Smart Growth - Greater Greater Washington

Georgetown 2028

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:29:00 EDT

The Georgetown BID is beginning a several month planning charette to discuss the direction the neighborhood should take in the next 15 years. (Georgetown Metropolitan)

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DC, the taste testers

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:29:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Several restaurant chains use DC to test out new concepts before expanding to the rest of the country. Harriet Tregoning says DC makes a perfect test bed for many urban innovations, from urban Walmart to car2go. (City Paper)

Comment

Harriet Tregoning is pro-choice (on transportation) (Oct 24, 2012)
Right on, Harriet Tregoning! (Mar 4, 2008)
Arlington chair says keep Tregoning and Klein (Sep 16, 2010)
Proposed Walmart undermines Rockville Pike redevelopment (Oct 20, 2011)
Walmart's 6 DC stores: Some will be urban, some won't (Apr 26, 2012)

Height limit heats up

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:25:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

The first of the NCPC/Office of Planning meetings on possibly changing DC's height limit brought out skeptics whose worries ranged from abandoned sky scrapers to less sunlight to danger from earthquakes. (City Paper)

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Korean Embassy offers up land

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:25:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

As a gesture of goodwill, the Korean Embassy will offer their rarely-used parking lots to Arlington for free for at least two years. What should the county do with it? (ArlNow)

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Then and Now: The former Italian embassy (Jun 10, 2009)
Then and Now: The former Spanish Embassy (Sep 14, 2009)
Lost Washington: the Old German Embassy (Mar 3, 2010)
Food trucks could fill in retail gaps (Apr 22, 2010)
The high cost of free parking in Bethesda (Oct 17, 2010)

Air rights up in the air

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:33:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Should MWAA prepare for development on top of Phase 2 Silver Line stations now? It's cheaper to build foundations now, but still expensive and there might be too much available land to make selling air rights worth it. (Post)

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Can Loudoun grow while protecting its rural areas?

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:58:00 EDT

by Canaan Merchant

For years, Loudoun County was one of the nation's fastest growing counties and an instructive example of the downsides of sprawl. Meanwhile, it's a nationally recognized center for horse breeding and for its wineries. How can the county manage ongoing growth without losing its rural areas?

The Loudoun County courthouse in Leesburg. Photo by lokeswari on Flickr.

Running north-south from Point of Rocks to Aldie, US 15 bisects the county into developed and rural halves. Loudoun's eastern half is a rapidly developing area that made it the nation's wealthiest county and one of its fastest growing counties.

This area contains Dulles Airport, a large number of technology businesses, and increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity. Soon, Metro's Silver Line will extend to Loudoun County, taking workers to job centers like Reston and Tysons Corner.

New developments line Loudoun County Parkway in 2007. Photo by Dan Reed on Flickr.

In Loudoun's western half, small towns and villages like Purcellville and Waterford dot the landscape among miles of rolling countryside. However, extreme development pressures put this land essential to the agricultural economy at risk.

How can the county continue to grow in a more sustainable manner and reverse existing planning mistakes? This two-part series will look at what Loudoun General Plan recommends for the county's Suburban Policy Area, or SPA, in the east and the Rural Policy Area, or RPA, in the west.

Both halves of Loudoun face unique challenges and risks, but they must play to their strengths. Each half has a specific role to play in the county, but they can complement one another. Despite tension between the two areas, Loudoun's success stems from being able to successfully plan and manage both suburban and rural places.

Where growth is happening

Brambleton, one of many new planned communities in Loudoun County's eastern half. Photo by Dan Reed on Flickr.

The Suburban Policy Area (PDF) is predicted to absorb seventy five percent of all of Loudoun's growth in the near future. By 2020, the SPA will have a population density of about 2200 people per square mile, which is close to Fairfax's current county-wide density of around 2300 people per square mile.

Sprawl has blurred many of the borders between Loudoun neighborhoods. Shopping centers blend together and there's a distinct lack of a center in many of the communities. Recognizing this, the SPA plan recommends creating four distinct "towns" in the county's eastern half: Ashburn, Sterling, Potomac and Dulles.

