Do Something: The week of May 20, 2024

Image by Dan Reed.

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. This week: how to show up for our endorsees in DC and Virginia; why you should sign up for our email updates; and a big incentive for little homes in Montgomery County.

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.

Thanks to those of you who came to our Mid-City/Near Northwest/Rock Creek West happy hour last Sunday! Date TBD, but we’ll do another one in July (it’s always on a Sunday, from 3-5 pm).

Just like last week, the most important something that you can do is to support the candidates for DC Council that GGWash has endorsed, by voting for them on or before June 4, 2024, and by showing up for them. In particular, you can take a shift at the Takoma rec center to support Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George’s reelection bid during early voting, which starts this Sunday, May 26; you can contribute to Lewis George’s campaign here, and see other volunteer opportunities with her here. Also! Contribute to Robert White’s campaign here, and volunteer for him here. Contribute to Eboni-Rose Thompson’s campaign here, and volunteer for her here. Contribute to Salim Adofo’s campaign here, and volunteer for him here.

If it seems like there’s not much to do in the District right now that’s not specifically pro-housing-y, or ban-cars-y, it’s because it’s the home stretch of a) the primary election and b) the budget, two things that will greatly shape land use, housing, and transportation, but aren’t solely about them. The council will vote on the Local Budget Act on Wednesday, May 29, 2024; the LBA is the District’s appropriations bill, setting out what funding each agency gets and providing the legal authority necessary to spend it. The major consideration right now is whether the council will raise revenue beyond the sales and payroll tax increases Mayor Muriel Bowser included in her proposed FY25 budget. If you’re supportive of that concept, send your councilmember an email saying so. —AB

Maryland

We got a win this week, and it’s all thanks to our email subscribers. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how it’s hard to get pedestrian and bicycle improvements in parts of Silver Spring because Montgomery County’s master plan for those neighborhoods–which shapes everything from where sidewalks go to what types of buildings are allowed–is 24 years old. Last week, the Planning Board took a big step in the right direction: they voted to set the boundaries for what’s called the Eastern Silver Spring Communities Plan, a new master plan that would include all of Silver Spring between Sligo Creek Parkway, the Beltway, and the Prince George’s County line.

Planning staff originally wanted to look at only a small group of neighborhoods within that area, with no intention to cover the rest of Silver Spring. We sent a call to action out last week to our subscribers in three Silver Spring zip codes, asking them to ask the Board to fix it and expand that boundary to cover all of the other neighborhoods. Special thanks to the GGWash endorsees James Hedrick and Mitra Pedoeem, along with commissioners Shawn Bartley and Josh Linden and chair Artie Harris for getting us part of the way there. Next step: we need to get a master plan for the big chunk of Silver Spring between Rock Creek Park and Sligo Creek Parkway on the staff’s project list for next year. Sign up for email updates and I’ll let you know when it’s go time.

Meanwhile: my brother’s birthday was last weekend, and I went to visit him at his new condo in Columbia. It’s 1,000 square feet, generous for one person, but absolutely snug by new-construction standards. Houses have been getting bigger and bigger over the past several decades, and while they shrunk a little following the Great Recession, the average size of a new home built between 2020 and 2023 in Montgomery County is 3,800 square feet, according to the Planning Department. Bigger houses are one reason why home prices in the DC area are the highest they’ve ever been.

Zoning is part of the problem–but so are high land costs, permitting barriers, and the fees local jurisdictions charge. In Montgomery County, a new home can incur $40,000 or more in “impact taxes” to cover the cost of schools and roads, never mind that people living in existing homes also use those things! Between all of those costs, builders can only make the numbers work by building large, fancy houses.

That’s why Montgomery County planners are looking at ways to incentivize the construction of more little guys like my brother’s place with the Growth and Infrastructure Policy update, which will set the impact fees. Builders already get a steep discount for building in closer-in areas, where the infrastructure already exists. On top of that, planning staff recommend a 50% impact tax discount for single-family homes and townhomes less than 1,500 square feet, and completely waiving taxes for three-bedroom, family-sized apartments, which are hard to build for a variety of reasons. As the county also looks at zoning changes to encourage building smaller, more affordably-priced homes, changing the tax structure makes it much more likely that they’ll actually get built.

Take it from me, someone who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment, then a succession of sub-1,900-square-foot homes with my family and later roommates, and then the 1,300-square-foot home I live in now: it’s pretty good.

If you have a few minutes: email the Planning Board at mcp-chair [at] mncppc-mc [dot] org, address it to Chair Artie Harris and members of the Montgomery County Planning Board, and tell them you support the Growth and Infrastructure Policy update recommendation to discount impact taxes for smaller homes, and eliminating them for three-bedroom apartments. Feel free to personalize it–especially if you too have known the joys of a reasonably-sized home–and as always, bcc me at dreed [at] ggwash [dot] org so I know you sent it.—DR

Virginia

In case you missed it: last week, we endorsed JD Spain and Tenley Peterson for Arlington County Board, and Alyia Gaskins for mayor in Alexandria. This week, we released a new set of endorsements for Alexandria City Council: Sarah Bagley, Kevin Harris, James Lewis, Kirk McPike, and Jesse O’Connell. We’re confident they’re the voices Arlington and Alexandria need to move forward in this pivotal election.

Outside of the Virginia General Assembly, most of our Virginia Do Somethings involve asking the Arlington County Board and Alexandria City Council to do things. In an ideal world, these elected officials would do things we like without being prompted. It’s a million times easier to get abundant housing, or safer streets, or more reliable transit when the people who make the decision are themselves people who’ve experienced our tight housing market, or regularly walk places, or ride transit. That’s what endorsements do: they harness our collective power to lift up the people who can make our respective corners of the world a little better. And here’s how you can help do that:

Visit the candidates’ websites, where you can find opportunities to volunteer and donate to their campaigns:

See if you’re registered to vote in Virginia and make a plan to vote!
If you’re planning on early voting, here’s where you can go in Arlington or Alexandria.
If you’re voting on Election Day, find your polling place in Arlington or Alexandria.

Early voting ends June 15, and election day is June 18 in Virginia. For the next four weeks, I strongly encourage you to support these eight campaigns however you can.—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. And if you want to see Do Something in your inbox, scroll down and sign up for our daily emails.