Fare-free public transit has recently gained momentum across the globe. As of 2018, there were 97 cities and towns with fully fare-free public transit, mostly in Europe. There are 27 fare-free systems in the United States, “mostly in small towns and colleges.” Reasons for this move include climate, congestion, equity, and economic development.
Category: Resources
RELEASE: Joint CSG-GGWash-DCTen Transit Equity Principles
Transit Equity Principles for WMATA and Local Transit Agencies When Allocating Federal Emergency Funds, Budgeting, and Restoring Service
CSG Comments on ALU proposal in zMOD
March 9, 2021
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
RE: Testimony in Support of Accessory Living Unit Provision of zMOD
Chairman McKay and Members of the Board:
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), the leading organization in the DC region advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all. CSG appreciates Fairfax County’s efforts to update its zoning ordinance. Our comments focus primarily on the proposed accessory living unit (ALU) provisions, which we fully support. CSG has become a leading expert on Accessory Dwelling Units through our work in DC and our just-released DC ADU homeowners manual.
We also support the liberalization of home-based businesses — particularly in view of the advantages we have seen for home-based work during the pandemic. Home-based businesses would be a great benefit to stay-at-home parents, people with disabilities who have trouble traveling, and the Fairfax economy.
The need: Housing in the county is expensive, shutting out young adults, downsizing empty-nesters, essential workers, teachers, firefighters, and many more. Prices are high and smaller homes can be hard to find. If this pandemic has shown us anything – a home is vital to our health and well-being. Now is the time for Fairfax County to prepare for the future and ensure people have affordable places to live in our county.
Accessory living units can offer less expensive housing options than renting or buying a single-family home because of their smaller size and provide housing opportunities in communities that might otherwise be too expensive. ALUs can also offer a stream of income for homeowners, including lower-income homeowners and retirees on fixed incomes.
Changes proposed are modest and should not be weakened as the Planning Commission proposes: While Fairfax County staff has proposed some positive changes to the ALU policy, which is a step in the right direction, they are very modest and do not go far enough to truly make ALUs a viable housing option in the county. The Planning Commission is proposing to weaken these further by keeping the special permit process in place for interior units for several more years. This will further delay the wide ranging response the county needs to apply to the affordability crisis we’re facing.
Supporting ALUs is in line with Fairfax County’s goals. The Communitywide Housing Strategic Plan developed in 2018 at the request of the Board of Supervisors recommends that the zoning update modify the county’s accessory dwelling policy, now known as accessory living units, and to explore zoning districts for missing middle housing types. However, this zoning update does not tackle ALUs robustly enough and does not consider missing middle housing options at all.
Looking at the comparison chart in the ALU fact sheet provided on the zMOD website, you can see that Fairfax County is lagging behind other local jurisdictions that are doing more to embrace accessory dwellings as a tool to provide more housing options. Meanwhile, Arlington, Montgomery, and DC are all taking steps to study and expand missing middle housing.
Recommendations: CSG supports the county’s proposal to remove the current age and disability requirement for all ALUs. No other local jurisdiction has this requirement. Removing the age and disability requirement is more equitable so people of varying ages can take advantage of these types of apartments. It provides greater flexibility to a homeowner to provide a home for an adult child and other family members or friends needing a moderately priced apartment.
Streamlining the process for interior ALUs located within the main home by allowing for administrative approval will make the process less burdensome and costly for homeowners. ALUs, like the principal home, must meet all required building and zoning codes and are subject to inspection. According to the ALU fact sheet on the zMOD website, Loudoun, Arlington, Montgomery, and DC have moved to allow ALUs by administrative approval.
The 2-acre requirement for detached units is unfortunate and retains an inequitable requirement by only allowing detached ALUs for those who can afford 2 plus acres. It also puts these detached units in car-dependent locations. Homeowners throughout most of the county should have the right to build a detached unit on their property.
