FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2017

CONTACT:
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director
stewart@smartergrowth.net
703-599-6437 (c)

Aimee Custis, Deputy Director
aimee@smartergrowth.net
202-431-7185 (c)

Statement on Greater Washington Partnership’s “Advancing our Region: Preface to a Blueprint for a Better Region” report

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Greater Washington Partnership released the report “Advancing our Region: Preface to a Blueprint for a Better Region.” Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, issued the following statement:

“The Greater Washington Partnership (GWP) report places a welcome emphasis on the critical importance of Metro and transit investments in general, including seeking better downtown to downtown higher speed rail connections. It notes how major corporations are seeking out Metro station locations to ensure transportation options and attractiveness to next generation employers, and the importance of addressing transportation if we are going to retain and attract next-generation employees.”

“We look forward to bringing our coalition of land use, conservation, housing, and transportation advocates to the table with the GWP. With over 20 years of experience on these interconnected issues at the local, regional, and state level, we have a lot to offer.”

“We will recommend from the outset that the GWP include and address the critical role of land use for addressing our transportation challenges. If we keep spreading out and separating homes from work and services, we will keep generating more and more driving and traffic.”

“The massive transportation needs wish lists that have been developed and are cited in the report, fail to address land use. They were generated without evaluating better ways to grow or accounting for the problem of induced travel (induced demand) which fills up new lane capacity in as little as five years. Therefore those wish lists and requested funding can’t be relied upon as a plan that we should implement.”

“The Coalition for Smarter Growth issued its own Blueprint for a Better Region in 2002 and we’ve shown versions of it hundreds of time in the years since. The vision we’ve promoted is one of a network of mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, and transit-oriented communities linked by a restored and expanded transit network. The Urban Land Institute’s 2005 Reality Check conference and the Council of Government’s (COG) plan have validated this regional transit and transit-oriented development (TOD) vision, which COG adopted in its Region Forward plan. Today, elected officials in nearly every jurisdiction are advancing TOD — although in some cases not nearly fast enough.

Every resident who lives and/or works in a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented community has the opportunity to drive less, and use other modes — helping the road network in the process. Moreover, people are increasingly attracted to the health and quality of life benefits of walkable places with good transit. And as the GWP report notes, so are corporations. These include Marriott, Hilton, Nestle, Choice Hotels, and Amazon.”

“So this land use approach should be a core part of the regional Blueprint. Again, we commend the Greater Washington Partnership for this initial report and we look forward to helping bring a range of stakeholders to the table with the GWP to shape a more sustainable, equitable, and competitive region.”

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth:
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2017

CONTACT
Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth
(703) 599-6437
stewart@smartergrowth.net

Governor Hogan’s highways-first approach to transportation will fail Maryland communities

MARYLAND — Today, Maryland Governor Hogan proposed to spend (at least) $9 billion to expand three of Maryland’s major highways in the Washington, DC metro area. The plans call to expand the entire Maryland portion of the Capital Beltway by four high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes – two in each direction. I-270 would also see a four-lane expansion. Maryland would also take over the Baltimore-Washington Parkway from the National Park Service, and add four additional HOT lanes as well.

The Coalition for Smarter Growth urged the Governor to pause and consider the full picture of land use and transportation issues affecting central Maryland before deciding on the best approach.“The Governor and Secretary Rahn risk wasting billions of tax dollars and family resources from Maryland residents with this massive set of highway expansions,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “The fiscally-prudent approach is to study and adopt reasonable alternatives that include land use solutions.

“Smart growth, demand management, and transit investments are the only fiscally-responsible long-term approach, but the big multi-national toll road construction consortiums have been hijacking our transportation planning process promoting massive toll lane projects,” said Schwartz.“The public ultimately pays with these public-private partnerships, through federally-subsidized loans, direct public payments, their tolls, and the impact to neighborhoods and the environment,” said Schwartz.

“A four-lane expansion of the Beltway would be hugely expensive and have a destructive impact on neighborhoods, tree cover, streams, and the environment in the path. For such expense and damage, expansion is only a short-term fix, as experience shows that even with HOT lanes, traffic will return to the general purpose lanes, and attract even more travelers,” said Schwartz. “Even with HOT lanes the number of vehicles on the combined HOT and general purpose lanes would expand and those additional vehicles would then exit onto already overloaded connecting arterials. That’s why we have to look at alternatives that provide options to driving for so many trips.”

