An Opportunity for Truly Smart Growth in Virginia

Half the battle could be won if the state simply insisted on timely cooperation and coordination among land-use and transportation planners within a region, and also among regions. To further this effort, the state could craft and continually update long-range, region-wide plans to help local governments manage growth pressures and accommodate new development.

New growth management tools also could be created. For example, The Post reported that Virginia home builders, and the governor as well, might support legislation enabling use of transferable development rights. In such a system, developers can purchase density rights, granted under existing zoning to a property in a "sending" area, and transfer those density rights to a property in a "receiving" area, where increased density is desired but not permitted under long-standing zoning. Local jurisdictions designate areas for receiving higher density, usually because of available infrastructure capacity and public services.

Of course, the most effective tool will still be comprehensive land-use and transportation plans that clearly show where and how future development should occur -- or not occur -- and where and how infrastructure and other public services will be provided. Plans must map out not only transportation networks, but also places for housing, education, health care, shopping, employment, recreation and, equally important, environmental conservation.

Most Virginians realize that the governor's new initiatives will require new spending, but most also oppose tax increases. Therefore, much of the political discourse in Richmond this week has focused on sources and methods of transportation financing.

One financial strategy in particular, employed in other states, seeks to pay for growth-related, off-site transportation improvements and other public services by taxing developers that undertake new projects. Because such charges are a cost of doing business for developers, new homeowners and tenants really shoulder the tax burden.

This strategy sounds appealing, but it is basically unfair. It forces new-home buyers, tenants and businesses to pay a disproportionate share of the costs of off-site public infrastructure improvements that are part of a community-wide system serving all citizens, not just the newly arrived.

A more equitable approach, recognizing that the community at large should share in both the costs and benefits of all public infrastructure, would be to invest tax revenue, collected from all taxpayers, to support the growth the community wants.

As Kaine's proposed legislation moves forward, perhaps it will evolve in ways that let Virginia demonstrate the true meaning of smart growth: wisely planned, well-coordinated, fairly funded development.

Roger K. Lewis is a practicing architect and a professor of architecture at the University of Maryland.