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Senate candidates take on congestion

October 7, 2007 12:35 am

BY CHELYEN DAVIS

Both of the candidates for the 28th state Senate district say their top transportation priority is relieving congestion.

They just differ slightly on how to do it.

Republican Richard Stuart and Democrat Albert Pollard Jr. both advocate improving VRE service, controlling growth, extending HOV lanes south through Stafford, requiring developers to pay for more of the infrastructure that growth requires, and expanding commuter lots.

Their differences lie chiefly in how they believe growth should be controlled.

Growth and development

Pollard believes that localities should have some "adequate public facilities" powers. That's legislative short- hand for laws that let local governments tie permission for new developments to available infrastructure. Under APF laws, localities could reject development if they believe they do not have the roads, schools, water lines or other infrastructure to support it.

Adequate public facilities legislation fails annually in the General Assembly, but in supporting it Pollard joins several local lawmakers of both parties who have proposed some form of APF bills in recent years.

"I believe a locality should have the ability to turn down developments if there are not adequate roads, schools in place," Pollard said.

He also believes growth should be "compact and contiguous" and that a combination of APF laws and greater use of a "transfer of development rights" program would encourage that.

Transfer of development rights means someone could sell the right to develop a house on his land, but still keep the land as open space. Pollard said this transfers density within a county, and focuses it on areas that have infrastructure and transportation.

Pollard also wants to get rid of "stale zoning"--subdivisions that were platted 10 or more years ago and are still on the books, but were never built.

And he thinks localities should have more flexibility in imposing impact fees on developers.

Stuart disagrees with adequate public facilities legislation, one of the differences between the two candidates on transportation. He calls it "anti-growth" and instead favors concentrating growth through zoning, although he does think developers should pay for access roads from their developments.

"APF legislation is too subjective," Stuart said. "What I believe in is requiring landowners to go through the zoning process so localities can control what's done. That is the most effective way to manage growth."

Both candidates' growth plans wind up in a similar place--they both think growth should be concentrated. Stuart calls his version a "village plan," in which new housing developments include stores and offices, so that people travel less and don't need to use major routes as often.

He also advocates "cluster development," which means that instead of cutting 100 acres into 5-acre lots and building 20 houses, the developer would create smaller lots, build the 20 houses on them and leave the rest of the land as open space.

"That open space would stay undeveloped, and can be a recreation area. It's nice to have the green space around your homes," Stuart said. "It is a newer form of doing it. Different people want different things. But I don't know why anybody wants to cut 5 acres worth of grass."

Stuart also wants to end "by-right" zoning, under which farmland can be cut into smaller lots without going through the zoning process.

Localities could already do much of this through zoning, but Stuart said the state could "encourage them to use those tools" to manage growth.

"You can't undo what's already been done, but you can avoid the future sprawl by concentrating growth and requiring necessary infrastructure be built to accommodate it," Stuart said. "And you do that through zoning."

Building and paying for infrastructure

Of course, controlling growth doesn't relieve congestion now. Both candidates support the extending of HOV lanes on I-95 to Massaponax, and both advocate more commuter parking lots to encourage carpooling, and an expansion of VRE train service.

"The biggest transportation issue is just moving down the road," Pollard said.

He said commuter-lot expansion takes cars off the interstate, but that funding for those doesn't always get renewed by the state.

Pollard also is pushing for changing the way the state transportation department handles smaller, local projects. He says that by insisting that every widening of a road shoulder, or other minor improvement, be built up to state standards, VDOT is delaying projects that could ease congestion.

Every transportation discussion comes down to that M-word--money. State lawmakers have battled for the past few years over how to put more cash into the state's transportation system. This year they finally settled on a combination of fee increases--including the unpopular "abuser" fees--and region-specific taxing authority.

This year's transportation bill won't end the funding debate, however.

Stuart said he thinks more use of public-private partnerships to build and expand roads, as well as tolls, are viable.

"I'm open to any innovative solution. I think tolls are a fair way to do it," Stuart said. "I couldn't support voting for a gas tax when gas is $3 a gallon. "

Pollard said some of the mixture of funding that lawmakers approved this year is acceptable, but he doesn't like the abusive-driver fees.

When lawmakers talk about funding for roads, an undercurrent is the transportation funding formula. The formula used to determine how much state money each locality gets was written years ago, and sends more money to rural localities, which don't have the tax base that the state's population centers have.

That incenses Northern Virginia legislators. They haven't yet made an open push to change the formulas, but the prospect is there.

Neither Pollard nor Stuart is advocating a drastic change in those formulas.

The formulas for transportation as well as education, Stuart said, are "highly complicated, I'm not sure if they're fair, and it's worth us taking a look at them."

Pollard said he thinks a solution to the formula is to add a provision for high-growth areas, in much the same way that teachers or law enforcement officers in some expensive localities get a cost-of-living adjustment.

Both candidates' transportation plans are available on their Web sites: stuart forsenate.com and pollard forsenate.com.

The election is Nov. 6.