I am wondering who this really hurts.  By freezing housing construction the prices are likely to soar and make the area even less affordable for the average worker.  However, I do agree that someone needs to make a bold statement.  This would be all the more effective if boards all across the state followed suit.  Imagine how the contruction lobbyist and real estate interest groups would respond if the BOS in Prince William, Fairfax, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Arlington, Alexandria, Loudon, Fauquier, James City, Hampton, York, Newport News, VA Beach, Chesapeake, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa, Orange, Henrico, etc. all said we aren't approving anything else or allowing anything else to be built if you peope don't find us more money for our roads.

I served on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors from 1984 through 1991, and this possibility was frequently discussed as we were attempting to deal with rapid increases in residential housing.  Of course, in our area, there is no comparison here to the amount of housing pressure that has been experienced in northern Virginia for the past few decades.  However, the legal implications should be approximately the same.

A local government has to be very careful not to restrict a landowner's property rights - to use his property as he wishes within reasonable limits and restrictions, usually covered under planning and zoning stipulations.  Thus, many years ago, the local government's ability to apply OFF-SITE improvement requirements for residential development was implemented with great effectiveness in many northern Virginia communities.

Within this scenario, developers must agree to improve, install or upgrade the various potentially affected local infrastructure systems (roads, water and sewer, electricity, etc.) in response to increased residential housing pressure in order to be granted building permits.  This can create a win-win result since the property owner is still allowed to use his property for development but the community also receives necessary infrastructure improvements to lessen the impact of said developement.

However, since it's been a number of years since I have served as a supervisor, those of you who have more recent experience with the current situation in NoVa - and elsewhere - may have better ideas and solutions.

Thanks!

Steve

We need to change the way the state is run. We need special administrative zones for NOVA and the rest of the state which would be able to raise their own funds.

It's time we face the fact that the actions of the Republican legislature is nothing more than a way to continue to fight the CIVIL WAR! That's why they call Northern Virginia "Yankee" Virginia.

By having administrative zones the Southern part of the state would be able to have the "soft" cecession it wants, or the North would be able to withdraw from the old South. Let's start telling the truth about Virginia and realize that these folks are just punishing NOVA for being too cosmopolitan and not sticking to the rules of the Old South. What kind of folks would vote for George Allen even though there is a vast store of evidence that he is a racists? Southern Virginians.

How many Northern Virginians are tired of sending our vast revenues to the South of Virginia without getting any consideration for it? It seems to me that this is taxation without represenation. Anybody agree? What would happen if Northern Virginians just stop paying their state taxes?

I would love to see a NOVA tax rebellion so we can get transporation money. I think the idea of stopping construction may be something similar.

Special tax districts - in which an increase in taxation is allowed within a prescribed area - are used in order to achieve greater services for those areas without affecting (read; increasing the taxes in . . .) the entire locality's tax structure.

Just a thought . . .

Steve

I don't know about everyone else but I am tired of this NOVA vs. ROVA stuff people keep trying to create.  In case NOVAns didn't realize it yet, it would be in your best interest to not anger the rest of the state and turn them all against you.  You make up 30% of the state, no where near a majority.  Instead of trying divide yourself from the rest of the state why don't you try forming an alliance based on common interest with other people in the state like Tidewater when it comes to traffic. 

BTW being "cosmopolitan" and urban is not mutually exclusive with being Southern.  Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Houston, Dallas, etc. are all cities that are far larger than NOVA yet they are still Southern.

Northern Virginia gives far more in tax money to Richmond than it gets back.  We have a transportation crisis that is affecting our family life as well, as people spend countless hours stuck in traffic.

This is not some cultural argument.  It is a hard economic truth.  Speaker Howell and his ilk are stealing OUR money from us.

PM... My comment was not directed at your post but towards someone who made a comment about NOVAns "rebelling."  To me its seems like there is a certain degree of arrogance that is attached to most of the comments made by NOVAns. 

