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Category: CSG in the News

CSG in the News: “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

CSG in the News: “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

Posted on by Teddy Owusu

The new book “Better Buses, Better Cities” breaks down how transit advocates can win

by David McAuley, Greater Greater Washington, November 12, 2019

Author Steven Higashide describes his new book Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit as “half technical backgrounder, half political field manual” for public transit – especially bus – advocates. 

Local transit activists (and GGWash contributors) Cheryl Cort, Aimee Custis, Kishan Putta, and Dan Malouff all get shout-outs, mostly for pushing forward the 16th Street NW dedicated bus lane, scheduled for next year. 

Read the full story on Greater Greater Washington.

CSG in the News: What’s being done to avoid another infrastructure crisis

CSG in the News: What’s being done to avoid another infrastructure crisis

Posted on by Teddy Owusu

by Al Jones and Steve Burns, 1010 WINS, November 7, 2019

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Over 60 plus years ago, the dream for America’s highway system was the orderly, rapid movement of shiny sleek vehicles traveling 100 miles an hour on roads that connected population centers. Today, that long ago dream seems like a scene from a cartoon. In reality, our roads are a rough, hot mess.

Bringing transit back to its former glory will of course take more money, and a lot of community buy-in, especially in how those communities are built. In the words of one expert, “office parks are dead.”

“Those separated office parks and shopping centers and homes have meant more traffic than we can handle,” said Stewart Schwartz, from the Coalition for Smarter Growth in Washington, D.C.

View the full story here.

Photo credit: Getty Images

CSG in the News: Study: DC rent is 3rd highest in the country

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Study: DC rent is 3rd highest in the country; Here’s how much income you need to afford it

by AMANDA HOROWITZ, ABC 7 WJLA, 

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — The D.C. Council unanimously voted on the first step of the city’s Comprehensive Plan for development last week.

A spokesperson for Mayor Bowser’s office said she will likely unveil the remaining elements of the comprehensive plans as well as area housing targets and maps on October 15.

The comprehensive plan includes proposed solutions to the city’s affordable housing shortage – an issue that elected officials and advocates are coming together to try to fix.

The plan will go through review by the National Capital Planning Commission and Congress before it gets to the mayor’s desk for signing, the mayor’s spokesperson said….

Numbers from the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimate that over 50 percent of residents living in the D.C. metro area are renters.

According to NLIHC, the median family income for both renters and buyers is $121,000. This means families can afford to pay $3,000 a month for rent without being cost-burdened.

HUDs estimate of a fair market rent that recent movers paid for a modest two-bedroom apartment in D.C. was $1665, but 60 percent of rents are currently higher according to the NLIHC.

For those in the fortieth percentile, in order to afford $1665 without being “cost-burdened” an individual would have to earn $66,000 a year, or $5500 monthly, the NLIHC estimates.

Assuming a 40-hour workweek, 52 weeks per year, this level of income translates into $32.02 an hour. Working at the minimum wage of $14.00 an hour in D.C. each week an individual would have to work 90 hours weekly at two jobs to afford a modest apartment.

Cheryl Cort, policy director for Coalition for Smarter Growth, an organization dedicated to bettering the district believes lack of affordable housing is one of the greatest challenges D.C. faces.

“Housing insecurity worsens other conditions in a person’s life. Many DC residents face daunting challenges — lack of access to quality education and training, violent neighborhoods, poor health status, low wage jobs and unstable employment. Lack of access to stable, quality housing compounds all these problems, and is also one of the solutions to a number of these problems,” Cort said.

Cort said the CSG stands behind the mayor’s housing strategy. In May, the mayor signed an order directing District agencies to identify new policies, tools, and initiatives that would start moving toward the goal of creating 36,000 new housing units, 12,000 of them affordable, by 2025….

 Regardless of how the numbers add up, whether you’re renting or buying, one thing is clear – officials and advocates think housing in D.C. is too expensive.“Bold action to address housing affordability requires the entire city’s input and energy,” Cort said.

View the full story by WJLA here.

CSG in the News: Phil Mendelson added important affordable housing language to the Comp Plan, but some are trying to undo it

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Phil Mendelson added important affordable housing language to the Comp Plan, but some are trying to undo it

By David Alpert (Executive Director) October 7, 2019, Greater Greater Washington

…On October 2, Chairman Phil Mendelson’s latest draft of the plan’s Framework Element added language similar to those principles, especially around building and preserving affordable housing and protecting tenants in affordable housing when their properties undergo redevelopment. The chairman’s draft also centers the importance of, as DC grows, building in racial and economic equity, a credit to interventions by Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (Ward 5) and Councilmember Trayon White (Ward 8).

