Category: Resources

CSG News: January 2026

CSG News: January 2026

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

Game on! The Maryland and Virginia General Assembly sessions start tomorrow. On the table: housing and land use, transit-oriented development, transportation reforms, and funding for WMATA and other transit systems. Meanwhile, there’s still plenty of local action on land use and transportation. Here is what you need to know to speak up! 

DC testimony in support of alley lots for housing

DC testimony in support of alley lots for housing

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

January  10, 2026

Mr. Anthony Hood, Chairman

Zoning Commission of the District of Columbia

441 4th Street, NW, Suite 210S

Washington, DC 20001

RE: Support with amendments for Zoning Case No. 25-06 – Amendment to the Zoning Regulations Governing Alley Lots

Dear Chair Hood and Members of the Zoning Commission:

Please accept this testimony in overall support for this case on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. We are a nonprofit organization advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all.

First, we want to express our gratitude to the Office of Planning staff and the Zoning Commission for responding to our requests to reconsider certain restrictions on alley lot development from earlier cases and this case.

We recognize that alley lots, while a modest resource for our city to address its housing needs, are also unique, distinctive assets that offer smaller housing opportunities in a variety of settings throughout our city. The proposed revisions to alley lot development regulations will help to advance the District’s goal of fostering more housing to meet the needs of our diverse community, including smaller, more naturally affordable homes for DC residents. This advances economic and racial equity with distinctive opportunity sites. We appreciate the Zoning Commission giving more focus to how zoning regulations can be more responsive to the range of housing needs that address affordability, and ensuring that growth does not have to come at the expense of pushing out others. Improving our zoning regulations can help make the most of all of our opportunities to create more housing and equitably meet our housing needs. 

Overall, we want to register our support for these proposals. Below are our particular items we wish to comment on. 

Eliminate parking minimums: first we want to highlight something that is not proposed in this case — eliminating parking requirements for alley lots. A parking requirement is a major barrier to using underutilized space for people’ homes. We urge the Zoning Commission to move beyond the flexibility of a Special Exception (which we support) and eliminate altogether the onerous requirement that vehicle parking be provided for any alley lot development. The Comp Plan seeks to provide more housing opportunities and more affordable housing. Given the nature of the small, often awkward configurations of many alley lots, parking requirements are especially burdensome. Trading off space for a motor vehicle where an individual or household could live is particularly disappointing because these lots are so constrained but offer unique opportunities to address our housing needs. Residential Parking Permits would be rare for an alley address, thus we expect an alley home occupant to not own a vehicle or rent a parking space. For the sake of expanded housing opportunities on small, challenging sites, we should eliminate parking requirements.

Support for a Special Exception process when seeking relief from minimum requirements for alley lot subdivision and height standards. We are very encouraged that the proposed regulations call for greater flexibility to address the unique circumstances of individual alley lots. 

We want to highlight the importance of this set of allowable relief permitted through a Board of Zoning Adjustments (BZA) review. We especially appreciate the addition of some modest flexibility on height where the context and other circumstances are determined to be appropriate by the BZA.

Support the proposed increased height maximum from 20 feet to 22 feet to align with existing accessory building regulations.

Support the proposed residential use on alley lots in R-1 and R-2 zones: this was an overlooked need to align the accommodation of alley lot uses across all zones in the District. 

Support allowing a second residential unit within an alley lot building (an accessory dwelling unit or second principal unit, depending on the zone) based on the lot size.

Revise minimum lot size and rear and side yards: we concur with the OAG’s recommendation to revise OP’s proposal. OAG states that: “the minimum yard requirement in the R-1 Zones be reduced to 15 feet from abutting non-alley lots and that the minimum lot size be two-thirds of the minimum required in the zone. Both these changes would still provide for a substantial amount of open space on alley lots while providing greater flexibility for development.”

Revise proposed reduced maximum lot occupancy for alley lots in R-1 and R-2 zones: imposing overly restrictive lot occupancy limits as proposed will work against the goal of creating new housing opportunities across neighborhoods. We concur with OAG to retain existing 80% and 100% requirements rather than impose more restrictive limits. 

