Community Clips
Smart Growth News for the Washington, DC Region

January 26, 2006


In this issue:

• Your Involvement Makes a Difference!
• Virginia Update – Comprehensive Planning Reform Still Needed to Fix Transportation
• Maryland Update – Let’s Debate Where Best to Invest our Tax-Dollars
• Loudoun's Explosive Growth
• Protecting Water Resources with Smarter Growth
• Protecting Manassas National Battlefield Park – Comments Sought
• Upcoming Events

Your Involvement Makes a Difference

Do not ever doubt that your involvement and your votes can make a difference! Growth management helped to determine the Governor’s race in Virginia along with key delegate races. The results are reverberating through the Virginia General Assembly where there is bipartisan interest in how to improve planning. An election year offers similar opportunities to press for growth management, conservation, and transportation reform in the Maryland legislature. But your officials need to hear from you during the session: Virginia Governor, Virginia Legislators, Maryland Governor, Maryland Legislators.

Virginia Update – Comprehensive Planning Reform Still Needed to Fix Transportation

In response to a clear message about the importance of growth issues to Virginia voters, lawmakers have pushed for new tools to manage growth. Just this week, the power to transfer development rights passed a key Senate committee. Much of the focus, however, remains on spending more money. More important than new money for transportation and where it will come from is having a sound plan for using it.

In the year-end review of Virginia’s transportation spending, the primary conclusion of the state’s Auditor of Public Accounts was, “the Commonwealth lacks a coordinated transportation plan.” In fact, we lack a coordinated land use and transportation plan that will protect our scenic landscapes, provide more options for travel, and reduce traffic. Some proposals would for the first time include performance standards that set goals to reduce traffic, but many still include projects with minimal transportation benefit compared to high financial and environmental cost. There is still a need to evaluate alternate growth strategies and transportation solutions on a system-wide basis. Your support for better growth management holds more weight than ever this session, but only if you communicate frequently with your legislators and the Governor. Learn more at www.reconnectingvirginia.org. Also, see Stewart Schwartz's editorial on Land Use and Transportation in the Examiner.

Maryland Update – Let’s Debate Where Best to Invest our Tax-Dollars

Maryland’s innovative smart growth programs were based on the recognition that existing growth patterns were straining the ability of the state to fund infrastructure, protect the Chesapeake Bay, and preserve natural lands for future generations. Yet, recent state infrastructure spending will spread out development, increase traffic, hurt the Bay, and undermine existing communities.

Proposals to spend $3 billion on the Intercounty Connector, a road which officials now agree will not reduce traffic, will mean the loss of funding for other key transportation needs for over a decade. Moreover, by subsidizing new development in outer areas it will undermine economic investment in Baltimore and Prince George’s County. Like Virginia, Maryland faces many competing needs, which include funding K-12 and higher education, meeting rising health care costs, public safety, and protecting and cleaning-up the Bay. The legislature should consider whether the ICC is really worth the price.

Loudoun's Explosive Growth

From 2000 to 2004, Loudoun County ranked as the fastest growing county in the nation, growing by 41%. At this rate, growth in Loudoun is accounting for approximately 25% of Virginia’s total growth and 20% of the Washington region’s growth. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments projects that the population of Loudoun County will grow 87.6% by 2010. (See Issues Facing Loudoun in 2006, Loudoun Times-Mirror.) Developer plans to add over 100,000 more houses to Loudoun County will overwhelm any new transportation investments. More balanced regional growth linked to our region's transit networks would allow for revitalization of many communities and help reduce traffic congestion. Join citizens seeking a more sustainable future for their community at LoudounsFuture.org.

Protecting Water Resources with Smarter Growth

Four new smart growth publications from EPA show how smarter growth can reduce water consumption, protect watersheds, and reduce runoff:

• Protecting Water Resources with Higher-Density Development
• Using Smart Growth Techniques as Stormwater Best Management Practices
• Growing Toward More Efficient Water Use: Linking Development, Infrastructure, and Drinking Water Policies
• Parking Spaces / Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions.

Visit the EPA website to learn more.

Protecting Manassas National Battlefield Park -- Comments Sought

Manassas National Battlefield Park is the site of two major Civil War battles. Development pressures, encroaching strip malls, traffic, and proposed highways threaten this national treasure. The National Park Service is asking citizens to comment on their draft General Management Plan (GMP) for the park. Once approved, the GMP will guide decisions about managing the park’s natural and cultural resources, visitation, and development for the next 15-20 years. This is an opportunity not only to support preservation within the battlefield, but to ask the Park Service to oppose new highways in favor of local road improvements tailored to the historic setting. You can submit comments online or attend one of two public meetings, scheduled for February 8 and 9. Learn more.)

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