The towns would be compact and have a mix of uses, allowing them to have distinct centers and a strong sense of community identity. Schools and community centers would go in places where they can be easily reached by foot or bicycle. A greenbelt would wrap around each town, providing physical separation between communities and creating a network of open space and trails. The county could use Transfers of Development Rights, or TDRs, to allow greater density at other sites to preserve the open spaces.

For decades, Loudoun has planned only for cars while ignoring all other transportation modes. It will be relatively easy to add "complete streets" to new developments, but it will take a lot of work to make current roads safer and more attractive for walking and biking, especially ones like Route 7 that are over 100 feet wide and have grade-separated interchanges.

Where is the transit?

Loudoun Station, a TOD being built next to a future Silver Line station. Photo from Comstock.

These are all good ideas, but in order to make them happen, Loudoun will have to find a way to deal with both existing and future traffic congestion. This must include more comprehensive intra-county transit.

The county's general plan devotes a lot of space to widening roads and adding interchanges. However, there's hardly any mention of any sort of public transportation, outside of vague references to future Silver Line stations and the desire to build transit-oriented developments around them.

Right now, Loudoun County Transit runs commuter buses from park and ride lots in the county to downtown DC or Metro stations elsewhere in Northern Virginia. Virginia Regional Transit operates shuttles between neighborhoods and shopping centers, but only every forty-five minutes. Transfers between lines are few and far between.

Now that the county is committed to building the Silver Line, it must create a true transit network that not only connects communities to Metro but to each other. This would relieve congestion on many of Loudoun's roads and head off the desire to continually widen arterial roads. Loudoun needs transit sooner rather than later to handle what's already here and for future infill development.

Make it denser and give Loudoun an identity

Many people would say that what Loudoun needs to do is stop growing. That wouldn't help the county improve its communities or its traffic.

The county is urbanizing rapidly and must be able to pay for the costs of new services that more citizens require. Loudoun already has higher property taxes than Fairfax or Arlington, and the improvements to the transportation network will need to rely on carefully planned growth to maximize the county's investment. In order for Loudoun to hold on to its agricultural heritage, it must ensure that its developed areas are planned with excellence.

In part two, we'll talk about the Rural Policy Area.

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Sued for blocking development

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:40:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

Some Southwest condo residents filed a landmark application to try to block development in their complex, but a developer threatened a lawsuit, since the condo owners agreed to allow development there when they bought their units. Another group also applied for landmark status. (City Paper)

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Arlington may relax rules

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:40:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Arlington might let food trucks park for more than 2 hours and later at night, but as in DC restaurant owners say trucks' lower costs and no state taxes make competition unfair. (WAMU)

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The right answer to Montgomery BRT is yes

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:08:00 EDT

by Dan Reed

There are many questions surrounding Montgomery County's Bus Rapid Transit proposal, but there's just one the Planning Board will consider next Thursday: whether we should set aside room on our main streets for public transit. The answer is decidedly yes.

Photo by dan reed! on Flickr.

It's been 5 years since Councilmember Marc Elrich first proposed a countywide network of rapid bus routes. His idea has been reviewed, vetted and refined by transportation engineers, a task force of community and business leaders, the world's leading experts on BRT, and now county planners.

Today, the Planning Board is reviewing a draft of what's called the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, which envisions a 79-mile network containing 10 BRT routes across the county. While it's much smaller than what previous studies have proposed, it offers a realistic answer for our county's current and future traffic congestion.

I worked with Kelly Blynn of the Coalition for Smarter Growth to create a video about why we need BRT in Montgomery County:

In some parts of the county, especially in the congested Downcounty, we don't have the room to move everyone in cars now, let alone in the future. Keep things the way they are and they'll get worse. Provide a dedicated lane for transit, as this plan proposes in many areas, and people will gain a fast, reliable alternative to sitting in traffic.