Back to the subject at hand.  There seems to be an on-going cycle in America.  People move out to the suburbs, complain about how long it takes to get to work, the government widens and builds more roads, the commute gets faster so people decide its practical to move even further out, the newly constructed roads get congested and the commute longer, people then complain once again, the government widens and builds more roads, the commute gets faster, people move even further out, etc. etc.  I understand the need for economic growth but there has to be a balance somewhere.  When you have people commuting into DC, Arlington, Alexandria, and to the inner beltway from Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange, and Warren Counties something tells me the balance has not been obtained.

I encourage you to take a look at this site (if you haven't already) to see an illustration of this.  This site ( http://bea.gov/bea/r... ) shows you the commuting patterns into Fairfax/Fairfax City/Falls Church.  Pay special attention to the numbers from Culpeper, Warren, Fauquier, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Loudon, Prince William, and some of the counties in the panhandle of West Virginia.  You can change the "county of work" to see other numbers as well.  Again, I understand the need for economic growth and that this may bolster your demand for more roads but I just have to ask as a serious question where does it stop (at Culpeper? Orange? Madison? Greene? Caroline? Hanover? Albemarle? Shenandoah? wherever the market says?) or for that matter should it stop?

It's tricky sometimes seeing who is responding to whom and I missed your initial post.

Well we should respond dispassionately, you're right

But it is hard to be entirely dispassionate.  My anger at Speaker Howell and the rest of his supporters is that I don't think they are operating with the health of the commonwealth in mind, but just their narrow self-interests.  I don't blame people from the rest of the state--I blame the narrow group of legislators who have an ideological agenda.

I know lots of ordinary citizens who vote against their short-term economic self-interest in order to vote for someone they perceive as the candidate who has the better policies for all Americans (or all Virginians).  For example, they vote for school bonds or park bonds even when they don't use the parks or schools directly.  They may be in a high income bracket, but vote for someone who might raise their taxes because they think the current tax code is unfair.  In the polls I've seen the majority of northern Virginians would accept higher taxes for better roads.  Thus, the anger within some of us.  I expect legislators to take the correct stand on issues, and not just the stand that gets them re-elected.

although I wouldn't call it stealing.  Just like in Congress, the state politicians are trying to bring home the bacon.  It's all perfectly legal.  They won't even let Northern Virginia tax itself extra for transportation.  I was puzzled by that, until I figured out that they would not agree to that because then they wouldn't get their cut of the additional taxes.  Am I wrong about that?  Somebody set me straight if I am.

However, I don't give any credence at all to the so-called NoVa vs RoVa issue.  The Washington Post article on that theme haven't exactly been based on valid data -- just on a handful of quotes that fit the script. 

After all, there wouldn't have been all this growth in Northern Virginia absent 40-50 years of long-range planning and development involving the State government.

Henrico County builds and maintains its own roads within its local tax structure and does an exceptional job at it.

Steve

Of course there's a divide between the two Virginias, but it's as much political and ideological as geographic and cultural, and there are names and faces attached. Theirs is the old ideology of do-nothing government masked in the virtues of low taxes and minimal officialdom. It's an attitude arguably appropriate for rural, dispersed populations of an earlier period, but not for the highly urban, economicly diversified and progressive place that Virginia has become. Ironicly, some key leaders of do-nothing government are NOVA's own neigbors -- Speaker of the House William Howell (Fredericksburg) and Senate Finance Chairman John Chichester (Stafford Cty.) Surely some imaginative ways could be found to bring pressure to bear on this old guard without engaging in abstract arguments and merely rhetorical culture wars.

I think one idea is that if you get enough business interests aligned with enough grass roots folks, eventually the recalcitrant legislators will be pressured.  I think the PR supervisor is trying to get more pressure from the construction industry.

is already in effect.  So the market is already doing what the supervisor is recommending.  Perhaps this is just a way of to capitalize off current market conditions.  Not a bad idea.

How about withholding tax payments from NoVA localities for the next year.  Don't know if it's legal, but that would definitely send a message.

It would probably be easier to just vote the stonewalling legislators out. 

Or barring that, to flip control of the House.  If the GOP members of the House can't get their act together and work with their counterparts in NoVA and Norfolk (or leverage them on other issues), then this single issue can be used as a hammer by Democrats to pound GOP members and their party out of a majority. 

