Category: Resources

CSG Supports Casey Anderson’s Reappointment as Chair of Montgomery County Planning Board

Posted on by Jane Lyons

January 30, 2019

Re: Support for reappointment of Casey Anderson as Chair of the Planning Board

Dear President Navarro and Councilmembers:

The Coalition for Smarter Growth has committed to supporting sustainable and equitable development, housing, and transportation in Montgomery County, funding a dedicated staff-person to work in the community for the past seven years. We are excited by the opportunities ahead for Montgomery County under your leadership, but we also recognize that the county faces significant challenges in economic development and access to jobs, housing supply and affordability, and affordable and accessible transportation. For these reasons, we strongly support the reappointment of Casey Anderson as Chair of the Planning Board.

The reappointment of Casey would provide important continuity of leadership at the Planning Board at a time when the county needs to ensure plans are in place that can ensure the county’s economic development and competitiveness, and equitable access to opportunity. Based on recent experience, mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, transit-oriented development (TOD) is essential for ensuring the county’s economic competitiveness and growth in the commercial tax base, and Casey has done much to advance TOD in the county in partnership with the Council.

Marriott’s move from Rock Spring to Bethesda is a testament to the value they see in TOD. Similarly, Amazon’s selection of a TOD location at Crystal City/Pentagon City, Choice Hotel’s location in Rockville, Nestle’s in Rosslyn, demonstrates the need to accelerate TOD in Montgomery County in order to attract and retain major companies. When combined with strong MPDU policies, and additional transit investments, TOD – both at the Bethesda/Silver Spring scale and at medium density scale — can improve access to jobs by transit, reduce combined housing and transportation costs, and grow the economy without increasing overall traffic.

Among his important initiatives, Casey shepherded through the new Subdivision Staging Policy which incentivizes and prioritizes TOD, transit, biking and walking; the award-winning Bicycle Master Plan; and the complex Bethesda Master Plan, including the establishment of market-oriented system for allocating development capacity and park impact payments to raise funds for open space. It is for these reasons that we awarded Casey Anderson our 2017 Prince Livable Communities Leadership Award.

Casey Anderson has led the Planning Board and its heavy workload with great skill – listening, and running the agenda and discussions smoothly and without acrimony. He knows how the agency works, knows the staff, and knows the government process. With the impending Countywide Master Plan update, Mr. Anderson provides the critical experience and record of success necessary to ensure the plan update goes smoothly and is developed in a timely manner. Developing a new Master Plan and continuing to advance TOD projects and other mixed-use development, along with developing innovative approaches to provide a range of housing types affordable to all levels of the workforce, are critical to the future of the county and its people.

For all of the reasons enumerated here, Casey Anderson has earned our strong endorsement for reappointment as Chair of the Planning Board.

Thank you,

Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director

CSG Supports Partap Verma for Montgomery County Planning Board

Posted on by Jane Lyons

May 20, 2019

Re: Support for appointment of Partap Verma to the Planning Board

Dear President Navarro and Councilmembers:

The Coalition for Smarter Growth is committed to supporting sustainable and equitable development, housing, and transportation in Montgomery County. We are excited by the opportunities ahead for the county, but we also recognize the significant challenges in economic development and access to jobs, housing supply and affordability, and affordable and accessible transportation. To meet these challenges, the Planning Board must continue to prioritize inclusive, transit-oriented growth. For that reason, we strongly support the appointment of Partap Verma to the Planning Board.

Partap has the issue area expertise and passion to be an effective member of the Planning Board. He is a proven local leader on affordable housing, pedestrian safety, and transit access. He has promoted civic engagement among his neighbors in Forest Glen, leading community planning and advocacy efforts. He has hosted successful dialogues and events, helped to found civic organizations, advocated for transit infrastructure, held a chair position on the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board, and volunteered as a mediator/panel attorney for HOA disputes.

From these experiences, Partap has shown an impressive ability to connect with and listen to the needs of Montgomery County residents, an invaluable trait for a member of the Planning Board in an increasingly diverse county. He is an advocate for the needs of underserved and marginalized communities, and provides a voice for Montgomery’s growing foreign-born/first-generation and LGBTQIA+ communities. As a dedicated federal employee and husband of a U.S. Army veteran, he also understands the importance of public service.

