Articles

The Traffic Man Cometh

A new law will require local governments and VDOT to study the impact of rezoning projects on traffic congestion. Fast-growing Loudoun County may be the acid test of how well it works.

by Peter Galuszka

For years, Don Charles has gotten good vibes from the folks at the Virginia Department of Transportation office in Ashland. The director of community planning in Goochland County would drive over to the regional VDOT office in Ashland and unfurl plans for proposed rezonings, commercial projects and new subdivisions.

Although they weren’t required to do so, VDOT officials would pore over the plans to assess the traffic impacts for planners in Goochland, a semi-rural area resisting growth pressure emanating from fast-growing Henrico County next door. While VDOT officials couldn't kill projects, their influence brought beneficial changes to some or helped bad ones die on the vine. “We are in a happy circumstance in that we have a very good relationship with the Ashland residency,” says Charles.

Goochland’s experience hasn’t exactly been replicated across Virginia -- VDOT’s relations with local governments vary widely, often depending upon matters as idiocyncratic as individual personalities. But it's the kind of relationship that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine would like to see develop. Senate Bill 699, passed this year by the General Assembly, will require VDOT to review rezonings in fast-growth counties starting one year from now -- hopefully prodding VDOT and local planners into closer cooperation.

“We’re not quite sure what will happen,” says Charles, “but everyone’s very encouraged about the implications for comprehensive land use plans.”

Some observers regard the new law as a turning point in how Virginia manages traffic congestion. For years, cities and counties had exclusive authority to approve new real estate projects without having to consult VDOT or even considering the traffic impacts. They made decisions for their own reasons -- typically to bolster the local tax base -- and, if the result was gridlock, they would turn to VDOT to build more roads.

Although local governments retain authority over zoning approvals under the new law, the VDOT review will bring consistency and uniformity to how the state assesses traffic impacts, says Deputy Transportation Secretary E. Scott Kasprowicz.

“If a certain empirical threshold is met, then there will be a traffic study and it will lay out a standard set of assumptions,” adds Jimmy Carr, a VDOT assistant secretary.

There’s much work left to do – especially in drafting regulations to give the legislation teeth -- before the bill takes effect July 1, 2007. In fact, the rules- making part is such a big undertaking that many state and local transportation planning officials don’t know what to make of it.

“I don’t know which way this is going,” says Dale R. Castellow, transportation planning director in fast-growing Loudoun County in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. “Coordinating traffic with VDOT is a fairly common practice. But will VDOT take that a step forward and say that a project is not an appropriate land use? I don’t know. It could put them in a very interesting position.”

VDOT is nowhere near answering Castellow's question yet, as it has made only made baby steps in writing regulations. The first part of the process, forming a technical committee, started in June; the committee has met only twice so far. “VDOT has already put in a plethora of recommendations,” says Charles, who serves on the committee.

The technical committee will meet into mid-July to compile recommendations, which will be handed to a newly formed policy advisory committee. Requests for public comment will begin in August, following by draft regulations in September, which will be reviewed by the powerful Commonwealth Transportation Board. After revisions and more hearings, the final regulations should be approved by December with the bill taking effect next July 1.

Is that fast enough to stem, or at least moderate, the growth juggernaut? The acid test will be Loudoun County, the nation’s third fastest-growing jurisdiction, where developers have proposed --  “with no VDOT involvement at all,” notes Kasprowicz -- building up to 82,000 homes.

Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors is expected to make decisions this summer that could shape the county’s future for decades to come. At issue are massive development plans led by Greenvest LC of Fairfax for big projects along east-west U.S. 50, in a transitional zone to the west of Dulles International Airport and in rural western Loudoun County where residents have stubbornly fought development encroachment for years.

In one project, the board must decide to develop a 9,200-acre area into projects with 28,000 homes. Current zoning allows only 5,000 homes. Developers, including Greenvest, are spurring the project, called Dulles South, forward. The project is attracting considerable attention and not only because the projects are likely to have big impacts on Loudoun’s economy, tax base and traffic. A majority of Loudoun’s current board was elected with significant campaign contribution help from Northern Virginia’s real estate development community.

To bolster support for Dulles South, Greenvest is taking proffers to a new level, offering $190 million to mitigate traffic impacts, such as widening U.S. 50 and widening or relocating other roads. The highway improvements would be paid through a scheme that involves setting up a special tax district that would assess a special tax on home buyers. The extra assessment would be tacked onto their county property tax. Greenvest did not return telephone calls about their projects.

VDOT was left out of the planning process for that massive rezoning, Kasprowicz says. The impact on Loudoun’s already-congested roads is likely to be substantial.

Kasprowicz has numerous concerns about Greenvest's plans. Is it fair, for example, for the company to dump extra taxes on a limited set of homeowners while any automobile driver traveling in the area would enjoy the benefits of the wider roads and new intersections? “Would that put property owners at a disadvantage when they try to sell their houses?” he asks.

Gov. Kaine is trying to get ahead of the situation by forming a VDOT pilot project to study the highway impacts of the Loudoun plans. The study would assess impacts of the Dulles South project for up to 20 miles away from the planned subdivision. Some of the lessons learned will be folded into the regulations being drafted for the new law. 

Another goal of the Kaine Administration is to get VDOT engaged with the Loudoun projects before the law takes effect next July. Faced with timing issues, Kaine is trying to step ahead of the Loudoun parade.

For his part, Loudoun’s transportation chief Castellow says he hasn’t had much contact with local VDOT officials about the new statewide law or the Kaine pilot project, noting that he only recently took the Loudoun job from the city of Virginia Beach where he was traffic planner.

Regardless of how VDOT and Loudoun work things out, the law is likely to change the way things are done in the Commonwealth. Once considered unthinkable in stubbornly conservative Virginia, the legislation got a lot of help from rising gasoline prices which are prompting policy makers to think how they approach land use.

One recent convert is Martin E. Williams, a Newport News Republican who is head of the Senate Transportation Committee. Five years ago, he notes, Senate Bill 699 would never have made out of a General Assembly committee but survived this time because legislators are getting concerned about the impacts of high gas prices on their constituents and the state’s tax coffers. It’s starting to shift thinking towards smart growth principles, says Williams, who voted for the bill.

The new bill approaches coordination between state and local officials with a relatively light hand. Florida law and regulations, by contrast, require comprehensive, high-altitude studies relating development to traffic problems. But for Virginia, SB 699 undeniably represents a major step forward.

-- June 27, 2006