Prince George’s climate plan proposes swift action, but how does it address transportation and land use?

Last month, Prince George’s County released a draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) for public comment. The plan focuses on achieving critical near-term reductions in communitywide greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030 while also preparing Prince George’s for the impacts of climate change. It identifies a limited set of high-impact actions that the County government and local community can implement within five years.

This local plan was released at the same time as the United Nations climate conference, where nations made insufficient commitments to prevent catastrophic warming, reinforcing the importance of action by cities and regions.

Many advocates, including the Coalition for Smarter Growth, where I serve as a fellow, and its grassroots partner RISE Prince George’s, want a plan that helps create walkable, inclusive transit-oriented development that can drive economic prosperity and sustainable, equitable communities.

More jobs and housing near Metro and other good transit would save millions of miles of driving in the region per day, help the region meet its housing targets, ease the east-west economic divide and cut traffic congestion almost 20%. In addition to their equity and livability benefits, these are critical climate steps, because electric vehicles, while essential, will not be enough.

So, how well does Prince George’s draft Climate Action Plan support this vision and take bold and just climate action?

Prince George’s climate action plan (CAP) focuses on “action”

While some climate action plans have a laundry list of worthwhile actions, Prince George’s focuses on a smaller number that the county can largely begin to implement on its own without state or federal legislation. For example, Montgomery County has 97 climate actions while Prince George’s has 26. Some examples of actions that Prince George’s would take include creating “climate-ready” building codes, establishing a “benchmarking program” to track energy and water use in existing buildings, and updating County ordinances to support community agriculture.

Prince George’s also sets specific, timebound, measurable implementation steps and responsible local agencies, while Fairfax County’s plan, for example, goes out to 2050 and has implementation strategies but they must be further defined with a second planning phase.

The CAP shows how climate change impacts residents

The Prince George’s plan does an excellent job showing what climate change already looks like in the county, how its residents are experiencing it, and how Black, Brown, and low-income residents suffer most. The plan also ties public health outcomes and disparities to forecast climate impacts and pollution sources, highlighting the role of transportation.

The plan doesn’t propose enough action to achieve its 2030 greenhouse gas target

Prince George’s proposed actions would not achieve the 50% reduction target according to the consultant’s modeling. The plan recommends further action by the State of Maryland to clean up the electrical grid and help the county close the gap to reach its 50% goal. However, a look at the transportation sector, which is by far the largest source of Prince George’s climate pollution, shows that the plan also needs to take stronger actions on it.

The plan pursues less than ambitious transportation strategies

National energy experts at Rocky Mountain Institute show that to adequately reduce climate pollution from transportation, the United States must make sure a quarter of cars on the road are clean electric vehicles by 2030 and also cut the amount Americans need to drive by 20%.

In contrast, Prince George’s climate plan falls short on both accounts: it calls for only 15% of cars, SUVs and pickups in the county to be electric by 2030 and seeks a meager 3.6% reduction in how much families and workers in the County have to drive on a daily basis.

Also, while the plan mentions “policies that encourage alternative transit, carpooling, non-motorized travel, and telework” as a climate strategy, it leaves out actions to do this, with the minor exception of expanding telework by County government employees. Meanwhile, the County is guiding billions of dollars in the long-range transportation plan to expand highways, inducing more driving.

Other plans in the region (e.g., Fairfax, Montgomery, DC, Alexandria) set targets for shifting travel to more sustainable modes, like transit, walking and biking. However, Prince George’s CAP does not set a specific goal.

Regional studies show that travel demand programs, which can be implemented relatively quickly compared to large infrastructure projects, could significantly reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and emissions while improving overall mobility.

Significant attention is paid to sprawl and improving land use

A major reason for the county’s high transportation emissions is its sprawling land use, similar to other suburban counties, as well as the regional east-west imbalance of jobs and affordable housing. The plan details how various zoning approvals and exceptions over the decades have undermined growth management goals intended to focus development within the Beltway and near transit. This scattered development has also diminished the county’s tree canopy, cutting down 11 square miles between 2014 to 2018.

The Climate Action Plan proposes a number of measures that could return the county to the growth management goals in its comprehensive plan, Plan 2035, including incentivizing infill development. The CAP sets a goal consistent with the regional housing targets to locate 75% of new housing in activity centers and make it affordable.

The CAP tries to put teeth in the County’s growth management policies

Plan 2035 established a system of regional transit districts, local transit centers, employment centers and outlying town centers. The CAP seeks to change County Council and planning department decision-making to prioritize development in regional transit districts and historic “downtowns” over other more auto-dependent areas.

Sprawling planned developments like Westphalia and Konterra, although designated “town centers” in county and regional plans, are mostly far from transit, depend on massive highway expansion plans, and require residents to drive more than the county average.

Oddly, the plan does not mention the County’s Economic Development Platform, which identifies transit-oriented development and Prince George’s Metro stations as the county’s engines of future prosperity, livability and sustainability.

What about the regional east-west divide as a climate issue?

The CAP focuses on local action; however, it should still loudly advocate for regional efforts to shift more employment growth to underutilized Metro station areas in the eastern side of the region combined with building more affordable housing near good transit.

Regional agencies like COG often point the finger back at local jurisdictions, that their actions are critical. The CAP could be Prince George’s opportunity to speak up that other localities need to do their part in solving the east-west divide, which drives up greenhouse gas emissions and transportation and housing costs for everyone.

Opportunity to refine the draft plan

The public can comment on the draft plan through December 1. Residents can also provide further feedback after today to their Prince George’s County Council members who will be reviewing the plan.

The project team will seek the adoption of the finalized plan by the County Council in early 2022.