Looking forward, Partap will be able to provide a critical voice during upcoming and important conversations about the way Montgomery County will grow, including updates to the Subdivision Staging Policy and the Countywide Master Plan. His vision will help create the mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented places that the county needs in order to further equity, environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, and growth in the commercial tax base.

For the many reasons enumerated above, Partap Verma has earned our strong endorsement for appointment to the Planning Board.

Thank you,

Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director

Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager

 

Update! Fairfax Healthy Communities Platform – 2 new groups incl Fairfax County NAACP

Posted on by Stewart Schwartz

 

Coalition for Smarter Growth, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Audubon Naturalist Society, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, Friends of Accotink Creek, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Potomac Conservancy, Friends of Dyke Marsh, Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action, Fairfax County NAACP

Fairfax Healthy Communities:  Sustainable, Inclusive, Livable

 A Joint Vision for Fairfax County in 2019

We support a vision for Fairfax County that is sustainable, inclusive, and livable and urge candidates for local and state office in Fairfax County to support this vision and to commit to the implementation steps necessary to make this vision a reality.

We share a vision for Fairfax County where the County commits to:

  • Providing housing opportunities for people of all incomes, ages, and stages of life in every district in the county, investing in improving affordable housing and access to opportunity in communities where there are concentrations of poverty, and fostering greater racialand economic integration in single-family, low-poverty neighborhoods.
  • Ensuring transit, walking, bicycling and other modes of active transportation are well-funded, safe, convenient and accessible for people of all ages, giving residents more choices and reducing traffic congestion.
  • Creating vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income transit-oriented communities which provide a range of housing choices and employment opportunities, while reducing vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled.
  • Fighting climate change by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, transportation and other sources.
  • Restoring watersheds to ensure clean drinking water and healthier ecosystems.
  • Expanding parks and trail networks.
  • Ensuring access for all to affordable health care and healthy local food.
  • Taking specific steps to realize its One Fairfax commitment to racial and social equity, community involvement, and the 17 goals laid out in the One Fairfax policy.

A sustainable, inclusive, healthy, competitive, and fiscally sustainable future for Fairfax requires a fundamental shift in land use, transportation, housing and energy policies toward walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income, and transit-oriented and green energy communities, and the full engagement of the community in achieving this future.

Signed:

Coalition for Smarter Growth

Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions

Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance

Audubon Naturalist Society

Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling

Friends of Accotink Creek

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Potomac Conservancy

Friends of Dyke Marsh

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action

Fairfax County NAACP

*  The above signatories are 501(c)(3) organizations. This platform is strictly educational and is being shared with all candidates and the public. By law, our organizations are strictly prohibited from participating in, or intervening in (including the publishing or distribution of statements) any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.

Supporting a new approach to automated traffic enforcement with DDOT to achieve Vision Zero & bus lanes that work

Posted on by Cheryl Cort
Photo credit: Cheryl Cort

Supporting a new approach to automated traffic enforcement with DDOT to achieve Vision Zero & bus lanes that work

May 3, 2019

Dear Chairman Mendelson:

We understand that Councilmember Cheh has reservations about transferring automated traffic enforcement from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to DC Department of Transportation (DDOT). While DDOT can be frustrating, everyone agrees that photo enforcement is not optimally managed right now. Given that 30+ people die each year on our streets, we should not turn down an opportunity to improve the use of photo enforcement by putting DDOT in charge of it. DDOT is lead on Vision Zero and implementation of dedicated transit lanes (coming to H & I, 16th St & K Street soon). It makes sense to enable DDOT integrate automated traffic enforcement into these programs.

This is how other leading jurisdictions have approached it, such as New York City and Chicago, where their Departments of Transportation are in charge on automated traffic enforcement. See NYC DOT report on automated traffic enforcement here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/speed-camera-report-june2017.pdf. DDOT’s management of photo enforcement poses not legal issues, as some have claimed. The Mayor currently has authority to use the “photograph” as Prima Facie evidence of a violation. Currently, and whether administered by MPD, DDOT, DPW, or another agency, the use of photographs to detect violations are legally treated as non-moving. The penalty is a fine – no points on the license – it’s all still associated with the registered vehicle, not the driver.

