The Coalition for Smarter Growth commends the Moore-Miller administration for enacting the Housing Starts Here executive order, demonstrating Maryland’s commitment to building the homes we need in a strategic, sustainable, and inclusive way.
Author: Elena Sorokina
Maryland: Comments on Frederick draft Climate and Energy Action Plan
We commend Frederick County and the City of Frederick for preparing this plan and setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 (from 2010 baseline) and 100% by 2050.
CSG in the News: Rally Against Widespread Tree Removal On W&OD Trail Planned In Vienna
August 28, 2025 | Emily Leayman| Patch
The Rally for W&OD will be held on Saturday, Sept. 6, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the Vienna Town Green (144 Maple Avenue E), which the trail runs through. The rally seeks to stop tree cutting along the trail and get elected officials and decision makers to negotiate a new agreement on the tree maintenance policies. Event sponsors include the Sierra Club Great Falls Group, Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Nature Forward and Fairfax Families for Safe Streets.
Supporting our Capital City and its people
A message from CSG’s team
MD Comments: Draft Go Prince George’s
We wish to provide some initial comments on the draft Go Prince George’s in advance of its formal consideration.
CSG primer: Visualize 2050, our region’s 25-year transportation plan
The draft Visualize 2050 plan, our region’s long-range transportation plan, has too many highway and arterial road expansions that will increase driving and climate emissions. We will miss our region’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 – even if there’s a rapid switch to electric vehicles.
Get informed so you can take action on key decisions this fall:
- Upcoming key vote on flawed 495 Southside Express Lanes project
- Comment period on failing status quo Visualize plan
Source: TPB, with annotations by the Coalition for Smarter Growth
Background on Visualize 2050
- Visualize 2050 is our region’s long-range transportation plan, prepared by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), a regional body overseen by our local and state officials and transportation agencies.
- CSG background article
- From March 2024, on draft project list that is now being presented for final approval this fall along with its performance results.
- 48 organizations criticized the previous plan, Visualize 2045 with very similar projects Letter by 48 regional organizations on Visualize 2045 (May 2022)
495 Southside Express Lanes Project
- The TPB board will vote in October on whether or not to include the Virginia Department of Transportation’s flawed highway expansion project in the final plan.
- Background on the project’s flaws, questions that VDOT has not answered, and better alternatives that need to be studied and advanced.
Stay tuned for actions you can take this fall!
- Be on the lookout for CSG action alerts in September and October ahead of the TPB vote on the 495 Southside Express Lanes project.
- Formal public comment on the entire draft Visualize 2050 plan will take place in late October through mid-November. CSG will provide a more in-depth overview of the draft plan – stay tuned.
VICTORY! M-83 Highway is Removed from Montgomery County Plans
On Tuesday, the County Council voted 10-1 to remove the unbuilt portion of Mid-County Highway Extended (M-83) from county plans. This was a victory decades in the making!
Left on the books since the 1960s but largely unbuilt, M-83 offered false hope that extra road capacity could solve upcounty traffic problems. If built, it would have bulldozed farms, forests, streams, and wildlife in its path.
With this vote, our county leaves behind an outdated and harmful highway plan, and can focus on real, meaningful transportation investments upcounty.
Thank you for your advocacy!
This win took a village. I am the fourth CSG Montgomery Advocacy Manager to have worked on this campaign (shout out to Kelly Blynn, Pete Tomao, and Jane Lyons-Raeder!) and am proud to have worked alongside dedicated advocates at TAME, ACT, and other partners who have advocated to remove M-83 for decades, as well as a new generation of advocates like Eco MoCo, led by high school and middle school students.
Over the years, CSG joined leading advocates at TAME in forums, walking tours, and research, reports, and testimony that demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the proposed highway, its environmental and community harms, and the benefits of more sustainable alternatives.
And we couldn’t have done it without you, our network of CSG supporters and advocates. In the past year alone, over 200 CSG supporters contacted the Planning Board and the County Council to support the removal of M-83 from county plans. That’s over 1,350 total emails!
What happens next?
Better street connections, safe bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and investments in frequent, reliable public transit all can help provide much needed transportation improvements upcounty—and upcounty residents need these changes sooner rather than later.
When combined with mixed-use walkable neighborhood designs, these solutions will reduce the amount people have to drive, shortening car trips and increasing walking, biking, and transit use.
As part of their vote on the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, the Council approved an amendment to fund a comprehensive upcounty transportation study. CSG plans to support the special appropriation for this study at its September 30 hearing (sign-up opens August 1).
Once more, with feeling—THANK YOU, and let’s celebrate this win!
I am so grateful for your support as we celebrate this victory, and I look forward to continuing to work with you all to win the sustainable transportation solutions upcounty residents need!
Fault Lines Screening with Post-film Panel and Social Hour
We invite you to an exclusive screening of the groundbreaking documentary, “Fault Lines,” followed by an expert panel discussion with regional leaders and a social hour to continue the conversation.
CSG in the News: County Council votes to abandon M-83 highway plan
July 29, 2025 | Ginny Bixby | Bethesda Magazine
An advocacy group that lobbied against the highway plan praised the council’s decision Tuesday in a press release.
“Plans for M-83 were based on obsolete planning assumptions that are out of sync with what we know today about effectively meeting transportation demand and protecting community and environmental health,” said Carrie Kisicki, Montgomery advocacy manager for the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Smarter Growth. “With their vote to remove M-83, the County Council showed we are ready to offer upcounty residents transportation solutions that will offer real relief—not a costly and environmentally harmful false promise.”
Read the full story here.
RELEASE: Montgomery County Council votes to remove the unbuilt northern portion of the M-83 highway from Master Plan
The Montgomery County Council voted today to remove the unbuilt northern portion of M-83 from the Master Plan of Highways and Transitways, a move strongly supported by the Coalition for Smarter Growth and local leaders in the TAME Coalition.