The Coalition for Smarter Growth called for an objective study of a more sustainable long-term approach to include:

1. Completing the first phase of the Purple Line and extending it all the way around to make a full set of connections to activity centers within and near the Beltway.
2. Focus on the primary bottleneck at the American Legion Bridge, providing a near-term express bus in a dedicated lane in each direction tying into the I-270 HOV lanes.
3. Advancing MARC commuter rail expansion plan with more frequent trains, expanded hours, and increased bi-directional service.
4. Investing in smart growth – mixed-use, walkable, transit-oriented communities at Metro stations, MARC stations, and other hubs with frequent transit, as well as reinvestment in the City of Baltimore.
5. In the DC region, addressing the Beltway means addressing the jobs/housing imbalance between Prince George’s and the west side of the region. Most of the worst traffic is peak hour westbound to Montgomery County and northern Virginia in the morning and eastbound back toward Prince George’s in the evening.  We need to complete transit-oriented development at all east side Metro stations.

Schwartz went on to say, “To quote from the late Ron Kirby, longtime director of the transportation staff at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, ‘Well, rather than widening the Beltway, it would be nice if we had more jobs in the eastern part of the region.’ Mr. Kirby said this in a seminal article in the Washington Post that sums up our critique of the ‘widen-first’ approach,” said Schwartz. “We urge the Governor and Secretary to read this article and to consider the central role of land use, jobs/housing locations, and induced demand.”

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.

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PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:
September 12, 2017

Contact:
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth
703-599-6437 (c), stewart@smartergrowth.net

CSG calls Governor Hogan’s $500 million pledge to Metro a “jumping-off place”

Washington, DC – The Coalition for Smarter Growth today thanked Maryland Governor Larry Hogan for proposing a much-needed infusion of additional funding for Metro, with the potential to be a catalyst for needed negotiation among DC, Maryland. and Virginia.

“We thank Governor Hogan for proposing $500 million over four years toward addressing Metro’s urgent capital funding needs, and we hope that his proposal will be a catalyst for urgent negotiations between the Governors of Virginia and Maryland and the Mayor of DC,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“However, the $500 million in additional funds needed each year from the three jurisdictions must be dedicated and bondable and continue for many years, not just four, and not only to restore the existing system but to ensure we can meet capacity needs including expansion of the Rosslyn tunnel,” said Schwartz.

“We, along with our partners in the ‘Fund it, Fix it Coalition,’ urge the Governors, Mayor, Congressional Delegation, state legislators and local elected officials to work with common purpose to find a funding solution for Metro, appropriately tailored to each jurisdiction, but dedicated and bondable,” said Schwartz. “If there wasn’t already reason enough to fix Metro, the region even has a new incentive – Amazon, which is looking to invest $5 billion and generate thousands of jobs for a second headquarters with good access to transit.”

“We urge a funding solution be adopted by the FY2019 budget season,” concluded Schwartz.

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About the Coalition for Smarter Growth: The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. smartergrowth.net

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is part of the Fund it, Fix it coalition, a partnership of 21 activist and advocacy organizations across the DC metropolitan area supporting dedicated funding for Metro. Read our statement of principles here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 18, 2017

CONTACT
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth
703-599-6437 (c), stewart@smartergrowth.net

They have a bridge to sell us…again. Coalition pushes back on yet another lobbying campaign for an upper Potomac Bridge

Washington, DC – Tomorrow, the region’s Transportation Planning Board will vote whether to include an upper Potomac Bridge for study as one option to add to the region’s long range transportation plan. Northern Virginia also has a draft transportation plan out for public comment (deadline of July 23) that includes not only the northern bridge, but also a southern bridge to Charles County, and the Bi-County Parkway between Prince William and Loudoun Counties – segments of an outer beltway long sought by developers of rural land in outer areas of the region.

“The upper Potomac Bridge and other segments of an outer beltway are back, as a result of the latest multimillion dollar lobbying campaign that began back in 2010,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, whose partners in opposing the outer beltway include the region’s leading conservation and transportation reform groups.

In 2010, longtime Virginia developer John “Til” Hazel, the CEO of NVHomes Dwight Schar, and Montgomery and Loudoun developer Bob Buchanan, formed the 2030 Group with what we believe is an underlying and primary goal of pressing for an upper Potomac Bridge (Buchanan testimony in 2015 to Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board) as part of an outer beltway including the Bi-County Parkway. They in-turn provided funding to the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and jump-started the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance (SMTA). The two groups did what many consider to be a “push-poll” to try to demonstrate support for a new bridge. The poll did not include information about costs, trade-offs, induced demand, land use, or other factors involved in real world transportation and land use planning.

“This is just the latest campaign spearheaded by Mr. Hazel and others for the bridge and outer beltway,” said Schwartz.  Previous efforts took place in 1980, 1988, 1997, 2000, and 2003.

