We know that Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker gets Region Forward and its emphasis on building walkable sustainable communities with access to transit. He talked about it back in December. Now he’s apparently backing up that talk with action.

As reported last night by the Washington Examiner Baker is at the forefront of a push by planners in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties to prioritize development around Metro stations and to make those stations more accessible. This is in line with Governor O’Malley’s objective of increasing transit-oriented development (TOD) in Maryland as the population nears one million in both counties.

According to the article planners are looking across the Potomac to the celebrated Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington as a model for development. This is really great news and seeing as TOD both reduces the need for travel by automobiles and is dramatically more energy efficient than sprawl it will help us meet a slew of RF targets on accessibility and sustainability.