Category: Testimony & Letters

CSG Comments on DC Comp Plan Amendments

Posted on by Emily Maurer
CSG-Cover-Letter-for-comments-on-DC-Comp-Plan-October-2019-Draft-FNLDownload
CSG-comments-on-DC-Comp-Plan-October-2019-Draft_FNL-1Download

January 10, 2020 

Director Andrew Trueblood

DC Office of Planning

1100 4th Street, SW, Suite 650 East

Washington, DC 20024

Via: plandc@dc.gov 

RE: Coalition for Smarter Growth Comments on DC Comp Plan October 2019 Draft 

ENCL: Detailed CSG comments on the Comprehensive Plan October 2019 draft 

Dear Director Trueblood: 

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the Washington, DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our 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. 

Summary statement: We wish to express our support for the Comprehensive Plan amendments, including the map amendments. We believe that these changes are a major step forward for the District, as it seeks to fulfill its new mandate from the Framework Element to build a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable city. 

We strongly support the housing goals to increase housing opportunities throughout the city and provide more affordable homes, especially in parts of the city where there are few today. We commend the refocusing of defensive language to “enhancing” and “respecting” neighborhoods while ensuring they help address our housing needs. We also support the continued focus on transit-oriented development. We recommend going further in rethinking the role of vehicle parking in our future as parking requirements are a government anachronism in a rapidly changing transportation and environmental context. We recommend eliminating government regulations for minimum parking requirements and focusing on improving multimodal access and transportation demand management. 

A mix of housing types with access to better transit will build a stronger city and better neighborhoods for all. It is also a legal obligation under the Fair Housing Act to affirmatively further fair housing. We applaud the District’s specific production goals to create 36,000 homes, with 12,000 of them affordable by 2025, and we support the allocation of these production goals by planning area. We agree that this is a helpful approach to building a truly equitable city and directly addressing the need to undo a legacy of racial discrimination and segregation. 

We support the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) changes in general. A highlight are FLUM changes for new housing capacity in Rock Creek West, the area with the smallest share of affordable housing, at just one percent today. The next two areas lagging in affordable housing opportunities are Capitol Hill and Near Northwest. We urge the District to designate more housing capacity in these areas to achieve the 

minimum 15 percent affordable homes in each planning area. We value quality affordable homes to meet the needs of DC households in all planning areas, but we especially urge the city to use land use policy to help lagging areas catch up to their affordable housing production goals of 15 percent. 

DC’s many compact, walkable, transit-served neighborhoods make it the most sustainable place to live in the region. We should make it easier for more people, of all incomes to live in the city, which offers lower transportation costs, and helps reduce regional vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. The Comprehensive Plan and the District’s increased housing production goals play a major role in facilitating our region’s increased sustainability and social equity. The District faces many challenges, but our most pressing need as we manage the benefits of rising prosperity is to ensure that our low-income residents, especially people of color, have access to safe and affordable housing and transportation, along with quality nearby schools and services. Therefore, we commend the District’s efforts to ensure equitable access to quality housing and neighborhoods across the city. 

We have enclosed our detailed comments on the Comprehensive Plan and maps. These comments are supplemented by our joint statement with affordable housing groups submitted on December 16, 2019. In addition, we want to associate ourselves with the comments of Ward 3 Vision and the 21st Century School Fund. 

Thank you for the good work of the Office of Planning and sister agencies in putting together this excellent draft. We look forward to supporting the quick adoption of the new plan. 

Sincerely, 

Cheryl Cort, Policy Director

CSG testimony opposing I-270/495 expansion

Posted on by Emily Maurer

January 8, 2020

Maryland Board of Public Works

Maryland State House

100 State Circle

Annapolis, MD 21401

Maryland Department of Transportation Item 23-GM (Oppose) 

Testimony for January 8, 2020 

Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager 

Governor Hogan and Board members, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am here on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. I am also a founding member of the Maryland Advocates for Sustainable Transportation coalition, which includes over 20 organizations and continues to grow. 

Financial and process concerns: 

The multi-billion dollar, decades-long decision being made today is being rushed. It is premature and lacks adequate environmental, alternatives, and financial analyses. You have begun with the conclusion – to build private toll lanes – rather than with an objective analysis of alternatives. Critical information has not been shared with the public and other local, state, and federal agencies. This is not how any state should be making multi-billion dollar decisions. 

