Archive for the ‘Land Use’ Category
Thinking “outside the box” to save money: can we reduce costs of school administration?
In the old days, schools were local institutions. Different communities had different priorities for education. The classic stereotype is that farm regions educated kids to be farm workers, while urban areas emphasized different skills so kids could work in factories.
In practical terms, communities taxed themselves to fund the amount and quality of education they considered appropriate for their community. Some places placed a high priority on education, while other counties/cities kept taxes low and minimized the costs of public schools. (In the bad ol’ days of separate-but-unequal segregation, communities made very different investments in public schools for the white vs. non-white population.)
Manassas and Manassas Park became independent cities in1975, in part to avoid having to pay property taxes to finance a surge of school building in eastern Prince William County. Instead, those two cities created separate school systems. Since 1975, residents of the two cities stopped subsidizing the expansion of county schools and have directed their property taxes towards educating their own children.
Maybe it’s time to reconsider this arrangement.
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What should the Wiita Tract be used for?????
On December 9, 2009, the Prince William County Park Authority Board is scheduled to vote on the Master Plan for a proposed 69 acre soccer complex in the Rural Crescent. Known as the Wiita Tract, this former farmland is located on Glenkirk Road, directly across from Lake Manassas and adjacent to Rollins Ford Road (where improvements are postponed indefinitly).
The Wiita Tract – A little history
The Wiita Tract was proffered to Prince William County citizens in January 2006 for Parks & Recreation as part of the Wellington Glen rezoning . According to the proffers, the property is to be used for “parks and recreation purposes” (no mention of soccer fields).
However, at their September 2009 public meetings for the Wiita Tract Master Plan, the Park Authority presented the community with only one recreation choice for this Rural Crescent site – seven lighted soccer fields, public water and public sewer. Read the rest of this entry »
Windfalls and wipeouts: when the county rezones to create new parcels, what happens to the value of existing parcels?
Support free enterprise? Not a fan of government intervention in the private market? Think consumers and suppliers should shape supply-and-demand cycles, rather than government officials?
Then you should recognize that every time Prince William County officials rezone land to increase the development potential, government officials are intervening in the marketplace for buying/selling land or running a business. That’s why, back in 2003, small mom-and-pop drycleaners got the county to change zoning requirements to restrict the potential locations of larger competitors such as Dryclean Depot. Back in the 1980’s, the fight was over where to put a regional shopping center – on the Hahn parcel (now Potomac Town Center) or at what became Potomac Mills.
A rezoning increases the supply of a particular type of parcel. After rezoning, one piece of land will be worth a lot more… but the value of other land parcels in the county will be affected too. When Prince William rezones to create new residential potential and permits 1-3 acre lots, the county is increasing supply and reducing the potential value of existing 1-3 acre lots.
If We Do Nothing Different… Why Should We Expect To Get Better Results?
One bus, one rail car can keep 50 or more cars off the road. If we plan and zone for Regional Activity Centers right where we plan to offer transit services, then new residents are more likely to become transit customers.
Without new transit, traffic congestion will increase as fast as population increases. Prince William will add 120,000 new people in the next 15 years, growing by 30%. If you don’t want traffic congestion to keep getting worse, then it’s time to act.
Regional Activity Centers require that we approve higher-density projects. We need to build “up” with two-story stores such as Wegmans, rather than “out” with Virginia Gateway-type parking lots.
The easiest way for Prince William to incentivize transit-oriented development is…
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Regional Activity Centers
The Region Forward: Greater Washington 2050 draft says
“Over the next 40 years the region is expected to grow, adding nearly two million more people. The majority of this growth will be located in emerging and existing Regional Activity Centers scattered throughout the region. These Activity Centers will be home to desirable, compact neighborhoods with parks and mixed-use development, such as shops, workplaces, and other destinations where people live, work and play. Each Activity Center will be connected by transit…“
The target is “Beginning in 2012, the region will capture 75% of new commercial construction square feet and 50% of new households in Regional Activity Centers every year.“
Oh really? Prince William County might meet that 2012 target in the plan, but only if it starts directing growth and investing in transit services at specific Regional Activity Centers. We need to change what we’ve done for the last 50 years, if we expect something different than “more sprawl.” If we continue business as usual in Prince William, developers will continue to build everywhere, even pushing subdivisions such as Avendale into the county’s defined Rural Area.