Don't get me wrong: I love driving, and I love my car. But I'd rather spend my time in the car having fun, not sitting in traffic because there's no better way to get around. Some will insist that transit doesn't work for them, and that's okay. However, there are places and times when transit is the best tool we have to get people moving, and we have to take advantage of it.

Expanding our transit network is really the only way that Montgomery County can continue to grow, and the county will grow, whether people want it to or not. This plan will provide improved transit service in areas where people already use it, like along Route 29 between Silver Spring and Burtonsville, where thousands of apartments were built in the 1970's and 1980's in anticipation of light-rail line that never materialized. And it will support future development in places like White Flint, where BRT along Rockville Pike will form the spine of a new urban center.

Of course, many questions remain about this proposal. Elected officials have asked how we'll pay for it. Residents are worried about impacts to their individual neighborhoods. And there's a larger, philosophical debate about Montgomery County's transition from being the "perfect suburbia" of 50 years ago to a slightly more urban place.

We're not going to answer these questions today, not do we have to. There are still a lot of details to consider, and there are smaller, incremental improvements we can make to our transit network sooner rather than later. What this plan can do, however, is begin a conversation about getting transit on equal footing with cars.

Growing up in Montgomery County, I was taught to value diversity. We may have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different lifestyles, but we still come together to form one community. Building a transportation network that acknowledges that not everyone drives is a statement that we value all residents of Montgomery County, not just those who drive.

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan this Thursday at 6pm at the Montgomery County Planning Department, 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. To sign up to testify or send written comments, visit their website.

If you're interested in learning more about Montgomery County's BRT plan, the Action Committee for Transit is hosting a talk with Larry Cole, the county's head planner for BRT, at their monthly meeting this Tuesday at 7:30pm at the Silver Spring Civic Center, located at the corner of Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street.

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A shifty shift of funds?

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Muriel Bowser and the committee she chairs pulled funding for relocating DC Water to make way for a Capitol Riverfront mixed-use project. Instead, the money will pay for three projects in Bowser's Ward 4. (WBJ)

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And...

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Construction starts on First St. NE, including a 2-way cycletrack. (NoMa BID) ... Dupont's ANC opposes the U Street moratorium and new food truck rules. (Borderstan) ... HPRB is still iffy on McMillan. (Bloomingdale)

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1941 DC plan shows east Mall, no I-395

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:16:00 EDT

by Dan Malouff

DC's 1941 master plan is available through the Library of Congress. Published just months before Pearl Harbor, the plan is a fascinating look at the future pre-war planners envisioned.

Image from the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

The National Mall extends eastward to the bank of the Anacostia and dominates the plan. "Semi-public buildings," parking garages, and much more highway-like Constitution and Independence Avenues line the new Mall. On the other hand, Southwest retains its historic street grid, and isn't cut off by I-395.

What else jumps out?

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

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Density leads to dollars

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

A study in Nashville found that dense, mixed-use development is best for a city's finances since it costs less and generate more revenue than less dense development. (Streetsblog)

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And...

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DC Taxi Commission gives the green light for credit card readers in all taxis by August 31. (Post) ... More Metro employees feel safe reporting safety problems. (WAMU) ... The Congress Heights Metro will likely get a large, mixed-use development. (UrbanTurf)

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Up with pop-ups

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Aaron Wiener defends pop-ups like the one at 11th and V, echoing some arguments Dan Malouff made in his recent article. It would be nice to ensure all construction is attractive, but probably impossible. (City Paper)

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Even more anti-Purple Line candidate wins

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

by David Alpert

The challenger who thinks the Town of Chevy Chase isn't fighting the Purple Line hard enough, John Bickerman, won a seat on the town council. He wants the town to pay a consultant who would lobby the Federal Transit Administration against funding the line. (BethesdaNow)

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Will "filtering" keep housing affordable?

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:22:00 EDT

by David Alpert

The rising supply of high-end apartments has slowed the rise in prices (at least outside the hottest areas). Will that make housing more affordable for people who can't afford the fanciest apartments?

Photo by granite-charlotte on Flickr.

