Interesting.Graphic and story found at Seeking Alpha, who found it at Cafe Hayek, who refers to the actual original story. Charlottesville’s Free Enterprise Forum released a comprehensive study last year enumerating some of the local impacts of government regulation on housing costs (PDF). This is a good conversation from last year about growth and housing in Charlottesville/Albemarle and beyond.
Browsing Category Growth
Transfer of Development Rights bill moves forward
The Transfer of Development Rights bill, HB 991, is moving forward in the General Assembly…. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said his House Bill 991 would help create a pilot project to allow a market for the sale of development rights through a broker. It would allow landowners to sever their rights and sell them for use elsewhere.Creating a market for intangible development rights? Creating a value for these is going to be very challenging.Learn more about TDRs at Charlottesville Tomorrow, and these are a few stories from RealCentralVa – October 2006, January 2007, October 2007It’s worth noting that the Realtors support this bill.
More on SB 768
Bacon’s Rebellion has a good post today about the previously-referenced bill that would mandate impact fees on new development and eliminate proffers.The bill would remove localities’ ability to negotiate (some say extort) proffers from developers; but … is this the consequence the bill authors were looking for?”Be careful what you wish for,” warns Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors. SB 786, which would eliminate proffers and impose uniform impact fees on new real estate development, “will shut down residential development all over the county. I will make sure it shuts down residential development in Prince William.”
“SB768: Conditional zoning; replaces cash proffer system with system of impact fees.”
When the Republican Chair of Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors, who has a history of siding with real estate interests, says that “that he had already been making personal calls in opposition to the bill,” something is amiss…. This bill will impact everybody in the state – homeowners, landowners, renters – by forcing (from what I have read) localities to seek other sources of revenue – read: property taxes – to make up the difference. This is exactly the type of bill that Realtors need to come out against, in my opinion, but politics is like the show Survivor; sometimes distasteful compromises are met with the expectation that the next round will require another allegiance…. The bill has 10,230 words and was written at a grade level for those who graduated 18th and 19th grades (per Flesch-Kincaid).Coincidentally, an Adequate Public Facilities bill shows up on the page as a “related bill.”
Rural Area Protection measures pass in Albemarle County
Channel 29 says it all:What you do with your land is no longer entirely your decision if you live in Albemarle County. After many rewrites over several months, supervisors have come to terms on three ordinances…. Comprehensive coverage at Charlottesville Tomorrow.Personal property rights have taken a blow for the greater good. The ramifications and unintended consequences of these anti-growth measures will be felt for years, for better or for worse.
Tune into WINA this afternoon
I’m going to be filling time from five to five thirty this afternoon. For those unlucky readers who don’t live in the Charlottesville area, you can catch the podcast tomorrow on CvillePodcast.Topics I expect we’ll touch on – Rural area protection ordinances, 29 north, proposals in the city to set aside pre-budget money to subsidize housing, current state of the Charlottesville area real estate market and maybe Senate Bill 768, which would change the current proffer system to one requiring impact fees.
Growth and building data for Albemarle County
Albemarle County’s Building Report tracks the location of these permits in the rural areas vs. the designated growth areas [see chart]…. The 202 rural area permits issued in 2007 represents the smallest total for the rural area in the past eleven years. Brian Wheeler has put this data into context useful for those interested in how the growth affects the Albemarle County School system. He also notes that:I have been tracking this data for the past four years and this past quarter had the fewest number of building permits (54) issued for single family detached homes in any quarter.As I said in November:Two notable conclusions can be drawn:1) The plan to drive development into the growth areas seems to be working (27% of permits issued were in the White Hall district in Western Albemarle)2) Fewer building permits means that the market’s focus may turn to existing housing inventory – which is a very good thing.