Revise the minimum lot area for subdivisions from 1,800 square feet to 900 square feet or 450 square feet: the minimum lot area standard for subdivision for new lots should be revised from the overly restrictive requirement of 1,800 square feet. We concur with a OAG recommendation – to establish a 900 SF lot minimum, or 450 square feet. Even at 450 square, other requirements would sufficiently guide what can be constructed on a lot. 

Reconsider imposing higher pervious surface requirements on alley lots. Higher pervious surface requirements on typically small lots will make it that much more difficult and costly to build homes. It appears RA zones will be especially affected by a 25% pervious surface requirement. This is counterproductive to the intention of these overall amendments to create new housing opportunities with the more efficient use of land.

15 foot alley width: We are disappointed that the 15 foot alley width allowance has been withdrawn. While we welcome the use of the 15 foot width allowance within 300 feet of a public street, we ask that this issue be further assessed for a future reconsideration. 

We appreciate that the Zoning Commission is hearing a number of reforms that we requested from the previous case to revise alley lot standards. We urge you to move forward with the proposed changes, and added recommendations, like removing parking mandates, to untap this unique housing resource. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Cort

DC and Prince George’s Policy Director

Event materials: Maryland Housing Needs & Solutions: Why is housing unaffordable, and what can we do to fix it?

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

At this online event, we discussed two recent reports offering insight into why housing is so unaffordable, what its impact is, and what to do about it with a Maryland all star cast ⭐️:

  • Kathryn Howell, PhD, Director of the National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland College Park & Associate Professor, Urban Studies & Planning Program
  • Dani DiPietro, Policy Research Director, Office of the Comptroller of Maryland
  • Natali Fani-González, Council President and District 6 Councilmember, Montgomery County, Maryland
  • Moderated by Scott Gottbreht, PhD, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Strategy, & Research, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development

View the reports, presentations and event recording here:

CSG’s recommendations to MDOT on investing in more sustainable transportation in Prince George’s County (MD)

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

November 3, 2025

Hon. Aisha N. Braveboy
County Executive

Hon. Edward P. Burroughs III
Prince George’s County Council Chair

Acting Secretary Samantha J. Biddle
Maryland Department of Transportation

Wayne K. Curry Administration Building
1301 McCormick Drive, Largo MD

RE: Transportation priorities in the Maryland Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP) for Prince George’s County 

Dear County Executive Braveboy, County Council Chair Burroughs, and Acting Secretary Biddle:

The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) advocates for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all. We also support and work closely with RISE Prince George’s, a group of county residents and allies advocating for policies and practices that build shared, sustainable prosperity in Prince George’s County by creating safe, walkable, inclusive and transit-oriented communities. The following letter reflects the views of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Appreciation for County and MDOT work on I-495 Southside, next steps needed

We first wish to acknowledge the recent decision at the Transportation Planning Board (TPB) that sent VDOT’s I-495 Southside Express Lanes proposal back to the drawing board. We want to thank County Executive Braveboy, the Prince George’s County Council and state delegation, and especially Council Member Eric Olson. 

The TPB rightly decided to hold off on adding the VDOT project to the region’s long-range transportation plan, Visualize 2050. We agree with Prince George’s officials that VDOT’s proposals did not adequately address Maryland’s concerns

Going forward, we ask the county and MDOT to ensure that a rebooted VDOT NEPA study: 

  • Revises the project purpose and need statement to remove bias for private express lanes and fairly considers a range of alternatives;
  • Develops and evaluates alternatives to highway expansion such as near-term conversion of shoulder lanes to bus/HOV lanes, new expanded travel demand management (TDM) programs, alternative managed lanes concepts (e.g., HOTTER lanes, Flexi-HOT lanes) that are fairer for travelers and don’t require highway widening, and a longer-term Metrorail and transit-oriented development alternative; 
  • Ensures that VDOT conducts timely and adequate analysis on the impacts of any proposal to expand 495 lane capacity on local arterials like MD 210 and the creation of new traffic bottlenecks; and
  • Commits to funding expanded transit services for Maryland residents and workers crossing the Wilson Bridge. 

