CSG spent over 20 years tracking, reviewing, and weighing in on the various iterations of this important transit-oriented mixed-use housing development, which faced unrelenting opposition. Thank you for joining us in this campaign – your advocacy helped it get over the finish line!
Tag: takoma metro
Testimony in Support of Proposed Takoma Metro Station Redevelopment
We are excited to express our strong support for the proposed plan to redevelop the Takoma Metro station by adding hundreds of new homes, improved public spaces and better transportation facilities.
Testimony: Support for Takoma Metro station facilities changes
We are excited to be testifying tonight in support of the proposed changes to the transit facilities at the Takoma Metro station. We’ve been working on reconfiguring the station area, and adding housing and other complementary transit-supporting uses since the year 2000.
Testimony to WMATA Board of Directors regarding Takoma Development
We ask that the WMATA board approve the Takoma amended joint development agreement and public hearing. We support the proposed revised joint development agreement with EYA to construct at least 208 housing units in a mid-rise apartment building. This new proposal addresses key concerns of
opponents of the previous plan – including the preservation of a large open space in front of the station. The plan will add bus capacity, enhance pedestrian pathways, and bring drop off and disabled parking close to the elevator entrance.
Testimony to WMATA Board on Takoma station development
We ask that WMATA approve the proposed changes to the WMATA facilities at the Takoma Metro station and advance the joint development agreement. Having closely followed this issue since 2000, I am gratified that we have come to such a good compromise – addressing all the key issues raised with the previous proposal.
CSG Support for EYA Takoma Metro Station JD Proposal (Docket R14-01)
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, D.C. 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.
Takoma Metro development moves forward
A new apartment complex at the Takoma Metro station got the go-ahead Thursday from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors, though some neighbors disapprove.
Takoma Metro Development Set for Approval, Despite Cross-Border Opposition
Nearly every new development project that’s taller than most of the surrounding neighborhood raises a few hackles among locals. Less common is one that arouses opposition across state lanes.
Tomorrow, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board will vote on plans for an apartment building at the Takoma Metro station. The plans are the latest in an effort to redevelop the area around the station that has spanned two decades. They’ve changed form a few times, from townhouses with two-car garages that neighbors found insufficiently transit-oriented, to abuilding with five residential stories that neighbors found too tall, to the current scheme, which is one story shorter and contains about 210 apartments. The latest proposal has won plaudits from the Coalition for Smarter Growth as a compromise between suitability to a Metro-adjacent site and compatibility with a medium-density area.
But neighbors still aren’t pleased with the plans, on either side of the D.C.-Maryland border. Both the Takoma Park City Council and local Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B have passed resolutions objecting to elements of the proposal.
“The biggest problem is, the building is too big,” says Takoma Park City Council Member Seth Grimes. (The project, by developer EYA, is on the D.C. side of the border, but Takoma Park is just across the street.) Grimes says the “vast majority” of neighbors are opposed to the design, largely because of its scale, which exceeds the standard zoning for the area by about 20 feet. He also personally believes there should be fewer parking spaces to encourage more Metro ridership.
Sara Green, an ANC commissioner on the D.C. side of the border, is frustrated that the neighbors are being portrayed as naysayers for opposing the current plans after getting some of the revisions they wanted from the earlier proposals. “WMATA said, ‘OK, we want to do what you suggested,'” she says. “And we said, ‘Fabulous!’ And then they came to us with something that was so much bigger than the existing zoning! We’re being painted as people who don’t want anything. What we’re rejecting is greed.”
Ward 4 D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser, whose ward includes Takoma and who sits on Metro’s board of directors, argues that the changes to the plans have addressed neighbors’ concerns. “A few issues popped out at everyone, especially involving the green space and how we could maintain it,” she says. “That’s gonna happen. We wanted to make sure that the height was fitting with the community.”
Bowser says she’ll vote for the proposal tomorrow, as, most likely, will the majority of her colleagues on the WMATA board. “We do expect it to be favorably voted by the WMATA board on March 27,” says Grimes, resignedly.
Click here to read the original story on Housing Complex >>
Photo courtesy of EYA.
Testimony: Takoma Metro Redevelopment
Please accept these comments, reiterating our support on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, D.C. 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.
CSG Letter in Support of EYA Takoma Metro Joint Development Agreement
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, D.C. 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.