“Smart” and “Washington” are rarely put in the same sentence, but Washington DC could become a model for “smart growth” within the next five years. Earlier this year, the Blueprint for American Prosperity produced by the Brookings Institute stated that the growth and success of the Unites States is linked to the commercial health of the major US metropolitan areas. The objective of the Blueprint study is to show that improving the planning, development, and management of major cities will lead to greater overall growth of the nation. Building on the Blueprint, this proposal will present how the Washington DC metro area can achieve increased prosperity in the next five years simply by solving two of the area’s most serious problems: urban sprawl and high levels carbon emissions.
Urban sprawl is a threat to metropolitan areas because it requires more resources to adequately provide essential services like transportation, education, and safety services to low density areas than high density areas. The Washington DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is ranked 26th most sprawling of 83 metro areas measured by Smart Growth America based on an index ranking density, mix use areas, centeredness, and street accessibility. The factor that hurt Washington’s ranking the most is its mix of homes, jobs, & services which is ranked 15th worst. Segregation of land use requires every trip to be made by car, and can result in a jobs-housing imbalance in which workers cannot find housing close to their place of work.
Problems caused by lack of mix use areas is apparent by driving around the Beltway at rush hour, but less than half of Washington’s carbon footprint stemmed from transportation, ranking it 20th least polluting of the 100 biggest metro areas in the Blueprint study. (Sinha, 1) However, the Washington region ranked dead last in carbon emissions from residential use giving it an overall ranking of 89th with a carbon footprint the size of 3.1 metric tons per person in 2005. Since most of the residential energy use comes from air conditioning, some believe that it is the low cost of energy that denies incentives to conserve.
The solution for both of these problems is the same: sustainable and smarter growth. An initial focus should be placed on the state governments of Maryland and Virginia as these two states contain the majority of the population and new development for the Washington MSA. These two states, in partnership with the District of Columbia must take the initiative to curb excessive sprawl and promote more sustainable ways to provide energy to their citizens by: supporting centralized development, regulating carbon emissions and incentivizing businesses to develop smart growth solutions.
Centralized Development
State and local governments need to concentrate on urban planning to limit the amount of residential developments popping up in the outer counties of the metro areas. Counties have the opportunity to improve their small towns by enforcing policies promoting centeredness. Centeredness is a measurement of activity in a town or major city that correlates to business prosperity. Washington’s score for centeredness was 97.85 in 2000, below average (100) for the 83 cities measured by Smart Growth America. (Ewing, Appendix 3, 3)
Better urban planning will also help alleviate Washington’s traffic woes. Washington is continually ranked in the top three areas for worst traffic and the average commute is over a half hour (32.7 minutes). Adding more developments causes the state to spend increasingly more on infrastructure including: new transportation planning and provision of safety and education services. Local governments need to enact policies to restrict new development to areas with good scalable public transportation and zone for mix use space so that residents do not have to go far for the services they require. Reducing travel times and time in traffic also reduces citizen stress levels and overall health.
Reduction of Carbon Emissions
Another way to improve the health and prosperity of Washington area residents is to conserve energy usage and reduce its 3.1 metric tons of carbon emissions per person. Better city planning will help cut down on time in traffic which accounts for 35% of the Washington regions carbon emissions (1.1 metric tons per person), but it’s this area’s residential energy use that is dragging down its total. (Sinha,1 ) The dominant reason for each person in the Washington region emitting and average of two metric tons of carbon emissions is the low cost electricity coming from coal.
Existing homes and commercial buildings offer many cost-effective options for efficiency improvements with manageable payback periods. Energy audits can be conducted to identify the most cost-effective measures for existing buildings. Reducing demand for electricity due to efficiencies will make it possible to halt construction of new coal-fired power plants. In the meantime, Maryland, Virginia and DC should consider is enacting the Clean Energy Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). This bill requires all electricity providers to include a minimum percent of clean, renewable electricity in the electric power supply portfolio they offer to their customers. As renewable sources such as wind energy grow, older (dirtier and less efficient) coal-fired power plants can be phased out. (Ball,5)
Business Growth
Improving centralization and promoting energy efficiencies give the businesses in the Washington area a unique opportunity to tap into the developing marketplace for smart growth. As the Blueprint illustrates, metropolitan areas must leverage the business sectors that are the strongest in their area. Key sectors driving the economy in the Washington area are the federal government, technology, construction, international business, and hospitality. The Washington area is unique in that it can join the superb capabilities of the commercial sector with Federal, State and Local Governments to create Public-Private partnerships able to address smart growth issues affecting the region and the Nation at large.
This strong tie between government and business allows the Washington area to act as a model for planning urban development with construction and technology industries especially during economic downturns. In return, proliferation of high technology products and services, when combined with business transformation, produces more efficient government operations and a more effective and competitive commercial environment—a win-win for all of the areas sectors. In 2006, the Washington area ranked first in the nation for computer systems design and engineering service jobs, and 2nd in R&D and testing labs. (Caliguiri,1) Governments will be able to count on leadership from the high-tech sector in the Washington area to also help development of renewable energy sources.
Challenges
The major hurdle standing in the way of smart growth is fragmented governance. Currently, there is a lack of coordinated land use planning between state, county and local governments in the Washington region. Greater government fragmentation correlates with more sprawl. As a model for better planning Montgomery County, MD—in the Washington area—has a program allowing property owners to transfer the right to develop their property to higher density “receiving areas” in other parts of the County. This program, perhaps the best in the nation, has preserved roughly 47,000 acres of farmland since its creation in 1980. (Katz.2. 41, 54)
Reducing carbon emissions is another problem that must be pushed onto area consumers through policy changes. Even by increasing the price of energy will inspire conservation as it has in New York, a state with more expensive energy. (Smorg,1) Higher taxes on carbon emissions would allow the state to offer incentives to companies investing in renewable energy products and services and create a magnet for new energy product growth.
Conclusion
As the Blueprint illustrates, the nation’s metropolitan areas must leverage their assets through innovation, superior infrastructure, supporting human capital, and finding places for people to live within the metro areas to continue to move our nation forward. The time is right for the nation’s capital to take advantage the local, dominant business sectors to develop smart growth plans that can be used to improve prosperity of the area and serve as a model for the new metropolitan nation.
