Leaders Join Forces for Affordable Housing

New Policies Pledged For Pr. William, Fairfax

Connaughton said Prince William saw itself "as the affordable community in Northern Virginia. That's not so true anymore." (File Photo)

Fairfax and Prince William counties' top elected leaders yesterday bemoaned a shortage of affordable housing in their counties as fallout from soaring real estate values.

Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) and Sean T. Connaughton, his Republican counterpart in Prince William, vowed to set policies to make more homes and apartments accessible to low- and moderate-income workers.

"We've got to look at every option available to us," Connolly said at a breakfast forum in Tysons Corner sponsored by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. "We're hemorrhaging affordable places to live."

Headlining the chamber's monthly policymaker series, Connolly and Connaughton said Northern Virginia's skyrocketing residential real estate values have resulted largely from high demand in a hot job market. Fairfax created 25,000 jobs last year, and Prince William added 2,068 -- together representing nearly 39 percent of the 70,000 new jobs in the Washington region.

But Fairfax does not have enough land left to meet the demand for homes. And home prices in Prince William, where many Fairfax workers are moving, are rising so fast that the county's image quickly is being redefined.

"We always viewed ourselves as the affordable community in Northern Virginia," said Connaughton, a candidate for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor. "That's not so true anymore." The average home assessment in Prince William and Fairfax appreciated by 23 percent in the last year. Both counties have proposed steep cuts to the property tax rate. In neighboring Loudoun County -- where values jumped 20 percent -- a less generous tax rate cut is proposed.

Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I) also was scheduled to appear at the breakfast but canceled late Tuesday because of a conflict, an aide said.

Connolly and Connaughton noted to their audience of 30 business leaders that rather than partisan opposites, they are aligned as allies in Northern Virginia's battle to secure more state aid.

Both leaders expressed concern that housing prices are keeping police officers, firefighters and other county workers from living where they work.

Fairfax has launched an aggressive effort to preserve affordable housing by competing with builders who set their sights on buying older or blighted properties and redeveloping them into luxury housing.

"Building affordable housing in this climate is not enough to solve the problem," Connolly said. "What government has to do is get into the market and compete." Officials have proposed that the county actually buy and rehabilitate some aging apartment units instead of allowing them to be converted by developers into less affordable luxury units.

Both leaders said they would be open to property tax credits or low-interest loans for county workers who want to live close to work. Currently, half of Prince William police officers live outside the county in far-flung suburbs of Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, Connaughton said.