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A natural gem act now!

December 15, 2007 12:36 am

FACED with public opposition and looming legal issues, developers recently withdrew the Stafford Town Station proposal, providing breathing room for Stafford County to reconsider the long-unresolved issue of threatened Crow's Nest, the county's wooded, almost 4,000-acre peninsula.

Despite what some argue, Stafford Town Station was not a vehicle to save Crow's Nest; now the county finally can move forward with a real deal that preserves this environmental gem, protects taxpayers, and fairly compensates landowners.

The Stafford Town Station project would have built 1,740 housing units on land now approved for 145 single-family homes. Twenty-five million in cash proffers from the project would have gone to buy a part of Crow's Nest instead of helping pay for the roads and schools needed to serve the project's thousands of new residents.

So who would have ended up paying for the new services for Stafford Town Station? Taxpayers. The idea that the Town Station project would somehow have saved Crow's Nest without raising taxes is nonsense. But it would have been a sweet deal for developers, and it provided a flimsy rationale for a project that otherwise could not bear close public scrutiny.

While buying a portion of Crow's Nest would have stopped some by-right development, it would not have come close to offsetting the 1,740 new units proposed in the Town Station project. The end result of the rezoning would have been a net increase in housing units and approval of an overblown project wanted by no one other than the developer and his allies on the Board of Supervisors.

But what if Stafford County could keep the one positive element of that transaction and cut out the cushy deal for developers?

It can.

Stafford simply should invest directly in the purchase and preservation of all of Crow's Nest. This would remove by-right development for about 1,000 units, while at long last preserving Stafford's largest tract of undeveloped land.

In moving forward, Stafford supervisors can minimize the cost to taxpayers while maximizing the protection of Crow's Nest. They could begin by passing key legislation to prohibit inappropriate development of Crow's Nest. Such action includes passing Water Resource Overlay legislation, protecting water resources; designating the entire peninsula a historic area; and "right zoning" the property from A-2 to A-1 land use to match the surrounding area. None of these acts would cost taxpayers a penny.

In assessing the cost of buying Crow's Nest, the Board also needs to consider the savings that would occur by preventing the by-right development of Crow's Nest. As a conservative estimate, 1,000 by-right single-family homes can be built on Crow's Nest. The affected area includes all the property owned by Stafford Lakes LP and the Crow's Nest Harbour--a part of Crow's Nest peninsula not discussed in the Stafford Town Station proposal and not covered in the county's current eminent-domain proceedings.

These 1,000 homes can be built by-right. In fact, this building estimate is based on subdivision plans for Crow's Nest already submitted by Stafford Lakes LP. A by-right development means a developer would not have to pay any cash proffers for building schools, roads, and other infrastructure to provide services to the 700 new school children and the extra 10,000 vehicle-trips per day generated by by-right development of Crow's Nest.

Because there would be no cash proffers for the by-right development of Crow's Nest, at the county's current proffer guideline of $42,424 per single-family home, preventing development of Crow's Nest creates a cost savings of $42.4 million. With land values plummeting in Stafford County, any taxpayer dollars spent now on a fair-market-value purchase of Crow's Nest would be money well spent.

Finally, a public-private partnership can be built to maximize private, state, and federal funds and to take advantage of state and federal tax credits for land preservation. Of course, this comprehensive, direct approach to saving Crow's Nest no backroom deals for developers--which might explain why we haven't yet seen it implemented.

With change in the air, the pro-developer majority remaining on the lame-duck Board might still try to push through some last-minute bad deal that (1) pays too much for the property, (2) protects only some of Crow's Nest, (3) negotiates away the Board's ability to protect the property via legislation, and (4) opens the door to development elsewhere on the peninsula.

But if such a last-minute blunder can be avoided, Stafford County stands poised to finally save a one-of-a-kind treasure, and to do so in a way that protects taxpayers.