The final vote on the Framework bill is on Tuesday, October 8, and last week, some opponents emerged to fight this language. We’re pushing for it to remain….

The Comp Plan Framework now borrows much of this language

Chairman Phil Mendelson’s latest draft of the Framework has…a lot of what the Housing Priorities Coalition proposed! (The final version will be released on Monday.)

Notably, it reflects an amendment introduced by Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1) at the bill’s first reading. Advocacy by many of affordable housing groups who were part of the original coalition, like, DC Fiscal Policy Center, Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers, Enterprise Community Partners, Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, and Coalition for Smarter Growth emphasized the necessity of this sort of language, so it’s a win that Mendelson added more beyond what he had included in the version voted on at first reading.

Not everyone is happy with the new community benefits language. Attorney David Goldblatt of Goldblatt Martin Pozen LLP, which does lobbying and real estate transactions for large companies, wrote a letter on behalf of the DC Building Industry Association (DCBIA) asking to water down this language. Goldblatt said the changes were in the interests of the DC Housing Authority, though his letter says he’s not speaking for DCHA, just DCBIA.

It’s worth repeating that this language is only about benefits given in exchange for zoning flexibility as part of a PUD, like more density. It doesn’t impose any kind of unfunded requirement on property owners. What it does is say is that in exchange for more affordable housing or anti-displacement measures, you can build taller or bigger in proportion.

Affordable housing is really necessary. It’s also expensive. With more floors or larger buildings, it can become economically feasible to offer one-for-one replacement, “build first,” and other features that the city’s residents deserve when their homes are redeveloped.

Not all developers are supportive of this concept, but a lot are. Many think it’s a great idea to build more affordable housing and avoid displacing anyone, as long as they can design a project which does so and actually works economically. Sure, if people could build higher and didn’t have to build affordable units, that would be even more profitable, but public policy can ensure we get affordable housing, while projects still “pencil out.”

Right now, DC’s acute limits on new buildings directly prevent developers from paying for more affordable housing to avoid displacement. Some people from the development community, at least, would like to be part of the solution, and the proposed rule would let them.

The proposed Framework language takes a big step toward achieving what the Housing Priorities Coalition recommended. It’s not everything, because this language just applies to PUD benefits. There will be other opportunities to enact these and the rest of the coalition’s 10 principles in the rest of the Comp Plan. The Office of Planning will release its amendments to the rest of the document October 15, along with housing targets and map changes.

Read the full post here.

CSG in the News: D.C. Council advances key comp plan changes in bid to ease activists’ concerns

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

D.C. Council advances key comp plan changes in bid to ease activists’ concerns

By   – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal, 10/3/2019

Final changes to the first section of the D.C. comprehensive plan are taking shape, and it seems District lawmakers have acquiesced to the demands of activists and some city leaders who worried a previous draft was seriously flawed.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is circulating a draft of amendments to the plan’s “framework element.” Crucially, Mendelson and his staffers have rewritten a section of the bill that a coalition of housing advocates and developers feared would open the door to a flood of new legal challenges to large new developments.

The chairman had hoped to pass this legislation by now, as changes to this section of the comp plan are broadly seen by the development community as being essential to beating back future lawsuits seeking to hold up planned-unit developments. But he chose to delay consideration while this debate over the language played out.

With issue seemingly resolved, it should set the table for the council to, at last, finalize the amendments to the framework element by Oct. 8.

“We think the language in the revised bill addresses our concerns about fixing the broken PUD process and elevating affordable housing,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth and a lead organizer of a campaign to raise awareness about potential problems with the old language. “The chairman really listened carefully and considered all the issues here.”

Cort and many of her colleagues in the housing advocacy world worried that changes to one section of the framework could “generate a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the PUD approval process or would open up PUD approvals to litigation in a brand new way.” A member of the D.C. Zoning Commission voiced similar concerns, as did Planning Director Andrew Trueblood.

View the full story in the Washington Business Journal here.

CSG in the News: DC Circulator to end free rides, charge $1 fare again

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

DC Circulator to end free rides, charge $1 fare again

By Sophie Kaplan, The Washington Times – Monday, September 30, 2019

Starting Tuesday, it will cost a dollar again to ride the DC Circulator, but some city officials are looking at ways to reinstate the free ride.

“We have seen tremendous benefits from the free circulator I am hopeful that the [D.C.] Council will act to keep it free,” said Jeff Marootian, director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

Mr. Marootian said the free downtown bus service made transit more affordable and reduced single-occupancy car trips, adding that he has seen an increase in circulator ridership.

