1. VDOT is wasting money on the wrong projects. These include: Route 460: This $1.4 billion proposed new highway between Suffolk and Petersburg; over $1.1 billion of taxpayer funds, plus tolls. The current Route 460 carries just 11,000 trips per day. Coalfields Expressway: $2.8 billion for a new highway in least-trafficked area of the state. Charlottesville Bypass: This $243 million project doesn’t solve congestion and saves minimal travel time for commuters. North-South Corridor: This estimated $1 billion piece of an Outer Beltway around D.C. doesn’t address commuter needs and would add development and traffic in areas without infrastructure. Meanwhile, the state says it will not contribute to roads for Tysons, it hasn’t provided adequate funds to reduce tolls for Dulles Rail and Midtown/Downtown Tunnels, and it has zeroed out secondary road funds.
Author: acustis
Plans in place for White Flint Mall
About 100 advocates for turning White Flint into a transit-oriented urban area crowded into a back room at Seasons 52 one evening earlier this week to talk about making Rockville Pike “hip.” The location was appropriate. The restaurant is in a block of newer buildings near the White Flint Metro stop that also includes an Arhaus Furniture store and a Whole Foods Market. The block is linked together by landscaped streets and sidewalks.
Across Rockville Pike is White Flint Mall. Built in the 1970s, its empty stores and surface parking lots are exactly what many people at the Jan. 29 networking event want to replace. Advocates for urban development built around public transportation say White Flint can be a model for similar growth elsewhere in Montgomery County and in the nation as a whole. To accomplish that, groups that sprang up around the sector plan process a few years ago are redoubling their efforts and drumming up support to make sure their vision is carried out.
Friends Of White Flint Hosts “Kick-Off” Happy Hour
Smart Growth advocates and supporters of dense, transit-based redevelopment of White Flint gathered in North Bethesda yesterday to mingle and discuss the large-scale changes coming to Rockville Pike in the next few decades. The nonprofit Friends of White Flint, which describes its mission as implementing the 2010 White Flint Sector Plan, co-hosted a happy hour at Seasons 52 in North Bethesda Market with the Coalition for Smarter Growth. In the crowd were neighbors, transit activists, developers, County Council members Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda-Potomac) and Hans Riemer (D-At large) and others from outside the White Flint area interested in the various projects that are estimated to bring 14,000 housing units and 13 million square feet of redevelopment around the White Flint Metro station.
Walkable Neighborhoods: How to Make Them for Everyone
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Refreshments 6:00 pm
Program 6:30-8:30 pm
National Capital Planning Commission
401 9th Street NW, North Lobby, Suite 500
(Metro: Archives)
- Event program
- Video (Part I)
- Twitter recap via Storify (from Smart Growth America)
- Chris Leinberger’s presentation (Part 1) and (Part 2)
- Ed Lazere’s presentation
- Pictures
Walkable urban places are in high demand. A decade ago, Columbia Heights, H Street NE, and Petworth weren’t considered particularly desirable places to live. Today, these neighborhoods are booming, and so are many more city blocks close to transit and downtown. In addition to the more established affluent neighborhoods, demand to live in newly-popular neighborhoods that offer walkable, bicycle-friendly, and transit-oriented lifestyles is driving up housing prices. Given the turnaround in 2000 of D.C.’s decades-long population decline, the city’s growth could be used to ensure that everyone – especially disadvantaged D.C. residents – shares in the benefits of a stronger city and stable tax base. But rising housing prices loom as an increasing problem for moderate- and low-income who want to stay in the city and take part in the District’s resurgence.
How can we continue to offer more opportunities to live in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods and share the benefits with people across the income spectrum? Join us to discuss this challenge with Chris Leinberger, David Bowers, and Ed Lazere.
- Chris Leinberger is a land use strategist, developer, researcher and author of Walk this Way: The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington, D.C.. Chris will discuss the benefits of rising values from walkable urban places and the need complement these opportunities with affordable housing strategies.
- David Bowers of Enterprise Community Partners will discuss how a stronger affordable housing strategy can be a part of the city’s agenda, especially as demand to live near transit continues to rise.
- Ed Lazere of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute will explain how the city’s growing financial strength can help ensure that new prosperity is shared with everyone through the budget decision-making process.
This event is part of CSG’s 2013 Walking Tours & Forums Series, possible by the generous support of the National Association of Realtors. In cooperation with APA Virginia, AICP credit for this event is pending.
Washington Studies a VMT Tax. Where Is Virginia?
While Governor Bob McDonnell proposes to scrap the gasoline tax on the grounds that drivers are shifting to more fuel-efficient vehicles and alternate fuels, the state of Washington is heading in a very different direction — instituting a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. According to the Associated Press, a committee of transportation experts recently concluded that it was feasible to shift from gasoline taxes to a “pay as you go” road-fee system. A virtue of the tax is that it would treat drivers on an equitable basis, regardless of how much gasoline their cars burned. Washington is joining 18 other states in studying the alternative.
Coalition for Smarter Growth: McDonnell’s Gas Tax Proposal “exactly the wrong market signal”
I couldn’t agree more with Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth(see what he has to say below; bolding added by me for emphasis): “At a time when we are seeking to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to reduce fossil fuel consumption to fight climate change, the Governor’s proposal takes us in the wrong direction.”
Case Studies in Design Excellence for Mid Sized Urban and Inner Suburban Medical Centers
This report highlights how important urban design, community connections, and transit access could ultimately be to the long-term success of a new Regional Medical Center in Prince George’s County. The hospital design examples are from leading national and international architectural firms, including AECOM, Cannon Designs, ZGF, and Smithgroup JJR.
Hospital design case studies showcase benefits of urban design and community connections for new Prince George’s Regional Medical Center
new set of case studies [PDF] highlights how important urban design, community connections, and transit access could ultimately be to the long-term success of a new Regional Medical Center in Prince George’s County. The hospital design examples are from leading national and international architectural firms, including AECOM, Cannon Designs, ZGF, and Smithgroup JJR. Local organizations the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Potomac Valley, Coalition for Smarter Growth, and Envision Prince George’s Community Action Team for Transit-Oriented Development compiled the examples to illustrate the benefits that innovative urban planning, connectivity, and accessibility to transit resources would add to the healthcare and economic opportunity that the new medical center represents for the county.
Study: Virginia tops in getting private cash for roads
Virginia not only leads other states in working with private developers to build roads, but tops several countries, including Australia, Belgium and Canada. Virginia trailed only Great Britain in private-public contracts in 2012. Virginia signed off on about $3 billion in projects last year, Britain had nearly $4.5 billion.
Comments on Proposed “North-South Corridor of Statewide Significance” (aka the Outer Beltway)
On behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, I wish to register our strongest objections to the conduct of the “North-South Corridor of Statewide Significance (COSS)” study and to the very concept of the proposal. Our first objection is to the lack of transparency and seriously inadequate public involvement and notice that have characterized this proposal from the outset, including…