Category: Resources

Keep transit moving by wearing a mask!

Posted on by Emily Maurer
Header image: Elvert Barnes, Flickr; body image: Sanford Health News

Public transit has been a lifeline for essential workers who keep our society and economy moving. Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that masks work to keep people safe. Reports from countries like Japan and France suggest that public transit is relatively safe, so long as passengers wear masks, don’t talk, maintain distance, and agencies maintain regular cleaning.

Be sure to wear the mask correctly on your face, and avoid touching it whenever possible. Avoid N95 masks with vents, as they do not prevent virus transmission.

All transit agencies in the DC region require masks. For those in Montgomery County, Ride On buses are equipped with limited supplies of disposable masks available to riders without masks, but please do your best to bring your own! 

By wearing a mask, you will be protecting your fellow passengers, your transit operators, and yourself! As CDC’s Dr. Robert Redfield recently announced, transmission will decrease sharply if we can all commit to wearing a mask for the foreseeable future.

We know, masks aren’t always comfortable, especially in the hot summer months in the DC area, but masking up is a relatively easy way to make a positive impact in your community and keep transit moving. So wear your mask, travel with hand sanitizer, and please continue to stay safe and healthy. We will get through this together!

Active Transportation Webinar: Active Transportation during COVID-19

Posted on by Emily Maurer

Click here to watch our Active Transportation Webinar featuring transportation officials in the Northern Virginia region discussing how they are responding to COVID-19. The event was cosponsored by Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County, and George Mason University’s Department of Parking and Transportation.

Event: Understanding DC Zoning for Accessory Apartments & Second Dwellings

Event: Understanding DC Zoning for Accessory Apartments & Second Dwellings

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Homeowner’s ADU Zoning Webinar

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 @ 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Via Zoom

RSVP

Attention DC homeowners! Want to understand what DC zoning regulations permit on your lot so you can build an accessory apartment or second unit? Join us to learn from Mamadou Ndaw with the Office of the Zoning Administrator at Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). Mr. Ndaw will provide a presentation of DC’s zoning rules followed by Q & A. 

Photo credit: Erin Kelleher, see: www.ileanaschinder.com

View event materials here.

RELEASE: Advocates Alarmed at 18,000 Page Environmental Impact Statement on Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Widening Plan

Posted on by Emily Maurer

July 10, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, July 10th, 2020

CONTACT:

Lindsey Mendelson, Maryland Sierra Club
lindsey.mendelson@mdsierra.org | (240) 706-7901

Jeanne Braha, Rock Creek Conservancy
jbraha@rockcreekconservancy.org | (301)-312-1471

 
Advocates Alarmed at 18,000 Page Environmental Impact Statement on Gov. Hogan’s I-495 and I-270 Widening Plan

MARYLAND- Today, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released an 18,000 page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Gov. Hogan’s plans to expand I-495 and I-270 with two private toll lanes in each direction. The DEIS outlines the impacts of the plan on the region’s air, water, parks, noise levels, traffic and other categories.

Residents and community organizations have just started to sift through the 90 pound document to assess the damage that the over $11 billion project could cause to Maryland’s environment, health, and economy, especially in the midst of a global pandemic and economic downturn. Advocates are concerned that the DEIS, despite its size, does not adequately examine key alternatives to the widening such as public transit and better land use planning nor effectively examine telecommuting’s role in reducing congestion. 

In the last two weeks, over 40 organizations and U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Anthony Brown and Jamie Raskin asked for the comment period to be at least 120 days to accommodate the public’s ability to comment during the pandemic and complete the approximately 600 hours it would take to read through the document completely. Despite this request, the public comment period remains at 90 days, which would not be enough time for a person reading 40 hours a week to get through all the pages of the document.