In fact, Fairfax County should particularly encourage detached ALUs near transit stations and transit-rich corridors. This can be done by removing the 2-acre requirement for detached accessory dwellings and allowing them on smaller lots closer to activity centers and transit. In addition, removing the parking requirement when ALUs are within a mile of frequent transit helps to remove another regulatory and cost barrier and incentivizes housing in the right places.
The Board should accept the staff recommendations for ALUs and home-based businesses, and reject the Planning Commission’s proposed rollbacks. The county can then monitor the implementation of these changes as part of a more robust study to expand the creation of ALUs and evaluate missing middle housing needs and solutions.
Conclusion: We encourage the County to take the necessary steps to further expand opportunities for accessory living units and missing middle housing in the county as a way to make more affordable homes available in our communities. Creating more housing opportunities near transit and jobs is essential to ensuring an inclusive and economically prosperous Fairfax County where people are able to live near their work, helping to reduce long commutes through the county, and contributing to a diverse and vibrant community.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sonya Breehey
Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager
Support ALUs in Fairfax!
Fairfax is moving too slow in addressing zoning barriers to more affordable housing options in the county. While many people are shut out of living in Fairfax County because its too expensive, the Planning Commission last week recommended keeping regulatory barriers for accessory living units (ALUs) in place for several more years instead of making it easier for a homeowner to build one now. The Board of Supervisors has a hearing tomorrow and we need your help to show support for more housing options like accessory dwellings in Fairfax!
Send Fairfax County an Email Today
ALUs – including backyard cottages and basement apartments – offer less expensive housing because of their smaller size. They can provide a place to live for a young teacher, health aides and other essential workers, your college graduate just starting out, or an older parent. Accessory dwellings can also offer a stream of income, including for retirees on fixed incomes, and can help offset the cost of owning a home.
Fairfax County is proposing modest changes to their ALU policy as part of their Zoning Modernization Ordinance Modernization Project (zMOD). We support:
- The proposal to remove the current age and disability requirement so people of all ages are able to live in an accessory unit.
- Streamlining the process for ALUs within the home by allowing for administrative approval, which includes required building and safety permits.
These are modest changes, but a step in the right direction to expanding housing options, affordability, and accessibility in the county. We hope that in the future the county will remove the 2-acre requirement for detached units because these homes are especially needed closer to transit stations and transit corridors.
You can help show support in two ways:
- Send an email to Fairfax County officials today.
- Sign-up to speak at the virtual public hearing on March 9.
CSG Report: Cutting Transportation Emissions by 2030 and Beyond: Smart Land Use and Travel are Essential
Climate Actions Needed for an Equitable,
Livable, and Sustainable Greater Washington
CSG Testimony in Support of Heritage at Old Town
Testimony to Alexandria City Council in Support of the Heritage at Old Town
Rezoning #2020-00006
Development Special Use Permit #2020-10032
Transportation Management Plan Special Use Permit 2020-00084
February 20, 2020
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank you for serving our city during these challenging times.
My name is Stewart Schwartz and I am the Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way to grow and provide opportunities for all. We are a 24-year-old non-profit with partnerships that span the conservation, affordable housing, social equity, transit, bike/ped, and business sectors. In 2017, we received the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Regional Partnership Award.
We urge you to approve the Heritage at Old Town.
Alexandria has lost over 90% of its affordable housing over the past two decades. We face a housing affordability crisis in Alexandria and neighboring jurisdictions. Multiple studies demonstrate that we need both more supply and more long-term committed affordable units. This project provides both. Supply is critical to avoid displacement, and a range of tools are needed including leveraging land value and density to ensure we create more affordable units.
We work in multiple jurisdictions in the DC region and we can confirm that the City of Alexandria does its homework. The result here from city and community input is a project that provides the housing we need in a well-designed development, with much improved streetscape, pedestrian connectivity, and park spaces. Alexandria offers a very walkable, mixed-use environment with excellent transit – planned to be even better with the redesigned bus network which will provide frequent all-day, seven day per week service. Far more traffic would be generated through Alexandria if our communities pushed all development out to auto-dependent locations.
