Do Something: The week of April 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. This week: flowers for Governor Wes Moore; fun with zoning in Chevy Chase DC; and calling all Arlington and Alexandria primary candidates.

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.

DC

There are a couple of interesting cases coming before the zoning commission later this month. One, ZC 23-17, would require less parking in income-restricted, subsidized housing, meaning the subsidies that fund affordable housing would not be mandated to fund so many parking spaces. The other, ZC 23-25, would establish “Chevy Chase mixed-use zones” and apply those zones to numerous parcels, including the Chevy Chase community center, which you may have heard referred to as the “civic core.”

The zoning commission will meet about parking minimums for affordable housing on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 4:00 pm, and on rezoning parts of Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase on Monday, April 29, 2024, at 4:00 pm.

As always, do not sign any click-to-send action alerts about zoning cases. They are generic, gum up the record, quite obviously annoy the commissioners, and allow opponents—with credibility, I think—say that support for a case is inauthentic. You can always send a comment to zcsubmissions@dc.gov, in your own words, about a case, though it must be submitted 24 hours in advance of a hearing to be added to the record.

I strongly recommend that you not comment on a zoning case about a specific property unless you live near it. As tempted as I am to say that if you call yourself a YIMBY, you should throw yourself all over this case—because the District’s extremely white, extremely affluent neighborhoods should receive all the noise, light, and heat from every resident concerned about housing production here—I am very cognizant that the zoning commission prioritizes authenticity in comments. Most of the comments in support of upzoning Chevy Chase are, currently, generic. If you live there, now’s the time to write a nice note saying that you’re totally fine with increasing density so that more housing can be built there. If you have any questions about how to submit a comment to the record, email me at abaca@ggwash.org.

Otherwise, it’s just…budget. See last week’s Do Something for details on signing up for hearings. —AB

Maryland

We did it: on Monday, the House and Senate agreed on amendments to all three Moore Housing bills, including the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act, which will allow more homes near transit and streamline permitting processes across the state. All Governor Moore needs to do is sign the three bills and they’ll be law. (I would love to be at the signing, btw, for those in the Moore-Miller administration who are reading this.)

This is a big deal for Maryland, and for GGWash, as this is only our second year doing work at the state level here. There are a lot of people I would like to thank for getting this bill over the finish line, a lot I’d like to say about how the bill will impact housing production in Maryland, and a lot of reflections I have about this experience. That will have to wait a few weeks–it’s better to let all of those thoughts bounce around and marinate before spewing them out anyway.

So for now I’ll say this and give Governor Wes Moore his due. Zoning reform is a national conversation; just last week Politico talked about how many governors are embracing this issue. But as Alex and I noted earlier this year, a lot of that attention is focused on Republican governors and red states. Zoning reform in Maryland–small, diverse, heavily Democratic, a recurring punchline on everything Tina Fey has ever done–got lost in the mix. Even local publications like Maryland Matters and the Washington Post have only mentioned the Governor’s legislation in passing.

It’s a shame. The Housing Expansion and Affordability Act may seem modest in comparison to California, but so what? State-level zoning reform is hard. It took California years to get where they are. The governor of Arizona just vetoed a zoning bill with bipartisan support, saying it was too “experimental.” This is one of the wealthiest states in the nation, a place that literally invented race-based zoning, and we have one of the few Black governors in our nation’s history. I wouldn’t have blamed Governor Moore for being more cautious. I wouldn’t have blamed Democratic leadership in the House and Senate for being more cautious.

And yet: the General Assembly effectively upzoned land around over 100 rail stations, created statewide inclusionary zoning, introduced mixed-use zoning to places that barely allowed it, and gently cracked open single-family zoning to allow more diverse types of homes. Despite tremendous pressure to water this bill down, the Moore-Miller administration, housing secretary Jake Day, and champions in the General Assembly like Delegate Vaughn Stewart held firm on the main tenets of this bill, and in some cases made it stronger. The Governor himself quoted our poll, which showed that Marylanders of all stripes want the state to do something about high housing costs.

The resulting legislation passed both the House and the Senate with nearly unanimous Democratic support as well as a few Republicans willing to stick their necks out. So let’s celebrate. (Invite me to the bill signing, please!?) The foot is firmly in the door, and I’m excited to think of what we can accomplish in 2025.

If you have a few minutes: thank your delegates and senators for voting for House Bill 538, the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act!

• Find your delegates and senator using this link
• Email them: “I’m a resident in your district, and I want to thank you for voting for the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act (House Bill 538). Thank you for standing up for Marylanders who need more, and more affordably priced housing choices.” Bcc me at dreed [at] ggwash [dot] org so I know you sent it. —DR

Virginia

We’re sending out endorsement questionnaires this week for candidates running for Arlington County Board, and mayor and council and Alexandria. Some of you don’t have email addresses on your websites and Arlington’s board of elections hasn’t posted candidate filing information yet. If you’re a registered candidate or planning to file by the April 4 deadline, let me know at dreed [at] ggwash [dot] org so I can make sure to send you our questionnaire. —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.