Del. Clifford L. Athey, R-Front Royal, thinks that Frederick County has a growth-management model worth emulating — so much so that he has crafted legislation to require counties across Virginia to create Frederick-style “Urban Development Areas” to accommodate growth. I explain Athey’s idea in my latest column, “Focused Growth,” the third of three articles that outline the transportation/land use reforms proposed by the House Republican Caucus during the recently departed transportation session of the General Assembly.
You can agree or disagree with the proposals. You can quibble with the details. One thing you cannot do — unless you are shilling for higher taxes with no accountability, or you’re a member of the Mainstream Media and content to live in la-la land — is dismiss them as a “cover” or a “distraction” from the tax debate. Governance reform is a fundamental part of the tax debate. Without reform, raising taxes will buy only more of the same failed transportation policies of the past.
To remind you of the ground we’ve covered:
Part I: Seventy-Five Years. Virginia’s system for building and maintaining roads has changed little in three quarters of a century. Some people think it needs more money. Others think it needs an overhaul.
Part II: The Devolution Solution. Any meaningful transportation reform would make fast-growth counties responsible for their secondary roads. The trick is coaxing them into going along.
Part III: Focused Growth. To tame scattered development and the ills it creates, Frederick County concentrates growth in an Urban Development Area. The idea works so well that House Republicans want to take it statewide.
Add it all up, and you have the most far-reaching package for overhauling Virginia’s state/local governance structure in decades. As I’ve said repeatedly, the fact that it has elicited no more than a yawn from political reporters and editorial pundits is an indictment of Virginia journalism.
Am I saying that the House Republicans have devised the perfect, long-term solution for transportation and land use reform? No, I’m not. I’m merely insisting that they have raised substantive issues and proffered some ideas worth serious consideration.
Re-thinking the way Virginia builds and maintains secondary roads is crucial. Finding a way to channel growth into districts more efficiently served by roads, transit, utilities and public services is crucial. Making it easier for developers to apply New Urbanism design standards, as Athey’s bill also would accomplish, is crucial.
Are there many, many other things that need to be done? Of course. At the top of the list is adopting a true user-pays system for financing roads and rail…. And planning for Balanced Communities…. And setting objective performance measures to evaluate investments in transportation projects…. And embracing new technologies…. And improving VDOT business processes…. Real transportation reform can’t be accomplished with a single spasm of legislation. It requires a sustained effort over many years.
If we feed the system with new revenues, none of those changes will happen — just as the legislature made no movement towards reform after raising taxes for transportation in 1986. Without reform, the usual cast of special pleaders will return in another 10 years, weeping that Tim Kaine’s $1 billion in extra taxes still isn’t enough. Virginians will be $1 billion-a-year poorer and still stuck in traffic jams.