As the Region Forward: Greater Washington 2050 draft declares at the end, “business as usual on our part will not be enough to achieve these goals.“
Region Forward: Greater Washington 2050
“It’s 2009 and you are trying to figure out if you should support a local project.” That’s an excellent starting point for Region Forward, the vision of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) for the National Capital Region and the Greater Washington 2050 Coalition.
Public comments are due by November 30. Wondering what to say? Check out the comments already provided by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust.
Long term planning has value when you can use it to guide decisions we make today, so step by step we grow towards our goals. One thing is certain – this region will grow significantly between now and 2050.
The DC area has 5 million people now. Demographers predict 2 million more will arrive over the next 40 years. Growth can add new economic and cultural energy… but growth can increase traffic congestion, crowd our schools and parks beyond capacity, and fill creeks with sediment.
How we grow is up to us. Our elected officials have choices and the capacity to grow “good” or grow “bad.”
It’s budget season, in conversations behind those doors…
Did you live through Watergate? Have you dealt with government officials who said one thing and did another? If so, then you know that you can see what’s really important, and really going to happen… not by listening to the speeches, but by following the money.
Policy and planning pontifications by politicians have potential (try saying that fast three times in a row…), but the budget determines what gets done in the real world. At the moment, key decisions are being made by Prince William County officials for the next budget that will cover July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011.
The public process comes later.
Buckland Bypass is dead… for now
The October 28 headline in the Gainesville Times was optimistic: VDOT kills controversial Buckland Bypass proposal. However, reports of its death at the hands of the Virgina Department of Transportation (VDOT) are premature.
A certain percentage of people continue to think that the solution to traffic congestion is simple: ignore the costs, ignore the alternatives, just build more roads. More asphalt is the answer – now what’s the question?
The road builders will be cheerleading for a new bypass around the historic Buckland community in about 20 more years. In the meantime, Prince William will complete Rollins Ford Road, and Fauquier may straighten out the path from Route 29 to Rollins Ford Road to create an eastern bypass around Buckland.
Still, there will be new congestion on those new roads as well as on Route 29, because jobs are centered in Fairfax/DC and new residents in Fauquier/Culpeper will commute to those jobs. That’s the fundamental problem. Fortunately, VDOT has the right answer to that problem now.
Yes, we really can protect viewsheds – first, identify what places are worth special consideration
The Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) will get an update on Tuesday on the Manassas Battlefields Viewshed Study. The National Park Service is using a $60,000 grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program that the BOCS endorsed in 2006.
The public will get a chance to comment on the study next January, including the designation of 25 significant views – 10 Public Vantage Points (PVPs) and 15 less-significant Historically Based Viewsheds (HBVs).
Why should Prince William care? Manassas National Battlefield Park is our golden goose, laying golden eggs. Even if you don’t appreciate history… tourism at the first major Civil War battlefield creates jobs and generates tax revenue for the county. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the supervisors imitate ostriches? Will the pavers pay, or will the taxpayers get stuck with the bill?
The Federal Clean Water Act limits pollution from”point sources” such as sewage plants and factories. The 19 point sources in Prince William County with Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, including the wastewater treatment plants and the Possum Point Power Station, meet the requirements of the law.
In addition to point sources, the law limits pollution from “non-point” sources – primarily stormwater runoff from agricultural fields and the impervious surfaces of cities and suburbs. The remaining farmers and the horse owners in Prince William are using state/Federal grants to fence pastures away from creeks, moving animals and their manure away from the water.
Soon, it will be time to control the stormwater from development, old and new.
The EPA and a Federal court have mandated that polluters of the Chesapeake Bay must clean up their act. Now it’s time for Prince William officials to demonstrate if they are ostriches with their head in the sand, or are looking down the road to minimize future taxes on local voters.
