We really need you! By December 31, we need to raise $150,000 to continue our work. There is good news: our biggest donors have offered over $70,000 in matching gifts so any amount you give will go twice as far! Please contribute to CSG today so that we can continue to fight for a more inclusive, sustainable region.
Category: Uncategorized
We had a great time celebrating CSG’s 25th Anniversary!
For all those who attended, thank you for joining us. We are thrilled and touched by the great turnout and your enthusiasm. It was wonderful to see so many old friends – and to meet new friends, after two years of “virtual” meet-ups. Be sure to check out the photos!
Snag tickets for our 25th Anniversary celebration!
The countdown has officially begun for our 25th Anniversary celebration and fundraiser, and you’re invited! Join us on Thursday, May 12 from 6-8pm at the Capitol View at 400 – an open air rooftop with a great view of the iconic Union Station. Spend the evening mingling with smart growth advocates and enjoying the gorgeous view. We’ll also have wine, beer, and delicious hors d’oeuvres.
Enter our scooter raffle today by becoming a monthly donor!
Become a monthly donor by February 21 for a chance to win an electric scooter (with a year of free maintenance) donated to CSG by our friends at King Scooters DC!
$250,000 for 25 years
Help us raise $250,000 for 25 years between now and our big 25th Anniversary event in the spring.
Key Dates
The D.C. region needs world-class, fully-funded public transit to support our region’s transportation needs, climate and equity goals, and economic health.
Who We Are
The Fund Metro! coalition is made up of several DC-area nonprofit groups. List of the groups who have signed on to date:
- Coalition for Smarter Growth
- Active Prince William
- Chesapeake Climate Action Network
- Clean Fairfax
- DC New Liberals
- Gaithersburg HELP
- Grassroots Alexandria
- Greater Greater Washington
- Just Economics
- League of Women Voters, DC
- League of Women Voters, Maryland
- Mobilize Frederick
- Prince William Conservation Alliance
- Sierra Club – Maryland Chapter
- Sierra Club – DC Chapter
- Southern Environmental Law Center
- Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County
- Washington Area Bicyclist Association
- YIMBYs of Northern Virginia
Our Asks
Short term stopgap (by April/May 2024):
Close the FY25 and FY26 funding gaps with enough funding from Virginia, DC, and Maryland to avoid service cuts and minimize fare hikes and shifts of preventative maintenance funds to operations. Minimum request:
- $150 million from Maryland
- $130 million from Virginia (split 50/50 with Northern Virginia localities)
- $200 million from DC
Ideally, we can win even more funding to avoid fare hikes and shifting maintenance funds to operations.
Long term solution:
- Solve the long-term dedicated funding challenge once and for all by reaching regional consensus on sources of dedicated funding legislatively earmarked to WMATA and indexed to inflation.
- Consider numerous funding sources including land value (“split-rate”) taxation for transit-oriented development areas.
- Shift funding from highways to Metro and other transit given the climate crisis.
- Improve efficiency through dedicated bus lanes, consolidated bus purchases with local providers, and even consolidating bus operators.
- Continue Metro’s progress in improving safety, preventative maintenance, operations, cost controls, financial reporting, and communications with decision-makers and the public.
- Standardize WMATA’s reporting to the three states, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, and Federal government on finances, operations, maintenance, and safety to provide more transparent and accessible reporting and reduce the administrative burden on all parties.
Why We Need Metro
Metro’s benefits to our region include:
- Shaping a more sustainable region through walkable, bikeable, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Affordable access to jobs and opportunity – within the Metro Compact Area, the land within ½ mile of the system’s Metrorail stations and Metrobus stops contains 60% of the region’s population, 70% of jobs, and 50% of businesses.
- An effective alternative to sitting in traffic that benefits everyone by reducing congestion.
- An essential service underpinning a competitive and growing economy – attracting companies and the next-generation workforce.
- An important contributor to tax revenue – Metrorail station areas are only 3% of the region’s land area, but contribute 30% of its property tax revenue.
- Lower combined housing and transportation costs, particularly when combined with affordable housing – Washington metro area commuters can save over $13,000 per year by using transit instead of driving.
- Reduced consumption of land, saving farms and forests, and leaving room for parks and protected stream corridors.
