Charlottesville Tomorrow has a good summary of the Albemarle County BoS meeting today, specifically relating to the Crozet Master Plan. Also nice is that Cville Tomorrow has a podcast of the event.Wickham Pond was approved today as well.
Browsing Category Growth
More on APFs
Waldo has an interesting post today regarding APFs. This is going to be an interesting year, with perhaps some watershed moments and movements regarding our region’s growth.
Growth, sprawl, transportation and more
This month’s Rebellion is out. I haven’t read it yet, but it touches on some pressing issues – transportation, growth, land use … read it here.I said the essentially what he is saying below (with far less eloquence) the other day – From the standpoint of economic efficiency, transportation should be a “user pays†system. Political and civic leaders should disabuse voters of the notion that roads and highways are a free good. Someone must pay to build and maintain them.
Neighborhood Model – revisited?
This is potentially big news … and exciting. Courtesy of WINA.Citizen advocacy groups and some Albemarle Supervisors believe the new year will bring a renewed focus on the county’s Neighborhood Model. There are vocal critics of Albemarle’s approach to suburban sprawl who says it’s time the model got tweaked. … Loach is citing the county’s own surveys, which show dwindling support for the current approach.I am curious to know which citizen advocacy groups they are referring to. In light of the BoS meeting earlier this month where two of the Supervisors expressed real reservations about the Neighborhood Model’s direction, I look forward to seeing how this shakes out. 2006 should be a big year.
Smart growth raises housing prices?
Thanks to the Washington Times:Economists increasingly are concluding that the shortage of affordable housing in Washington and other major U.S. cities on the East and West coasts is a result more of man-made restrictions on development than high construction costs or other market forces. “It simply takes too long and is too expensive to move through the development process,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Securities, pointing at “smart growth, slow growth and no growth” movements in many of the same areas where the population and demand for housing are growing the fastest. The referenced study by the National Bureau of Economic Research remarks:The key underlying reason for rising house prices, though, is supply, according to economists Edward Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, and Raven Saks…. Local residents — more educated, more affluent — have had a greater ability to block new projects should they be deemed harmful to their own interests, for example to the value of their homes…. 11129).And then, from this week’s C-Ville:In 2001 the County adopted a set of rules for growth-area housing developments called “The Neighborhood Model.â€Â The Neighborhood Model includes a list of 12 so-called New Urbanist principles—rules for building setbacks, sidewalks and parking—that are supposed to make neighborhoods more pedestrian friendly. But the County tends to apply the rules inconsistently, and the resulting Neighborhood Model developments are hardly paragons of progressive design…. The Neighborhood Model clearly needs some tweaking both to protect Albemarle from sprawl and to satisfy developers.
How can we pay for transportation needs?
The Washington Post has an article discussing how localities are preparing for the real estate market downturn:At the same time, officials increasingly are looking at what would happen if the housing market flattens so significantly that it no longer provides enough tax money to underwrite steady growth in spending. Some have instructed their staffs to craft proposed budgets that cap expanded spending. …Despite signs that the market is softening — home sales nationwide slowed more than expected in October, and inventory is at its highest level in 20 years — assessments typically lag behind the business climate. So a downward trend won’t be reflected in the new round of valuations.Yet this article in the DP notes how a a few Delegates are making promises:House Speaker William J…. Wardrup, R-Virginia Beach, told a gathering of Virginia reporters and editors that the House of Delegates will not pass a measure increasing the state gas tax in 2006.”We have to look at other sources of revenue,” Howell said during the Associated Press Day at the Capital annual forum on pending state issues. “I think that’s what the whole discussion is going to be about.”Howell suggested that increased fines for bad drivers could bring in a sustained source of transportation revenue of $400 million or more for each two-year budget cycle and that international investors could provide hundreds of millions of dollars more for purchasing the right to collect tolls on certain highways.$400 million in increased enforcement? Let the police police, don’t make them become de facto tax collectors (probably with quotas too).This is an interesting idea – In Fairfax … For next year’s proposed spending plan limits, he has instructed department heads to “essentially give us the same budget you gave us last year,” meaning no growth, except for pay raises and increases to cover such items as rising health care costs for employees and retirees.Why haven’t they been doing this all along?
Growth, roads and APF’s
What happens when the Commonwealth does distribute some of its budget surplus and the County remains firm in their anti-growth strategy?The DP notes that:If state officials allow localities to pass adequate public facilities ordinances, as they’re known, local governments could reject developments based on a lack of supporting infrastructure, such as roads and water sources. More likely, they could demand that developers pay for the needed improvements.Over at Bacon’s Rebellion, a this comment states:I would hope the debate would go toward asking why localities make zoning decisions that are seemingly not in their self-interest. Because if you look at their motivation – raising real estate tax revenue – it will lead you back to the General Assembly, and their decisions on how much funding localities should receive for things such as education, public safety, etc., as well as how localities can raise money on their own.Yeah, an honest and fair discussion is a good place to start.