Articles

Doing It Their Way

Since 1932, Henrico County has been building and maintaining its own roads. Local officials like the arrangement, but it's not clear whether driving conditions are any better as a result. 

by Peter Galuszka

In 1932 the Commonwealth of Virginia took over responsibility for building and maintaining county roads. Pressed hard by the Great Depression, most counties gladly agreed to the transfer. Henrico County was one of only two counties -- the other was Arlington -- that turned down the offer.

For the past 75 years, Henrico and Arlington have been municipal anomalies. For some 74 of those years, their unique status was treated as little more than a curiosity. Then, last year, lawmakers started giving thought to the underlying causes of traffic congestion. Part of the problem, some believe, was that local governments make zoning and land use decisions without considering much how their actions might affect traffic flows. Traffic congestion is not their problem -- it is the state's.

HB 3202, passed by the General Assembly, would create a mechanism for fast-growth counties to assume responsibility for local roads. The bill is one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to come out of Richmond in recent years. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has indicated that he will make more than 100 amendments to the legislation. Among the more vociferous opponents are local government officials suspicious that the state will stick them with new obligations without the means to pay for them.

For all the debate, no one has asked an obvious question: How have things worked out in Henrico and Arlington? Those two counties have had 75 years to get it right. Do they do a better job in coordinating land use policies and transportation than their peers do? Is traffic less congested? Or, at the very least, do Henrico and Arlington build and maintain their roads more efficiently than the state can?

Bacon's Rebellion set out to find out, and the report from Henrico County is in. The short answer: There is no answer. Although county officials clearly prefer being independent and can cite anecdotal reasons why, there is no authoritative evidence to suggest either that Henrico's road building and maintenance costs are lower or that its traffic is any more free flowing. In other words, both those who favor devolution and those who oppose it are groping in the dark.

Henrico County is the kind of county that Republican lawmakers are targeting with the legislation -- a growing, affluent locality with a population of 276,000. Stretching in an arc around the City of Richmond north of the James River, Henrico has filled its western precincts with traditional "suburban" development -- cul de sac subdivisions, retail strips and office clusters. Although the pace of growth isn't as intense as it is in many other counties, Henrico does face considerable development pressure.

The one big benefit of autonomy that comes through loud and clear in interviews with Henrico officials is the ability to make better decisions about local roads and to make them faster. At the Virginia Department of Transportation, project approvals meander through numerous layers of administration, culminating with the Commonwealth Transportation Board, whose 17 political appointees must balance statewide needs with constituent demands. 

With greater control over the timing, funding and administration of road construction, Henrico can do a better job of integrating road improvements into its comprehensive plan: The Department of Public Works coordinates with the county planning department on residential and commercial development.

One advantage of autonomy is the ability to better reflect the priorities and resources of local citizens and constituencies. The county's road standards are higher than VDOT's in certain respects, and the public works department tends to important maintenance chores more quickly than VDOT does, local officials contend.

In sum, Henrico officials say they can be more responsive to local needs. “I think we are able to handle congestion better because we are a local government on a local level closer to the people," says Lee Priestas, Henrico’s director of public works. " We can react quicker than the state government.” 

The county often goes beyond VDOT minimum requirements, Priestas says. Along major thoroughfares, for example, VDOT requires access points to be spaced at intervals. That prevents cars entering the road houses and commercial establishments from slowing the main flow of traffic. “We exceed state minimum guidelines,” says Priestas. The county allows fewer access points and requires them to be spaced farther apart.

Henrico mitigates traffic congestion in other ways, such as ensuring that house driveways in subdivisions empty onto a secondary access road rather than directly onto a major highway.

Priestas cites Regency Square Mall as a specific example of how the county exceeds state standards. Back in 1975, when the regional mall was being planned, the developer wanted traffic to enter via double left turns. The state complied but the county required flyway ramps to expedite traffic and reduce congestion along adjacent roads.

Henrico also can do a better job with maintenance, according to Mike Bryant, the county’s road construction and maintenance superintendent. “We can provide better service to folks in the county because we focus only on county roads. We set a goal of a higher level of service,” he says. With an annual budget of $20 million, the county can perform such routine maintenance functions as slurry sealing roads every four or five years. The state takes longer to rotate service on its roads, he says.

