Send a message to the Planning Board today to let them know you support a plan that realizes the full potential of a more sustainable, welcoming, and transit-oriented Friendship Heights.
Category: Housing
TESTIMONY: CSG Support for ADUs in Prince George’s
CSG strongly supports CB 74, to permit accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a matter of right on lots with single-family detached homes.
ACTION ALERT: Support ADUs in Prince George’s
On September 3, 2026, the Prince George’s County Council will consider a bill (CB 74) to permit accessory dwelling units (ADUs). This bill is driven by a state law that requires local governments to ease restrictions on ADUs and allow them by right in single family zones. After years of talking about it, now something is finally happening! Send a letter of support to the County Council. Also take a short Council survey on the proposal. Tell them we want ADUs – without a lot of onerous restrictions.
Why we love ADUs
The bill would allow this flexible housing type on a single-family lot, diversifying housing options that can better meet the needs of families and the community. Here are some of the benefits:
- Allows smaller, less costly housing in an existing neighborhood with existing services;
- Helps an aging couple add a dwelling so that their adult children can live on the same lot;
- Enables a family to add a unit for an adult child with a disability, providing both proximity and independence, or provides a caregiver living space;
- Helps a young family cover the costs of homeownership by renting out a backyard cottage or basement apartment.
What’s in the bill
The current bill (CB 74-2026) at a County Council committee will legalize ADUs with reasonable rules — which follow the state law which requires local governments to allow ADUs.
The bill would allow an ADU as a matter of right that:
- Is on the same lot with a single-family detached house;
- Is not greater than 75% of the size of, and is subordinate to the principal house;
- Can be a separate structure (e.g. garage conversion) or an addition to, or inside the existing house (e.g. basement apartment);
- No taller than 22 feet, or shorter than the principal house;
- Does not add more than 900 square feet of lot coverage as an addition to the principal house.
These are basic rules that still allow a one or two story accessory independent living unit that is smaller than the principal single-family detached house. This works!
Beware of excessive restrictions
ADUs are often stymied by excessive regulations such as owner-occupancy requirements, and complicated forms, extra reviews and approvals. Send a letter — say you want to welcome ADUs into Prince George’s neighborhoods, without a lot of onerous restrictions.
Weigh in before the Council’s committee meeting on September 3, 2026
ACTION ALERT: What do you think of the Duke Street recommendations?
The deadline to provide feedback on the draft recommendations for the Duke Street Land Use Plan has been extended to September 15.
ACTION ALERT: Don’t forget to support accessory dwellings today!
Fairfax County is in the final stretch of updating its Accessory Living Unit (ALU) regulations, and the county needs to hear from supporters before making their final decisions.
ACTION ALERT: The time is near for ALUs – we need you!
Fairfax County recently released proposed changes to its Accessory Living Unit (ALU) regulations. While heading in the right direction, they still don’t go far enough.
Testimony: Support for Friendship Commons (GEICO Site), Maryland
The Friendship Commons development planned for Friendship Heights’ former GEICO campus will add 500+ homes, 10-foot bikeways and sidewalks, and new businesses and gathering spaces just one block from Metro’s Red Line.
Streamline development review in Prince George’s – reduce uncertainty & excessive process, oppose LDR 153-2026 (Maryland)
July 30, 2026
Prince George’s County Planning Board, M-NCPPC
1616 McCormick Drive, Largo MD Via: pgcpb@mncppc.org
RE: Oppose LDR 153-2026, reduce uncertainty & excessive process
Dear members of the Board:
The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), advocates for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all. We also support and work closely with RISE Prince George’s, a group of county residents and allies advocating for policies and practices that build shared, sustainable prosperity in Prince George’s County by creating safe, walkable, inclusive and transit-oriented communities.
On behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, we urge the Planning Board to work with Planning Department staff and County Council members to create better development streamlining procedures instead of supporting this LDR. This LDR lacks legal soundness and misses key issues in improving the county’s development review process.
Prince George’s development review process is out of step with best practices. This harms the county by discouraging competitive, quality developers from wanting to take a chance on the county. It short changes community members who want to see planning turn into quality homes, and mixed use places.
The zoning rewrite was supposed to remove procedural burdens. The key goals of zoning rewrite were to streamline and create predictability. It was supposed to provide clear input from the public at the outset. The new zoning rules require a pre-application meeting with the community which is designed to get stakeholders’ feedback at the beginning of the process — before the development team had invested in costly plans and advanced designs. Before this requirement, the community often found out about a project in their area with a Planning Board hearing notice.
