CB-011-2019, An Ordinance Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-026-2019, A Resolution Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-027-2019, A Resolution Concerning Preparation of a Countywide Sectional Map Amendment and Approval of Goals, Concepts, and Guidelines; and Public Participation Program
Dear Chair Turner and members of the committee:
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization working locally in the Washington, DC metropolitan 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.
We wish to express our support for initiating the countywide sectional map amendment to advance the implementation of the zoning rewrite enacted by this Council in the fall of 2018. This zoning rewrite is a significant advance for the county. We appreciate that this is an important change for the county, and we commend the level of public engagement required to implement the countywide sectional map amendment.
This change is worth the effort because it replaces the county’s current obsolete and cumbersome zoning regulations which are holding back the county. Here are some of the ways the zoning and subdivision process will improve:
Design and building form standards: the document establishes transit-oriented zones at the local and regional scales to support the goals of walkable urbanism, creating walkable, and bikable areas that are well-connected to transit;
Parking standards for urban and transit-oriented areas: the zoning rewrite reduces excessive minimum parking requirements in transit-oriented centers in order to support more multimodal designs and uses.
Street designs: the revisions require interconnected streets, shorter blocks, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It implements newly adopted urban street design standards that support walk and bike friendly streets.
Transportation demand management: the regulations also establish progressive traffic reduction measures that emphasize encouraging more people to ride transit if available, bicycle, share rides and walk.
Ease of use: The zoning and subdivision regulations are presented in a more readable format providing tables and graphic illustrations to better understand and visualize the standards.
Ending perpetual approvals: The proposed rules establish limits on approvals after a number of years. Today, approvals are allowed to live on forever, despite significant changes that may occur after initially projected conditions. While some of the provisions seem overly generous, setting the proposed limits would be a big step forward for the county.
Adopt this critical reform
We believe implementation of the zoning and subdivision rewrite is a tremendous improvement for the county and the community. It is a once in a generation opportunity. We urge the Council to vote to initiate the countywide sectional map amendment process in order to keep the zoning rewrite timeline on track. The countywide sectional map amendment is the next essential step to ensuring the timely implementation of the county’s modernized zoning and subdivision regulations.
Cities’ interest in granny flats at ‘fever pitch’ amid U.S. housing crisis
by Carey L. Biron, MAY 20, 2019, Reuters
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The U.S. capital is one of the most expensive cities in the country, but Derek Wright hopes to cover his housing costs with a novel strategy that local officials are keen to foster: He is becoming a small-scale landlord.
Very small-scale, that is. Wright is applying for a permit to turn his townhouse’s basement into a separate home, the rent from which he expects will cover more than half of his mortgage.
These types of projects are technically known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), but are also called “granny flats”, “mother-in-law suites” or “English basements”….
And they are gaining popularity around the country, said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the non-profit Coalition for Smarter Growth, as policymakers in expensive cities look to them as a way to boost affordable housing.
Granny flats offer a low-cost housing solution because the land is already paid for, she said, and they are often built in more central parts of the city.
They have long been allowed in Washington, but in 2016 city officials tweaked the application rules with the aim of making the process easier, said Cort.
The city struck down various prohibitions and made it so “a homeowner can build one as a matter of right, for the most part,” she added.
Ileana Schinder, the architect who worked with Fazio and Wright on the designs and city approvals for their projects, said she has overseen the construction of about 20 granny flats in Washington over the past few years — and interest is climbing.
Many of Schinder’s prospective clients have been young families looking for additional income so they can stay in the city, as well as older people who need the financial boost to continue living in their homes….
New bus lanes on H and I streets NW go live this morning, and that means new traffic patterns for thousands of drivers who travel along two of the District’s busiest corridors.
The new rush-hour-only lanes have been distinctively marked with red paint, have “Bus Only” markings on them and signs on each block detailing the hours of operation to make it clear to motorists to stay out of them during the morning and afternoon rush…..
“Enforcement is obviously key,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which has been advocating for bus lanes. “We need to make sure the rules are clear and understandable, and we need to get to full compliance.”
“Report card” will determine if D.C. Metrobus service makes the grade
May 9, 2019 — The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) is partnering with MetroHero to release a report card on Metrobus service in D.C. The report card will grade bus service on speed and reliability.
The MetroHero team will be monitoring activity on 34 major bus routes in D.C.’s priority corridor network throughout the month of May, evaluating each route based on metrics such as average travel speed, spacing between buses, and how closely the buses keep to their scheduled arrival times. The results will be publicized in a digital “report card” which will assign grades to each of the routes based on their performance in each of these different areas, inspired by a similar project by the Bus Turnaround Coalition in New York City. The resulting analysis will form the basis of a public report written by CSG and MetroHero that will identify the greatest problems faced by D.C.’s priority bus routes today and make recommendations for how to improve their performance in the future.
The reports will be made available to the public in June.
MetroHero (www.dcmetrohero.com), which began as a simple app designed to visualize real-time train positions in the D.C. Metrorail system, has been monitoring and providing performance metrics on WMATA’s trains for over three years. The app has gained popularity with many area commuters, averaging roughly 15,000 unique users every month, largely due to its unique real-time visualizations of the current state of the Metrorail system, from train delays and service outages to user-driven reports of inconveniences such as station crowding and broken intercoms. In September 2018, the MetroHero team extended a number of their train performance tracking algorithms to the Metrobus system, which will be used to gather performance data for the report card.