That is as about as far as the argument goes, however. It is impossible to say whether traffic congestion is better or worse in Henrico County than in comparable jurisdictions where VDOT has primary responsibility. In theory, Henrico could measure "levels of service" -- a methodology for ranking traffic flow on roads from empty to optimal to congested -- for its key roads and compare them to levels of service in similar localities where roads are VDOT's responsibility. But no one has bothered to do so. 

Complicating matters is the fact that Henrico does not have complete control over all local roads. Some thoroughfares such as Parham Road or John Rolfe Parkway do fall in the county's bailiwick. The same applies to secondary roads in subdivisions, which developers build at their own expense to county specifications and then turn over to the county for maintenance.

But VDOT retains responsibility for Interstates and major routes that connect towns and cities across the state. For example, the most important Henrico thoroughfare is Broad Street, where retail and commercial development runs non-stop between Richmond and the fast-growing Short Pump retail district near Goochland County. Since Broad Street is officially known as U.S. 250, VDOT handles all construction for it. Ditto for Patterson Avenue, another heavily trafficked spoke radiating from Richmond, which is designated State Route 6.

Given the divided responsibility, no one seems responsible for studying how county control relates to land use decisions and traffic congestion. “We just don’t get into those things,” says Mike Bryant, the county’s road construction and maintenance superintendent.

Equally indecipherable is the question of whether Henrico spends its money more efficiently than VDOT.

Henrico receives funds from VDOT for road construction and maintenance as well as a share of the state gasoline tax. The cost of building subdivision roads is borne by developers who must build to state and county standards and then hand them over to the county when they finish. From then on, the county provides maintenance.

Do Henrico residents pay less for their roads? One possible indicator is Henrico’s real estate tax rate, which is 90 cents per $100 of assessed value. In neighboring Chesterfield County, a county of similar size, population, personal income and bond rating, the rate is $1.04 per $100 of assessed value. So many factors influence tax rates that it's dangerous to draw any firm conclusions. But Henrico's lower tax rate suggests at least that assuming responsibility for its roads hasn't hurt county finances.

On the other hand, there is growing anecdotal evidence that sections of Henrico are becoming more congested. According to a sampling of two-way traffic supplied to Bacons Rebellion by VDOT, the fastest-growing congestion hot spot in Henrico is on West Broad Street between Pouncey Tract and Interstate 64. That stretch of highway saw daily car use increase by 16,537 vehicles from 2003 to 2005, when total daily travel reached 67,982 trips.

The surge in traffic should come as no surprise, as one of the Richmond region's largest and flashiest shopping malls, Short Pump Town Center, opened with fanfare in 2003. The surrounding area has been heavily built up in recent years with big-box stores, strip shopping centers and and affluent residential subdivisions.

Growth continues around the intersection of Pouncey Tract, Pump Road and West Broad. Nearby, another new development named West Broad Village will be built with 1,000 residential units and about 600,000 square feet of commercial space. The entire area is congested and getting worse. To many Henrico residents, Short Pump looks like a breakdown in the planning process, not an exemplar of aligning transportation and land use.

Priestas defends the county's planning process. Henrico conducts extensive traffic-impact studies as part of its rezoning approvals. Moreover, he says, congestion can be a subjective term. “If you are coming from the Northern Virginia and D.C. area, Short Pump is relatively tame, but if you’re coming up from western Virginia, it is extremely congested."

In the final analysis, it may not matter who has responsibility for building and maintaining the roads, suggests Richmond developer Sidney J. Gunst Jr., who built the Innsbrook commercial center -- the Richmond region's second largest employment cluster -- more than 20 years ago. What matters is what form the development takes. Projects need to integrate residential, commercial and service elements into higher density settings so that modes of transport other than cars can be used -- something that the county has only recently begun to consider.

Solving the roads problem won’t solve congestion, says Gunst, who faults his own Innsbrook project for “not being integrated enough.” He adds: “There’s not enough money to solve the (roads) problem without addressing the issues of integration and densification.”

-- March 21, 2007