Recommendations for Prince George’s and the Maryland CTP:

  1. Support  continued commitment to WMATA and local transit operations in the FY26-31 Consolidated Transportation Plan (CTP):  We commend Maryland for continued funding of WMATA, the Purple Line, and Prince George’s County locally operated transit system (The Bus). We ask you to support WMATA’s Better Bus program, and the implementation of Prince George’s Transit Vision Plan. 
  2. Support continued Complete Streets investments over the next 6 years: We support the state’s investment in Complete Streets and specific Prince George’s state road investments, given the county bears a disproportionate share of fatal traffic crashes in the state. We commend MDOT for the increased allocation to complete streets in the draft FY26-31 CTP. This critical program uses the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) prioritization as its guide, beginning with improvements to MD 650 (New Hampshire Avenue), and MD 410 (East-West Highway), followed with MD 214 (Central Avenue), and MD 201 (Kenilworth Avenue) corridors in Prince George’s. In the future, we ask that MD 458 (Silver Hill Road) be added. 

Complete streets should use quick-build safety projects: We urge SHA to start with quick build, low cost interventions that take weeks and months, not years to put in place. It is urgent to put critical safety improvements in place such as reallocating excess road capacity to safety needs for all users, closing of free right turn/slip lanes, lane width reduction, and other measures to reduce hazardous design speeds of roadways and minimize exposure of people walking and riding bicycles to high-speed motor vehicles. Continued effort to use low-cost, quick build interventions are essential for PSAP corridors and the many other state roadways where people face the risks of high-speed traffic.

  1. Rethink highway capacity expansion projects because we cannot afford to keep investing in ever bigger roads and intersections that chase spread out development while neglecting enhanced transit, walk, bicycle facilities and safer, better connected streets for existing communities. All projects should also advance the state of Maryland’s adopted goal to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We ask that the expense of the proposed highway and arterial capacity expansion projects be reconsidered for less costly alternatives: safety interventions, improved commuter transit service, bus priority and BRT, and travel demand management programs. Below are some of the projects we ask MDOT to reconsider and redesign. 
  2. Reconsider the Medical Center Drive interchange expansion to help Downtown Largo and Central Avenue Corridor connectivity: We urge the county to work with the state to fully reconsider this problematic roadway capacity expansion project which is programmed for $11M for engineering, right of way and utilities over the next six years. The proposed designs for an expanded Medical Center Drive and I-495 Interchange undermine nearby transit-oriented development and would further degrade already poor pedestrian access. There are better solutions to supporting the growth of Downtown Largo and the revitalization of the stadium site. 

We ask that the County work with the state to reposition the construction of the Central Avenue Connector Trail and bridge that connects Largo to Morgan Boulevard Metro station as a top priority. We also urge expediting the redesign of the oversized, high speed MD 214 into a complete street. This is also a key part of the solution for greater access and connectivity. 

  1. MD 210, Indian Head Highway grade-separated interchanges from I-95/ I-495 to MD 228 (10 miles). The FY26 CTP budgets ongoing costs for engineering at $9.7 million. Reconsider these MD 210 projects to address safety and operational improvements — without capacity expansion. Consider TDM programs and bus transit priority to address long-distance commuters. We support advancing the recommended shared use path along MD 210.
  2. Support for MDOT process to improve Chapter 30 project prioritization – CSG is glad to see the pilot process underway by MDOT to provide a clearer process that helps Maryland communities like Prince George’s get good projects implemented while addressing state priorities like safety, sustainability, and giving residents travel options beyond driving. 

Again, we appreciate the priority that MDOT has made to transit and complete streets. We urge the county and MDOT to work to revise roadway capacity expansion projects to address safety, create cost-effective multimodal travel environments, and avoid endless cycles of expanded capacity. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Cheryl Cort
DC and Prince George’s Policy Director

Bill Pugh
Transportation and Climate Policy Director