“These projects would be totally at odds with the region’s vision in the Region Forward Plan and would undermine the network of transit-oriented development which is so much in demand today. It would worsen auto-dependent sprawl and traffic, worsen the east-west economic divide, and undermine efforts to fight climate change. Because of induced driving demand, it would add new traffic without reducing traffic at the American Legion Bridge,” said Schwartz “The upstream bridge would also represent a threat to the region’s drinking water supplies – creating a risk of toxic spills upstream from drinking water intakes during bridge construction and from tanker truck spills.”

“The bridge has been studied a number of times before and shown to not be needed while also risking great harm to neighborhoods and the environment,” said Schwartz. “Moreover, during a time when the market is demanding urban, transit-oriented environments, and when we need to reinvest in Metro to the tune of about $25 billion while fixing other existing needs like the American Legion Bridge, this upper bridge proposal is a wasteful diversion of time and potentially billions of dollars.”

“The TPB should not have to study it yet again, and Northern Virginia officials should be taking the bridges and outer beltway out of their draft plan,” said Schwartz.

In 2003-2004 VDOT and the TPB did an “Origin-Destination Study,” which tracked every morning rush hour license plate crossing the American Legion Bridge. It showed that only a small percentage of the trips could be considered the so called “U-shaped” commutes from Loudoun/W Fairfax to Frederick/Upcounty Montgomery that might use a new bridge. The overwhelming commutes were radial or to/from destinations on, inside or near the Beltway.

In 2015, VDOT did another study, this time looking just at Virginia commute origins and destinations and reconfirmed that just a small percentage of commutes were U-shaped — with the overwhelming majority radial or “L-shaped.” The study showed that the Rosslyn Metro tunnel carried the largest share of cross-Potomac trips, and concluded that the Rosslyn tunnel and American Legion Bridge were the locations needing high-priority investment.

An earlier study in 2000-2001 of actual upriver route options between Virginia and Maryland by the Federal Highway Administration, and initiated at the behest of Congressman Frank Wolf, resulted in a huge outcry on both sides of the river. The impact to neighborhoods was so severe that Congressman Wolf ordered the study to be halted. The following extract from the Fairfax Times, May 29, 2001, study captures what happened:

The Federal Highway Administration announced late last week that it was canceling its year-long, $2 million review of the so-called Techway at the request of U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th), who said it’s creating too much heartburn among area homeowners.

“I’m not going to be at war with the people I represent, saying this is better for you,” Wolf said to a gathering of Times reporters and editors Tuesday.

Wolf said communities in northern Fairfax and Loudoun counties and those in southern Montgomery County, Md.,–particularly on the proposed bridge corridors–were simply too densely packed with homes.

Wolf presented a map with a spaghetti-like maze of proposed routes for the new bridge and parkway, all bisecting mature communities. One proposal even had the road cutting across the heart of Great Falls before crossing the river near McLean.

But the threat of taking homes has always been a factor with this project, and Wolf couldn’t say why it’s taken so long for planners and elected officials to reach this conclusion.

Moving the route further west put the bridge into Maryland’s agricultural preserve and too far out to make a difference for commuters, Wolf said.

“I asked the Federal Highway Administration what the chances were of this road being built, and they said 10 percent was an optimistic figure,” Wolf said.

“Our groups urge the Transportation Planning Board to drop study of the upper Potomac Bridge – but if they do study it, they must ensure that the study accounts for induced development and induced traffic, harm to communities and the environment, the opportunity cost compared to other investments, and the impact on the east-west economic divide,” said Schwartz.

“At the same time, the TPB’s proposed transit packages, along with land use, and demand management represent the most sustainable and effective set of solutions that will reduce driving demand, improve access to jobs and housing, and reduce air, water, and greenhouse gas pollution.”

“Finally, we also urge the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to delete the northern and southern bridges and the Bi-County Parkway from their draft ‘TransAction’ plan,” said Schwartz.

 

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. smartergrowth.net

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2017

CONTACT
Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth
(703) 599-6437
stewart@smartergrowth.net

Coalition for Smarter Growth STATEMENT on Judge Leon’s ruling on the Purple Line

MARYLAND – In response to US District Judge Richard J. Leon’s 12-page opinion calling for more study of Metro’s impact on Purple Line ridership, Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz issued the following statement.

“We already know that Metro ridership will make up only a limited percentage of Purple Line ridership. The Purple Line is a badly-needed east-west transit connection for access to jobs and revitalization, and significant ridership will be driven by that demand, as well as the revitalization inside the Beltway that the project will spur. We are also certain Metro ridership will recover as the system completes repairs and reforms. In an era of climate change, the most progressive transportation solution available is to build more transit.”

About the Coalition for Smarter Growth
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.

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