Category: Testimony & Letters
Support DC Expanded Inclusionary Zoning
The DC Zoning Commission will hear the proposal for Expanded Inclusionary Zoning on Nov. 16, 2020 at 6:30pm.
Read our testimony in support of Expanded IZ:
You can read our preliminary support in July 2020 for this proposal: CSG’s testimony here, and our joint support with Housing Priorities Coalition testimony. View Expanded IZ Case No. 20-02 Zoning Commission hearing notice and case documents here.
Sign up to testify at the 11/16/20 hearing, 6:30pm, Case Number 20-02 here.
CSG Comments to TPB on Climate Action
October 21, 2020
Hon. Kelly Russell
Chair, National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board
President Pro Tem, Frederick Board of Aldermen
Re: Comments on need TPB climate action steps, travel survey, and transit-oriented centers Dear Chair Russell,
We are deeply concerned that TPB staff are not committing to VMT-reduction strategies in their input to the update of the COG climate plan. We have submitted comments to the CEEPC that apply equally to our input to the TPB Visualize2045 update.
TPB’s climate approach, as outlined in the October 15 memo by director Srikanth, is to focus on fuel efficient car standards, vehicle electrification, and the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI). Of the “bold, system-wide actions” the memo says are needed, there is no mention of regional strategies to reduce VMT. As detailed in the Driving Down Emissions report by SGA, EVs are not enough, and land use, urban design, and transit are essential for reducing VMT and transportation emissions, meeting our climate targets, and achieving equity, public health, and livability.
COG is setting a very ambitious goal for electrification in its draft climate plan, assuming that 34% of light passenger vehicles on the road in 2030 will be electric. California’s analyses show that even with significant adoption of EVs, rising VMT will cause rising emissions. Therefore, the CEAP and TPB need additional bold actions:
1. Set even stronger targets for housing and job growth in High-Capacity Transit (HCT) station areas by prioritizing close-in, walkable, mixed-use Activity Centers with high-frequency transit, and addressing the E-W economic and racial divide.
2. Make affordable housing in TOD locations a key part of the land use strategy, with specific goals and strategies.
3. Set clear targets to significantly reduce total and per capita VMT below the 2030 and 2050 baselines and increase non-auto mode shares well above baselines.
4. Include strategies to price existing lanes in congested travel markets rather than adding more HOT lanes and price parking across the region.
Your Travel Survey highlights the benefits of transit-oriented communities. The Core and Activity Centers have very high commute walk, bike, transit mode share, and very good non-commute mode shares. But major suburbs still have far to go on TOD, and recent road expansions are not helping.
We commend your Transit-Oriented Communities initiative, but urge you to place overwhelming priority in Visualize 2045 on transit, local street networks, and bike/pedestrian infrastructure, while slashing new highway capacity. We have just one decade to act on the climate crisis.
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director
MetroNow Emergency Transit Funding Sign-on Letter
Dear Members of the Congressional Delegation for Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia:
Transit is a lifeline for essential workers and critical to our economic health and well-being. The CARES Act, passed in March of this year, provided a stop gap to help transit agencies survive dramatic losses in revenue streams, unprecedented drops in ridership, and fund new and enhanced cleaning protocols, but the funding is running out. Transit agencies nationally need $32 billion in emergency operating funds to avoid damaging service and jobs cuts and minimize economic hardship.
The vast majority of WMATA funding comes from capital contributions, jurisdictional subsidies, and farebox revenues from riders. Since COVID-related restrictions were enacted in March, farebox revenues have evaporated. Bus fares were waived around the Capital Region to minimize interaction between rider and driver, and Metrorail, which kept fares intact, has averaged only about 10% of the pre-COVID ridership since March. In Maryland, the Transportation Trust Fund relies largely on motor fuel taxes, titling and registration fees, federal aid, sales tax, transit fares, and port and airport fees, all of which have taken a hit during the pandemic, with corresponding impacts to the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). Meanwhile, as jurisdictions face the worst fiscal crisis in living memory, they are stripping budgets to the bones, leaving no room to alleviate losses in farebox revenue through additional jurisdictional subsidies.
When the CARES Act funding runs out, transit agencies will be forced to cut transit service and furlough or lay off workers or redistribute capital funds, intended for repairs and expansion, to operating budgets. Both options will seriously harm the viability, safety, and reliability of transit service in the short and long term, but more importantly, it will harm the riders, businesses, and regional economies and workers that depend on transit. Anticipating the lack of federal aid, WMATA and the Maryland Transit Administration have already warned of service and workforce cuts to address their COVID-19 revenue impacts. Cuts to transit will harm the region, weaken the economic recovery, slash capital expenditures and the jobs they support, and worsen inequality.
The economy cannot recover without transit. If Congress fails to act this month to fund $32 billion in emergency operating funds, it will deepen the economic pain already felt by millions throughout the country. In this time of uncertainty, grief, and loss, Congress must put aside their differences and work together to fund transit or this region will emerge weaker on the other side of the virus.
The undersigned business groups, transit agencies, unions and elected officials urge you to commit this critically needed funding for transit. Our riders, our economy, and our region depend on it.