Of course Montgomery County had begun many years before to implement smart growth policies, earning a national reputation for its early planning initiatives including: wedges/corridors, Agricultural Reserve, TDR’s, downtown Bethesda, Kentlands/King Farm, and of course, MPDU’s
Category: Resources
Affordable Housing Production on Public Land for the District of Columbia
Public land development has traditionally been viewed as a catalyst for revitalization and private investment in distressed neighborhoods. However, given D.C.‟s strengthening real estate market, public land can play an important role in providing the diversity of housing the city needs, especially in areas with high and rising values. Public land redevelopment can also meet other community needs for services and amenities for a thriving city. Effective public-private development can provide updated public facilities such as libraries and schools, affordable housing, and enhanced community amenities, along with cost savings and other efficiencies.
Testimony in Support for McMillan Sand Filtration Plant Master Plan
We wish to express our support for the proposed Master Plan for the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant. This plan is a careful, extensively vetted redevelopment and preservation plan that will highlight the unique historic resources of the site. The plan proposes to provide interpretation and public access to key elements of the distinctive historic resources. This would not be possible without the redevelopment program that helps pay for the cost of the restoration. For decades, access to this large area was prohibited, thus creating a wide gap between surrounding activities and neighborhoods. When you walk across this area, bicycle along Michigan Avenue, or wait for a bus by the hospital as I have done, you feel disconnected, as if you are traversing through no-man’s land. This master plan will reengage the site with its surroundings and turn this gap into an inviting destination with a distinctive heritage.
Connecting the Dots: An Outer Beltway Before You Know It
A recent history of the Outer Beltway.
Testimony to Alexandria Planning Commission on Beauregard Small Area Plan
The plan has benefitted from very extensive community involvement and input, particularly regarding the need to preserve and add affordable housing. We commend the community, and our affordable housing partners in particular, for helping to shape this plan and increase the number of committed affordable units. The plan has also benefited from the developer’s early inclusion of the nation’s top new urbanist architecture, town planning and transportation experts.
Letter Supporting CB-2 “Adequate Pedestrian and Bikeway Facilities” to Prince George’s Council
We would like to express our strong support for this important bill, CB-2, which we call the “walk/bike connections” bill. This bill helps ensure that Prince George’s residents and visitors have better and safer transportation choices. By allowing the Planning Board to ensure that developments fill in missing links of essential sidewalk and other walk/bike facilities around a new development, the quality of development, as well as safety and access, will be improved. Offering multimodal transportation choices has been the intention of the county for several years through the “Complete Streets” policy adopted in the 2009 County Master Plan for Transportation. This bill helps implement this policy.
Testimony on SB 971 – Maryland Transportation Financing and Infrastructure Investment Act of 2012
The groups listed above support a vibrant transportation fund, and we recognize that the current economic downturn has hit the transportation trust fund hard. However, we believe that transportation revenues should be increased only if every new dollar is invested more wisely.
Testimony Regarding Leveraging the Value of D.C.’s Public Land Dispositions to Build Housing Affordable to D.C.’s Low- and Moderate-Income residents
The Gray administration’s focus on getting D.C. residents back to work is rightly the number one priority for the District – and it’s critical to helping communities and families across the District succeed. Going hand in hand with the success of increasing employment is ensuring that the workers D.C. invests in can also find a place to call home here in the District. Without affordable housing opportunities, newly trained workers may leave the city for cheaper housing, but longer commutes, taking away opportunity to grow D.C.’s tax base and strengthen our communities.
Support for Support CB-2-2012, Adequate Public Pedestrian and Bikeway Facilities in Centers and Corridors
I am here to express our strong support for this important bill, which we call the “walk/bike connections” bill. This bill helps ensure that Prince George’s residents and visitors have better and safer transportation choices. By allowing the Planning Board to ensure that developments fill in missing links of essential sidewalk and other walk/bike facilities around a new development, the quality of development, as well as safety and access, will be improved. Offering multimodal transportation choices has been the intention of the County for several years through the “Complete Streets” policy adopted in the 2009 County Master Plan for Transportation. This bill helps implement this policy in the development review process.
What’s Affordable “Workforce Housing” for the District of Columbia?
One of Mayor Vincent Gray’s stated priorities is to increase the supply of workforce housing, a component along the continuum of affordable housing needs. This is a laudable goal — seeking to make Washington, D.C. a place where residents can afford to live close to where they work. However, if D.C. officials use regional incomes to define “workforce housing,” it could result in policies that would fail to reach most of D.C.’s low- and moderate-income working households who have a difficult time finding an affordable place to live in D.C.’s expensive housing market.