Do Something: The week of January 8, 2024

Weekly, Regional Policy Director Dan Reed and DC Policy Director Alex Baca will share with you an action you can take in the immediate future that has the potential, sometimes great and sometimes small, to increase the number of homes in our region, decrease the trips people take by car, make all of it safer, and not screw people over in the process.

If you have any questions, email dreed@ggwash.org about Maryland and Virginia Do Somethings, and abaca@ggwash.org about Washington, DC, Do Somethings—or, about whatever you want to talk about. This week: when Tony Williams says split-roll tax; 1617 U Street; Maryland gets serious about housing supply; getting rid of unnecessary parking requirements in Montgomery County; and why you should still go out in January.

First: Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc.: The chairman’s mark of the tax revision commission’s (TRC) recommendations came out last Friday!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT INCLUDES A TEENY, TINY, BABY RECOMMENDATION FOR SPLIT-ROLL TAXATION (#4 page 3 that’s riiiiiight). Split-roll taxation is the TRC’s way of describing land-value tax.

I was so excited that I emailed my coworkers about this on Sunday night, and Dan made me a Drizzy meme about it.

The actual recommendation is, “Reduce commercial property tax rates by equivalent of 10 cents; move to system of split-rate ‘land value’ taxation when values stabilize.” This, of course, needs some work: Who knows what stabilization means? Also, split-rate should apply to everything, not just downtown revitalization commercial properties.

There’s at least a couple more weeks of the TRC’s process: The commission met on Monday, January 8, to discuss the chairman’s mark (I can’t tell you what they said about split-roll taxation, because the audio was impossibly bad while they were talking about it), and has additional meetings scheduled for January 17 at 1 pm and January 19 at 2 pm, which will be livestreamed.

Based on the recommendation itself and the few stray comments I was able to pick up from the largely inaudible Monday review session, I submitted the following comment:

Greater Greater Washington is pleased to see the inclusion of moving to split-rate “land value” taxation in the Tax Revision Commission’s chairman’s mark.

I firmly agree that moving to a system of split-rate taxation should be considered as “economic competitiveness,” but “when values stabilize” must be defined. Without specific parameters, “when values stabilize” is probably just a proxy for “when downtown recovers to the satisfaction of the District’s most vocal actors,” which will always be subjective, and may be used as an excuse to avoid the implementation of split-rate taxation.

Also, it is silly of the commission to suggest that split-rate taxation should only apply to commercial properties—all taxable real properties should be subject to a split-rate tax. So as to move forward in practice with split-rate taxation, any increase in residential property values proposed by the commission should apply to a residential property’s land values, and decreases should apply to improvement values.

Lastly, it is shortsighted of the commission to attempt to sidestep the issue of WMATA funding. I understand the desire; I myself would love to be off the hook for proposing realistic, yet bold, funding solutions for public transit, which underpins the District’s economic productivity. But if the TRC does not provide at least some grounding and guidance for both one-off, short-term and dedicated, long-term funding for WMATA, it is likely that the executive and legislative branches will seek a quick fix that undoes the careful work of the commission to maintain revenue neutrality. It is my understanding that, this year, the District needs to find $250 million for WMATA, and that any future dedicated revenue would need to grow at about four percent per year. For what it’s worth, GGWash has long recommended road pricing, which would charge drivers of single-occupancy vehicles for trips into and out of the District’s central business district, as a dedicated revenue source for WMATA. Mayor Bowser’s administration has suppressed this report out of fear of spooking downtown. That this is scarier than, say, an increase in property taxes is deeply bemusing to me.

In sum, GGWash requests that the commission enhance recommendation #4 with a definition of “stabilize,” add a recommendation that split-rate be applied to all taxable real properties, and provide a range of options for short-term and long-term WMATA funding.

Thank you.

If you’d like to submit your own comment, you can do so here. I recommend saying that you’d like split-roll taxation to all properties, not just commercial, and that you’d like the commission to provide at least some suggestions of where to look for a dedicated revenue stream for WMATA and whether that might be a tax or a more general revenue-raiser.

Second: We’ve got a couple of DC-policy-specific events coming up at which I’d be happy to see you. Next Tuesday, January 16, following the Brookings Institution’s 4 pm panel with Henry Grabar, Rachel MacCleery, and Harriet Tregoning on parking (because Henry wrote a book, Paved Paradise, about the absolute chokehold it has on American life), we’ll be at Residents Cafe & Bar in Dupont to hang out starting around 5:30 pm RSVP here so we can keep a headcount.

