As Doug Koelemay observed in today’s column about the Tofflers’ new book, “Revolutionary Wealth,” different institutions evolve at different rates. If cutting-edge businesses are charging ahead at 100 miles per hour, labor unions are trotting along at 30 m.p.h. and government is trudging behind at 20 m.p.h. (Schools, political institutions and the law are even slower.)
Earlier today, the House of Delegates just mashed the accelerator. Demonstrating its seriousness about devising a comprehensive solution to Virginia’s transportation woes as opposed to papering them over with another round of taxes, House leaders unveiled a three-pronged package intended to bring Virginia land use policies into the 21st century.
These three bills would alter Virginia’s transportation debate beyond recognition. There is simply no way that the Axis of Taxes and the Mainstream Media can continue defining the debate as a simple issue of how much more money is needed and where it’s going to come from. The House is forcing the state Senate to contend with the link between land use and transportation at a more fundamental level than Virginia legislators ever had to before.
House Speaker William J. Howell summed up the philosophy behind the reforms:
Any plan to improve transportation that ignores one of the root causes of clogged roadways – namely, Virginia’s 70-plus-year-old government land use policies – is inherently inadequate, shortsighted and flawed. The Commonwealth can no longer afford to be timid or piecemeal in targeting solutions toward this aspect of the overall challenge. That is why our forward-looking legislation for the first time directly ties land use and transportation. I am firmly behind this initiative to introduce accountability and devolve management as part of a sweeping and much-needed overhaul of Virginia’s approach to land use policy.
The three initiatives include:
- Urban Transportation Service Districts. HB 5093 would allow local county governments to create “urban transportation service districts” and assume responsibility for maintaining all secondary (i.e., subdivision) roads. The state would give localities road maintenance funds equal to what VDOT would spend anyway, which localities could supplement with impact fees.
- Urban Development Areas. HB 5094 would require every county to amend its comprehensive plan to incorporate at least one “urban development area” sufficient to satisfy a full decade of projected residential growth. The goal is to require localities to plan for future development, eliminating the “haphazard ‘shotgun’ approach that has resulted in uneven sprawl and subsequent road congestion,” and to strike a better balance between settlement patterns and transportation system capacity.
- Subdivision streets. HB 5096 would end the practice of taking additional subdivision streets into the state secondary highway system, effective January 1, 2007. Currently, the state code requires VDOT to accept into the Commonwealth’s secondary system any new roads that meet state standards, with the result that Virginia has added approximately 1,500 center-lane miles to its secondary road system over the past 10 years, adding considerably to the state’s roadway maintenance budget. The thinking is to make localities responsible for maintaining the streets in subdivision developments that they approve.
These are refreshing ideas but the devil is in the details. That’s all I’ll say for now. I’ll post again in the future when I’ve had a chance to absorb these ideas and assimilate feedback. To read the Speaker’s press release with full details, click here.
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