This project has significant financial uncertainty and risks. Prior to advancing this project and prior to solicitation, you must share the proposed financial terms and risks, including the state’s responsibility to compensate developers and lenders. Prior to taking action, you must request truly independent financial and traffic analyses. The public deserves to know how much they are expected to pay, both in tolls and potentially in taxes. 

Environmental and traffic mitigation concerns: 

We are also concerned about environmental impacts and traffic mitigation. We appreciate the attention given to the American Legion Bridge. However, private toll lanes may not be the answer. To date, MDOT has failed to study a true, comprehensive transit, demand management, and transit-oriented land use alternative to expanding I-495 and I-270, and in the case of the American Legion Bridge, Maryland and Virginia should study Purple Line and Metrorail options. 

Maryland has 26 Metro stations, many of which are not being used to their full potential. Incentivizing residential and commercial development at Maryland’s Metro, Purple Line, and certain MARC stations would do more to reduce driving, long-distance commuting, and traffic than further widening highways. Because of induced demand, newly widened highways in metropolitan areas fill up again in as few as five years, but transit-oriented development provides long-term traffic mitigation. 

Furthermore, the retained alternatives are in direct opposition to state climate and economic development goals. Your focus on moving cars in the west side of the region and your failure to study a transit-oriented development solution leaves Prince George’s, eastern Montgomery, and Baltimore behind. Investing in TOD and jobs in the Prince George’s to Baltimore transit corridors would not only do more to address traffic, it would provide critically needed, more balanced, economic development. Amazon’s HQ2 selection makes clear the high value modern employers place on access to high quality public transit. 

To this, the scope of any transit improvements offered to counties in the P3 agreement needs to be clarified before today’s approval. A single BRT line is not enough to offset the harm of adding miles of new highway lanes. 

For these reasons, we urge the Board to delay further action and steps towards a P3 agreement, and ultimately adopt a more effective and sustainable transit-oriented approach. At a minimum, this project requires a comprehensive alternatives and impact analysis, clarification of the state’s financial obligations, independent financial and traffic analyses, and a better deal for transit. 

Thank you for your time.

Letter to Governor Hogan opposing I-270/495 expansion

Posted on by Emily Maurer

December 3, 2019

The Honorable Larry Hogan

State of Maryland

Governor

100 State Circle

Annapolis, MD 21401 

Re: Capital Beltway and I-270 

Dear Governor Hogan: 

We are writing to share our strong and continuing concerns with your proposals for the Capital Beltway and I-270. We urge you to delay further action at the Board of Public Works and any steps toward a public-private partnership, until you conduct a comprehensive alternatives and impact analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

As we have noted before, MDOT failed to study an integrated transit-oriented development (TOD), transit and demand management alternative to your proposed toll lanes. This is important because your proposal will increase, not decrease driving demand, whereas a transit- oriented development approach that includes buildout of development at Prince George’s 15 Metro stations, Montgomery’s 13 stations, and selected MARC stations will reduce vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled while providing the competitive placemaking environment so much in demand by people and corporations today. Transit components of this alternative include the Purple Line, Metro capacity expansion, MARC expansion, and bus rapid transit (BRT) networks. The Council of Governments recently determined that TOD, BRT, and Metro all performed best in improving the performance of our highways. 

If the Amazon decision to locate in Arlington near two Metro stations tells us anything, it’s that transit-oriented development (TOD) is our future. In fact, the WMATA Connect Greater Washington study shows that build-out of the DC region’s Metro stations would so shift travel modes and trip patterns that we would avoid having to add 1000 lane miles of new roads and thousands of parking spaces. At the same time, Metro would go from needing public operating subsidies to annual operating surpluses because the trains would be full in both directions and all day due to the amount of development at the suburban stations. 

Your proposed toll lanes will fail because of induced demand: the new capacity created by the toll lanes, especially through diversion from the general-purpose lanes, will not last. The general-purpose lanes will fill up again as people decide to live farther away from work to take advantage of the initial time savings or decide to switch to driving from other modes or to drive more often. At the same time, vehicles seeking to reach the new capacity will add to traffic on all connecting roads. Additionally, toll lanes have termini, and the congestion which occurs at these termini, where multiple new lanes merge into the regular lanes, is regularly substantial; the congestion is merely moved “down the line” by some miles. By fueling more long-distance living and commuting, toll lanes add to vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water pollution, and traffic. Last, but not least, they raise serious equity concerns. 