The project will buffer the neighborhood from the wide, noisy Route 1 entry to Old Town, and has been designed to step down to the adjacent rowhouses. For nearly 25 years I lived near Braddock Metro in a four-story condo building across from single-family homes, next to townhomes and 7 and 9 story condo buildings, and within sight of much taller buildings. Public housing was just a block away. The neighborhood is wonderful, however, it has lost diversity — because when those buildings were built the city did not have the strategies in place to ensure a mix of housing affordability. That’s why the new RMF zoning applied here is such an important tool. It enables 197 units of deeply affordable housing by a private developer without a public subsidy, allowing the city to direct its affordable housing funds to other projects, creating additional housing. This level of long-term and deep level of affordability without subsidy is extremely rare and a big benefit of the project.
The pandemic has illustrated just who are our most essential workers and the extreme stress they are under due to high housing prices. The racial equity crisis has demonstrated how poorly we have served people of color in our community and nation. It is time to ensure a more inclusive community for the long-term. We urge you to approve the Heritage at Old Town.
Thank you.
Sign-on letter: CSG joins Transportation for America, 75 other groups in asking Biden administration to restore GHG performance measures
The Honorable Peter Buttigieg
Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave SE
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary Buttigieg:
Congratulations on your confirmation as the 19th Secretary of the Department of Transportation. We are grateful for your service and look forward to working with you.
We are writing to urge the Biden administration to reinstate the greenhouse gas (GHG) performance measure. This can be done immediately through executive action initiating a notice of proposed rulemaking to reinstate the measure.
Transportation accounts for the largest share of carbon emissions in the United States, and these emissions are rising. Yet in 2017, the Trump administration repealed the GHG performance measure that would have required states to measure and reduce GHG emissions from transportation. With the climate crisis worsening, we must take immediate action to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
In addition to those undersigned, reinstating the GHG performance measure is supported by 47 Senators and Members of Congress who, led by Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Earl Blumenauer, recently wrote to ask that you “urgently” restore this critical policy.
Thank you for considering this request. We look forward to working together on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Beth Osborne, Director
Transportation for America
RELEASE: DC Regional Travel Survey Shows Demand for Walk, Bike, & Fighting Climate Change
Coalition for Smarter Growth
February 12, 2021
For Immediate Release
Contact: Stewart Schwartz, CSG, 703-599-6437
“Voices of the Region” Survey Shows the Region’s Residents Want to Walk and Bike More, Drive Less, and Prioritize Projects that Address Climate Change
Points to Need for Less Road Building, and More Sustainable, Walkable Communities
A recently completed survey asked the Metropolitan Washington region’s residents about their travel before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that residents’ travel patterns have changed as a result of the pandemic and that they would like to continue to walk and bike more and drive less post-pandemic. These results are similar to those from a national survey project.
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) will receive a presentation at its meeting Wednesday, February 17, on the survey, which is intended to inform the update to the regional long-range transportation plan. This survey was conducted using randomly drawn addresses, covered all geographic sub-areas of the region and resulted in over 2,400 complete responses, with a margin of error of +/-2.5%.
“The findings of this survey are critically important and should be an important factor in the Transportation Planning Board’s development of their next long-range transportation plan, which is underway right now,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
“Recently, the TPB voted to prioritize projects that reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. This survey points to public support for telecommuting, walking, biking, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is a bigger concern than traffic congestion according to the survey,” said Bill Pugh, Senior Policy Fellow for CSG. “Land use must be a core solution to achieve people’s goals of driving less, walking and biking more, and fighting climate change. In fact the survey showed the benefits of this approach in that people living in DC, Arlington, and Alexandria, our most compact jurisdictions with the most transit oriented land use, expressed the least concern about traffic congestion.”
