The University Boulevard Corridor Plan lays out in detail how we can achieve safer streets, a wider and more accommodating variety of housing options, and greater environmental resilience.
Category: Transit-Oriented Development
Help shape the future of Duke Street
There are two opportunities for you to speak up for a more vibrant, walkable, and inclusive Duke Street as the city updates its Duke Street Land Use Plan.
Ward 3 Smart Growth & Affordable Housing Happy Hour
Residents and community activists got together in Tenleytown on October 7 to socialize and talk about opportunities to build more sustainable inclusive and walkable neighborhoods, especially in Ward 3.
What’s in store for Bowie State MARC Station? A site tour on Sept 29, 2025
On September 29, 2025 we discussed the potential of the Bowie State University MARC station area to be a vibrant transit-oriented community.
Testimony: Support for University Boulevard Corridor Plan (MoCo)
We ask for your support for the goals of safe streets, vibrant and inclusive communities, and transit-oriented homes and businesses laid out in the University Boulevard Corridor Plan and in our county’s 30-year general plan, Thrive 2050.
Event: Fault Lines. Screening of a housing documentary, followed by a panel discussion and a social hour
A screening of Fault Lines, a documentary exploring housing and policy, followed by a panel of regional leaders and a community social hour. The panel will examine Northern Virginia’s housing challenges and explore strategies to build more inclusive and livable communities in our region.
Press Release: CSG welcomes Governor Moore’s executive order to boost housing production in Maryland
The Coalition for Smarter Growth commends the Moore-Miller administration for enacting the Housing Starts Here executive order, demonstrating Maryland’s commitment to building the homes we need in a strategic, sustainable, and inclusive way.
CSG primer: Visualize 2050, our region’s 25-year transportation plan
The draft Visualize 2050 plan, our region’s long-range transportation plan, has too many highway and arterial road expansions that will increase driving and climate emissions. We will miss our region’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 – even if there’s a rapid switch to electric vehicles.
Get informed so you can take action on key decisions this fall:
- Upcoming key vote on flawed 495 Southside Express Lanes project
- Comment period on failing status quo Visualize plan
Source: TPB, with annotations by the Coalition for Smarter Growth
Background on Visualize 2050
- Visualize 2050 is our region’s long-range transportation plan, prepared by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), a regional body overseen by our local and state officials and transportation agencies.
- CSG background article
- From March 2024, on draft project list that is now being presented for final approval this fall along with its performance results.
- 48 organizations criticized the previous plan, Visualize 2045 with very similar projects Letter by 48 regional organizations on Visualize 2045 (May 2022)
495 Southside Express Lanes Project
- The TPB board will vote in October on whether or not to include the Virginia Department of Transportation’s flawed highway expansion project in the final plan.
- Background on the project’s flaws, questions that VDOT has not answered, and better alternatives that need to be studied and advanced.
Stay tuned for actions you can take this fall!
- Be on the lookout for CSG action alerts in September and October ahead of the TPB vote on the 495 Southside Express Lanes project.
- Formal public comment on the entire draft Visualize 2050 plan will take place in late October through mid-November. CSG will provide a more in-depth overview of the draft plan – stay tuned.
CSG in the News: Does D.C. have the worst traffic? Not so fast.
July 26, 2025 | Rachel Weiner and John D. Harden | The Washington Post
“It’s not news that a successful metropolitan region like the D.C. region has a lot of traffic,” said Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a nonprofit that advocates denser urban areas with less need to drive. Concentrating future growth near transit, he said, “is the best way for our region to grow without choking on traffic.”
Read the full story here.