As the Virginia experience has shown, the 12-lane highways that result from adding four toll lanes to the Beltway and other highways are a massive, generational alteration of our landscape and come at high cost to homes and neighborhoods, people and health, and the environment. You have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland, yet the toll lanes will increase driving and emissions. In contrast, the comprehensive TOD, transit and demand management alternative will reduce vehicle trips, vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. 

We have been extremely concerned about the process that has been applied to the toll highway proposals, as have the Comptroller and Treasurer, members of the legislature, the local community and local elected officials, and the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The failure to complete the NEPA process including full alternatives and impacts analysis, creates significant risks for the project, both legal and financial. 

The Comptroller promised the project would not be approved by the Board until the EIS is complete. Your proposed timeline assumes an agreement will happen in February of 2021 even though the NEPA process from the upper portion of I-270 has still not begun. Moreover, the Department of Legislative Services recommended that the P3 statute be amended to prohibit the submission of a pre-solicitation report prior to the availability of an environmental impact statement which has not yet been released. 

The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) has twice decided unanimously not to concur with the alternatives for the project. To this date–the public and M- NCPCC still don’t have origin-and-destination data, stormwater management impacts, financial assumptions, toll rates and other critical information that is important for this solicitation proposal to be approved. 

For all of the reasons we outline in this letter, we once again urge you to delay further action at the Board of Public Works and any steps toward a public-private partnership, until you conduct a comprehensive alternatives and impact analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and to ultimately adopt the more effective and sustainable transit-oriented approach that we have outlined here. 

Sincerely, 

Denisse Guitarra | Maryland Conservation Advocate | Audubon Naturalist Society 

Brian O’Malley | President & CEO | Central Maryland Transportation Alliance 

Stewart Schwartz | Executive Director | Coalition for Smarter Growth 

Ed Rich | President | Greater Farmland Civic Association 

Lois Hybl and Richard Willson | Co-Presidents | League of Women Voters of Maryland 

Pamela Goddard | Senior Program Director, Mid-Atlantic Region | National Parks Conservation Association 

Josh Tulkin | Director | Sierra Club, Maryland Chapter 

Kimberly Golden Brandt | Director | Smart Growth Maryland

Testimony supporting Maryland Housing Impact Fairness Act

Posted on by Emily Maurer

November 21, 2019

Montgomery County Council

Council Office Building

100 Maryland Ave.

Rockville, MD 20850

Bill 34-19, Taxation – Development Impact Taxes – Affordable Housing – Housing Impact Fairness Act (Support)

Testimony for December 3, 2019

Kimberly Golden Brandt, Director, Smart Growth Maryland

Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager, Coalition for Smarter Growth

President Navarro and Councilmembers, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Kim Golden Brandt, Director of Smart Growth Maryland, which advocates for a more environmentally and economically sustainable future that creates opportunities for all Marylanders through better development patterns. I am also speaking on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. 

First, thank you to the Council for your support of affordable housing, shown through your continued investment in the Housing Initiative Fund and recent adoption of the Council of Government’s housing targets. In addition to the legislation before us this evening, we welcome additional proposals that will help get the HIF to the $100 million per year goal and help double housing production to meet the COG targets.

We support the Housing Impact Fairness Act, given the existing and growing need for both affordable housing and school construction funding. This legislation ensures that all new construction contributes for its impact. 

For example, there was a $575,000 home from 1953 on Dickens Avenue in Bethesda. It was torn down and replaced with a 4,891 square foot, $1.425 million home. When this happens again and again in a neighborhood, middle-class households are replaced by wealthier households. Teardowns can lead to neighborhoods becoming more exclusionary over time, especially when “middle” housing types are missing.

On average, the additional impact fees would result in a newly rebuilt home costing $1.8 million instead of $1.75 million. As with all taxes, this is a statement of values. The HIF portion of the impact tax from just this one teardown would go a long way to helping provide affordable housing, for example, more than covering the rent of two very low-income families for over a year. Or it would meaningfully contribute to more room in our schools for students. For homes built after 1986, we’ve already made that value judgement to support these goals.

