Local officials get big-picture look at development trends in the Washington area

By RUSTY DENNEN

Date published: 2/3/2005

WASHINGTON--At one table, Stafford Supervisor Kandy Hilliard leaned over a map of the Washington region and circled her county's Crow's Nest peninsula with a green felt-tip pen.

A few tables away, Bob Hagan, chairman of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors, was helping others on his team to place blue, yellow and white Legos, representing thousands of houses and jobs, on the map.

Nearby, Ric Goss, Spotsylvania's planning director, was engaged in an animated conversation with another participant about balancing jobs and housing and growth.

Welcome to the brave new world of planning--some here called it "visioning"--where local officials, anti-sprawl lobbyists, developers and policy wonks work together to create a snapshot of growth trends.

The occasion was Reality Check, a conference held in the nation's capital yesterday by the Urban Land Institute and the Smart Growth Alliance. Some 300 participants came from 21 jurisdictions.

The idea was to create a three-dimensional template showing where growth would occur. That's where the Legos came in. One yellow block, for example, represented 3,000 households per square mile; a blue block, 6,000 jobs per square mile.

The "game players" discussed and lobbied about where the blocks should be placed, and how many. First, they had to come up with some broad guidelines--such as preserving open space, balancing housing and jobs--and then they got down to work.

Most of the block towers were constructed along existing transportation corridors and were concentrated in urban areas, though Stafford and Fredericksburg had their share.

There have been brainstorming sessions on growth locally, but this was the first time it's been tackled by Virginia, Washington and Maryland representatives.

Hilliard's green marker was to signify that Crow's Nest, which has been the focus of an intense preservation effort, should be off-limits to development.

Overall, she said, "development has a negative effect on everybody. The issue of quality of life is significant."

Goss touched on one sore point for outlying localities. "I think Spotsylvania is the position where it is tired of taking residents from the metro area without the benefit of more jobs," he said.

Hagan said the challenges are daunting, with an estimated 2 million new residents and 1.6 million jobs projected by 2030.

"We need to plan for the future, or let it run over us," he said.

To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com

Date published: 2/3/2005