Category: Testimony & Letters

CSG Comments: Montgomery County Pedestrian Master Plan

The Coalition for Smarter Growth strongly supports the Planning Board draft of the Pedestrian Master Plan. Its comprehensive approach to pedestrian safety and accessibility will advance our county’s climate and equity goals, help us reach Vision Zero, and establish Montgomery County as a model for other jurisdictions to follow. 

The actions recommended in the Pedestrian Master Plan are visionary and ambitious—as we must be when tackling issues with the weight and urgency of climate change and increasing pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

We urge the Transportation & Environment Committee to support the Pedestrian Master Plan in full, and advance this visionary plan for a safer and more equitable Montgomery County.

CODE RED: A Call to Action for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

CODE RED: A Call to Action for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

With the approach of your annual retreat this week in Cambridge, Maryland, our 41 organizations in Maryland, DC, and Virginia call on you to take urgent action to address the great challenges of our times – climate change, housing, racial and economic inequity, sprawl and unsustainable transportation policies. 

COMMENTS: Union Station SDEIS (Support)

Today, the new project vision defined in the FRA’s Supplemental Draft EIS (SDEIS) Preferred Alternative F presents a bold vision for the next century of Union Station’s existence and success, and will gain broad public and political support. The revised SDEIS Preferred Alternative includes major improvements we support the FRA including in the Final EIS:

CSG Letter on Better Bus Visionary Network Redesign

Among the many changes proposed in the draft Visionary Network, CSG would like to highlight and commend the recommendation of higher frequency bus service and increased use of dedicated bus lanes. In addition to higher frequency bus service, the Visionary Network would expand weekend, overnight, and off-peak service.

COMMENTS: Implementing environmental justice goals for frontline communities near transportation sources

Nine major national and regional transportation, environmental, and environmental justice organizations today issued a statement on implementing environmental justice goals for frontline communities near transportation sources, such as major highways, rail yards, and ports. The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) will meet later this week to consider this and other comments as they advise federal agencies on new policy and programs.

CSG comments opposing the townhouse moratorium in Prince George’s County

While we oppose CB 52 as not the right approach, we wish to express our support for the concern expressed in the bill in terms of ensuring residential growth is directed to the right locations. We find the singling out of townhouses for blame unjustified when permissive single family zoning across vast acres outside the beltway “established communities” are the underlying problem. Most of the land outside the beltway is zoned for low density housing, causing growth and additional demand on urban infrastructure, and robbing reinvestment resources from existing communities.