How the D.C. Council can make the most of this opportunity: WABA recommends tying photo enforcement to action by DDOT. DC Council could require DDOT to act to fix problem areas detected by traffic cameras as a part of their management of the cameras program. From WABA’s report:

Fix infrastructure at high revenue traffic safety cameras
The goal of the automated traffic safety camera program is safety, not revenue. In places where an automated traffic camera generates a disproportionate amount of money, the underlying street design should be changed immediately, using the tactical design process described above. Traffic calming techniques should be employed to encourage safe driving through better street design.

Without putting DDOT in charge, we are greatly concerned that developing new applications for photo enforcement, such as bus lane compliance, bike lane compliance, and other new uses, will be slow and ineffective. We need to put DDOT in charge in order to more effectively use this tool. DDOT is the agency that is most focused on and responsible for achieving our city’s transportation system’s efficient use and safety.

We all agree that the goal is compliance with the rules of the road, not ticket and revenue generation. DDOT offers an important opportunity to greatly improve on the use of this powerful tool for safety and manage a more efficient transportation system.

Thank you for your consideration on this issue.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Cort

Policy Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

CSG in the News: Study: It’s past time the D.C. region transform its bus network

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Study: It’s past time the D.C. region transform its bus network

By Luz Lazo, May 6, 2019 at 6:11 PM, The Washington Post

….A $2.2 million study released Monday lays out more than two dozen recommendations for transforming the Washington region’s bus network into one that is centered around customers’ needs, is financially sustainable and embraces innovation and technology.

The draft recommendations would help reverse ridership declines driven by service that is too slow, complex and unreliable. The study was compiled by the Bus Transformation Project, a group of D.C.-area transit officials, experts and advocates.

….

“We have no choice,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“We do need to move forward and I think there is a shared commitment” in the region,” Schwartz said. “A route redesign and dedicated lanes and improved customer information can make all the difference in the world.”

View full Washington Post story here.

CSG in the News: Dedicated bus lanes coming to H and I streets this summer

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Dedicated bus lanes coming to H and I streets this summer

Enforcement is key to the success of dedicated lanes in one of the busiest transit corridors in the city, advocates say.

by Luz Lazo, Washington Post, May 3, 2019

“We see this as the beginning of really speeding up the implementation of bus lanes and delivering high-quality transit,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “We will bring back the riders that we have been losing and we will attract new riders because it is going to become a fast, efficient and inexpensive way to get where you need to go.”

“A large share of all bus riders every day are moving through these corridors and they are often stuck in traffic,” Cort said. “Bus lanes are a crucial tool to changing that.”

Transit advocates are excited about the new lanes and about the possibility of reviving an extensive network of bus lanes that disappeared after the Metro system was built. The nation’s capital stands out as a major Northeast city that does not have a network of dedicated bus lanes in its downtown. Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York all have such networks.

See Washington Post story here.

CSG in the News: Let’s make our streets safer by putting the transportation people in charge of traffic cameras

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Let’s make our streets safer by putting the transportation people in charge of traffic cameras

 

Opinion by Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth, in www.GreaterGreaterWashington.org

Here’s one of the changes proposed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in her budget to fix dangerous streets: Transfer photo enforcement from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). In the wake of so many tragic deaths on our streets, the mayor’s proposed transfer of photo enforcement to DDOT is one of a number of actions she can take to make our streets safer. Whether the DC Council will support this transfer will be determined in the next two weeks in the final budget deliberations and vote.

Traffic cameras can be an effective approach for discouraging dangerous behavior by drivers. By placing oversight of this tool with the agency responsible for managing our streets, automated traffic enforcement could more effectively improve safety. Traffic cameras are helping now, but they could be used much more strategically if DDOT is able to integrate them into its safety programs.

While there’s good precedent for Departments of Transportation administering automated traffic enforcement—New York City and Chicago are examples—DC Council Transportation and Environment Committee (T&E) chair Mary Cheh (Ward 3) is skeptical, and wants to keep photo enforcement where it is, with the police. We at the Coalition for Smarter Growth along with our partners think this would mean a missed opportunity to make our streets safer.

Why would street safety improve if DDOT manages automated traffic enforcement?

DDOT is uniquely positioned to use automated traffic enforcement to bolster its safety programs, like Vision Zero and traffic calming. Unlike MPD, DDOT can use photo enforcement to assess the safety performance of corridors and intersections and make changes that prevent dangerous behavior.

