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The debate rages in Stafford: a

Managing growth in Stafford is a complex issue

Date published: 8/28/2005

S MEMBERS of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, we feel that recent opinion pieces by Kathy Beard and Ferris Belman of the Stafford Council for Progress--a development-industry lobbying group--require response.

We believe that the Stafford Board of Supervisors is exercising its constitutionally defined powers to consider land use as it affects the public safety, health, and welfare of the citizens who elect us to represent them. The collective interests of one sector of the economy have no standing in this debate.

As individual workers and businessmen, who live, vote and pay taxes in Stafford County, all of the members of the development community are a part of the dialogue, and we welcome their input and expertise. But, despite their collective political influence, corporations are not citizens--and should not override citizens' rights.

An important concept, that of "vested rights," needs to be explained for a proper understanding of land use. Vesting refers to an individual's right to proceed with the use of their land in accordance with the provisions for the zoning category to which it belongs. This acknowledges that a property owner makes an investment to rezone a property, or to approve specific use plans, and that government action should not take that investment.

This is proper, but in Stafford it can have unintended, detrimental consequences.

Stafford has enough residential vested land inside our Urban Service Boundary to build 22,000 more homes. This would double existing residences inside the USB.

The Board of Supervisors cannot require this vested growth to pay its own way in the form of proffers for schools, transportation, public safety, libraries, or parks.

Our current calculations put the infrastructure cost to the county of a new home at $38,000; that is $836 million worth of additional debt that all taxpayers will suffer to maintain service quality and levels that we currently enjoy.

All county taxpayers will have to equally share that burden, which is a massive subsidy to the homebuilding industry. The profit goes to the homebuilder, the equity to the homeowner, but the costs are forced on all taxpayers.

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Date published: 8/28/2005