Your Piece of the Planet

That’s how a member of the Roanoke City Council explained her decision to vote against a new downtown amphitheater, as described in a recent article in the Roanoke Times.  Instead of spending millions on a new outdoor entertainment site to be funded by public tax dollars, she now supports using local revenue for schools and stormwater projects.

At the state level, our politicians are engaged in a game of fiscal Twister to find a way to pay for new roads.
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Residents who participate in Comp Plan updates are gluttons for punishment – but if we don’t participate, who will shape our future?  Democracy is not a spectator sport. Voting every-now-and-then is not enough. To get what you want, you need to speak up – in a constructive way, and at the right time.

For the environment, that time is now.  The Planning Commission is rewriting the Environment Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan.

As described by the county, the chapter “covers a range of topics, including stormwater standards, impervious surfaces, tree save areas, low impact development, limits to clearing and grading, streams and wetlands, sewer systems, energy conservation, land conservation and more.”

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The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) has proposed to dedicate specific paths for buses on major highways.

With a dedicated lane (or busway), rush hour congestion could be avoided.  Buses could get to destinations faster than cars.  Since one bus can carry 40+ people, Prince William-to-DC busways could have a dramatic impact on the need to expand I-95, I-66, Route 123, Route 28, and Route 1.

We’re finally starting to shift from the “rail transit is new, clean and good – but buses are old, smelly and bad, so focus all transit investments on VRE/Metro extensions.”

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The current Comp Plan assumes continued unsustainable growth in Prince William, based on expectations of continued state/Federal subsidies for transportation.

The proposed revisions of Land Use and Transportation chapters are trapped in the same rut. Hey, there was money in the past; there will be new money in the future.  Let’s build more subdivisions everywhere, ‘cuz the state/Federal agencies will keep sending money for new roads.  Listen to the promises of the politicians; we’re gonna get free state/Federal $$$ for VRE, Metrorail, even ferries too.

Ugh, did anyone take note of the 2010-15 Six Year Secondary Road Plan approved by the Board of County Supervisors on June 23?   Last year’s estimate of funding was $4.9 million… but by June 2009, we ended up with just $427,818.  That’s only 8.7% of what we had expected from the cornucopia of the state/Federal transportation programs. Read the rest of this entry »

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is gathering public input now for the next statewide long-range multimodal transportation plan (whew, that’s a mouthful of multi-syllabus words…).  You can take advantage of the “virtual open house” for VTRANS35 and submit your ideas now.

The next General Assembly in 2010 will go through yet another cycle of how-can-we-raise-taxes-to-fund-transportation.  If the problem is defined narrowly as “how can we finance additional roads/transit just to increase capacity,” then clever politicians ultimately will find a way to increase taxes to finance more infrastructure.

We went through this exercise in 1986.  Under Gov. Baliles, the General Assembly dedicated an increase in the sales tax to transportation, financing a major increase in highway construction  (see pp.65-70 in VDOT’s A History of Roads in Virginia).  After we built more lanemiles, we had to  maintain more infrastructure.   Before 2020, according to VDOT, increased operations and maintenance (O&M) costs will consume the entire budget… leaving nothing for new construction.

We could repeat the “raise taxes – build new capacity – run out of money – raise taxes” cycle again,  or VTRANS35 could put us on a different path.
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