Real estate consultant Maeve Gallagher writes in Capital Business that vacancies have risen in the metro area, to 4.4% from 2.2% a year ago, though DC's vacancy rate continues to fall. That means rents in DC are still rising, but have declined in Northern Virginia.

Most people can't afford the highest-end or "Class A" apartments in new apartment buildings, but one theory holds that if we build more Class A housing, other rents will also fall through a process called "filtering."

If the top tier isn't full, rents won't go up there so fast. People who can afford those luxury units will want to buy in a new building, so the owners of an older building will have less incentive to renovate and less market upside from doing that. That will keep lower-tier rents more reasonable, and "filter" down to successively lower-price levels of the housing market.

However, that doesn't happen if the Class B and C apartment building owners instead respond in something of a counter-intuitive yet psychologically sensible way. They could decide to renovate their buildings to Class A, with new granite countertops and other high-end finishes, so they can get Class A rent.

Gallagher writes,

As deliveries of Class A units increase in 2013, pressure on Class B market rents could mount if owners of the higher-end buildings offer concessions to lease their new projects quickly.

In other words, if a new building owner can't get the building leased, they will offer specials like 2 months' free rent. An apartment that's a little cheaper, but not so nice or in a less desirable location, doesn't now seem like a better deal. That could lead the Class B owner to decide now is a good time for a renovation.

Some Class B building owners have responded by refreshing their units. Nearly 32,000 units are under renovation at this writing, at an average renovation budget of $21,000 per unit.

If the market pressure is affecting the owner's bottom line, they might look at the property and think about how they could turn it into more of a money-maker. Even if Class A rents are not extremely strong, they're still considerably better, and there's a good chance they will rise again in the future (and even if they won't, some owners will decide to take the risk).

Gallagher points out that building owners will make more money if they're renovating a building not when higher-tier rents are leveling off, but when they are sky-high, because there's a bigger upside. But not everyone responds that way. I spoke to one developer who said that often as long as a property is bringing in a good return, the owner will just pay it little heed, but then take notice if the margins drop.

Another obstacle to filtering is that demand is rising at all tiers of the housing market. Gallagher says,

Low-wage jobs are expected to grow at a rapid pace, particularly in the retail trade and the construction sectors, increasing demand for Class B apartments. ... In sum, the Class B apartment market in the Washington area faces obstacles in the near-term because of the amount of new supply being added to the Class A market. However, Class B vacancy should remain low, driven by demand from newly created jobs in modest-wage industries.

Few people are building Class B anywhere in the region, least of all in popular areas like DC, Arlington, and downcounty Montgomery. Owners (perhaps rightly) feel they can get top dollar for their properties. Lenders most want to finance luxury projects. And even if the market doesn't quite support Class A in an area now, people may (perhaps rightfully) think they can wait a little while.

Unfortunately, the effect is that almost all of the new supply is in the Class A tier. If we build enough, it might soak up demand for Class A, but as long as more and more people are coming into the market who want Class B, then those units will get more expensive as well.

This isn't an argument not to add more housing. However bad this problem is, it's worse if we aren't adding housing. There's even more profit in renovating a Class B building. The demand at many levels of the housing market will outstrip supply even more than it already does.

It's great we are building housing at a rapid pace. If Gallagher's research is right, we are still not doing enough to ensure that people can find a place to live, near transit if they wish to be, at a price they can afford.

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Raid affordable housing for summer school

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:50:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

The DC Council approved $4 million to keep summer school open to more kids. But the funds came out of the $51 million Mayor Gray pledged to increase the amount of affordable housing. (Post)

Comment

Don't let affordable housing become a victim of speeding (Nov 19, 2012)
Truxton Circle school and youth housing in doubt (Jan 23, 2011)
At rally, leaders promise action on affordable housing (Jan 28, 2013)
DC 2010 budget would end Saturday free parking (Mar 24, 2009)
DC Council: Don't choose parking meters over people (May 18, 2011)

Route 1 urban or suburban?

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:50:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A Costco with a huge parking lot and a dense mixed-use development are both coming to Route 1. Does Fairfax want it to be a walkable urban corridor or strip malls? (WAMU)

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And...

