Author: Elena Sorokina
RELEASE: Zoning Commission takes important step to strengthen affordable housing in the District
DC CAMPAIGN FOR INCLUSIONARY ZONING
DC FISCAL POLICY INSTITUTE — COALITION FOR SMARTER GROWTH
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 21, 2016
CONTACT
Claire Zippel, DC Fiscal Policy Institute
czippel@dcfpi.org 202-325-8251
Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth
cheryl@smartergrowth.net 202-251-7516
Zoning Commission takes important step to strengthen affordable housing in the District
(Washington, DC) The DC Zoning Commission took an important step Wednesday night to expand affordable housing in the District, with a vote to strengthen the city’s Inclusionary Zoning program. The Commission’s action largely adopts the recommendations of the DC Campaign for Inclusionary Zoning, a group of affordable housing advocates and supporters.
Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) harnesses the District’s hot real estate market to create affordable housing throughout the city. IZ requires almost every new residential development to reserve a specified share of the new homes at below-market rents or sales prices, in return for allowing greater density than normally permitted by zoning rules. Importantly, IZ can produce affordable housing wherever development is occurring – including in neighborhoods with access to public transportation, good schools, retail amenities, and job opportunities – without requiring tax dollars.
IZ will soon help more low-income families struggling to pay the rent amidst the city’s rising housing costs. On Wednesday, July 20, the Zoning Commission voted to require new IZ rental units to be set aside as affordable to families with incomes below 60 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), or $59,000 for a family of three. That amounts to $1,100 for a one-bedroom rental. Currently, the vast majority of IZ units are only required to be affordable at 80 percent AMI – or $1,600 for a one-bedroom rental – close to market rate in most DC neighborhoods.
As a result of the Commission’s action, IZ will generate over 2,600 apartments affordable to low-income families over the next five to ten years, based on the pace of new development which has climbed to a 25-year high. “The Zoning Commission’s decision comes at an opportune time to ensure IZ does the most it can for families severely squeezed by DC’s high rents and closed out of many neighborhoods,” said Claire Zippel of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
“We are gratified that the Commission is sharpening the tool we knew could do more to address our city’s affordable housing crisis. The economics show that this change strikes the right balance between encouraging market-rate housing production and incorporating greater affordability for those left out of the market,” said Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
The Campaign for Inclusionary Zoning petitioned the Zoning Commission in January, 2015 to consider revisions to IZ, after it became apparent that the homes created were largely out of reach of the city’s low-income residents – and too expensive for three-fourths of families on the IZ waiting list, whose incomes fall at or below 60 percent AMI. Paying the majority of income for rent is not uncommon for families near 60 percent AMI, whereas households at 80 percent AMI are already largely accommodated by existing housing in the private market.
“By strengthening this affordable housing policy, the Zoning Commission helps ensure working people can still call DC home. We thank the Commission for listening to the voices of those who are being priced out,” said Carlos Jimenez, Executive Director of the Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO.
“The Commission’s decision is good news for District residents at lower incomes who will benefit from IZ through increased access to opportunity – amenities and infrastructure in higher-cost neighborhoods, including schools, transportation choices, jobs and health care options,” said David Bowers, Vice President and Mid-Atlantic Market Leader at Enterprise Community Partners.
After a 30-day public review period, the Zoning Commission’s decision is expected to become final.
Statement at the Zoning Commission, March 3, 2016
The DC Campaign for Inclusionary Zoning is led by the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. It is supported by Enterprise Community Partners, the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO, PolicyLink, and Jews United for Justice.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its 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. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.
The DC Fiscal Policy Institute promotes budget and policy choices to expand economic opportunity for DC residents and to reduce income inequality in the District of Columbia, through independent research and policy recommendations. Learn more at dcfpi.org.
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Got a quick, cheap fix for I-270 traffic? Maryland wants to hear it.
Those are the only conditions Maryland transportation officials are placing on proposals they are seeking from the private sector to improve traffic flow on the state’s most congested highway. Yes, I-270 is even worse than the Beltway in Maryland, says transportation secretary Pete Rahn.