On Wednesday, January 24, at 6 pm, we’ll be running a training via Zoom on the DC Council’s performance oversight process, including what it is, what the point of it is, how it works, how to participate, and what’s suitable for oversight testimony. Hearing dates are now live, you can sign up for our training here. We last did this in 2022, and I’m excited to do it again with two more years’ experience under my belt. As always, you don’t have to agree with what we support to attend; this is a training, not an ask of anyone who attends to get behind our policy stances. I’ll be prepping for this over the next couple of weeks, so if you have things you’d like me to address specifically, email me at abaca@ggwash.org.

Finally: a quick 1617 U update. The zoning commission, as of Monday, January 8, is at least now actively going through the motions of considering the case, and will continue to do so on Thursday, January 18, and Monday, January 22, from 4—9 pm. I don’t know when the map amendment will actually be voted on. You can still submit testimony to the record, and sign up to testify on either night. Be sure to submit testimony (even if you’re planning to give it verbally) or sign up 24 hours in advance. The closer you live to 1617 U, the better and more valuable your testimony.

Maryland

It’s happening! Yesterday was the start of both Maryland’s and Virginia’s general assembly sessions. In Maryland, Governor Moore and housing secretary Jake Day announced a set of housing reforms which I’m calling Moore Housing (the administration is free to use this if they choose). There are three main parts: to make it easier to build more homes by streamlining the approval process; to increase financing for affordable housing development; and to strengthen renter protections.

In general, we think this is good, and Moore and Day are saying all the right things. We’ll have more (or Moore?) soon, including a breakdown of the housing package and our thoughts on how it could be even stronger.

Meanwhile: for over a year, we’ve worked on legislation that would allow new homes in Montgomery County to be built without parking if they’re near transit. This coming Tuesday, the 16th is the big show: a public hearing on the proposal, which is called Zoning Text Amendment 23-10. The ZTA eliminates parking requirements within a half-mile of Metro and Purple Line stations, and within a quarter-mile of Bus Rapid Transit stations, which include both existing lines like the Flash and future lines. All eleven county councilmembers support the bill, which was originally proposed by Council President Andrew Friedson and Councilmember Kristen Mink, and we’re excited to support it.

I’m still completing our testimony (which I’ll post here when it’s ready), but here are our talking points:

Parking is really expensive to build, adding tens of thousands of dollars per space to the cost of constructing a building. Parking also takes up a lot of space. Together the high costs and physical constraints can make it hard or even infeasible to build homes in close-in locations
This bill makes it easier to build homes in the greenest places in Montgomery County–the communities that already exist, where people don’t have to rely on a car, and where we don’t have to keep sprawling outward
This bill makes it easier to build homes in the places where people want to live–close to shops, jobs, transportation–where homes are the most expensive to build, and where people are least likely to have cars
Montgomery County (and the state of Maryland) have invested in public transportation and are not getting the full benefits of that investment because of excessive parking requirements

Despite its broad support, this bill needs your help. The sign-up list for the public hearing is full–maybe we shouldn’t be surprised after a resident showed up at the press conference announcing the bill to complain about it, and we imagine there will be some vocal opposition. You can sign up for the waitlist here, or submit written testimony here.–DR

Virginia

This week is TRB (the Transportation Research Board conference), which is a sort of reunion for the extended GGWash universe as people from around the world descend on DC to talk specifically about *our stuff*. TRB is also well-known for its happy hours–there are two competing spreadsheets of events circulating, one of which listed 15 happy hours on Tuesday alone. I’m glad so many of you came to Dacha Beer Garden Tuesday night for our second Planners of Color happy hour, which coincided with an LGBTQ+ happy hour for folks attending TRB. (A two for one deal, especially if you’re like me and fit in both categories!)

Between the torrential rain, forecasted 60 mph wind, and the temptation of my warm, dry couch, I was extremely reluctant to go out. Of course, when I got my rain boots on and dragged myself to Shaw I could feel the glow of the somewhat soggy crowd, and I knew I made the right choice. There’s something special about the energy of a party in January. The holidays are over and you’re left with the cold, dark, wet winter, which makes people extra hungry for connection. I was so glad to see you–contributors, volunteers, readers, people who just learned about us this week, old buddies I went to grad school with who read us a decade plus ago–last night, and once again it was a reminder of the community we’ve built here.

All that is to say: Virginia friends, I need you to hold on just a little bit longer. Please stay tuned for some big news about our work in Richmond this winter!–DR

Your support of GGWash enables us, Dan and Alex, to do our jobs. Our jobs are knowing how development and planning works in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. If it’s appropriate to take action to advance our goals, which we hope you share, we can let you know what will have the most impact, and how to do it well. You can make a financial contribution to GGWash here.

Thanks for reading!