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:50:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

Arlington and Alexandria are increasing property taxes; Alexandria's will allow the city to fund Capital Bikeshare and libraries. (WAMU) ... David Catania's truancy bill received preliminary approval, without the part about imprisoning parents. (WAMU) ... Retail at Dulles and National airports could get a lot better soon. (WBJ)

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Put rooftop bars atop empty parking garages?

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:36:00 EDT

by Dan Reed

Montgomery County has lots of empty parking garage roofs with great views, but they're closed to the public. We could take advantage of this wasted space by turning them into event spaces.

View from an empty parking garage in Silver Spring. All photos by the author.

Last week, a map of rooftop bars in DC made by Petworth resident Tom Allison circulated on social media. Produced with the help of contributors on Reddit, the map shows several lofty watering holes in the District and Arlington, but just one in Montgomery County, at the Doubletree Hotel in Bethesda.

There have been some rooftop parties in the county, like Sky At Five in Rockville Town Square and one hosted by the apartment building formerly known as Georgian Towers with a model-turned-sushi bar. But how can we do more? On Twitter, reader Joshua Gorman joked about having a speakeasy on the top floor of a parking garage in downtown Silver Spring.

It sounds far out, but it might actually work. Montgomery County is blessed with a number of above-ground public parking garages in the downtowns of Silver Spring, Bethesda, and Wheaton. Their rooftop levels have great views, but outside of a few events each year, most of them are empty.

Our parking garages may not be as pretty as the Herzog and de Meuron-designed garage in Miami Beach which doubles as an event space. But since many of our garages are intended for commuters, they're usually next to Metro stations or bus stops, meaning you don't have to drink and drive.

People and cars are forbidden from using the top floors of many public garages in Montgomery County.

Unfortunately, most parking garage roofs in Montgomery County are blocked off with chains when they're not being used for parking. County police threaten to arrest anyone who tries to go up there.

In 2011, photographer Chip Py attempted to do a photo shoot of a popular go-go band atop a parking garage in downtown Wheaton. He'd been detained by police for taking pictures there before, so he decided to contact the Department of Transportation, which manages the garages.

"It was 13 people, lights and everything. And I didn't want to risk going in there and getting it shut down," Py said. But officials from the county said he'd get arrested for trespassing. "You can't do anything in there except park a car," he remembers being told.

Of course, people go anyway. One Saturday afternoon last year, I decided to visit the top floor of every parking garage in downtown Silver Spring. As with any forbidden-but-accessible place in the urban realm, I also found teenagers. On one garage roof, I walked into a stairwell to leave and stumbled on two kids sketching and listening to music on a little boombox. The smell of pot wafted through the air. I wanted to ask, "Why are you here?" but before I could, they freaked out and packed up.

To me at least, the answer is obvious. I remember sneaking onto the roof of the Town Square Garage on Ellsworth Drive with my friends from high school before it opened in 2004. There's the thrill of breaking the rules, yeah, but there's also the great view and the feeling like you're in the middle of everything and completely alone at the same time.

Two kids hang out atop a Silver Spring parking garage in 2010.

That's not too different from being in a great urban park or plaza. Public parking garages belong to the public, and we should think about them as part of the public realm. In other words, Montgomery County should take advantage of all this empty space they have, especially since it's not being used for parking. Of course, not all parking garages are engineered to actually hold people, like this one in Phoenix that violently shook when Arizona State University students held a dance party on top. We'd have to make sure that our garages were up to the task.

In recent months, there's been a lot of talk about growing the county's nightlife scene. However, it's primarily been about street-level drinking, or in the case of the Quarry House Tavern in downtown Silver Spring, subterranean drinking.

Not only would rooftop events on parking garages be a good use of wasted space, but they might be unusual enough to draw people here for a night out. The DC area may have a lot of rooftop bars, but definitely not one like this.

For more examples, check out this photoset of views from parking garages in downtown Silver Spring.