CPA Route 28 Alternative 4 Recommendation
September 4, 2020
Board of County Supervisors
Prince William County
1 County Complex Court
Prince William, VA 22192
Dear Supervisors:
We support your August 4, 2020 decision to adopt Alternative 4 on the Route 28 Corridor Study.
A Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) is now required to revise outdated language, such as that referenced in Table 2 – Thoroughfare Plan Summary in the Transportation Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan (PW-3 Tri-County Parkway/Route 28 Bypass).
The benefits of such a considerable investment in transportation infrastructure should not be limited to efforts moving drive-alone commuters faster to jobs outside the County. In the initiation of the CPA to advance Alternative 4, we encourage you to articulate your goals for concurrently planning for economic development, land use, affordable access to jobs and housing, and cleaner, multimodal transportation improvements.
The CPA should:
1) require assessing how investment in Route 28 mobility can be leveraged to spur economic revitalization; and
2) clarify that the “purpose and need” of Route 28 improvements is to increase local multimodal mobility, create a more walkable and transit-oriented corridor, reduce pollution, and facilitate the creation of local jobs and equitable access to them.
To more quickly access some funding previously allocated to the Route 28 corridor project by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) [ $89 million, total], we suggest the CPA divide Alternative 4 into two phases.
- Phase One – Focus on widening the Route 28 bridge across Bull Run, adding bike/pedestrian and future transit capacity as part of the widening, and smoothing traffic flow north to Compton Road. That capacity expansion should qualify for use of the NVTA funding allocation.
- Phase Two – Focus more broadly to include consideration of additional vehicle and bus/HOV lanes on existing Route 28 or the Well Street Extended corridor, to stimulate development of a walkable and transit-oriented corridor in the Yorkshire area, and to move more people within and through the corridor.
Phase Two would be the time frame in which to combine detailed, localized land use planning and placemaking for Yorkshire, together with changes in transportation infrastructure. These functions warrant further analysis.
The Route 28 Corridor Study prioritized the analysis of Alignment 2B only. Alternative 4 was not given sufficient focus and detail during the two years after completion of the prior Feasibility Study.
The CPA process should ensure consideration of an approach to “widening” the Route 28 corridor by building new lanes using the Well Street Extended corridor, approximately 400 feet west of existing Route 28, similar to the Mathis Ave alignment in the City of Manassas.
New capacity in the corridor, paired with the STARS Study recommended improvements on the existing four lanes of Route 28, may adequately reduce traffic congestion as well as enhance economic and community development and retention of existing businesses. There are more beneficial ways to upgrade mobility, besides the approach used to widen Route 1 which required extensive business displacements.
“Mobility” means more than “move cars.” The CPA should require evaluating opportunities for enhanced walkability and bus transit to maximize movement while sustainably reducing congestion and travel times.
Though Yorkshire today lacks even OmniRide service, transit on Route 28 is not a new idea. Since 2008, the Comprehensive Plan has proposed building light rail from Manassas to Dulles.
The NVTA TransAction plan approved in 2017 also includes a Route 28 High Capacity Transit project to “Construct High Capacity Transit along Route 28 corridor and implement service between Dulles Town Center and the City of Manassas. Alternative modes for further study include BRT and LRT.”
Prince William County must continue to plan smarter, to ensure that high-cost transportation upgrades concurrently spur local jobs and create more walkable places with reduced per capita driving.
We appreciate your thoughtfulness in evaluating the wide range of concerns before rejecting Alignment 2B. We look forward to the Flat Branch stream valley now becoming a linear park with trails connecting the adjacent neighborhoods, and for Yorkshire planning to demonstrate how transportation improvements can be coordinated with land use, economic development, placemaking, and the creation of affordable housing.
Revitalizing the Yorkshire area will promote social, cultural, and environmental sustainability and neighborhood economic resiliency, while providing new job opportunities, maintaining the sense of community, and offering affordable housing. This is the direction of smart growth planning needed.
Placemaking collectively reimagines and revitalizes public spaces in a community. Community participation in developing the Yorkshire revitalization plan is imperative in order to capitalize on the community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, thereby resulting in the creation of a quality public space that contributes to equity, health and well-being.
Sincerely,
Active Prince William
Coalition for Smarter Growth
Piedmont Environmental Council
Prince William Conservation Alliance
Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter
Southern Environmental Law Center