Category: Maryland

CSG primer: Visualize 2050, our region’s 25-year transportation plan

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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

Posted on by Elena Sorokina
Advocates spanning the generations celebrate our win at the Council Office Building on Tuesday, July 29! 
 

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!

CSG in the News: County Council votes to abandon M-83 highway plan

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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

RELEASE: Montgomery County Council votes to remove the unbuilt northern portion of the M-83 highway from Master Plan

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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.

Big win in Montgomery County! Council allows more multi-family homes on county corridors 

Big win in Montgomery County! Council allows more multi-family homes on county corridors 

Posted on by Carrie Kisicki

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.

RELEASE: We know we have traffic congestion. The real news is that we have more solutions to congestion than most regions of the country – and can do better.

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 23, 2025

CONTACT:
Stewart Schwartz, 703-599-6437

Consumer Affairs released its ranking of the cities with the worst congestion and DC ranked #1. “These rankings routinely show DC in the top four, so it’s not news that our region has congestion. For one thing, it’s a sign of a healthy economy, and in our case, the return to office requirement,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“More importantly, this new report doesn’t appear to account for the 40% of workers[i] (almost a million) who take transit, carpool, walk and bike to work in our region, and who have been given great options for avoiding traffic,” said Schwartz. 

CSG reached out to Consumer Affairsabout their methodology, to determine if they counted transit, bike and pedestrian commuters in their analysis and ranking but the designated contact was listed as out of the office. It does not appear however that non-auto trips were included.

Bill Pugh, Senior Policy Fellow for CSG added, “Metrorail, Metrobus, local bus, VRE, MARC, and Amtrak, and our increasing number of homes in walkable, bike-friendly neighborhoods all provide options that are less stressful and healthier. We need our local governments to allow even more housing options in walkable, convenient, transit-accessible locations.”

“This report also helps make clear why our region should be investing in expanding transit options and making it even more frequent,” said Schwartz, who serves on the region’s DMV Moves Community Advisory Committee which is supporting elected officials looking at both transit improvements and dedicated funding options.

“Increased frequency on Metrorail has attracted more riders, and the WMATA 2025 Better Bus Network is also designed to increase bus frequency and speeds. Meanwhile, both MARC and VRE commuter rail have plans to increase service – including all-day bi-directional and weekend service,” said Pugh.

“So, let’s take this latest traffic ranking and use it to spur action on the increased and dedicated funding our transit systems need, and to provide more housing options in walkable communities linked to great transit options,” concluded Schwartz.

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, DC region advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the region to grow and provide opportunities for all.

[i]  Sources: National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, Visualize 2050 plan, and MWCOG employment data.

CSG in the News: Montgomery County Council to vote on ‘missing middle’ housing plan

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

July 22, 2025 | Maureen Umeh | FOX 5 DC 

“Montgomery’s economy, the economy of Maryland, is in some trouble right now. If we cannot provide housing, that’s affordable to the workforce, they can’t come to the county and provide their talents and services to the county,” said Stewart Schwartz with the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “Companies will not come to the D.C. region and to Montgomery County if they don’t believe housing is affordable for their workers, they’ll go to places where it is more affordable.”

Read the full story here.

CSG in the News: Montgomery County Faces Pushback On ‘Landmark’ Housing Package

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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.”

CSG in the News: Controversial workforce housing bill up for council vote Tuesday

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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.”

RELEASE: CSG strongly supports ZTA 25-02 and urges the Montgomery County Council to move forward with the amendment

RELEASE: CSG strongly supports ZTA 25-02 and urges the Montgomery County Council to move forward with the amendment

Posted on by Elena Sorokina

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.