In addition to our support of the bill, we also offer the following amendments and considerations. First, to ensure that this proposal will be a net gain in revenue over time, we welcome additional economic analysis. The recordation tax and increased property taxes that come from teardowns also go towards affordable housing, school construction, and other investments.

Next, we recognize that some neighborhoods, especially those with older structures, need investment including improved housing stock, and that teardowns can offer that needed investment. Therefore, we welcome an amendment that exempts blighted or condemned properties.

Finally, we ask the PHED committee to strongly consider exempting properties if an additional living unit is provided. This policy could be modeled after Portland’s residential infill project. Replacing one home with another does nothing to address the county’s housing shortage. If we do not build enough homes to address demand, then older homes will just continue to become more and more unaffordable.

Thank you for your time.

CSG & partners call for progressive MCDOT director appointee

CSG & partners call for progressive MCDOT director appointee

Posted on by Jane Lyons

A copy of the letter below was sent on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 to the Montgomery County Council and County Executive. The PDF can be found here.

 

Dear Council President Navarro and County Councilmembers:

We thank and commend Al Roshdieh, the departing Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) Director, for his public service and the commitment he has shown to promoting sustainable, safe, multimodal transportation options. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

When considering an appointee for Mr. Roshdieh’s successor, we urge the Council to ensure that the next MCDOT director is a leader in implementing modern transit, green and complete streets that are safe for all users, and transit-oriented development. The next director must be committed to achieving the county’s Vision Zero and climate goals, reducing vehicle miles traveled, and making major shifts in mode share to transit, walking, and bicycling. We also believe the next director should pledge to be a frequent transit user.

Specifically, we ask that the next director be committed to the following priorities:

  1. Hold MCDOT accountable to the county’s Vision Zero initiative.

People want to safely bike and walk in Montgomery County. However, in 2019 alone, more than 300 people have been injured or killed due to inadequate pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and the prioritization of cars on our roadways. This is up 14 percent since 2018, with 38 percent of crashes on county roads. Since the Vision Zero resolution was passed in 2017, at least 50 people have died.

MCDOT is the lead agency on many of the most critical pieces of the county’s Vision Zero initiative, and it is the responsibility of the director to hold the department accountable to those goals. This requires tough choices that will substantially cut traffic fatalities, such as remaking  arterials and roads into streets that encourage walking and biking through road diets, including protected bicycle lanes, fewer and narrower vehicle lanes, tighter turn radii, pedestrian refuges, bumpouts and well-marked crosswalks and other infrastructure improvements.

Vision Zero implementation should be especially prioritized around schools, where children are at high risk of injury or death simply when trying to walk or bike to school. In addition, providing safe pedestrian and bicycle access to future Purple Line stations, and during construction, is essential. We also hope that the new MCDOT director will collaborate with the Planning Department to implement the Bicycle Master Plan and forthcoming Pedestrian Master Plan.

  1. Commit to implementing the county’s planned bus rapid transit (BRT) network in a timely manner.

The groundbreaking of BRT on Route 29 and funding for preliminary engineering of BRT on MD-355 and Veirs Mill Road are steps in the right direction. MCDOT must continue to prioritize the creation of a gold standard BRT network. We need a visionary BRT system that addresses the county’s economic development, social equity, and greenhouse gas emission reduction challenges.  

When designing BRT, MCDOT must prioritize dedicated lanes; off-board fare collection; frequent, reliable service; and stations with real-time travel information. These standards are essential for generating high ridership, improving the commutes of all users, and creating a key economic asset. Phase 1 of the planned BRT network alone is projected to bring in over $871 million in net fiscal revenue over 25 years.

  1. Maintain and expand transit opportunities through RideOn and external collaboration.

Ride On has the second highest ridership of any suburban bus system in the country at over 22 million trips in 2017. MCDOT been innovative through programs like Ride On Extra, and can build upon those successes. We encourage the next director to support a redesign and upgrade of the combined Ride On and WMATA bus network to ensure service is frequent, reliable, equitable, and customer-focused. There may also be opportunities to better integrate with other transit services, like MetroRail, MARC, BRT, MetroBus, and TheBus.

