Civic groups call for sunlight in development process

What you see at a rezoning can be very different than what you get when the project is built. Civic groups concerned about unexpected and unwelcome changes to development plans have banded together, connecting people countywide and establishing a central point for information sharing.

After much discussion and many meetings, the Federation of Community Associations for Land Use (FOCAL) has published some initial recommendations. These reflect their considerable concern about public notice shortfalls.

To start, people shared their concerns using examples from different development projects. Many were concerned about the loss of trees, especially those that were unexpected. After some investigation, FOCAL learned that 100% of vegetated buffers and landscape strips could be waived by staff… after the rezoning and with no public notice required.

Captain John Smith visited Prince William in 1608, so…

…we should be interested in how the National Park Service plans the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, stretching from Hampton Roads to Great Falls (up the Potomac River) and to the northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay.

The alternatives for the trail’s first long-range management plan are now available for public review and comment.

Now would be a good time to suggest that, under any one of the four alternatives, the US Fish and Wildlife Service should open up Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge to public use.

The Federal agency says “Currently, the refuge is closed to the public because of poor access to the site due to the rail line, its proximity to the river, and lack of facilities.”

The rail line issue is bogus.  The Rippon VRE station has provided safe and convenient crossing of the railroad tracks for years.

Proximity to the river is a reason to OPEN the refuge.  Gee, visitors might even get a meaningful watershed educational experience.

As for lack of facilities… put in two porta-potties and declare success.  Visitor centers are nice, flush toilets are nice, indoor seats next to glass windows so visitors can stay warm while watching tweety birds at the feeders outside are nice – but access to the site is essential.

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, but the “Public Land – Keep Out” sign at Featherstone NWR remains.    (If Mikhail Gorbachev led the US Fish and Wildlife Service, maybe we could hope for the American public to get access to the refuge…)

Should we plan land use first, or transportation – or do them together? A lesson from Albemarle County that applies to Avendale

The Free Enterprise Forum representing the business community in Albemarle County recently declared “Land use should inform transportation decisions, but the transportation decisions should be made in a larger regional context.”

The business community in Albemarle is pushing that perspective as part of its fight against the Places29 Master Plan component of the county’s Comprehensive Plan.  Business community opponents are concerned about the proposed cost of the plan, including six new grade-separated interchanges on Route 29 north of Charlottesville.

Interesting philosophy – recognize first the locations where we can accommodate the traffic generated by new growth, plan for new development in those locations, and base land use revisions on just those projects with a reasonable expectation of being built over the next 20 years.

(You could say twist the Albemarle business community’s logic and say “Build all the transportation projects desired by regional partners first, and then consider the needs of individual jurisdictions later.”  In that scenario, Northern Virginia would build cross-boundary projects that affect multiple jurisdictions, such as the Western Transportation Corridor, before upgrading intersections on the Prince William Parkway.  When we start electing people to regional offices, rather than county/city offices… then elected regional officials can impose new regional taxes to pay for regional projects – and regional priorities will include a feedback loop, so the citizens who pay taxes can elect regional officials with the “right” priorities.)

The fiscal sanity of Albemarle’s businesses makes a striking contrast with the approach of Prince William County’s politicians and land developers…

Resources worth saving

Parkland for Plants, People and Wildlife

When: Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 pm
Where: Bull Run Unitarian Church, Bull Run Unitarian Universalist Church, 9350 Main Street, Manassas

Speaker: Charles Smith, Fairfax County Park Authority Natural Resource Specialist & PW Wildflower Society

The Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation has recognized the significance of the globally rare Upland Depression Swamp and Basic Oak-Hickory Forest at Silver Lake.

Given that this site is public land, protecting these resources would seem to be an easy task. But that’s not the case at Silver Lake, where globally rare natural areas were identified only after the fact  -  after the County accepted the property and, more importantly, after the County drew the borders of the middle school site in an area that includes both resources.

If these important resources had been identified in a timely manner, it would have been easy to locate the school site in an area that left globally rare natural areas on the parkland portion of Silver Lake, where they could have been protected.

The good news is that School Board members, working with the Park Authority, are making their best effort to protect these important natural areas. Although the outcome is still not certain, there are good opportunities for success.

who will build the road to Dulles

The “road to Dulles” cheerleading is beginning to swell – see the November 1 news story.

Sometimes, the cheerleading is for the extension of Route 234, north of I-66 to meet Loudoun Parkway at Braddock Road.  Other times, the “hey, you gotta build this road, because…” chanting is for the Tri-County Parkway route, extending Godwin Drive from Sudley Road north through Bull Run Regional Park in Fairfax County.

