The mission of ULI Washington’s Regional Land Use Leadership Institute is to provide a powerful local resource to raise awareness of and strengthen collaboration amongst real estate industry and business leaders from all sectors to tackle the National Capital Area’s complex land use issues. The culminating exercise for the Leadership Institute is a capstone project, where teams of the Institute participants work together over several months to address a local land use challenge.

The capstone is modeled on ULI Washington’s signature Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) which provides local sponsors with objective, responsible, and market-based advice on local land use and real estate issues that defy easy solutions. Panels of local industry experts spend a day and a half working with local sponsors, interviewing key stakeholders, and developing recommendations. ULI Washington has completed over 40 TAPs throughout the region since 2004.

This year’s Leadership Institute was made up of 28 innovative, determined, and thoughtful leaders from various sectors throughout the land-use industry. Together, they completed eight program days and eight leadership days. Through the program, they learned everything from their personal leadership styles, to overviews of real estate development, to the importance of sustainability and equity in the built environment. For their final Capstone Project, the leaders of this year’s cohort were divided into four groups and asked to evaluate transit access in low- and moderate-income communities.

Class of 2020-2021: Ben Apfelbaum, Joseph “JJ” Arce, Ulysses Auger, Tim Bertschinger, Blake Bowen, Paul Brazier, Tiffany Brown, Lauren Callaghan, Meghan Dowker, Matthew Folden, Tom Gnecco, Lee Goldstein, Archna Gupta, Orlando Gutierrez, Devon Hastie, Kristen Hushour, Molline “Molly” Jackson, Samyika Jain, James Kelly, Vivian Leen, Christopher Marshall, Katherine Noonan, Elizabeth Packer, Eric Papetti, William ‘K.C.’ Reed, Kate Salomon, Adam Watson, and St. Clair Williams.

2020-2021 Capstone Project

Despite the region’s extensive public transit system, safe and convenient access to public transit amenities remains a challenge for some communities. In many cases, walking or biking is too time-consuming, unpleasant, or unsafe. The Transportation Planning Board

(TPB) recently completed the Transit Within Reach study identifying 49 Transit Access Focus Areas (TAFAs) as high priorities for improved pedestrian and bicycle connections to high- capacity transit including Metrorail, bus rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and streetcar. This work is rooted in the TPB’s long-range transportation plan, Visualize 2045, which was approved in 2018 and calls for the region to make it easier for people to bike and walk to transit.

The Leadership Institute 2021 Capstone provided recommendations for improving transit access to two TAFA sites, Congress Heights Metro Station in Washington, DC and Seven Corners Transit Center in Virginia. The Institute participants’ analyses provided technical assistance to improve access to and from these sites. Their recommendations addressed design, operations, funding, implementation, and policy considerations.

 Thank You To Our Supporting Members And Sponsors

In conclusion, the ULI Washington Regional Land Use Leadership Institute class of 2020-2021 wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without the support of many within our organization and DMV community.

With the perseverance of our staff, our Leadership Institute committee members, and our Capstone sponsors, the program was able to seamlessly pivot to a 100% online platform. Colleagues of the program were able to work even more efficiently to provide relevant and top-notch programming to this year’s Leaders. A few of our 2020-2021 program facilitators included Tim Flynn (Vice President, Design & Construction – Rockefeller Group), Lily Goldstein (Vice President, Social Impact Investing – JBG Smith), Toni Griffin (Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard School of Design), and Feras Qumseya (Vice President, Development – Foulger-Pratt).

ULI Washington Leadership: Liz Price (Executive Director, ULI Washington) and Jamie Weinbaum (ULI Washington Chair).

Leadership Institute Steering Committee: Hilary Goldfarb, Jill Hunger, Mark Phillips, Charles Lancaster, Rod Letonja, Doug Loescher, Molly McKay, Renan Snowden, Rachel H. Sowards, David Zaidain.

Capstone Sponsors: WMATA, MWCOG, Congress Heights Community Training and Development Corporation, DDOT, Fairfax County Department of Transportation and Planning and Development.

Get Involved Today

If you are interested in learning more about this year’s Leadership Institute’s Capstone project and/or learning more about this year’s cohort of Leaders, please follow the links below.

ULIW Leadership Institute Graduation FY21 Part 1 Recording (Presentations)

ULI Leadership Institute Graduation FY21 Presentation

ULI Leadership Institute Capstone FY21 Executive Report

ULI Leadership Institute Graduation FY21 Flipbook