This Thursday, Jan. 22, we’re talking to housing experts to explore the relationship between housing production and affordability.
Author: Elena Sorokina
Transit funding and housing affordability on the agenda in Virginia
Virginia’s 60-day General Assembly kicked off yesterday! With a new Governor and many new faces following this fall’s election, legislators appear more energized than ever to address Virginia’s interconnected housing and transportation challenges. We will be tracking bills on land use and housing, transit funding, and bicycle/pedestrian safety
Maryland can make progress on housing and transportation
Maryland faces real challenges including high housing costs, unsafe streets, aging transit systems, economic doldrums, and impacts from climate change. This legislative session, we have the opportunity to address these interconnected challenges with smart growth reforms.
Attend a Duke Street community workshop!
Alexandria City staff wants to hear from you as they update the Duke Street Land Use Plan.
CSG News: January 2026
Game on! The Maryland and Virginia General Assembly sessions start tomorrow. On the table: housing and land use, transit-oriented development, transportation reforms, and funding for WMATA and other transit systems. Meanwhile, there’s still plenty of local action on land use and transportation. Here is what you need to know to speak up!
CSG in the News: Traffic fatalities in DC drop more than 50% in 2025, Attorney General says
January 05, 2026 | Ya-Marie Sesay | DC News Now
Since the STEER Act was implemented, the Attorney General’s Office has sued 24 of the most dangerous drivers in the District. Combined, those drivers accumulated more than 4,300 traffic violations and over $1.4 million in traffic fines.
“We’re supportive of these kinds of efforts to ensure that drivers who are being dangerous and careless are accountable. And so we appreciate that out of the steer act,” Cheryl Cort with the Coalition for Smarter Growth said.
However, Cort and other advocates said enforcement alone isn’t enough. They said that long-term safety improvements must also include better street design.
“We tend to build overly large roadways that encourage drivers to drive faster, to take turns faster. And all of the speed just is always going to equal additional risk, basically,” Cort said. “We should have protected bike lanes wherever we can, and we should tighten up intersections so that people who are on foot can have shorter distances to cross that roadway. We have a lot of over-designed roadways where there’s a six-lane road. Really doesn’t need to be more than four lanes.”
Advocates said reducing traffic deaths requires a comprehensive approach, from driver behavior to infrastructure and emergency response.
Be a part of preserving Alexandria’s affordable housing
Alexandria’s Office of Housing is requesting feedback on its draft Affordable Housing Preservation Recommendations and Strategies as part of the city’s Housing 2040 initiative.
Event materials: How New Housing Affects Affordability. Virtual Screening + Q&A with Justine Underhill
This online event focused on the impacts of luxury housing on affordability. We screened “What Luxury Housing Does to Homelessness,” followed by a Q&A with its creator, Falls Church City Councilmember Justine Underhill. Justine is known for her dynamic video series simplifying complex housing concepts with research and engaging graphics. The discussion explored the connections between homelessness, affordability, and new housing, with a regional focus on Northern Virginia, where Justine is an elected official.
Here are a few of the materials we discussed:
- Video: What Luxury Housing Does to Homelessness
- Check out Justine’s website to see her other videos and get in touch
- For further reading: More Flexible Zoning Helps Contain Rising Rents
- The Effect of New Market-Rate Housing Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market
- Supply Skepticism Revisited
Press Release: New DC region transportation plan misses the mark on our climate change, safety, and affordability challenges
Despite a 2021 TPB resolution to do a vastly different and improved plan, this new Visualize 2050 plan fails to move the needle in helping the region use safer, more affordable and sustainable transportation modes.
Support for major upzoning for more homes in Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro station areas (DC)
Support for Zoning Case No. 25-13 — Proposed Zoning Text and Map Amendments to create and map – new Wisconsin Avenue Mixed Use zones for Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro station areas