Virginia To Weigh Impact Of Projects
Land-Use Studies Crucial, Kaine Says

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 28, 2006

The state government has a huge stake in local development decisions and is going to become increasingly involved by measuring traffic impact and other effects before large-scale projects are built, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in an interview last week.

Kaine said his administration will be looking for more opportunities to gauge the effects of local land-use decisions, such as the study he ordered on the traffic impact of building about 30,000 homes west of Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County.

Kaine (D) brushed off criticism from developers and local officials that his administration's direct management of the traffic analysis was politically motivated and meddlesome in the affairs of Loudoun government.

Kaine ran last year on the promise of doing more to contain growth. He won Loudoun partly on that promise and said he will do what he can to fulfill it.

"It's a dramatic change in direction," Kaine said. "The goal is to elevate the upfront discussion in the public eye and make the decisions in a much more thoughtful way upfront, rather than making land-use decisions one after the next and then waiting 15 years to see what the impact is going to be."

After a bruising legislative session in which several key anti-sprawl proposals were defeated, Kaine said he would renew his commitment to changing how Virginia will grow, and the Loudoun traffic study was a first step. He called the issue "every bit as important" as his push to increase transportation spending.

But the influential development industry -- key Kaine supporters and campaign contributors -- is becoming more vocal in its opposition. "I'm not anti-development," the governor said. "It's not development that causes population growth. It's jobs and economic growth. But if we're going to try to manage growth wisely, what is it we have to do? We have a way of planning in Virginia that is fundamentally broken."

Some of Kaine's top aides managed the Loudoun traffic study, which examined the impact of the proposed Dulles South project. At issue is a largely undeveloped, 9,200-acre tract of farmland and two-lane roads just west of the airport where a half-dozen major developers hope to build thousands of homes.

The Virginia Department of Transportation study, the first of its kind to scrutinize the regional impact of development, predicted hours of daily gridlock on more than a dozen major roads and highways in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties.

Kaine's decision to bring his growth agenda to Loudoun was not arbitrary, he said; in fact, it's more accurate to say that the state's fastest-growing county delivered the growth issue to him.

In November, Kaine became the first Democrat in 16 years to take Loudoun in a gubernatorial election. Political observers agreed that he won Loudoun -- and perhaps Virginia -- on the strength of his campaign promise to give local governments more tools to control home building.

Kaine, the former mayor of Richmond, is among a growing list of politicians in Virginia -- Republicans and Democrats, mostly from such fast-growing regions as Northern Virginia, the Richmond area and Hampton Roads -- who are listening to an electorate demanding solutions to the traffic, sprawl and rising taxes that growth has wrought.

"Twenty-eight thousand houses in Loudoun -- if the roads can't support it, then they shouldn't build it," said Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax). "That seems very dramatic, but this is a huge development. It's big. The governor is doing his job, and I congratulate him."

More remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that all 140 members of General Assembly voted for the legislation authorizing VDOT to conduct studies such as the one in Loudoun. The bill had a Republican sponsor in the House of Delegates, and House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) was a key supporter.

"What we're trying to say is that there ought to be some sort of idea of what the impact is going to be," Howell said. "People like to talk about unfunded mandates. But the biggest unfunded mandate that's going on in Virginia right now is the unfunded mandate that localities are imposing on the state."

Many of the lobbyists who helped the initiative sail through -- notably the state's powerful home-building industry -- might not have known what Kaine intended. They expected the studies, but they didn't expect the publicity or the involvement of Kaine's closest advisers.

"I'm just very disappointed in the governor," said Michael L. Toalson, chief lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Virginia. The builders "did not oppose" the legislation but are unhappy with the way the governor is using it, he said.

"The Kaine administration, without any guidance from the General Assembly, has injected itself and VDOT into a local land-use decision," Toalson said.

When the bill passed, many local officials said it would have little effect because VDOT already conducted limited traffic impact studies on proposed development. Advocates for slowing growth said this was a consolation prize over more coveted measures opposed by the building industry -- including bills that would have given local governments the power to reject development if the infrastructure was not in place to support it.

In fact, Kaine was criticized for failing to push harder on that and other slow-growth initiatives.

"The development industry thought: 'We get to have our growth-control ticky mark for all the people who are shouting for growth controls, and we get off not harmed,' " said state Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (R-Prince William), the bill's chief patron in the House.

"But what they didn't realize, and it's not written in the legislation, of course, is that people were going to talk about this stuff. They didn't think that VDOT might send this stuff to the press and that the press might write a story about it."

Proponents of the project said Kaine was using Dulles South to build support for raising taxes to build new roads.

On the contrary, Kaine said. If anything, he was using Dulles South to build support for more studies just like it.

Kaine wants local elected officials to face up to the effects of development on state roads -- for which the state is responsible for paying. He said he wants developers held accountable for the infrastructure the new homes demand. And he wants the public to know more about the local decisions that sometimes create traffic and sprawl.

The goal, Kaine said, is "better and more thoughtful developments."

Since the release of the Dulles South study last month, Loudoun residents have sent their supervisors hundreds of e-mails, letters and phone calls opposing the proposal.

That's exactly the kind of public input the study was designed to provoke, Kaine said.

The Dulles South study was a pilot for a measure that doesn't take effect until July 2007. Toalson, of the home builders group, said he plans to have a say when VDOT returns to the General Assembly for approval on how to implement the bill.

But it will face a growing bloc of lawmakers who are steadfast in their desire to deliver growth control.

Said Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William): "They don't like the message, so they shoot the messenger. Are the facts wrong? No. All it is is information. Good information."