Posted on 02/24/2006 4:22:53 AM PST by chambley1
This has been a unique session of the Virginia General Assembly. For the first time in recent memory, the General Assembly has been discussing growth. While Northern Virginia has become the poster child for the challenges of rapid population growth, other regions of Virginia are experiencing similar problems, albeit on a lesser scale.
It is almost universally accepted that many of the laws of Virginia intended to address growth are inadequate. While local governments are ostensibly responsible for managing their growth, current Virginia law severely constrains their ability to take effective or decisive action.
For example, vesting of rezonings allows properties to be developed as long as 50 years after the original zoning was approved, no matter how much the local jurisdiction or its comprehensive plan has changed. Transportation is largely subject to the financial gyrations of Richmond, with residential building projects being approved based on state transportation plans that later may change. Local governments that attempt to deny projects based on the lack of infrastructure frequently find themselves being challenged in court.
Prince William County has been at the forefront of the legal battles over growth. Over the past 30 years, the county government has been involved in literally hundreds of court cases regarding land use, including defending attempts by the county to limit growth by denying sewer hook-ups, zoning approvals and site plans. We have lost the overwhelming majority of these cases.
In the mid-1970s, the county adopted ordinances requiring developers to fund adequate public facilities before their developments could be built. Those ordinances were overturned by the courts.
Most recently, the county went to court to defend its down-zoning of property approved for development almost 50 years ago. We lost again.
Virginia proudly holds itself out as a Dillon Rule state. This means that all power under the state constitution rests with the state government unless the General Assembly explicitly delegates a power to the localities. Consequently, localities such as Prince William County can regulate growth only to the extent allowed under state law.
Growth moratoria, down-zoning individual parcels, imposing impact fees for schools, and requiring adequate public facilities as a condition of housing approvals can only be imposed if the state government allows us to do so.
This year looked like it would be a turning point, as growth has finally registered on a few Richmond lawmakers' radar. Championed by Gov. Tim Kaine, both the Senate and the House of Delegates sponsored their own proposals.
Bills were introduced to require traffic impact analyses prior to making decisions on rezoning requests. There were bills calling for greater coordination between local governments and the Virginia Department of Transportation, by requiring that every proposed amendment to a locality's comprehensive plan, application for rezoning, and subdivision plat or site plan be provided to VDOT for review.
There was also clustering legislation to concentrate high-density development near existing infrastructure. Still other bills required comprehensive plans to include all planned road and mass transit improvements and their estimated costs. Bills were also introduced to expand cash proffer authority to all localities with a 5 percent or higher growth from one decennial census to the next, as opposed to the current 10 percent growth rates.
All these bills sound exciting and most are on their way to being enacted. However, there is a big problem: They are of no value to Prince William County and the other jurisdictions of Northern Virginia. The local governments of this region, as well as in many other parts of the Virginia, already do everything these bills authorize or require.
The only bill that would actually have had an impact was HB 1610. This bill would have specifically authorized local governments to deny or modify rezoning requests that would overwhelm the local transportation infrastructure. That bill was unceremoniously killed in subcommittee without even the benefit of a hearing or recorded vote.
Once again, Richmond has not responded to critical challenges facing much of Virginia. The current crop of legislation, despite the merits of HB 1610, is largely unhelpful. While the General Assembly is moving forward on bills that ostensibly "manage" growth, it is also passing bills that restrict local government land-use authority.
For instance, SB 262 will shift the responsibility for siting liquefied natural gas facilities, nuclear power plants and electrical substations from local governments to the State Corporation Commission. The deliberate bypassing of local governments from the siting process means that residents will have to go to Richmond to provide input on projects happening in their own backyards.
So where do we go from here? It is widely expected that the General Assembly will approve the bills noted above and declare the growth problem "solved." However, in the not-so-distant future the public, particularly in the high-growth regions of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, will realize that these new laws do little to change the status quo.
Virginia can do better. The cost of empty gestures at this stage is increased congestion, hindered economic development and diminished quality of life. This year's session of the General Assembly is the beginning, not the end, of a drama that is crucial to the future of Virginia.
Sean T. Connaughton (R-at large), is chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
Smart growth means those of you in NOVA that are fortunate enough to own property, will see values rise and rise and rise...when you limit supply and demand remains high......
It's not polite to talk about supply and demand, property rights or free enterprise to socialists. It confuses their tiny minds and thwarts their efforts to build utopia for the Marxist common good.
bump.
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