The University Boulevard Corridor Plan envisions a community with safer streets, thriving local businesses, better public transit, and more housing choices to meet people’s needs at all ages and stages of life.
Visit our landing page at smartergrowth.net/ubc to take action and learn more about the plan.
Residents and community activists got together in Tenleytown on October 7 to socialize and talk about opportunities to build more sustainable inclusive and walkable neighborhoods, especially in Ward 3.
Thank you to all who could join us for our recent screening of the powerful Fault Lines film at the Angelika Film Center in Fairfax. Whether you were with us in the theater or couldn’t make it this time, we are grateful to have you as part of this growing conversation about housing affordability, livable communities, and the future of our region.
The evening began with Fault Lines, a documentary that brings to life the human stories behind the Bay Area’s housing crisis. Following the screening, our panel of regional leaders reflected on the challenges and opportunities closer to home for addressing our own serious housing affordability challenges.
Fairfax Chairman Jeff McKay stated, “We are not talking about the number of units. We are talking about humans here. We are talking about kids, we are talking about parents, we are talking about hardworking people, people with disabilities […] We need to humanize it as much as we can.”
Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi emphasized that housing should be a central issue for communities that value the environment, health, equity, small businesses, and overall economic vitality of the region.
Key takeaways from the discussion:
Thank you to our elected officials who sponsored and participated in this event, Senator Salim and Delegates Simon and Seibold, Fairfax Chair McKay and Supervisors Palchik and Alcorn, Mayor Hardi and Mayor Read! Thank you also to Carmen Romero of True Ground Housing, Keith Waters of GMU, and McLean Quinn of EYA for joining our panel discussion.
Lots of work ahead, but we know it can be done. Your voices and your energy are exactly what we need to continue advancing livable communities in our region.
Here are more ways to get involved:
Thank you for all you do.
A screening of Fault Lines, a documentary exploring housing and policy, followed by a panel of regional leaders and a community social hour. The panel will examine Northern Virginia’s housing challenges and explore strategies to build more inclusive and livable communities in our region.
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.
Yesterday, the Montgomery County Council voted 8-3 to pass Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 25-02. The legislation will allow more housing types, like townhouses or small apartment buildings, along major corridors, creating more homes near jobs and amenities.
July 23, 2025 | Ginny Bixby | Bethesda Today
The Coalition for Smarter Growth released a statement prior to Tuesday’s vote voicing support for the zoning change. The nonprofit advocates for “walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities” in the Washington, D.C. area, according to its website.
“By making it easier to build more duplexes, triplexes, and small apartments near transit and jobs, [the] ZTA is an important step toward more sustainable housing options in Montgomery County,” the statement said. “Measures like this that take on the structural problems feeding our housing shortage are a necessary step to achieve our shared vision of a sustainable, inclusive county for all.”
Read the full story here.
July 21, 2025 | Jon Banister| Bisnow
Carrie Kisicki, the Montgomery County advocacy manager for pro-housing group Coalition for Smarter Growth, said requiring property owners to go through an approval process would make these multifamily projects take more time and money to pursue. But she supports the overall proposal because it creates a pathway to building more housing on lots that have long been restricted to detached single-family homes.
“We’re still living in that world where people who 10 or 20 years ago would’ve been able to buy a starter home, or young professionals who would’ve been able to buy an apartment in the county, started to not be able to do that because of how little we’ve been building the types of housing that people needed,” Kisicki said.
“So this is to me a landmark package because it shows we’re willing to go back and look at some of those things we’ve taken for granted about where we build homes or don’t build homes.”
July 21, 2025 | Ginny Bixby | Bethesda Magazine
“It’s a plain and simple fact that our county needs more housing,” said Carrie Kisicki, Montgomery advocacy manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a Washington, D.C. metro region nonprofit focused on housing affordability and transit access, at a public hearing on the legislation in March. “People want housing that they can afford, and they do not want to have to spend their lives sitting in traffic just to get to work.”
As the Montgomery County Council prepares to hold a work session and probable vote on Tuesday, The Coalition for Smarter Growth is proud to voice our support for Zoning Text Amendment 25-02. By making it easier to build more duplexes, triplexes, and small apartments near transit and jobs, ZTA 25-02 is an important step toward more sustainable housing options in Montgomery County.