit is coming at the expense of something else.

Only a fraction of the thousands of vehicles in the I-495 and I-95 Express Lanes are commuter buses. Transurban has little incentive to increase their number because buses do not pay Express Lanes tolls.

The 95 Express Lanes averaged 304 bus trips per day and the 495 Express Lanes averaged 177 in the most recent quarter ending March 31, according to data released by Transurban. These figures include school buses and charter buses.

Ridership remains relatively low on the new bus routes on I-495. OmniRide’s route from Woodbridge to Tysons Corner started in Nov. 2012. Fairfax County Connector launched express bus service to Tysons from Burke in January 2013 and added routes from Lorton and Springfield added two months later.

Two and a half years after opening to the public, 11 percent of all traffic on the 495 Express Lanes was either HOV-3 or otherwise exempt from paying toll (buses or emergency vehicles) during the most recent quarter, up from 8 percent in the April 2013 quarter, according to Transurban.

The future of I-66: buses, trains?

The McAuliffe administration would like to see a larger public transit share on I-66, although it is unclear what shape it would take.

The internal analysis unveiled by Layne before the Commonwealth Transportation Board on Tuesday “demonstrated that of the several available options for procuring the project, a publicly-financed design-build project may save taxpayers between $300 million and $600 million and provide for up to $500 million to be used for future transportation improvements in Northern Virginia,” according to a VDOT statement.

Transit advocates favor public ownership of future tolls on I-66.

“Our community is not going to support any project that does not put transit upfront as a major investment that we need in the I-66 corridor. Public ownership of the tolls may allow us to do that,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and critic of the prior Express Lanes concessions.

“We’ve been disappointed that they failed to look at a transit-first alternative, simply looking at transit, transit-oriented development, rural land conservation, measures to reduce the driving demand overall and to shape land use to encourage more transit use in the corridor,” he added.

State officials are expected to make a decision on the I-66 procurement process this summer.

Updated 8:30 a.m., May 20.

Read the original article here.

Partnership for Smarter Growth puts focus on eastern Henrico

Posted on by Claire Zippel

State Route 5 in eastern Henrico County was turned into a main attraction Saturday afternoon by the Partnership for Smarter Growth. The organization hosted the seventh River City Saunter to display tourist attractions, historic elements, natural resources and other economic assets to the region to county officials and residents.

Feedback on Potomac Yard Metro: WMATA hosts public forum near proposed Metro station

Posted on by Claire Zippel

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) took the Potomac Yard Metro Station discussion outside of City Hall and into the affected neighborhood for the April 30 public hearing at the Corra Kelly Recreation Center. The project had as many detractors in the crowd of local citizens as it did supporters.