“We hope that our elected officials and government transportation planners will take to heart both the results of this survey and the urgency to reduce driving and associated greenhouse gas emissions when they create our next regional transportation plan,” said Schwartz. “In the process there will be other significant benefits including meeting people’s desire to walk and bike more, and create a world that future generations will thank us for.”
CSG’s Summary of Important Findings from the Survey
More Walking and Biking, Less Driving Anticipated for All Travel Post-Pandemic
38% of respondents expect a change in their travel patterns (both work and non-work travel) one year post-pandemic compared to their pre-pandemic travel patterns. 53% of all respondents anticipate walking more and 26% anticipate biking more, in contrast to only 3% who anticipate walking or biking less. While 34% of residents anticipate driving more, this was more than offset by the 47% of respondents who anticipate driving less for daily trips, a 13 percent net difference of residents who anticipate driving less.
Overwhelming Support for Expanded Pedestrian Zones, Bike Lanes, Bus Lanes
Three quarters of survey respondents said they supported use of street space for expanded pedestrian access and restaurant seating. 63% support more or wider sidewalks and bike lanes.
While transit ridership has been impacted by the pandemic, a clear majority of the region’s residents, 71%, which includes many non-bus riders, support dedicated bus lanes. And a narrow majority (54%) are supportive of dedicated bus lanes even in situations that involve removal of on-street parking.
Additional Bicycle Infrastructure, Road Safety Measures, or Access to a Bicycle Would Make Most of the Region’s Residents More Likely to Bike
The survey asked respondents about improvements that would make them more likely to use a bicycle. The proposed improvements with the highest percentages of residents more likely to bike as a result were: more direct and complete bicycle lanes and routes (34% of respondents), bicycle lanes separated from vehicles by a barrier (32%), and bicycle lanes or trails near home (31%). Overall, only a minority (42%) of all residents indicated that no improvements would make them more likely to use a bike.
When broken down by age, the impact of bike infrastructure improvements for the region’s residents under 30 was especially high. Almost half indicated that more direct and complete bicycle lanes and routes or lanes near home would make them more likely to bike. Only a small minority (24%) indicated that no improvements would make them more likely to use a bike.
Less Transit Use Anticipated, But Respondents Indicate Service Enhancements Would Make Them More Likely to Use Transit
While 13% anticipate using transit more, 38% anticipate using it less one year post-pandemic. Only 5% of frequent transit riders pre-pandemic and only 26% of infrequent transit riders pre pandemic indicated that nothing would make them more likely to ride public transportation after the pandemic.
Most respondents cited measures that transit agencies can undertake to make them more likely to ride transit. About half of frequent transit users pre-pandemic responded that more frequent cleaning, more spacing of people on bus and train cars, and more frequent service would make them more likely to use transit after the pandemic. (Of note, numerous studies have shown that even during the pandemic, riding transit is relatively low risk. Also, transit agencies in the region have implemented some of these safety measures already).
“The survey shows that frequency and reliability of service and convenient real-time travel information continue to be significant factors for making people more likely to use transit. Safe and convenient routes to walk, bike or scoot to train stations and bus stops were also found to be significant factors in transit ridership, where more improvement is needed across the region,” said Schwartz.
Climate Change is a Significant Concern and Residents Overwhelming Want Officials to Address it in Transportation Plans
84% of the region’s residents agree with the statement that elected officials need to consider the impacts of climate change when planning transportation in the future. For residents under 30 years of age, those most impacted by our long-range planning decisions and climate change, that percentage rises to 92%.
Traffic Congestion is Less of a Concern Than Climate Change
Less than half of respondents (44%) indicated that traffic congestion is a significant concern that impacts their lives. 25% said congestion was somewhat a concern that impacted their lives a little.