As part of the modernization of the zoning regulations — the zoning rewrite set a clear baseline that could be reviewed administratively. The code was made more regulatory, providing more detailed, form-based standards.
The new zoning code would streamline review with increased public engagement on the front end, followed by administrative, matter-of-right review that did not require additional steps of discretionary or political-level review on the back end. However, the administrative unpredictability was retained through “election to review” or “call up” by the County Council. This meant zoning regulations were more detailed but all the procedural uncertainties remained. This is not the improvement and streamlining we had hoped for.
Far more development review could be done administratively. Detailed Site Plans (DSPs) are often a poor use of everyone’s time. The staff report for LDR 153-2026 recommends exempting single-family detached and three family dwellings from DSP review, citing the negligible value added after a subdivision review, which addresses all the major impacts and requirements. Two-family dwellings could also be grouped with townhouse dwellings and the DSP threshold increased.
Most importantly, retaining the District Council election to review an application or “call up” — stands out as a major impediment to predictability for the review process. The public engagement is on the front side of planning and individual projects. Call up generates uncertainty on the back end that takes applicable laws, zoning regulations, and master plan recommendations into a political realm. If the county cannot catch up to other jurisdictions by eliminating call up, it should at least set new parameters around it to limit the downsides of this approach.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Cort
DC & Prince George’s Policy Director
Testimony: Support upzoning Wisconsin Ave. Metro corridor (DC)
CSC’s July 23, 2026 letter in support for Office of Planning’s Supplemental Report III recommendations, DC Zoning Case No. 25-13
July 23, 2026
Mr. Anthony Hood, Chairman, Zoning Commission of the District of Columbia
441 4th Street, NW, Suite 210S, Washington, DC 20001
RE: Support for Office of Planning’s Supplemental Report III recommendations
In 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
Dear Chair Hood and Members of the Zoning Commission:
Please accept this testimony on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. We are a nonprofit organization advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all.
We wish to express our support for the recommendations in the Office of Planning’s Supplemental Report III. The data and analysis provided by OP provide a sound rationale for the recommendations for the three questions examined at the request the Zoning Commission.
We have advocated for strengthening the form-based approach to zoning, rather than relying on a discretionary Design Review process. A Design Review process discourages new development due to the added risk of delay and uncertainty associated with a contested case. If the Zoning Commission plans to move forward with the use of Design Review for the new Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro zones, we support OP’s recommendations, which offer a more appropriate way to encourage quality redevelopment.
Specifically, we support:
- Large lots of 15,000 SF and above in the Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro zones will be subject to Design Review by the Zoning Commission. Below 15,000 SF lot size, projects should be reviewed as matter of right projects. These smaller projects would still be reviewed for compliance with the zones’ urban design requirements, but not as a contested case. This approach is consistent with guidance of the Wisconsin Avenue Development Framework. OP’s rationale in the Supplemental Report III offers a detailed analysis of lot sizes and potential impacts. We concur with OP’s conclusion that 15,000 SF for lots in the two new Metro zones is an appropriate threshold for Design Review, if the Zoning Commission chooses to apply a Design Review requirement.
- Affordable housing projects are exempt, if they meet high affordability levels — 33% affordable for very low and extremely low income households, and are affordable for the life of the building. We support this exemption because affordable housing projects are far more sensitive, and less tolerant of the uncertainties created in the development review process. If we are serious about bringing more affordable housing to high opportunity neighborhoods like these ones – where little exists – we must do more to remove barriers. This exemption is a helpful step to lower barriers in the development review process.
- Historic properties can be reviewed by the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB), and do not need a separate Design Review at the Zoning Commission. Appropriate design review can be provided by HPRB, since the project would already be subject to review at HPRB, and subject to the requirements of the zone that the project occurs in. A second review by the Zoning Commission would be largely duplicative.
These recommendations will help advance increased housing, and affordable housing options in this high-opportunity Metro corridor. This rezoning helps implement the Wisconsin Avenue Development Framework and offers the potential for thousands of new homes, and the benefit that comes with that — attracting new shops, restaurants, and services around two Metro stations in Friendship Heights and Tenleytown, and the Wisconsin Avenue transit corridor. This significant upzoning advances the District’s goals to create more housing, and more affordable housing, especially in high opportunity and transit-accessible areas.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Cort
DC and Prince George’s Policy Director
ACTION ALERT: This office campus can become a transit-oriented community
The Friendship Commons development planned for Friendship Heights’ former GEICO campus could add 500+ homes, 10-foot bikeways and sidewalks, and new businesses and gathering spaces just one block from Metro’s Red Line.