“The Draft Environmental Impact Statement weighs 90 pounds. That alone indicates that this project warrants intense scrutiny. We are concerned that this massive highway project will exacerbate harm to our health and environment. The Sierra Club and other organizations have been denied, delayed or charged  $300,000 for public information requests that would have shed more light on this project.  We need more time to comment on this controversial proposal.” –Josh Tulkin, Director, Maryland Sierra Club

“Experience shows that highway expansions increase, not decrease, driving demand. By fueling more long-distance living and commuting, toll lanes are a massive, generational alteration of our landscape and come at high cost to homes and neighborhoods, people and health, and the natural environment.” – Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager of the Coalition for Smarter Growth

“The $11 billion I-495/I-270 expansion is too big and will affect too many lives over the next 50 years for Marylanders to accept an 18,000 page draft environmental impact statement that offers vague assurances that pollution and flood risk won’t increase and parks and communities will be protected. We urge MDOT to give the public the time it needs to review this draft statement and to release the secret traffic and revenue studies being used to justify this massive, high-risk project.  Maryland cannot afford a repeat of the crisis plaguing the Purple Line, the Hogan administration’s first public-private partnership. –Brad German, Co-Chair, Citizens Against Beltway Expansion

“This proposed expansion threatens our national parks, including Greenbelt Park, C&O Canal, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Suitland Parkway, and Baltimore-Washington Parkway, without solving the region’s transportation needs. Should this proposal move forward, over 300 acres of local parkland – including valuable green space in an increasingly urban area — could be paved over. Instead of pursuing this new and costly highway expansion, the National Parks Conservation Association urges the Maryland Department of Transportation to examine the many alternatives available that will address our transit needs without sacrificing our parks.”-Pamela Goddard, Mid-Atlantic Senior Program Director, National Parks Conservation Association

Rock Creek is just one of the many special places that will be impacted by the proposed $11 billion expansion of I-495 and I-270. These impacts will extend far downstream, including into the creek through the nation’s first urban national park, Rock Creek Park. The public deserves a full range of alternatives for these sensitive waterways, habitat corridors, and public lands and time to fully consider them.-Jeanne Braha, Executive Director, Rock Creek Conservancy

“How precious is breathing? How important is it to preserve natural spaces and protect the health of residents of this region? We at the Audubon Naturalist Society want MDOT and the SHA to tell us, because the delivery of this 90-pound EIS for an $11 billion project with only 90 days to review it suggests that our health and well-being are not a top priority. Taxpayers deserve better.” –Denisse Guitarra, Maryland Conservation Advocate, Audubon Naturalist Society 

“MDOT gave assurances that the public would have an opportunity in the DEIS process to actively participate in the consequential decisions related to the I-495 & I-270 project.  However, in releasing an 18,000-page DEIS in the middle of a health and fiscal emergency, and then failing to provide adequate time for document review, MDOT shows disregard for public input. No one knows what post-pandemic commerce, employment, and traffic patterns will look like — the entire effort should be paused until the pandemic subsides.”-Linda Rosendorf, Don’t Widen 270.

Had the Governor and the Maryland Department of Transportation followed a process that allowed for sufficient constituent input and alternative proposals before announcing this massive, destructive plan, the citizens of Maryland would not be in the position of pointing out the obvious. The plan is deeply flawed and may very well cause more harm than good.- Cecilia Plante, Maryland Legislative Coalition. 

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CSG Testimony Supporting Montgomery County Bill 13-20

Posted on by Emily Maurer

July 8, 2020 

Montgomery County Council Council Office Building

100 Maryland Ave.

Rockville, MD 20850 

Bill 13-20, County Property – Disposition – Affordable Housing (Support) 

Public Testimony 

Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager 

2020.07.07-CSG-Testimony-for-Bill-13-20-County-Property-Disposition-Affordable-Housing-Final-1Download

President Katz and Councilmembers, thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony on Bill 13-20. Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. We strongly support any efforts to make better use of our public land for affordable housing. 

Bill 13-20 would require any disposition of property that will be used primarily for housing development must be 30 percent income-restricted, with 15 percent as moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs) and the other 15 percent for households earning 50 percent of less of the area median income (AMI). 

For too long, the county has not used its public land for its full potential. With many county properties located near high-capacity transit and land being a significant cost of construction, subsidized land costs makes deeper levels of affordability possible. At a time when we need 75 percent of new housing in the region to be affordable for low and middle income households, this legislation is common sense. 

We would like to see this legislation go a step further. If county land dispositions meet certain requirements, such as being a certain distance from transit, it should be required for that land be used for affordable housing. There is nothing under current law prioritizing or requiring certain uses to be considered, or giving preference to experienced affordable housing developers as partners. 

We need to re-imagine how we use public land, when being disposed of and when redeveloping. Libraries, community centers, and other public facilities should all be co-located with housing. Our region already has several examples of housing co-located with public facilities. We hope this legislation will be a first step for better using public land for the public good. 