Realistically – there won’t be much, if any, funding for new transportation projects in Virginia, now or in the future.

But now we know how county politicians claim the new road(s) will be funded.

Avendale – a dumb growth project designed to bust the Rural Area

Ever seen a person on a diet make “just one exception” for a snack between meals, a second helping at the meal, or a cookie after the meal?  Think those dieters lose weight?

We have supervisors who operate the same way.  They approve land use plans with a defined Development Area for new development to accommodate population growth (including small-lot subdivisions) and a Rural Area where new development is limited.  By concentrating growth in the Development Area, we can concentrate schools, roads, fire/police stations, etc. and minimize future taxes to build public facilities.  That’s smart, low-tax growth.

But as soon as developers show up with a project on the edge of the Rural Area, some supervisors fall off the wagon.  “Oh, we can make an exception, just this once.  It won’t set a precedent.”  Amazingly, that’s what the Planning Staff says about the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and the rezoning being considered by the Planning Commission Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7:00 pm, for Avendale, at the intersection of Vint Hill and Route 28.

After the Planning Commission sends Avendale to the Board of County Supervisors, it will become crystal clear who are the “build Anything, Anywhere, at Any time” supervisors.  There’s no way to pretend this project is consistent with the concept of the Rural Area in the existing Comprehensive Plan.

Supervisors ask governor to purchase land and create state park to block development

The Board of County Supervisors just asked the state to buy 4,154 acres, to block proposals for massive subdivisions that will create equally-massive traffic congestion, school overcrowding, and higher county taxes.

The supervisors noted that the new park would protect water quality in Bull Run, the Occoquan Reservoir, and the Chesapeake Bay.

It’s true.  However, the supervisors are in Loudoun County.

Flexibility for developers (“Hey, let’s see if Mikey will eat it…”)

Ever see the TV commercial for Life cereal, where the older boys fed some cereal to the youngest kid to see if Mikey would eat it?

The developers are doing the same to Prince William and Loudoun counties, telling the supervisors in both places that “flexibility” is required for new development.  According to Leesburg Today, the developers are even pitching the same Powerpoint about Fairfax Corner.  (If you attended the October 21 session for the Prince William “business community” to comment on the draft Land Use and Transportation chapters, you’ll remember that long, long, long presentation at the end.)

Just what do the developers mean by “flexibility”?  If they can get both Prince William and Loudoun to swallow what they’re selling, how will that shape where offices are built?

VTrans2035 (draft State Transportation Plan) ready for comment starting November 2

In the past, the long-term transportation plans for the state and Northern Virginia have included every big construction project that could be imagined – including a new bridge across the Potomac River from Dumfries to Charles County, Maryland.  The last one, VTrans2025, was completed in 2004… before the state acknowledged that maintenance costs for existing infrastructure would consume all the money, leaving very little flexibility for new construction.

These fiscally-unconstrained, financially unrealistic “wish lists” have then been portrayed by the Washington Post, the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, and others as “plans” that required funding.  Heard about a $100 billion backlog of unfunded projects in Virginia?   Don’t believe it – lots of unnecessary, subsidize-new-sprawl-just-like-the-old-sprawl projects that should never be funded in those old fiscally-irresponsible proposals.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has drafted a new statewide long-range multimodal transportation plan, VTrans2035.  Check out your invitation to comment by November 30.

(See if new roads/transit services are intended to match where new population growth will be concentrated, or if the “wish list” is still designed to subsidize developers and sprawl new growth away from job centers, through projects such as the Route 234 Bypass.)

Tysons Corner redevelopment – and how it will affect Prince William

According to the Washington Business Journal, it will cost $15 billion to redevelop Tysons Corner.  That includes increasing housing from 17,000 to 100,000 people, adding a $5.2 billion Metrorail Silver Line, and a few other “minor” details.

If you think extending Route 234 to create a new commuter road west of Dulles Airport will somehow attract office jobs to Gainesville… you are ignoring reality.  Companies that expand/build along the Silver Line will be connected directly to both DC/Dulles by Metrorail, as well by major highways.

If you think Prince William can pry state/Federal dollars away from the never-ending redevelopment of Tysons Corner in Fairfax, and get other taxpayers to fund a Metro extension to a shopping center near Woodbridge as a national priority… you’re delusional.  We don’t even have a business community that would endorse a tax district to finance the local share of any Metro extension to Prince William.

Prince William will never be closer to Dulles, Tysons, or DC than other jurisdictions competing for government contractors to build satellite office buildings.  Loudoun and Fairfax will always be closer.

How will Prince William compete?  Will we simply tell companies “Land in Prince William costs less – move to a cheap county”?