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Hearing on mall road is tonight
Public hearing on how to pay for Harrison Road Connector is tonightDate published: 8/11/2009 By DAN TELVOCK Who will pay for the Harrison Road Connector? That question may be answered tonight after a Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors public hearing on whether to create a Special Service District to fund the 1.5-mile road. The road would begin behind the Spotsylvania Towne Centre off State Route 3 and end on Harrison Road near Hazelwild Farm. The controversial project has faced opposition from residents in Waverly Village, Governors Green and Maple Grove subdivisions, who say the road would serve only commercial interests and would disrupt the quality of life in some of the county's oldest neighborhoods. The public hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Holbert Building on Courthouse Road. Supervisors originally planned to fund the road with a Community Development Authority. In October, Attorney General Robert McDonnell opined that the CDA ordinance does not legally exist because it allowed landowners who signed the ordinance to be excluded from the special assessment on land within the CDA boundaries. Since then, supervisors have held numerous closed meetings, where they came up with the plan to try a service district. If approved, it would be the county's fifth service district. County Attorney Jacob Stroman had said that a service district is a fairer process because residential property owners in the service district boundaries would not be required to pay an extra real estate tax unless they rezoned the land to commercial or industrial. He also said that if residential land is rezoned to those uses, the property owner would not be assessed back taxes. The tax would begin once the land is rezoned, which was not the case with the CDA. Stroman said the service district proposes to tax only commercial property, chiefly the mall property and other commercial sites near the mall, such as Red Lobster. Another advantage of the service district is that the project would be controlled by county staff, not Cafaro Co., which owns the mall, Stroman said. In 2006, supervisors approved a rezoning of the mall. As part of that deal, Cafaro Co. officials agreed to build the road and make other transportation improvements. The mall developer no longer is on the hook for the road because supervisors let pass a June deadline to condemn property needed to build the road. Those who oppose the road are asking supervisors to add language to the service district ordinance that ensures no residential property will ever be taxed to pay for the road. Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 8/11/2009
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