Residents of core jurisdictions (Arlington, Alexandria, and the District of Columbia) reported the highest satisfaction with the transportation system and least concern about congestion. 75% of Core residents say that the regional transportation system meets their needs very well or somewhat well, in contrast to 55% of Inner Suburb (Montgomery, Fairfax, Prince George’s) residents and 38% of Outer Suburb residents. Likewise, only 27% of Core residents say that congestion is a significant concern that impacts their quality of life, in contrast to 46% of Inner Suburb residents and 54% of Outer Suburb residents.
“What these survey results suggest is that the more compact development in the core doesn’t reduce the satisfaction of residents when it comes to transportation, and may reflect the variety of transportation options available (walk, bike, transit) and shorter commutes or trips to the corner store. In contrast, people living farther out are being provided with fewer non driving options and face longer commutes in congestion generated by high-levels of auto dependent development,” said Pugh. “It points to the need for more housing options in the region’s walkable communities near transit and job centers, along with more affordable housing in these locations, and increased investment in transit.”
Residents Say that Future Generations Will Thank Us More for Clean Transportation, Transit, Walking, and Biking than for Wider Roads
The survey asked “What transportation investments should we make today that future generations will thank us for tomorrow?” and allowed respondents to provide their own open ended answers.
The majority of the answers involved clean transportation, public transportation, and improvements for walking and biking. A much smaller group cited roads, parking, and congestion.
● 259 responses mentioned expanding areas served by rail transit and bike infrastructure
● 172 mentioned clean transportation (electric vehicles, lower emissions)
● 72 responses mentioned improving the condition of (fixing and making more resilient) existing roads and bridges.
● Just 134 responses mentioned more or wider roads
Increased Telecommuting
33% of respondents anticipate telecommuting at least one day a week after the pandemic, up from 16% who telecommuted at least one day a week pre-pandemic. Among the 60% of respondents currently telecommuting during the pandemic, approximately half would want to continue to telework 3-4 days per week.
“Both national and local surveys of employers and employees predict sustained higher rates of teleworking after the pandemic compared to beforehand. This means that many of the highway and arterial expansion projects being planned in the region are based on outdated travel forecasts. Many of these projects were based on the premise of addressing peak-of-the-peak commuting congestion, but these trips may fall significantly. The Washington, DC region needs to cancel or at least put on the back burner these major road expansion proposals,” said Schwartz. “At the same time, we need to ensure that our transit system meets the needs of people returning to work and addresses their concerns, especially people without personal vehicle options.”
Land Use and Affordable Housing are Key Solutions But Are Missing From the Survey
“The Voices of the Region survey asked some great questions and provided lots of valuable insights. However, one of the areas it missed was asking about the proximity of services and destinations that are important to residents,” said Pugh.
● Do residents live close to their basic needs and would they want to have them closer?
● What factors make that difficult, is it due to the lack of affordable housing in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods or due to job centers in isolated office parks?
“We see that 75% of Core residents find that the region’s transportation system meets their needs, and that has as much to do with the compact, walkable built environment as with the transportation options available beyond driving in places like DC, Arlington and Alexandria,” said Pugh.
Pugh continued, “three fourths of the trips in the region are for non-commuting purposes, so even if people are teleworking more, they will still want shorter and easier trips that don’t always involve getting in the car. The best way to address the evolving travel needs and desires of most residents to walk and bike more, is in our land use planning. Mixed-use, walkable, compact neighborhoods offer safe and convenient options for accessing basic needs.”
A Gap in the Survey — Failure to Reach Enough Low-Income Residents
“Low-income residents were less well represented than other groups according to consultant staff who presented the survey results at the TPB’s recent Technical Committee meeting. So it would be good to understand from the focus groups and possible follow-up surveys how the region can best meet the transportation and housing location needs of low-income residents and workers,” said Pugh. While low-income residents expressed similar satisfaction with the transportation system as non-low-income residents, staff said in their presentation that this result may be due to the concentration of those low-income residents sampled in Core and Inner jurisdictions.
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