But council member Mary Cheh, chair of the Transportation Committee, questioned Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision in February to make the DC Circulator free without a thorough consideration of how it would affect businesses, Metro and bikeshare, or whether it was an equitable way to spend city funds since the bus’ routes mostly lie downtown and serve tourists.

“And there was no evidence that a free circulator would lead to decreasing cars on the road, it is illogical to think that would happen,” Mrs. Cheh said, adding that a dollar fare wasn’t deterring people from driving in the first place….

Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said that bus services are “critical to extremely low-income residents in our region,” noting that almost half of bus riders have a yearly income of about $30,000.

The DC Circulator serves about 16,000 people daily, while Metrobus transports about 400,000 a day, according to a study by the Bus Transformation Project, an ongoing regional effort to improve bus service.

“Increasing the price differential between Circulator and Metrobus, rather than lowering fares across the board, distorts how riders use the system, and can create a sense of inequity,” the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s report card on the D.C. bus system.

Ms. Court said free rides for all public transit is ideal, but she encourages lawmakers to consider at least offsetting the cost for low-income riders.

Miss Bowser announced in February that the DC Circulator would be free for that month, and she then made it a permanent change in her budget proposal. The circulator, along with the DC Streetcar and Capital Bike Share, are the only transit options over which the District has sole control.

However, the D.C. Council rejected her proposal to allocate $1.3 million for the free ride citing a lack of analysis for the decision, which Mrs. Cheh called a “thoughtless giveaway.”

Read the full Washington Times story here.

 

CSG in the News: Bowser does an end run around D.C. Council, transfers traffic camera program to DDOT

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Bowser does an end run around D.C. Council, transfers traffic camera program to DDOT

By Luz Lazo Oct. 1, 2019 at 6:43 p.m. EDT, Washington Post

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has moved the city’s automated traffic enforcement program — which deploys speed, red-light and stop-sign cameras — from D.C. police to the District Department of Transportation, doing an end run around the D.C. Council, which opposed move.

The transfer, effective Tuesday, ramps up an ongoing fight between the mayor and the council over some of the city’s transportation priorities. And it comes after the council nixed a request by Bowser (D) to move the nearly two-decades-old automated enforcement program to DDOT, citing doubts about how the transfer would increase its efficiency.

Bowser administration officials said that the mayor did not need the council’s approval to move the team of 20 city employees overseeing the traffic camera program to DDOT. The mayor had proposed the transfer multiple times in recent years, and each time her request was denied by the council. The administration touted the transition as critical to the mayor’s Vision Zero strategy, a plan to create safer streets and lower the number of traffic fatalities and injuries.

“This is a mayoral program because it is operational,” Deputy Mayor Lucinda Babers said. “The mayor did have the ability to make the transfer without legislation. She simply utilized her authority as the mayor to make this transfer.” Bowser signed an executive order Friday authorizing the change.

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), who chairs the panel’s transportation committee, said she found Bowser’s decision to go around the council “troubling,” and “disrespectful” to the legislative body…

Because DDOT is leading the city’s traffic safety efforts, Babers said, it makes sense that it oversee automated enforcement….

In May, Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, wrote that transferring the program to DDOT was one of a number of actions the mayor could take to make city streets safer.

“Traffic cameras can be an effective approach for discouraging dangerous behavior by drivers,” Cort wrote in Greater Greater Washington. “By placing oversight of this tool with the agency responsible for managing our streets, automated traffic enforcement could more effectively improve safety. Traffic cameras are helping now, but they could be used much more strategically if DDOT is able to integrate them into its safety programs.”

“Traffic enforcement is a function of law enforcement agencies, not transportation departments,” said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. He said the transfer will probably increase the number of traffic citations issued, which he said would undermine the program’s integrity….

“This is only about revenue,” Townsend said. “This is not about traffic safety. This is about scoring political points.”…

“Everything will be on the table as we look at Vision Zero,” Babers said. “It is absolutely critical that we take a stronger stand in terms of what is in our power to control.”

View full Washington Post story here.

CSG in the News: Guest Commentary: A Tour of West Falls Church & the Railroad Cottages

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

 LOCAL COMMENTARY

Guest Commentary: A Tour of West Falls Church & the Railroad Cottages

September 27, 2019, by FCNP.com, the Falls Church News-Press

By Stewart Schwartz & Sonya Breehey

The best way to understand how to make our communities more sustainable and livable, is to get out and walk. That’s why the Coalition for Smarter Growth led one of our signature walking tours, this time in West Falls Church, from George Mason High School to the Railroad Cottages, along the W&OD Trail, and back along Broad Street (Route 7). We were joined by 40 people for the tour, meeting up at the Capital Bikeshare station next to Haycock Road. A number of our attendees arrived by bike and Metro.