Maybe 100 years ago the legislature voted to share the highway monies evenly throughout the state.  That's why you have great highways in southern virginia, they get the same budget.  For this to change the legislature would have to change the law but then they would lose their "share."  So it doesn't change.  They won't vote to let go.  (Kind of like the congress refusing to vote for term limits I guess). 

Mark Warner figured out a brilliant way to fix it.  He had Nova vote on increasing sales tax by a half cent and that money would stay only in Nova for highways.  But too many nova people voted against it.  It was really brilliant, however, nova wasn't up to that solution.  Meanwhile, somewhere along the way the tax went up anyway.

If this is going to be fixed it has to originate in Nova and then the population has to get their heads out of their .....s. 

I vote for Rapid Bus Transit.

of the District of Columbia to include present D.C. Montgomery and Pr. Georges in Maryland and Falls Church-Alex-Arlington and Fairfax and Prince William in VA.

Someone has to stand up for us.  We need a centralized body to control our outrageous traffic problem.  I don't think its wrong to put a hold on growth in PW county right now.  I'm glad someone is trying to do something about the quality of life (which has become extremely retched) in Prince William County.  Three hours of my life are spent every day to go a mere 22 miles to Alexandria and back.  That's wrong.

first, Arlington and most of Alexandria were part of original 10 x 10 mile DC, but were retroceded back to VA in 1840's.

second, those of us in NoVa have very little in common with either District or nearby parts of MD - trust me, I teach in Prince George's, my students have included children of county council members, state legislators, school board members, and I taught the niece of Wayne Curry while he was county exec.  I had a college classmate who was in a ranking position of Curry's administration.  Forget about that kind of joining together.

third - we are part of Virginia, many of us have connections with other parts of the state - give us time, as our population becomes an ever increasing percentage of total for Commonwealth some of the old problems will be overcome.

Note - both of our US Senators will be residents of NoVa.  Other influential people from Nova have included Mark Warner and Don Beyer and Chuck Robb. If Dems take over general assembly Dick Saslaw will become hugely important, as Mary Margaret Whipple and Brian Moran already to some degree are.

with private property rights are enormous, so the idea is probably not going anywhere, no matter how intriguing it may be. The final answer is to boot out the die-hard Republicans in the Assembly, starting now. Is there anyone who can knock off the Speaker, either in a primary or in a general election? He's had a free ride far too long. I suspect for once we'll find money from the business interests to help unseat him and other such obdurate asses.

Why aren't GOPers who are sympathetic to this issue able to leverage the Speaker? 

The Speaker is in power right now because the GOPers are in the majority in the House of Delegates, correct?  If the GOPers lose their majority, adios to the current Speaker.  (Probably easier to go after swing districts rather than challenge the Speaker directly this cycle).

If GOPers from the effected Districts are concerned about this issue they should be able to leverage Howell. 

If they can't get it done, then there seems to be a pretty reasonable cause to label the GOP as ineffective or indifferent on this issue across the board. 

In Howell's case an indirect approach may be necessary.  Of course, he could make life easier for himself by treating the transportation issue seriously.  If he doesn't good riddance.

Slowing or halting home building in counties like PW would help the older neighborhoods, where many houses are sitting empty with "for sale or rent" signs in front of them.  So many people are buying new houses leaving people in older neighborhoods unable to sell.

To those who think there is no cultural divide and hence no resentment in the South VA of NOVA just look where all of Allen's support came from (mostly). I'm not saying there aren't enlightened people in the Southern part of the state, but I constantly read the put-downs from those in the South. Just recently the Post ran an article on this subject and one person from Southern VA who had voted for Allen said in reaction to Webb's win "That's it. I'm moving to North Carolina." So there you have proof of the divide. I'm sure this is not an isolated incident. You have to notice that this Allen supporter is stating that he identifies with North Carolina more than Virginia. I'll leave you to speculate on why that is. I'm just stating what is real. I'm just frustrated that NOVA is not getting its share of the wealth. That's what this issue is all about.

combined with what appears to be a significantly more vibrant economy in nearby North Carolina - has probably produced many of those types of remarks.  When I was trying to find supporters for Jim Webb in that area back in the spring, it wasn't easy.  In fact, it was next to impossible.