Therefore, we urge you to support Bill 13-20 and seek provisions to make it even stronger. Thank you for your consideration.

RELEASE: CSG and Montgomery Open Streets Coalition Ask SHA for 19 Miles of Shared Streets

Posted on by Jane Lyons

July 1, 2020

Mr. Greg Slater

Maryland Secretary of Transportation

7201 Corporate Center Drive

Hanover, MD 21076

Mr. Tim Smith, Administrator

Maryland State Highway Administration

707 North Calvert Street

Baltimore, MD 21202

RE: Shared Streets Treatments on Maryland State Roads in Montgomery County

To:  Tim Smith MD SHA Administrator

Dear Secretary Slater and Mr. Smith,

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we would like to offer a list of State Highways that would benefit greatly from a “Shared Streets” approach as is being used by Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Recently, SHA itself coordinated with MCDOT and Councilmember Tom Hucker’s office in the closing of the right northbound lane on MD-97 in downtown Silver Spring to facilitate outdoor dining.

We are proposing a similar treatment of longer stretches of some State roads to promote greater connectivity for bicyclists and pedestrians and make it safer for those who do not want to drive or do not have access to a car to make trips throughout Montgomery County walking or by bicycle. These could be commuting to work trips, or shorter ones to go buy groceries, visit the doctor, connect with trails or do other errands. It is vital to provide alternatives to cars that are safe, affordable and are useful in getting people between different parts of the County or even within a short radius of where people live.

The list below amounts to almost 19 miles of state roads. We understand that SHA may want to pilot this concept of partial closures to cars and suggest that the stretch on University Boulevard is a good place to start as it would connect the Wheaton CBD with Sligo Creek Parkway and neighborhoods east of the Parkway as well.

We look forward to your response and hope that you can work with MCDOT and members of the Maryland House and Senate and the Montgomery County Council.

Here is the list of roads we propose as candidates for a Shared Streets approach:

  1. University Blvd/MD-193 from Colesville Road/MD-29 to Viers Mill Road/Md-586 (3.0 mi) (Connects from Four Corners neighborhood to Sligo Creek Parkway and Trail to Wheaton CBD)
  2. Viers Mill Road/MD-586 from MD-193 to Matthew Henson Trail (works best in pairing with no. 1 above (2.7 mi) (Connects Wheaton CBD to Matthew Henson Trail)
  3. Frederick Road/MD-355 from Germantown Road/Md-118 to MIddlebrook Road (.8 mi) (Connects Montgomery College/Germantown Campus and Holy Cross Hospital/Germantown)
  4. Piney Branch Road/MD-320 from Sligo Creek Pkwy to New Hampshire Ave/MD-650 (1.4 mi) (Connects Sligo Creek Parkway and Trail, New Hampshire Elementary School, Flower Ave and Northwest Branch Trails)
  5. Old Georgetown Road/MD-187 from I-495 to Executive Blvd (2.6 mi) (Connects Bethesda Trolley Trail, Ratner Museum, Wildwood Shopping Center, Josiah Henson Museum and White Flint)
  6. Georgia Ave/MD-97 from Norbeck Road/MD-28 to OlneySandy Spring Road/MD-108  (3.5 mi) (Connects Leisure World, ICC Trail and Olney CBD)
  7. Georgia Avenue/MD-97 & 16th Street/MD-390 from I-495 Overpass to Colesville Road (1.5 mi) (Connects Forest Glen Metro and Montgomery Hills Shopping Center)
  8. East-West Highway/MD-410 from Georgia Ave/MD-97 to Connecticut Ave/MD-185  (3.2 mi) (Connects Silver Spring CBD, Rock Creek Trail, and Chevy Chase) 

Paul Goldman, President, Action Committee for Transit

Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager, Coalition for Smarter Growth

Alison Gillespie, President, Forest Estates Community Association

Kristy Daphnis, Chair, Pedestrian Bicycle Traffic Safety Advisory Committee

Peter Gray, Vice President, Board of Directors, Washington Area Bicyclist Association

cc: Montgomery County State Delegates and Senators, Montgomery County Council, Director MCDOT

RELEASE: Housing and transit advocates support legislation to build more homes at Metro sites

Posted on by Emily Maurer
2020.07.06-Press-Release-WMATA-Tax-Abatement-Bill-29-20Download

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, July 6, 2020 

CONTACT:

Jane Lyons, Coalition for Smarter Growth

jane@smartergrowth.net | (410) 474-0741 

Housing and transit advocates support legislation to build more homes at Metro sites 

Montgomery County, Md – This afternoon, the Coalition for Smarter Growth stood alongside Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Riemer as he publicly introduced legislation to support high-rise construction on Metro stations. 

