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In
this year's General Assembly session, Republican
policy on growth and transportation will determine
whether the GOP protects or surrenders its majority
in both the Senate and the House of Delegates.
Republican Senators and Delegates, particularly in
Northern Virginia, must fundamentally transform land
use and transportation policy if they are to remain
in office. Unfortunately for endangered Republicans
like Cucinelli, Devolites-Davis, and Albo, the
Speaker of the House apparently believes that
Northern Virginia voters aren't smart enough to
differentiate political grandstanding from policy
reform.
Speaker
William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Delegates
Clifford L. Athey Jr., R-Front Royal, Jeffrey M.
Frederick, R-Prince William, and Robert G. Marshall,
R-Manassas, presented a three-part reform plan at a
press conference early this week. What is notable
about this reform package is what it does not do:
Give localities the ability to deny rezonings based
on a lack of infrastructure to support the new
residents. Without an Adequate Public Facilities
Ordinance (APFO) as part of land use reform, forcing
counties to direct growth to certain areas and
maintain their own subdivision roads will not stop
the march of sprawl across the Northern Virginia
Piedmont.
Why?
Because supervisors will not have the legal
authority to deny rezonings. Boards of Supervisors
will continue to face the same problem they have had
for half a century: When they try to limit growth to
certain regions in their counties, developers can
sue and win in court.
At
Speaker Howell's press conference the Republicans
lambasted local officials for encouraging poor land
use. Del. Athey, R-Warren, said, "The easiest
job in the world is to be a supervisor approving a
subdivision, because, basically, you can approve it
and you get to start blaming the state immediately
because they haven't repaved the road."
What
Athey didn't acknowledge is that local officials
often don't have the authority to stop the
construction of those subdivisions. Ironically, the
Republicans singled out Gerry Connolly, at-large
Chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, as
blameworthy for poor land use. Had they done their
research, these Republicans would know that the
Fairfax Supervisors, under the leadership of
Supervisor Jean Packard, tried to establish a
de-facto greenbelt in the western part of the County
in the early 1970's. Because then, as now, the
General Assembly had not passed legislation
authorizing localities to use APFOs, developers sued
Fairfax and won in court, opening most of western
Fairfax to traffic-inducing sprawl.
It
turns out that it is easier to blame local
supervisors than it is to propose substantive land
use reform in the General Assembly. Given the House
leadership’s thin "reform" package, one
can only assume that they consider the developers to
be more important allies than their own
constituents. That is unfortunate, not only because
it represents a failed democratic process (at least
until fall of '07), but also because it is a
betrayal of Republican principles.
There
is only one way to keep both state and local taxes
low in Virginia: Control growth. Sprawl, because it
requires inefficient infrastructure, necessitates an
inexorable rise in taxes, as anyone in a
sprawl-afflicted locality can attest.
This
is actually a blessing to Republicans. They can have
their cake (low taxes) and eat it too (deliver a
critical component of a transportation solution)
through substantive reform of Virginia's land use
and transportation policy. Unfortunately, Speaker
Howell's land use "reform" demonstrates
that the House GOP considers maintaining the
allegiance of developers to be a higher priority
than reforming land use policy. Until
the House passes an Adequate Public Facilities
Ordinance, the public will know the House GOP is not
serious about solving gridlock, because without an
APFO, gridlock will only get worse, even with
massive infrastructure investments.
--
January 8, 2007
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