“We don’t have the solution to congestion with what we currently have available to us in our tool chest,” said Rahn in an interview at MDOT headquarters in Hanover.
The state is asking the private sector to come up with an idea — any idea that might work.
“This is as open a procurement as you can possibly imagine, telling the world that we are open to new concepts,” said Rahn. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like.”
But Rahn has ruled out one possible solution to rush hour traffic backups: toll lanes, which are expensive and time-consuming projects. One needs to simply glance across the river to Northern Virginia to see 45 miles of HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes on I-495 and I-95 that offer motorists a choice: pay a toll for a faster ride, or stick with the regular lanes and risk getting slowed down by congestion.
“We have ruled out tolling on 270 because of the length of time that would be necessary to implement it. I would hope that we could have solutions implemented within two, maybe three years,” he said.
Proposals are due in September, but Maryland’s top transportation official said if he does not receive one he is in love with, the state won’t spend the money.
“Industry of the world, bring us your concepts, tell us how it will work and we will pay you upon your performance,” said Rahn, who said he is not aware of any quick-fix highway projects in the world that cost less than $100 million.
And critics of his approach argue it could induce more people to drive, eventually filling up I-270 with long-distance, drive-alone commuters all over again.
“The congestion can return very quickly because people change the time of their commute back into the peak hour. They may drop out of a carpool and travel alone. They might leave transit and then drive alone in the corridor,” said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a pro-transit group.
Schwartz favors establishing express bus service in dedicated lanes to facilitate faster commuting over long distances, and fears any short-term “improvement” to I-270 will lead to more sprawl.
“It has to start with better land use planning in Frederick County and beyond,” he said. “We need to revitalize and continue to invest in the city of Frederick and in mixed-use, walkable communities in the county, and not spread development all across the countryside where people have to drive for every trip.”
Rahn rejects the “induced demand” argument against highway projects, saying commuters have proven they are willing to drive in terrible traffic to get to work far from home.
“People are in fact willing to drive now an hour and a half, two hours, from where they work,” he said. “People will bear almost intolerable conditions in order to stay in their cars.”
Funds for an I-270 solution are part of a $2 billion transportation package backed by Gov. Larry Hogan. It focuses largely on roads but also includes funding for the Purple Line light rail system in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.
Photo courtesy of Raymond Wald: https://flic.kr/p/boY7nS.
Click here to read the original story.
Is Washington’s Notorious Traffic Congestion Worse Under SafeTrack?
Fears that Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance blitz would send rail riders piling into cars and further clogging downtown Washington streets may have been misplaced, at least according to early traffic volume data compiled in D.C. and Northern Virginia.
The anecdotal evidence differs. Some commuters are complaining of nightmarish gridlock turning short drives into slow crawls, even if it is not clear whether reduced service on the Orange and Silver Lines is to blame. After all, traffic is terrible in and around Washington on normal days for an array of reasons. But what is clear after just a few days of Metro’s historic reconstruction program is the District is not being paralyzed by epic amounts of new traffic.
More traffic? Maybe.
Traffic counts on major corridors entering the city were about the same on Tuesday, June 7, as the prior two Tuesdays in May, according to data released by the District Department of Transportation. At some locations, traffic was lighter.
On the I-395 bridge, volume was 196,000 vehicles on June 7, about 10,000 cars fewer than crossed the bridge on May 24. On May 17, the figure was 192,000.
On the Roosevelt Bridge, traffic volume reached close to 89,000 on June 7, about the same as it was on May 24. On the previous Tuesday — two weeks before SafeTrack — volume was higher: 93,000.
Fewer cars also were counted on K Street between 18th and 19th Streets and 13th Street between I and K Streets on June 7 than on the prior two dates, but not by much.
Overall, traffic in the four corridors is roughly flat, but DDOT reported longer travel times in the “downtown core.” During morning rush hour, the average trip took 21 minutes compared to the usual of 15 minutes, and in the afternoon rush hour it trip time expanded from 15 to 20 minutes.
In NoVa, accidents or SafeTrack?
Major roads in Northern Virginia saw small yet significant increases in traffic volume on Tuesday, although Virginia officials cautioned accidents and other factors may have caused congestion, not necessarily SafeTrack.
