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The
Listening-and-Learning Tour
Local
citizens had plenty to say about traffic
congestion at a public hearing in Manassas held
that Tim Kaine held Tuesday. But the Governor-elect
gave few clues as to how he
plans to address their concerns.
By
Bob Burke
MANASSAS-Gov.-elect
Tim Kaine’s transportation- forum tour came to a
Manassas airport last night, where a roomful of
local politicians, issue activists and frustrated
residents, who deal with some of the nation’s
worst traffic, gave him an earful of advice. It
was Kaine’s fourth such meeting and, as in the
previous events, he gave few details of any
specific initiatives he would support or propose.
The
coming General Assembly session is widely expected
to be dominated by fights over transportation –
mostly on funding issues, but also possible policy
shifts in how the state handles growth. Many
speakers took their chance at the microphone to
make pointed comments, suggestions, or to pose
questions that Kaine deftly fielded.
Close
to 400 people attended the event, Kaine’s first
in the Northern Virginia suburbs, where he fared
well in the election. Many speakers were
frustrated over the lack of funding from the
state. Some offered specific ideas. One suggested
raising the state’s land-recording tax and
devoting the extra dollars to transportation.
Another asked why Virginia doesn’t have a
comprehensive ride-sharing program. One man
suggested building double-decker highways. “We
can’t seem to build wider,” he said. “Why
not build up?”
Several
local elected leaders spoke as well. Gerald
Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of
Supervisors, suggested Kaine create an “office
of congestion management” and get serious about
supporting telecommuting. He also urged support
for transit-oriented development, which is what
Fairfax is pushing for along its Metrorail
corridors. “Many of us believe that we have to
change the pattern of development,” Connolly
said. “It’s not how much density, it’s where
you put it.”
One
man asked Kaine about how he would keep his
campaign promise to link land-use decisions and
transportation, and how he’d give localities the
power to limit development if local roads
couldn’t handle the extra traffic. That would be
a tough sell in the General Assembly, which has
rejected previous attempts to give localities the
authority to pass “adequate public facilities”
ordinances.
Kaine
suggested a narrower approach: making it clear
that localities could use existing capacity of the
local transportation network as a factor in
deciding on rezoning applications. Kaine said
state law is still fuzzy on whether localities
have that authority. He didn’t address the issue
of by-right development, in which developers
don’t need a rezoning and aren’t subject to
any proffer requirements.
During
the campaign Kaine ran TV ads touting his
get-tough approach to control development.
Proponents of smart-growth strategies say that
appeal is what attracted voters, and they want
that issue to stay on the table. “Tim Kaine's
focus on helping communities to better manage
growth as the best approach to reducing traffic
congestion tapped into passionate, bi-partisan
concerns,” said Stewart Schwartz of the
Coalition for Smarter Growth in a press release
yesterday afternoon. “The public is wary of
giving up more money for taxes or toll roads
without action on land-use planning."
But
the was still support for more state funding even
from supporters of changing land-use patterns.
“We have a lot of people who say they’re for
anything that improves transportation, so long as
it doesn’t cost money,” said Fairfax’s
Connolly. “And a lot of them are in the General
Assembly.”
The
90-minute forum ended with Kaine, standing before
a sign that read “Grow Right, Get There
Faster,” assuring the crowd that it was time
well-spent. He’ll hold seven more forums,
including two on Saturday, in Fredericksburg and
Leesburg. “The purpose for this really is so I
can get a better understanding of the challenges
each region faces,” he said. “So by coming
here you’ve helped me up a learning curve I need
to climb.”
Bacon's
Rebellion News Service
November
30, 2005
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