We were welcomed by Mayor David Tarter and Councilmembers Letty Hardi, Phil Duncan and Ross Litkenhous from the City of Falls Church, Councilmember Pasha Majdi from the Town of Vienna, Delegate Marcus Simon, city planning commission and transportation commission members, staff, residents, and volunteer advocates from across Northern Virginia. Mayor Tarter provided an update on plans for the entire West Falls Church Metro area including Falls Church’s new high school and redevelopment area, the Virginia Tech campus, and the Metro station parking lots.

Walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income development next to our Metro stations is essential if we are to grow without making traffic worse and essential for cutting the transportation emissions that are now the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in our region. Transit-oriented development will also expand the city’s tax base, providing funding for schools and other services.

Councilmember Hardi discussed safety issues facing people crossing Broad Street. Delegate Simon and others talked about safety issues along Shreve Road where a person was tragically killed by a vehicle as she walked on the sidewalk. The region is experiencing a big uptick in pedestrians and cyclists killed or injured by vehicles, and redesigning our streets to be safer for all users is imperative. Fortunately, a project is in the works to make the Route 7/Haycock Road intersection safer, and additional safe crossings are planned as part of the city’s redevelopment project. Meanwhile, Delegate Simon and other officials are pursuing safety improvements for Shreve Road.

We then walked a short distance along the W&OD to the Railroad Cottages — a highlight of the tour. When proposed, these 10 cottage style homes on 1.25 acres were the subject of significant concern from neighbors. The triangular site next to the W&OD trail originally allowed for four building sites. But in view of the significant housing needs in our region, and a desire to create environmentally sustainable homes with a sense of community, the project’s visionary development team proposed 10 cottages and a shared common house. The cottages are arranged along a central pathway, with cars parked away from the homes.

The homes were built to “Earthcraft Gold” energy-efficiency and sustainability standards and use Universal Design to allow for mobility when aging in place. It’s an 18-minute walk from the cottages to the West Falls Church Metro, 14 minutes by bike to the East Falls Church Metro on the W&OD trail, and a five-to-10-minute walk to a range of shopping and services along Broad Street. The stormwater management is cutting edge — controlling stormwater runoff to the same level as a healthy forest.

The residents of the Railroad Cottages graciously opened their doors to us, showing us their homes and describing what it’s like to live in the community. Project visionary Theresa Sullivan Twiford, architect Jack Wilbern of Butz Wilbern Architects, and developer Joe Wetzel of the Young Group, told us about the approval process and its many challenges.

Our planning and zoning rules in the region do not make it easy to build clustered homes, and the time and cost for special approvals adds to the cost of each new home. It is easier to build “by-right” very large, nearly full-lot occupying houses, which on this site would have cost $1.5 million or more, than to build these smaller 1340 to 1380 square foot homes.

Given our region’s housing needs, 10 homes within walking and bicycling distance to Metro are better than four. Still, at about $800,000 apiece, these homes remain out of reach for most families. They point the way, however, to the potential for smaller homes, and especially duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, to provide more options with greater affordability.

We need to identify the best places for these homes in terms of access to transit, jobs and services, and make the design, zoning and approval process easier. Otherwise, our grown children and many sectors of our workforce will simply not be able to afford to live in our community. Creating more walkable, transit-oriented communities is how we can grow sustainably, provide the homes we need, and fight climate change. Fortunately, as the tour showed, the City of Falls Church is emerging as a leader in this effort.

Stewart Schwartz is the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and Sonya Breehey is their Northern Virginia advocacy manager.

View the guest commentary in the Falls Church News-Press here.

CSG in the News: Editorial: A Falls Church Example Of ‘Smart Growth’

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Editorial: An F.C. Example Of ‘Smart Growth’

 by FCNP.com, Falls Church News-Press

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the prestigious Coalition for Smarter Growth, last weekend chose to conduct one of his organization’s famous walking tours in the City of Falls Church, focusing in the recently-completed cottages project developed by City developer Bob Young, chair of the City’s Economic Development Authority, and his team. The cottages were identified by Schwartz’s group as important in the wider conversation about “sustainable growth” because they represent a departure from the prevailing notion of what single detached homes should look like and offer to the demographic trends of tomorrow….

The cottages project, he added, “Point the way to the potential for smaller homes, and especially duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, to provide more options with greater affordability…Creating more walkable, transit-oriented communities is how we can grow sustainability, provide the homes we need and fight climate change.”

So, clearly, where the City can “lead by example” would be in the area of instituting the kinds of planning and zoning rules changes that will have the effect of incentivizing shifting development priorities in just that direction.

View the full commentary in the Falls Church News-Press here.