The director will need to collaborate and coordinate with outside agencies to effectively expand transit opportunities, such as BRT routes and road diets on state roads and the construction of new Metro entrances. Transit opportunities will not grow without close collaboration with such agencies as the Maryland State Highway Administration, Maryland Transit Administration, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

  1. Further the county’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100% by 2035.

MCDOT must work to meet the mobility needs of residents throughout the county with environmental sustainability in mind. Meeting the county’s climate change goals requires transportation projects and programs that promote sustainable transportation options. Moreover, MCDOT should not support highway expansion projects, such as Mid-County Highway Extended, which incentivize single-occupancy vehicle trips and damage the natural environment. Finally, the director should strive to move all MCDOT vehicles towards electrification and continue to increase electric vehicle infrastructure. 

In conclusion, the next director should have as a key objective creating a transportation system that supports the environment and people. We recognize that for the future director to implement these priorities, MCDOT requires support from the operating and capital budgets passed by the County Council. Therefore, we also call on the County Council to prioritize funding for these crucial projects.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Signed,


Jeffrey Weisner

President, Steering Committee

350 Montgomery County

 

Denisse Guitarra

MD Conservation Advocate

Audubon Naturalist Society

 

Julio Murillo

Government & Strategic Relations Specialist

CASA

 

Jane Lyons

Maryland Advocacy Manager

Coalition for Smarter Growth

Barbara Noveau

Executive Director

DoTheMostGood Montgomery County

 

Diane Hibino, Kathy McGuire

Co-Presidents

League of Women Voters of Montgomery County

 

Walter Weiss

Administrator

Montgomery County Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions

 

Michael DeLong

President

Montgomery County Young Democrats

 

Shruti Bhatnagar
Chair

Sierra Club, Montgomery County Group

 

Maurice Belanger

President

Takoma Park Mobilization

 

Johanna Wermers

Transportation Representative

The Climate Mobilization

 

Margaret Schoap 

Organizer

Transit Alternatives to Mid-County Extended

 

Greg Billing

Executive Director

Washington Area Bicyclist Association


CC: County Executive Marc Elrich

 

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montgomery_County_Transit_Ride_On_2017_Gillig_LF_Advantage_Diesel.jpg
Coalition Re-releases Fairfax Healthy Communities Platform

Coalition Re-releases Fairfax Healthy Communities Platform

Posted on by Jane Lyons

Coalition for Smarter Growth, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Audubon Naturalist Society, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, Friends of Accotink Creek, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Potomac Conservancy, Friends of Dyke Marsh, Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action, Fairfax County NAACP

Fairfax Healthy Communities:  Sustainable, Inclusive, Livable

 A Joint Vision for Fairfax County in 2019

We support a vision for Fairfax County that is sustainable, inclusive, and livable and urge candidates for local and state office in Fairfax County to support this vision and to commit to the implementation steps necessary to make this vision a reality.

We share a vision for Fairfax County where the County commits to:

  • Providing housing opportunities for people of all incomes, ages, and stages of life in every district in the county, investing in improving affordable housing and access to opportunity in communities where there are concentrations of poverty, and fostering greater racial and economic integration in single-family, low-poverty neighborhoods.
  • Ensuring transit, walking, bicycling and other modes of active transportation are well-funded, safe, convenient and accessible for people of all ages, giving residents more choices and reducing traffic congestion.
  • Creating vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income transit-oriented communities which provide a range of housing choices and employment opportunities, while reducing vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled.
  • Fighting climate change by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, transportation and other sources.
  • Restoring watersheds to ensure clean drinking water and healthier ecosystems.
  • Expanding parks and trail networks.
  • Ensuring access for all to affordable health care and healthy local food.
  • Taking specific steps to realize its One Fairfax commitment to racial and social equity, community involvement, and the 17 goals laid out in the One Fairfax policy.

A sustainable, inclusive, healthy, competitive, and fiscally sustainable future for Fairfax requires a fundamental shift in land use, transportation, housing and energy policies toward walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income, and transit-oriented and green energy communities, and the full engagement of the community in achieving this future.

Signed:

Coalition for Smarter Growth

Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions

Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance

Audubon Naturalist Society

Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling

Friends of Accotink Creek

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Potomac Conservancy

Friends of Dyke Marsh

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action

Fairfax County NAACP

*  The above signatories are 501(c)(3) organizations. This platform is strictly educational and is being shared with all candidates and the public. By law, our organizations are strictly prohibited from participating in, or intervening in (including the publishing or distribution of statements) any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.