Developers Lobby Over Growth Curbs
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
RICHMOND, Jan. 17 -- Developers on Tuesday launched a rapid-response campaign to undermine Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) just hours after Virginia's new chief executive called for broader controls on growth to reduce traffic.
Members of a suit-and-tie posse gathered in the morning a few blocks from the Capitol, ate doughnuts, sipped coffee and were deputized as lobbyists for a day in what developers see as a must-win battle with Kaine over his proposals to let localities deny rezonings if roads are inadequate.
"We've already learned that we can have a handshake and be smiled at and have exactly the opposite happen," warned Anthony Clatterbuck, president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, as the group set out to meet with Virginia's lawmakers. "We can't be naive."
The hastily assembled crowd of more than 100 home builders, real estate agents and civil engineers marched to the nearby legislative office building, where they hoped to persuade lawmakers to oppose Kaine's proposals
If they succeed, they will hand the governor a major blow on what so far is the centerpiece of his plan to reduce congestion on the state's roads, bridges and rails. If they fail, Kaine, who has been governor for only four days, will become the first state leader in recent years to push through growth controls.
"What the governor has done is really thrown a big political hand grenade into this session," said Sean T. Connaughton (R), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. "The question is whether they will watch it explode or throw it back."
During his campaign, Kaine promised to link land-use and transportation planning. In one campaign ad that ran heavily in the outer suburbs, he promised to seek more power for local governments to stop some development. During his speech to lawmakers Monday night, he made good on that promise.
"This important and necessary step is not anti-development, but it recognizes that new thinking about development is needed," Kaine said to the General Assembly.
That's not the way the home builders and real estate agents see it. They swarmed through the halls of the assembly building, wearing red and white stickers that said, "Say Yes to Housing." They carried with them a lobbying packet titled "Housing Blitz" with talking points as well as the room number and committee assignment of every delegate and senator.
In each office, they argued that giving local governments new tools to reject housing applications would drive up the cost of homes and push development farther from urban cores. That would create longer commutes and worsen traffic, they said.
It "would in fact result in a complete moratorium in the construction of new housing in Northern Virginia," Fairfax County home builder W. Craig Havenner told a skeptical Del. Michele B. McQuigg (R-Prince William), who told him that she supports Kaine's idea.
Havenner refused to give up: "We don't believe that the right approach is to shut down the economy while we catch up from 20-plus years of a complete lack of funding, particularly in the transportation area."
Other developers got a warmer reception from Del. Terrie Lynne Suit (R-Virginia Beach), who greeted them with a hearty "Good to see you again!" as they piled into her seventh-floor office overlooking Capitol Square.
"We're hoping he can come up with something that's reasonable, that he's not going to cram down our throats," John Olivieri, a Hampton Roads home builder, said of Kaine. "Our answer is planning . . . not just trying to stop growth or stop building."
"Absolutely -- right," Suit said, nodding her head.
A group from Richmond had scarcely sat down in the corner office of Del. Riley E. Ingram (R-Hopewell) before he told them that he also opposes what Kaine is backing.
"To me, housing, home building -- it's what drives the train," said Ingram, who chairs the committee where the legislation will probably be considered first. "It's the engine. That's just my opinion."
"Well, we like your opinion a whole lot," responded Vicki Stitzer, who runs a Richmond home interior business.
Even as the home builders buttonholed lawmakers, the debate over Kaine's growth proposals rippled beyond Richmond to Northern Virginia, where for years development has been a central political issue.
Stuart Mendelsohn, a Fairfax land-use attorney and former Republican county supervisor, predicted that developers would pass along the higher costs of doing business to home buyers.
"If the local government extracts additional money from developers, guess who pays?" Mendelsohn said. "It's the person who wants to buy that house."
Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said Fairfax would welcome additional tools to ask more of developers but added that the state must ante up more money for transportation or the effort will be worthless.
"This . . . isn't just the land-use piece, it's the transportation [financing] piece," he said.
Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the D.C.-based Coalition for Smarter Growth, praised Kaine for what he called a commitment to push for better land-use planning while looking for more money to expand road and transit networks.
"He ran on this issue," Schwartz said. "He won on this issue, particularly in the outer suburbs including Loudoun and Prince William."
Others were less supportive.
"To think that somehow we can just stop building houses until transportation is built is unrealistic," said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. "A lot of jobs planned to come here in the next 10 or 15 years are not going to come here if there is no place to house workers."
Back in Richmond, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said he could find common ground with Kaine on several transportation issues, including giving localities the ability to transfer development rights to concentrate building.
"Clearly, we need to look at some of these things," he said during a news conference at which House leaders announced their legislative agenda. The initiatives include changes in Medicaid, repealing the car and estate taxes and funding Chesapeake Bay cleanup.
Staff writers Lisa Rein, Nikita Stewart, Chris L. Jenkins, Rosalind S. Helderman and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
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