Transit-oriented development is necessary to build sustainable communities. The legislation would offer a 15- year property tax abatement for high-rise construction located on land leased from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). 

“This is a promising approach. Housing on top of Metro stations is key to meeting housing demand without putting new cars on the road,” said Jane Lyons, CSG’s Maryland Advocacy Manager. “This strategy will help the county meet its climate, economic development, and housing goals.” 

Multiple housing construction projects on Montgomery County’s Metro stations have either been delayed or cancelled due to the financial difficulty. Rents are not often enough to cover high construction costs, especially outside of downtown Bethesda. Development on WMATA property can face additional costs due to parking replacement practices and engineering challenges. 

“High-rise construction on Metro stations gives us the most bang for the buck,” Lyons said. “More homes means more Metro riders, more transit revenue, and more permanently affordable housing.” 

The tax abatement is estimated to incentivize up to 8,600 units, including 1,300 affordable units. The affordable units will be created through the county’s affordable set-aside of 12.5 to 15 percent of units for households at 70 percent of the area median income. Montgomery County has resolved to meet its regional housing target of 41,000 new housing units by 2030. This proposal is part of a comprehensive housing package from Councilmember Hans Riemer, which is complemented by legislation from other councilmembers. 

“We look forward to supporting the legislative process to ensure the tax abatement approach is a cost- effective way to catalyze far more housing opportunities at Metro stations, including more permanently affordable homes,” said Lyons. 

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The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington, DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies needed to make those communities flourish.

495/270 P3 DEIS Comment Extension Letter

Posted on by Emily Maurer
2020-07-01-RCC-Request-for-Extension-of-Comment-Period-on-495-270-Expansion-DEIS-CleanDownload

June 30, 2020 

Dear Ms. Mar and Ms. Choplin, 

We are writing on behalf of the undersigned organizations to request an extension of the public comment period. The proposed I-495 & I-270 Public-Private Partnership (P3) Program (Project) is likely to have significant impacts on water quality, air quality, and managed by the Maryland National Capital Planning Commission, and downstream on Rock Creek Park. 

The Maryland Department of Transportation – State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) and the Federal Highway Administration (Agencies) have indicated they will soon make available for public comment the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Project. This DEIS will describe the proposed action’s impacts on the environment as well as the impacts of alternatives and plans to mitigate the impacts. The document also will describe the environmental analysis conducted on the impacts of construction and operation of the new roadway. It is critical that the public have an adequate opportunity to meaningfully review the DEIS and submit comments to ensure that the Agencies’ analysis is complete and fairly considers all the options for the Project. 

We believe that allowing sufficient time for a well-considered review and thorough comments on the DEIS will lead to better evaluations, a more efficient process, and solutions that protect environmental resources, including Rock Creek. Due to the evolving situation with COVID-19, it is even more imperative that the public be given sufficient time to submit comments on the DEIS. Over the last few months, several of the undersigned organizations have submitted Freedom of Information Act and Maryland Public Information Act requests to the Agencies, the 

timely fulfillment of which would have assisted our reviews of the DEIS. These requests were denied, ignored, or delayed. 

The Project is one of the largest of its type ever proposed, expected to cost billions of dollars, and have significant environmental impacts. We expect the DEIS and its dozens of appendices and corresponding data to be thousands of pages. In regular times, for a proposed action such as this, the Agencies should reach an agreement to provide a longer time period and if not, the lead agency should easily find good cause to provide an extended comment period beyond 60 days from publication in the federal register. See 23 U.S.C. § 139(g)(2)(A); 42 U.S.C. § 4370m–4(d). Not doing so would not allow for meaningful public review and comment. 