The city’s high number of traffic deaths this year point to the shortcomings to date in DDOT’s efforts to build safe roads, and better utilization of traffic cameras is no substitute for the essential work of street redesign. But bringing the powerful tool of automated traffic enforcement into DDOT’s toolkit is a part of the solution.

In addition to the opportunity to better integrate photo enforcement with DDOT’s other safety tools, the agency is also planning to deploy traffic cameras to enforce bus lane compliance. While DC lags far behind other cities in deployment of dedicated bus lanes, starting this year, the District will establish dedicated bus lanes on H and I Streets downtown as a summer pilot. We also hope to finally see the 16th Street bus lanes, and later the implementation of the K Street redesign with dedicated bus lanes.

But bus lanes need to be enforced, and DC’s record of enforcement hasn’t been great (e.g. 7th and 9th Streets downtown). Given everything on MPD’s plate, getting sufficient attention from MPD to deploy and fine-tune new automated traffic enforcement for bus lanes seems challenging at best. On the other hand, DDOT has a direct interest in using photo enforcement to ensure that bus lanes are successful, move more people, and improve accessibility in the city.

Critics of photo enforcement have often charged that cameras are more about revenue generation than preventing dangerous behavior. Vesting DDOT with the responsibility for using traffic cameras as part of their management of roadway safety gives us an opportunity to ask for greater accountability. With the transfer of traffic cameras sought by the Mayor, the DC Council can insist that DDOT use its data collection and photo enforcement results to act more quickly to fix streets and intersections that show risks outside the norm.

The traffic camera debate is playing out right now

The DC Council and the Bowser administration seek to make good on the promise of Vision Zero. That’s why the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Coalition for Smarter Growth, and DC Sustainable Transportation, along with Councilmember Charles Allen (Ward 6), DDOT, and the mayor want traffic cameras shifted to DDOT to improve street safety. The debate is playing out right now in the final budget deliberations, and involves a split between two committee chairs.

Cheh wants the MPD to continue to administer automated traffic enforcement, and is not accepting the Mayor’s budget provision transferring automated enforcement to DDOT and under her committee’s oversight. Allen, who chairs the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, supports the transfer to DDOT and does not want to accept the funds back into MPD’s budget. This conflict between committees will need to be resolved by council chairman Phil Mendelson.

We hope Mendelson will support placing traffic cameras with DDOT so it can incorporate them in the coordinated approach known as the four E’s of street safety: engineering, enforcement, education, and evaluation. Under DDOT, there will be a better focus on safety to protect people who walk, bike, drive, and use transit in our city, and better enforcement of dedicated bus lanes to speed up buses, improve on-time reliability, and bring back riders.

See story here.

CSG in the News: A Controversial Solution To D.C.’s Housing Crisis: Help The Middle Class

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

From WAMU: A Controversial Solution To D.C.’s Housing Crisis: Help The Middle Class, by  Ally Schweitzer

 “As the District of Columbia and its suburbs grapple with a shortage of housing — particularly affordable homes — a new and controversial strategy has gained support among elected officials, the nonprofit sector and developers alike.

The idea? Invest in housing for the middle class.

…Why has the mayor’s proposed workforce housing fund sparked controversy? 

Mainly because there’s deep skepticism that middle-income people should be a priority when D.C. residents on the bottom of the economic ladder are much worse off.

The top 20 occupations in D.C. by employment totals, 2017. (Includes D.C. residents and commuters.) From a Coalition for Smarter Growth analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

First, the Coalition for Smarter Growth has criticized the city’s definition of “workforce,” saying it’s out of step with reality. According to a report published by the urbanist think tank, eight out of the city’s top 20 professions pay an annual median wage of less than $49,000, or 60 percent of AMI. For example, nearly 16,000 city workers are employed as janitors or cleaners — jobs that pay an annual median wage of $29,000, per CSG’s analysis. Meanwhile, teachers, social workers, and first responders don’t crack the top 20.”

Read CSG’s report and recommendations here.

CSG Testimony on DC FY2020 Budget for Department of Housing & Community Development

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

CSG Testimony FY20 Budget Hearing for DHCD

Testimony before the Hon. Anita Bonds, Chair, Committee on Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization, Council of the District of Columbia

RE: FY2020 Budget Oversight Hearing for the Department of Housing and Community Development and Housing Production Trust Fund

By Cheryl Cort, Policy Director

April 23, 2019

Good afternoon, my name is Cheryl Cort and I am the policy director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG). The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization working locally in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish.