CSG (www.smartergrowth.net) is the leading organization in the Washington, D.C. region dedicated to making the case for smart growth — promoting walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies to make those communities flourish. In 2017 and 2018, CSG organized non-profits and partnered with the business community in the MetroNow campaign to win $500 million per year in dedicated funding for Metro. CSG serves on the Bus Transformation Study executive committee, previously led and won an 81-mile bus rapid transit plan for Montgomery County, Maryland, and has led other campaigns for improved transit.
Supporting a new approach to automated traffic enforcement with DDOT to achieve Vision Zero & bus lanes that work
May 3, 2019
Dear Chairman Mendelson:
We understand that Councilmember Cheh has reservations about transferring automated traffic enforcement from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to DC Department of Transportation (DDOT). While DDOT can be frustrating, everyone agrees that photo enforcement is not optimally managed right now. Given that 30+ people die each year on our streets, we should not turn down an opportunity to improve the use of photo enforcement by putting DDOT in charge of it. DDOT is lead on Vision Zero and implementation of dedicated transit lanes (coming to H & I, 16th St & K Street soon). It makes sense to enable DDOT integrate automated traffic enforcement into these programs.
This is how other leading jurisdictions have approached it, such as New York City and Chicago, where their Departments of Transportation are in charge on automated traffic enforcement. See NYC DOT report on automated traffic enforcement here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/speed-camera-report-june2017.pdf. DDOT’s management of photo enforcement poses not legal issues, as some have claimed. The Mayor currently has authority to use the “photograph” as Prima Facie evidence of a violation. Currently, and whether administered by MPD, DDOT, DPW, or another agency, the use of photographs to detect violations are legally treated as non-moving. The penalty is a fine – no points on the license – it’s all still associated with the registered vehicle, not the driver.
How the D.C. Council can make the most of this opportunity: WABA recommends tying photo enforcement to action by DDOT. DC Council could require DDOT to act to fix problem areas detected by traffic cameras as a part of their management of the cameras program. From WABA’s report:
Fix infrastructure at high revenue traffic safety cameras The goal of the automated traffic safety camera program is safety, not revenue. In places where an automated traffic camera generates a disproportionate amount of money, the underlying street design should be changed immediately, using the tactical design process described above. Traffic calming techniques should be employed to encourage safe driving through better street design.
Without putting DDOT in charge, we are greatly concerned that developing new applications for photo enforcement, such as bus lane compliance, bike lane compliance, and other new uses, will be slow and ineffective. We need to put DDOT in charge in order to more effectively use this tool. DDOT is the agency that is most focused on and responsible for achieving our city’s transportation system’s efficient use and safety.
We all agree that the goal is compliance with the rules of the road, not ticket and revenue generation. DDOT offers an important opportunity to greatly improve on the use of this powerful tool for safety and manage a more efficient transportation system.
Study: It’s past time the D.C. region transform its bus network
By Luz Lazo, May 6, 2019 at 6:11 PM, The Washington Post
….A $2.2 million study released Monday lays out more than two dozen recommendations for transforming the Washington region’s bus network into one that is centered around customers’ needs, is financially sustainable and embraces innovation and technology.
The draft recommendations would help reverse ridership declines driven by service that is too slow, complex and unreliable. The study was compiled by the Bus Transformation Project, a group of D.C.-area transit officials, experts and advocates.
….
“We have no choice,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
While previous studies have made similar recommendations, Schwartz said this one has brought together all the transit agencies and various segments of the region, including government and businesses, to work toward plan for a better bus network. Among supporters are business leaders that were part of campaign for dedicated funding for Metro, he said.
“We do need to move forward and I think there is a shared commitment” in the region,” Schwartz said. “A route redesign and dedicated lanes and improved customer information can make all the difference in the world.”
It’s not cheap to live in D.C. Whether you rent or hope to own, finding a place to live has become more expensive over the years because the population growth seen in the city this century has far outpaced the housing that’s available….
One of the approaches the city seems ready to focus on are “accessory dwelling units.”
…“There are large areas of the district that are part of the … zone, so they’re able to add accessory dwelling units to their property,” said Bush. “They both present the opportunity to increase the number of units of housing, and therefore decrease the cost of housing. But they also provide an opportunity to give another source of income to a homeowner that might be feeling the pinches as the cost of living in D.C. rises.”
…“There’s groups like the Coalition for Smarter Growth and others that have started to create some really interesting programs with homeowners and architects etc. to promote this, but I think there’s more we can do to make sure homeowners are taking advantage of this program,” Bush said.
“We see this as the beginning of really speeding up the implementation of bus lanes and delivering high-quality transit,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “We will bring back the riders that we have been losing and we will attract new riders because it is going to become a fast, efficient and inexpensive way to get where you need to go.”
“A large share of all bus riders every day are moving through these corridors and they are often stuck in traffic,” Cort said. “Bus lanes are a crucial tool to changing that.”
Transit advocates are excited about the new lanes and about the possibility of reviving an extensive network of bus lanes that disappeared after the Metro system was built. The nation’s capital stands out as a major Northeast city that does not have a network of dedicated bus lanes in its downtown. Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York all have such networks.