If a former Allen supporter is moving from southside VA to NC, then perhaps the bright side to this equation is that there will be one less Republican voter there in the next election.

(Remember; many of us swore we'd move to Canada or elsewhere if George "War" Bush were elected/re-elected but, thankfully, most of us must have stayed and supported Jim Webb and the other Democrats throughout the U. S., thus our remarkable wins just two weeks ago.  In other words, we did not cut and run.)

Proud of staying the Democratic course, here I remain . . .

Steve 

There're plenty of progressives in southern Virginia and lots of wingnuts in NOVA. The demand here is not to stereotype but to come together in what needs doing. The WaPo article was simplistic. The person who said he'd move to North Carolina has fantasies about that state too, which in some ways is more progressive than Virginia.

It's along the lines of making racial, ethnic generalizations

The transporation issue is yet another example of the wrong Virginians making up our General Assembly. It is time that we send- we as in both parties- send leaders that see the benefits of progress for Virginia and not at the detrement of their particular party. This division between NOVA and the rest of the state by political ideology just proves the point that we are not seeing things through our eyes as Virginians first, but as Republicans and Democrats. We neeed to have leaders who are dedicated to focusing on our future together and not simply focus on what divides us. NOVA demands for greater transportation is warranted..no one driving up 95 can dispute that, but we have allowed the memebers of General Assembly to run rough shot and unaccountable. I drive almost daily from Richmond to Charlottesville and have to wonder who got the funding for all the paving going on I64. I hardly hit any traffice, ever, except maybe on college football Saturday and yet its being paved from Goochland to Fluvanna. I begs the question why we are paving twenty plus miles there when there seems to more of a need elsewhere...It saddens me that PW has to resort to such considerations to get attention from state government. My fear is we will be talking about transportation well after the 07 elections have passed and while the political parties may be able to feel the have won a victory I think we all know Virginia loses. Lets all work to get those out of office who refuse to put Virginia and her poeple first and not their party lines. Alteroffreedom.blogspot.com

JScott.... I noticed that on a trip to Richmond also.  It made no sense to me why they were paving that stretch of road in Louisa/Goochland.  I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't spend that money in NOVA or if they wanted to keep it close, why they didn't spend that money on widening 29 North from North Fork to Ruckersville here in Charlottesville.  Then of course there is 250 East from Pantops to Fluvanna which is a bottleneck in the morning and evening rush.  Then there is just about every street around UVA and Downtown and the Meadowcreek Parkway which has been 30 years in the making.  Clearly our state officials do not have their priorities straight.  The problem is people aren't voting for change when it comes to their delegates.  Here in Albemarle, for example, there was huge cross-over between Democrats Kaine/Byrne/Deeds with Rob Bell.  Ironically the areas included in Bell's district (Eastern & Northern Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, and parts of Orange) would benefit most from more transportation funding.  Like most other sprawling districts across the state the right Democrat can win the 58th but they need to emphasize smart growth and transportation.

BTW.... how is that commute from Richmond to Charlottesville?  I will have to do it (in reverse) once or twice a week next semester.

While I totally agree that something must be done about NOVA's road/transportation problems, I have to throw this in:

Perhaps if Delegate Marshall would bring the same mind-boggling zeal to his area's very real and very pressing problems instead of being so facinated about what is going on in private bedrooms, more could be accomplished?

Did we not just have a "if they can't do the job, throw the bums out" referendum? It would appear to me that he needs to be placed high on the 2007 list.

Sometimes it is difficult to talk about what is happening and why without being accused of labeling everyone. Oh course as I said before there are plenty of enlightened people in Southern Virginia, but that just doesn't get through to some people.

Can we just agree that the Virginia legislature is run ny Republicans who are unsympathic to NOVA's problems? It seems pretty obvious to me. If the enlightened Southern Virginians were running the legislature the situation would be different, but they aren't. That's a fact.

the Southern Virginians, including long-term incumbents, consistently embed an anti-Richmond idea in their campaigns, e.g., don't let the folks in Richmond run your lives.

The idea was sort of unspoken when Allen talked about "real Virginia," implicitly vs. Washington.