Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The County and the Consortium

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Add Spotsylvania County to the list of local governments taking responsibility for local transportation improvements. Voters approved the issuance of $144 million in bonds in a referendum last fall. Now the County is negotiating a preliminary design contract for the projects with Spotsylvania County Infrastructure, LLC., a consortium of construction and engineering firms, according to the Free Lance-Star.

Once the contract is approved, SCI can begin collecting data–including vehicle counts, and the county’s growth and development patterns–in order to develop solutions for unclogging the congested roads. “It’s done in a very open way,” Clark Bottner with Shirley Contracting, told the newspaper. “You also have to look into the future, and say, ‘What is the plan for this road? Is it going to stay residential? Is it going to be high-density, low-density?’ You’ve got to come up with something that has some [life] length to it.”

There may be more to the story than appears in the newspaper, so I base my comments on limited knowledge. It appears that the County and the Consortium are projecting the future path of development and planning road improvements accordingly. That’s good. What’s bad is that there is no indication in the article that the County plans to alter its land-use policies in any way.

Added money for Spotsylvania roads could be a very good thing if it supported the creation of a Balanced Community with a mutually supporting mix of housing (serving varying income levels), offices, retail, recreation and amenities in a relatively concentrated area. It will be disastrous if it perpetuates the Business As Usual pattern of scattered, disconnected low-density development. In that case, the Board of Supervisors will find that $144 million will buy it only temporary traffic relief.

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6 responses to “The County and the Consortium”

  1. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Didn’t I see a story somewhere that said that $144 million was based on VDOT estimates, and it now turns out that the estimates are much higher, like $290 million?

    I can’t recall the source or details.

  2. Brian Wheeler Avatar
    Brian Wheeler

    Jim – Do you know the revenue source they plan to use to pay the bonds? Transportation funding options have been under review in Charlottesville-Albemarle too, and I expect this will get more attention as a result of the shrinking secondary road allocations. Brian Wheeler

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Excuse Me!

    We were memebers of a small committee that represented the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters and the Federation of Civic Associations that went to Richmond and go the first authorization for a County to spend money on roadways. That was over two decades ago. You may have heard of (or driven on) the Fairfax County Parkway?

    Jim: You are absolutly right on with your thoughts on the shape of Spotsylvanian’s future.

    But then you knew that.

    EMR

  4. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Brian, Regarding Spotsylvania County’s revenue source for paying off the bonds, I don’t know the answer. … Thanks for the reference to the Albemarle County study. Other counties might benefit from Albemarle’s work.

  5. nova_middle_man Avatar
    nova_middle_man

    I should have known better that Fairfax already does this.

    The transportation debate continues are we heading towards an education funding model?

    On the one hand are the more populous higher income well to do counties who are upset about the lack of funding by the state and are taking matters into their own hands by increasing taxes on themselves BUT maybe the county developed too fast and bad planning should not be rewarded.

    On the other side are less populated poorer rural counties who have no transportation crisis and are understandably wary of higher taxes BUT most of the funding they recieve is due to taxes from the more well-off parts of the state.

    I see the point of view on both sides. This fall will continue to be interesting. A final note if I was a a legislator outside of NoVA/Hampton Roads I would be laughing all the way to the bank. Let the more populous counties raise their own funds and create their own taxing authorities. Taxes stay stable for our rural district and we continue to benefit from the increased revenue of the other areas of the state.

  6. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    …if I was a a legislator outside of NoVA/Hampton Roads I would be laughing all the way to the bank. Let the more populous counties raise their own funds and create their own taxing authorities. Taxes stay stable for our rural district and we continue to benefit from the increased revenue of the other areas of the state.

    BINGO.

    …maybe the county developed too fast and bad planning should not be rewarded.

    BINGO AGAIN. Maybe the county grew too fast and too big. Send some of that growth to other counties, and then see how stable their taxes are.

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