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Tysons Corner skyscraper will be region�s tallest

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:01:00 EDT

by Dan Malouff

A proposed skyscraper in Tysons Corner will be 435 feet tall, making it the tallest in the DC region, and first to breach the 400 foot threshold. The building is proposed as part of the SAIC redevelopment, adjacent to the Silver Line's Greensboro Metro station.

SAIC Westpark. Image by FXFOWLE, published online by The Tysons Corner.

Traditionally, the tallest skyscrapers in the region have been in Rosslyn. But Rosslyn is in the flight path to National Airport, so buildings there can't rise higher than 400 feet. A bevy of development projects in Rosslyn, Alexandria, Tysons, and North Bethesda are in the 300-400 foot range, but this is the first serious proposal to crack 400 feet.

Outside the DC region, Maryland's tallest building is 528 feet, and Virginia's is 508 feet. Richmond's is 449 feet.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

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Soccer land swap could solve problems for DC and United

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:31:00 EDT

by Cavan Wilk

DC United has been trying to build a new stadium using its own funds for years. A proposed land swap for a parcel at Buzzard Point could help them get one while the District grows its tax base, increases its housing supply, and improves city services at little cost to taxpayers.

Buzzard Point today. Photo by Stephen Whiting.

City officials are currently talking with DC United and developer Akridge about swapping some empty parcels of land at Buzzard Point for government-owned properties around the city, like the Reeves Center near 14th & U streets. In return, Akridge would build a new public safety campus elsewhere in the city and DC United would get the land at Buzzard Point for a stadium.

While other uses have been considered for Buzzard Point in the past, putting a new DC United stadium there would be the best use of that land, while opening up other properties around the city that are better suited for housing or commercial activities.

The current Metropolitan Police Department headquarters at Judiciary Square is outdated and needs to be replaced. It's in such poor shape that MPD employees would have to move somewhere else if the building were renovated.

Meanwhile, the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services and the Department of Corrections are temporarily moving from their obsolete facilities on Vermont Avenue to the Reeves Center. All three government agencies are in need of new permanent headquarters, but the catch is that there are currently no funds allocated to building them.

Slate business and economics correspondent Matt Yglesias recently argued that this site should be used for affordable housing instead. While he's right that DC needs more housing, the Buzzard Point site doesn't make sense for housing under current market conditions. Akridge bought the land that currently sits idle as a parking lot in 2005. They hoped to build an office building but the GSA refused to lease space there, saying the 15-minute walk from the Navy Yard Metro was too far.

There was a residential construction boom when Akridge bought the land in 2005, and there's one happening now due to limited supply and high rents. If they thought that they could sell or rent new homes there, they would have already done so. The Buzzard Point site is a vacant parking lot because there simply isn't enough economic incentive to build there.

If DC United moved to Buzzard Point, the land would become more valuable, much like the Capitol Riverfront after Nationals Park opened. The District could gain tax revenue from surrounding vacant properties as they were developed. Now in private hands, the highly valuable properties at Judiciary Square and 14th and U could also raise tax revenue for the city.

This gives DC more funds that could be used for affordable housing programs. Meanwhile, the market rate housing supply would increase due to new residential buildings at 14th and U and Buzzard Point. (The Judiciary Square site would presumably be used for commercial uses.)

The increase in housing supply would help stabilize rents. Individual buildings may not do much to stabilize rising rents, since they are only a small part of the new supply needed to meet demand. However, every little bit counts.

While the District of Columbia needs more market rate and affordable housing, it can accomplish those goals without throwing around money to induce development where there's no demand for it. Perhaps that was the only option available to our forebears in the second half of the 20th century, but the present situation is different with a growing, desirable city and private investors like Akridge and DC United falling all over themselves to invest in the District of Columbia.

It appears that the District government understands the present circumstances and is negotiating to indirectly use this private investment to improve city services, increase its tax base, and increase its housing supply without having to issue debt that would affect its bond rating. That's exactly how a growing city should operate.

Disclosure: I'm a member of the Barra Brava, an iconic independent DC United supporters' group.

75 comments