On Rt. 29 at Shreve Road traffic volume increased 13 percent in the 7 a.m. hour on June 7 compared to the same day the previous week (from 1548 cars to 1740), according to data released by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Volume was up five percent in the afternoon rush hour.
Rt. 50 at Graham Drive, Rt. 7 at Idylwood Road, I-66 at mile marker 72, Rt. 123 at George Washington Parkway, and Rt. 123 at Georgetown Pike all saw increases of between 3 and 6 percent in morning and afternoon rush hour.
“Since it has only been a few days, there are other factors to consider also, such as impacts from accidents,” said VDOT spokeswoman Jennifer McCord.
“An accident on I-66 at Route 50 around 6:30 am [Wednesday] resulted in additional delays west of 50. I-395 continued to experience heavy congestion this morning, similar to [Tuesday]. On both days, there were accidents on either the D.C. or Va. side.”
Blocking the box
On Twitter and the WAMU Metropocalypse Facebook group, motorists are complaining about what they believe is worsening gridlock.
One commuter, Nicole Kaeding, said traffic was so awful outside her downtown office building on Tuesday afternoon that it took her 15 minutes just to get out of the garage.
In an interview, she speculated that new car commuters unfamiliar with downtown streets could be the culprits.
“I noticed when I was in one of the traffic circles,” said the mom of two as she steered her SUV up 13th Street Northwest. “Most people who tend to drive every day know what lane they should be in when they enter the traffic circles for their exits, and I got cut off three or four times by people who were [in the wrong lane] trying to get out of the circle.”
Not all the anecdotal evidence is doom and gloom.
“We don’t see evidence of an increased amount of blocking of the box or gridlock,” said Neil Albert, the president of the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.
Gridlock often happens at intersections without DDOT’s traffic control officers (TCOs), and the agency concedes it does not have enough personnel for the typical rush hour, let alone the post-SafeTrack reality.
Months ago Mayor Muriel Bowser requested funding for 20 more TCOs for the fiscal year starting in October, but after Metro released the SafeTrack project schedule the administration decided to accelerate the hiring process.
“We commissioned a study with the Federal City Council and Accenture that revealed the need for additional TCOs,” said DDOT spokesman Terry Owens, referring to a report that was produced last year.
“We plan to have the people hired over the next several weeks, hopefully by the end of June. Training should take about a four weeks,” Owens said.
DDOT currently has about 35 TCOs on the payroll. They are deployed at 10 downtown locations, but each location covers multiple intersections.
“We’re definitely on board with getting more TCOs,” Albert said. “But we also want to make sure they are placed strategically. Not every intersection downtown needs TCOs. They are not the only solution. DDOT has done a fantastic job of using better timing on their traffic signals.”
The limits of driving
As traffic ebbs and flows over the next year of reduced Metrorail service, transit advocates say SafeTrack is providing the region a can’t-miss opportunity to make better use of the existing road space.
“What it is showing is a modern, great city can’t survive by car alone. You need a successful transit network to allow for a city to thrive,” said Stewart Schwartz, the head of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
The group has been calling on D.C. and its suburbs to at last install temporary, dedicated bus lanes to move commuters around Metro’s rail work zones. And it has been encouraging people to carpool, bike, or walk to work.
“Hopefully in the coming months we can drive some dedicated bus lanes. The city has been studying 16th Street Northwest for a while, and based upon our recommendations and their detailed analysis, they are finding they can do peak-hour bus lanes on 16th Street,” Schwartz said.
“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and we should use this to test out creating a redundant and effective transit network using buses,” he added.
At a news conference last week, Mayor Bowser downplayed the possibility of installing temporary bus lanes on short notice. Starting June 18, Metro will deploy dozens of buses to bridge commuters between Eastern Market and Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road rail stations during the first line segment shutdown of SafeTrack, but those “bus bridges” will have to share lanes with everyone else.
“We are still in the early rounds, but we would like to see more,” Schwartz said.
Photo courtesy of Martin Di Caro. Click here to read the original story.