We want to commend the Mayor for proposing a substantial increase to the Housing Production Trust Fund to $130 million and an increase in the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund to $15 million. D.C. continues to lead the country in its commitment to local funding for affordable housing, along with its use of important policy tools like TOPA and DOPA, and the administration’s innovations in the New Communities Initiative. These investments, policies, and programs are critical, but much more is needed to preserve and build affordable housing in a city that is rapidly becoming unaffordable to its low-paid workforce and many long-time residents.

The District continues to experience strong demand to live here, which drives up housing prices. In addition, the city’s economy has a large and growing gap between wages earned at white-collar jobs and the earnings of workers who provide essential services to many of the businesses upon which the high-paid professionals rely for day to day needs. To address the needs of low income residents, including the workers who fill 8 of the top 20 occupations in the city, we need deeper and more strategic investments. And we need stronger policies. The FY2020 budget can be more a part of the solution.

Workforce housing – make strategic investments for low wage workers to live in the city

We appreciate the administration’s attention to the housing needs of D.C.’s workforce. Helping workers live near their work has many family, community and environmental benefits. We are disappointed, however, that the income targeting proposed for the new $20 million “workforce” housing program, from 60% to 120% AMI, will miss providing assistance to the working households who most need it to stay in the city. The need starts at 50% AMI, and goes down from there.

Last month, we released a study on D.C.’s workforce housing needs (see attachment). We found:

  • 8 of the most common 20 occupations pay less than $48,000 a year (e.g. administrative assistants);
  • 5 of the top 20 jobs pay below $30,000 per year, which is considered extremely low income for a two-person household (e.g. janitors and cleaners);
  • Not a single one of the most common 20 occupations in the District was between 50% and 80% AMI.

Many of the fastest growing service jobs in the District, such as home health aides, food preparation, and waiters/waitresses, earn extremely low incomes. At these income levels, most working households face severe housing cost burdens, paying more than half of their income to housing. In contrast, rarely does a household earning 80% AMI or more face severe housing cost burdens.

These data show that the District’s critical workforce housing needs are with those earning well below 80% AMI, let alone 120% AMI. But the income targeting for the Mayor’s workforce housing fund would target assistance for earners at 60% to 120% AMI, or $112,500 per year for a 2-person household. For higher earners at this range, we should focus on policies that make the housing market work better, to produce more moderately-priced homes in more neighborhoods. For the expenditure of scarce funds, we must be strategic. Based on our research, we recommend the follow to address affordable workforce housing needs:

  1. Establish a workforce housing policy for income targeting based on need using earnings data and severe cost burdens. We ask the Council to approve funding for the new workforce housing program using income targeting no higher than 60% AMI for rental and 80% AMI for ownership. In fact, based on our research, we recommend that the focus for workforce housing go to rental assistance at 30% and 50% AMI.
  2. Recommit the city (especially through DHCD and Office of Planning) to its obligation to comply with the Fair Housing Act’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. The D.C. Council can address this in part through the Comprehensive Plan update bill. The Comprehensive Plan should be revised to unlock the potential for less costly, mixed-income housing throughout the city. This is an important way to better address workforce housing needs up the income scale. The Comprehensive Plan should significantly expand the potential for creating new housing, including inclusionary zoning units, especially in high opportunity neighborhoods. The Comprehensive Plan must also ease restrictions on building housing, especially affordable and public housing, like the Park Morton/Bruce Monroe plan to replace deteriorated public housing.
  3. Greatly expand the Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) to provide rental assistance to help low-paid workers, especially through tenant-based LRSP. The FY20 budget proposes modest increased support for targeted affordable housing and project-based rental assistance. However, the budget proposed no additional tenant-based rental assistance. We urge the Council to add funding to tenant-based LRSP. In the long term, we should greatly expand LRSP and pair it with our fair housing efforts to bring more deeply affordable housing to high opportunity neighborhoods. These actions are a key way to address our workforce housing needs, and breakdown a legacy of discrimination which cuts off access to opportunity and choice.

 Thank you for your consideration.

_________________________________

Attachment: Making Workforce Housing Work, a new report by Coalition for Smarter Growth, March 2019