These are not normal times. The emergency COVID-19 pandemic, and corresponding mandatory and voluntary restrictions, necessitate a longer public comment period. Like your agencies and other interested parties, our groups are working remotely while dealing with other responsibilities, generally without the use of office equipment such as printers for large files. Communications within our organizations, with members, and with others in the public that are interested in participating in the process are also delayed. The public’s ability to review and comment on the DEIS is currently hampered and requires more time than normal. Both of your agencies have recognized the difficulties caused by the pandemic. Both agencies have delayed providing electronic records in response to our public records requests (beyond statutory deadlines) based on asserted difficulties caused to the Agencies by the pandemic.1 It would be arbitrary for the Agencies to now deny the pandemic does not present good cause for a longer comment period. 

We appreciate the Agencies’ commitment that the public comment period will extend beyond the minimum-required 45 days and that the Agencies desire to allow full participation by the public and interested stakeholders. Forty-five days, or anything close to that, is clearly not sufficient. The undersigned organizations therefore request that the Agencies provide at least 120 days for public comment on the DEIS. This amount of time is necessary with increased uncertainty over the ability to re-open safely in a way that will allow the public to view documents in a timely manner. This time frame is also consistent with other Environmental Impact Statement comment periods such as the Washington Union Station Expansion Project and the Farmington Resource Management Plan. 

We look forward to your affirmative response to this request. 

Respectfully submitted, 

As an example, despite previously agreeing to provide non-exempt responsive records to one of our February 18 requests by April 30, MDOT SHA then requested that we “extend the 10-day period for providing a time and cost estimate, as well as the 30-day period for responding to your request, until 10 days after the date that [Maryland’s] state of emergency is lifted.” MDOT SHA stated: “Complying with the statutory timeframes of your PIA request at this time is not feasible given the state of emergency and recognized health risk that the coronavirus poses to all Marylanders, including State employees responsible for identifying, retrieving, and reviewing documents and responding to your request.” We still have not received any responsive records. 

Signed by, 

Jeanne Braha, Executive Director, Rock Creek Conservancy Josh Tulkin, Director, Sierra Club, Maryland Chapter 

On behalf of the following organizations: 

350 Montgomery County 

Audubon Naturalist Society – Woodend, Chevy Chase, MD 

Baltimore Tree Trust 

Beaverdam Creek Watershed Watch Group 

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church Environmental Justice Ministry 

Central Maryland Transportation Alliance 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation 

Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility 

Citizens Against Beltway Expansion [CABE] 

Cleanwater Linganore Inc 

Climate Parents of Prince George’s County 

Coalition for Smarter Growth 

Conservation Montgomery 

DontWiden270.org 

DoTheMostGood Montgomery County 

Forest Glen Citizens Association 

Friends of Sligo Creek 

Greenbelt Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice 

Greenbelt Climate Action Network 

Indian Spring Citizens Association 

Indivisible Howard County 

League of Women Voters of Maryland 

Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights 

Maryland Legislative Coalition 

National Parks Conservation Association 

Neighbors of the Northwest Branch 

North Hills of Sligo Creek Civic Association (NHSCCA) 

Our Revolution Maryland 

Parkwood 

Preservation Maryland 

Prince George’s County (MD) Peace & Justice Coalition 

Rapid Shift 

Regents Square Condominium (Rockville) 

Rock Creek Conservancy 

Rogue Tulips Consulting & Association Management 

Sierra Club, Maryland Chapter 

Takoma Park Mobilization 

The Ocean Foundation 

University Park Community Solar LLC 

Washington Area Bicyclist Association 

Wicomici Environmental Trust, Ltd. 

West Montgomery County Citizens Association (WMCCA) 

Woodside Forest Civic Association 

cc: Linda Strozyk DeVuono, Office of the Attorney General, LDeVuono@mdot.maryland.gov 

July 9: DC’s New & Improved Building Permit Process Explained

July 9: DC’s New & Improved Building Permit Process Explained

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

A webinar for DC homeowners with Mike Brown, Residential Center Manager, DCRA

July 9, 2020, 4-5 pm

Via Zoom 

Need a building permit for your accessory dwelling unit (ADU), whether its a basement apartment or backyard cottage? You’re in luck! DC’s permitting just got easier. Join us for a webinar on the new online process with Mike Brown, Residential Center Manager, DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). The new process has greatly shortened the length of time to get a permit — to 21 business days in most cases. It used to take months! After his presentation, Mike will take your questions.  

Event Materials

Mike Brown’s Powerpoint on the DCRA building permit process