Pr. William Might Ban Housing Construction

Prince William County will consider a radical proposal to get the governor and legislature to do something about Northern Virginia's traffic-choked highways: Stop building houses for a year.

Supervisor W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville), who has been on the board for three years, introduced a resolution this week to freeze housing construction for 12 months. Next month supervisors will discuss his proposal, which has prompted lively reaction from his colleagues, the building industry and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who said during his campaign that development should be linked to transportation improvements.

"This is something we need to do to get the governor's and the General Assembly's attention," Covington said. "The resolution recognizes the fact that there is a limit as to how far local governments can go. The state has been collecting these tax dollars for years, and they have been neglecting our infrastructure."

The county has grown 72 percent over 15 years, from 215,686 to 371,181 residents, with an accompanying explosion of housing. Some people in the housing industry reacted to Covington's proposal with horror and derision.

"Something like this is devastating to the industry," said Roy Beckner, director of business development of S.W. Rodgers Co., a Gainesville developer. "A year's downtime, as far as I am concerned, could be devastating to the building community, a community that is already in a slowdown mode."

Jim Williams, executive vice president of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association, said that if supervisors approve Covington's proposal, they might as well put a freeze on commercial construction.

"While there is a connection between housing demand and transportation issues, what the board of supervisors and Mr. Covington have to realize is that housing follows jobs. So they ought to go ahead and put a moratorium on commercial property as well. That would make as much sense as what they want to do now," Williams said.

He had one more suggestion. "It would make equal sense to put a moratorium on all new automobile sales in the county to solve the transportation problems," he said.

County attorney Ross G. Horton told the supervisors that he would research whether Covington's proposal is legal. The proposal came as a surprise to other supervisors, so there was very little discussion of it at their meeting this week. They agreed to discuss the idea Dec. 5.

Supervisor John D. Jenkins (D-Neabsco), a member of the board for a quarter-century, said that with some legal tweaking, he thought the measure could pass unanimously. Jenkins said there are no big residential developments in the pipeline for the next 12 months, so the vote would be largely symbolic.

"I think to get the attention of the General Assembly and, you know, the governor, I will say this would be a shot across the bow to say we need some help dealing with these types of problems," Jenkins said.

Supervisor Maureen S. Caddigan (R-Dumfries) said she would support the measure if the county attorney says it's legal.

"I think it is a good idea to look into it," Caddigan said. "I would be supportive of it because I think there is a little bit of a slowdown in the market right now. There are houses on the market, not only in Prince William but everywhere."

Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Kaine, said the governor understood Covington's frustration with the General Assembly's lack of action on highway improvements in Northern Virginia.

"But I think an absolute moratorium on new residential development, while perhaps understandable as a gesture of frustration, would be an extreme response to the refusal of House leadership to tackle our transportation challenges in a serious way," Hall said.

Covington said he got the idea for the freeze after seeing the Election Day results of a referendum in Prince William County approving a $300 million bond for road improvements. It wasn't just that the bond passed, he said, but that it won more than 80 percent approval.

"People put a lot of trust in local government with that vote," he said. "We have been getting crumbs out of Richmond."

He said the response from the building industry was not unexpected.

"I understand some people are going to have some issues with slowing it down, but it is something we need to do to get the governor's and the General Assembly's attention," Covington said. "We are in a tough position, and we need to make some tough decisions."