As lawmakers deadlock over taxes and transportation, they should pay heed to what’s happening in Virginia outside the state capitol complex — especially to what’s happening in the private sector, where people invest their own money, not the taxpayers’. Vienna-based KSI Services, one of the nation’s 20 largest developers, is totally revamping its business plan. Reversing its traditional emphasis on suburban sprawl-styled development, the company will focus on “Transit Oriented Development.” The company has announced plans for seven new transit-friendly communities near rail and Metro stations in Northern Virginia.
In “Tipping Point,” writer Peter Galuszka finds that the dramatic shift in KSI corporate strategy is illustrative of a national trend driven by changing demographics and consumer preferences, increasing traffic congestion and the rising cost of car ownership. KSI is betting that it can sell and lease more real estate (like Harbor Station, in rendering above) by marketing mass transit and other alternatives to the one-man-one-automobile lifestyle. In an existing project, Residences at Lorton Station, KSI is promoting slugging, van pooling and Flex Cars. Two-driver families can save up to $7,000 a year if they can live without one of their cars.
There is so much underutilized land near Metro and rail lines in Northern Virginia, observes E M Risse, a fellow Bacon’s Rebellion columnist, that redevelopment around those transit nodes could provide enough housing and related development to accommodate the region’s population growth for the next 20 years — or longer. It makes sense to encourage growth to take place where infrastructure — not just roads, but utilities and public services — already exist.
While the private sector is adapting to the new market realities, Virginia’s lawmakers remain committed to the notion that the answer to Virginia’s transportation woes is to find more money somewhere, whether through taxes, tolls, budget surpluses or privatization, mainly to build more roads. Admittedly, lawmakers do seem willing to make transit a larger part of the budget mix, but transit will fall far short of its potential unless the right kind of transit-friendly development takes place around existing and proposed rail stations. Many obstacles to development, especially at the local level, must be addressed.
