Join us for our “All About Thrive” series over the next few months to help people learn more about Thrive 2050, Montgomery County’s new general plan.
Category: Maryland
CSG Testimony: Prince George’s FY23 Budget
On right track for affordable housing; DPW&T needs to put safety & community goals first in road designs
Background & Analysis on Visualize 2045 (April 2022)
Despite a new climate action plan by TPB’s parent agency the Council of Governments, this Visualize 2045 makes no real changes and fails to reduce emissions any more than the last one.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Residents to Host Major Action for Affordable Housing at Chevy Chase Library
Community members call on County Executive Marc Elrich and the Montgomery County Council to to use public land for maximum public good
CSG Testimony on MoCo FY23 Operating Budget
In the FY23 operating budget, we urge you to prioritize transit, affordable housing, climate change, and parks.
ACTION ALERT: Demand climate action from your local elected officials
Transportation is the #1 source of our regional greenhouse gas emissions, and we have just 8 years to slash those emissions. Yet, our local and state elected officials who sit on the regional Transportation Planning Board (TPB), are not taking the urgent – and feasible – steps necessary to reduce emissions from our region’s transportation system. They need to hear from you!
Letter: Affordable Housing at Chevy Chase Library
The twenty-one undersigned organizations urge you to redevelop the Chevy Chase Library with mixed-income housing. We believe this is an opportunity to model the future of Montgomery County by mixing housing and a public facility in one location near transit, services, amenities, and jobs. This project is key to meeting the county’s goals to achieve racial equity and social justice, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.
Sign up to testify for free fares!
Ride On bus fares in Montgomery County have been free since March 2020 and the Montgomery Better Buses coalition, organized by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, has won an extension of free fares four times. Right now, fares will stay free until June 2022. But we’d like to see free fares extended until at least October 2023, when the county’s study to redesign Ride On and Metrobus routes will be complete.
Letter to MDGA Leadership re: the proposed suspension of the Maryland gas tax
On behalf of the Transform Maryland Transportation Coalition (formerly Save MD Transit), we thank you for your support of the Transit Safety & Investment Act during the 2021 General Assembly. The bill will help assure MTA’s current maintenance needs will be addressed over the next five years.
TESTIMONY re: Strathmore Square (Support)
March 16, 2022
Montgomery County Planning Board
2425 Reedie Dr
Wheaton, MD 20902
Item 6 – Strathmore Square: Preliminary Plan Amendment No. 12019018B & Site Plan No. 820220070 (Support)
Testimony for March 17, 2022
Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager
Thank you, Chair Anderson and Planning Commissioners, for the opportunity to provide testimony on the Strathmore Square project. My name is Jane Lyons and I’m speaking on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all.
We support the application by Fivesquares Development and are excited by the vision of Strathmore Square. This project will bring much needed activation to the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station, including 220 units of housing (33 MPDUs), jobs, a 1.2 acre park, shared street, bike amenities, public space, and other improvements to the area. This is an opportunity to turn a parking lot into a vibrant community.
It is our hope this project will serve as an example of what can be achieved with transit-oriented development in the county. Projects like Strathmore Square are needed to provide the public benefits that contribute to making the county a more attractive, inclusive, and sustainable place to live. By concentrating more housing, retail, and jobs at a Metro station, Montgomery County will be making it easier for more residents to be less reliant on a private vehicle and bring additional business to destinations like the Music Center at Strathmore and Pike & Rose in North Bethesda.
Thus, we urge you to support the plan amendment and site plan for Strathmore Square. Thank you for your consideration.