The hurrier Fairfax County goes, the behinder it gets.
A comment by a “guest” in a
recent RestonNow article on the Planning Commission hearing on the PRC
zoning issue that, “We can't slow down development AND we can't speed up
providing the associated infrastructure,” was stunning and highly accurate. It reminded me of the White Rabbit’s comment
in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, “The hurrier I go, the behinder
I get.”
And, yes, that’s what happening
across areas of growth in Fairfax County, not just Reston. It describes the poor decision making of the
County Board that keeps approving residential development while being unwilling
to provide the necessary supporting infrastructure from sidewalks to schools. The result, of course, is the declining
quality of life throughout our county, especially in faster growing communities
like Reston.
County officials, including the
Planning Commission, attribute this behavior to Virginia’s nefarious state
Supreme Court “Dillon Rule” decision. In
brief, the Dillon Rule assumes all local governments are corrupt and,
therefore, prevents them from making any decisions not explicitly permitted by
the state legislature. Development
moratoriums and stiff proffers are, according to Fairfax County officials, not
among those authorities.
So we are stuck with a county
government—planning staff, Planning Commission, and Board of Supervisors--that
believes it must approve virtually all development proposals presented to it with
no promise of timely commensurate infrastructure availability. Otherwise, they risk the wrath of a developer
law suit, they say. And to say that Fairfax
County is law suit risk averse is a massive understatement.
The result is, as we are seeing
in Reston, growth continues unabated while the supporting infrastructure is
deferred…and delayed…and postponed because of a lack of funding or the means to
acquire it. Indeed, the state
legislature—under great developer pressure and even greater financial contributions—has
taken steps in recent years to restrict further what local governments can do
to generate proffers and other infrastructure commitments from developers.
This occurs, as
I pointed out in a previous RestonNow op-ed, because residential
development requires more community services (schools, rec centers, libraries, parks,
etc.) to sustain a given quality of life than commercial development. Both require streets, water and sewage,
public safety, and other services, but residents require more.
In fact, multiple studies, including
a “meta-analysis”
of more than one hundred community studies, have shown the cost of
community services for residential development almost universally exceeds the
tax revenues (property, sales, etc.) that development generates. Normally, that tax revenue deficit is between
10%-20%. On the other hand, tax revenues
generated on commercial and agricultural development, on average, more than
doubles the cost of services they require.
Nonetheless, senior county staff
has denied to me personally that this will be true in Reston—and presumably the
remainder of the county—without any explanation. They say, “Trust us.” Right!
There is only one possible outcome
from this county self-deception: The quality of life in Reston and other
rapidly growing residential communities in Fairfax County will continue to
decline as the demand for resources to support needed infrastructure for residents
increasingly distances the supply. We are already seeing minimum two-decade lead
times for key infrastructure development (such as the Soapstone overpass) as
our needed schools, streets, libraries, recreation centers, etc., remain
unfunded. In Reston’s case, we face the worst-case
scenario in which we may even lose existing referendum-approved bond funding
for a new library in the face of county bungling in getting it built.
In short: The hurrier we go, the behinder we get.
The next step in the battle to
bring some reason to the growth-infrastructure balance in Reston is to oppose
the pending Reston PRC (our suburban areas plus parts of Town Center) zoning
ordinance amendment that would increase allowable residential density from
81,000 to 94,000 people—not counting affordable housing and related “bonus”
market units that could raise that number to 113,000 people or more—doubling all of Reston’s current population. That’s on top of the plan potential for 91,000
residents in the PRM-zoned areas covering most of Reston’s Metro station areas.
This call for allowing additional
density comes at a time when the county
puts Reston’s 2018 population at a mere 63,774. What’s
the rush?
We all need to take two actions:
- Write the Board of Supervisors (clerktothebos@fairfaxcounty.gov) and express your concern over the proposed increase in the Reston PRC allowable density. Writing to Supervisor Hudgins will not help: She is the principal advocate for the density increase.
- Attend the March 5, 2019, Board of Supervisors hearing on the proposed PRC zoning amendment that begins at 4:30PM in the government center auditorium. And wear your YELLOW shirt supporting Reston if you have one. (You may buy one from Reclaim Reston at the government center before the hearing if you wish.) Note: This will probably be a long meeting with other hearings on the agenda as well.
We need everyone to help in
bringing some coherence into our Reston development process, and maybe set an
example for good development management in the rest of the county. After all, we are one of the world’s premier
planned communities. Let’s not lose that community prominence
because of county incompetence.
Terry Maynard
Reston
