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Potential tax revenue? Spotsy and Stafford should be so lucky

April 15, 2008 12:15 am

I was amazed to see that a March 27 letter-writer would still be so misinformed about the evolution of the city's largest economic development project ["Why not the original plan for Celebrate?"].

The writer bemoaned the fact that the city's portion of Celebrate Virginia had originally been planned for "office buildings in a campus-like setting" and that it had changed to the current tourism campus.

That's simply not true. After annexation, the land was originally planned for more than 2,200 homes.

Once the Silver Cos. acquired the property, it was rezoned for commercial and tourism-related businesses.

This zoning was done 10 years ago at the request of a City Council eager to find income for the city that would relieve the burden on homeowners.

The writer should not be dismayed, because the Silver Cos. actually did designate almost one-half of the massive Celebrate Virginia project for "offices in a park-like setting." That is what most of Celebrate Virginia North in Stafford County is zoned and planned for.

And has the writer ventured out to Celebrate Virginia North lately? If so, he would see only a couple of small office buildings, not because it's a bad project but because the office market in metro Washington hasn't moved this far south yet.

Even if Stafford's corporate office campus at Celebrate Virginia were fully developed, it wouldn't begin to create the tax income that will be generated by the tourism campus in Fredericksburg.

I'm sure the supervisors in Stafford and Spotsylvania would love to have the city's problem--deciding whether to accept a $225 million project that will generate $6 million annually in tax revenues.

Robert L. Dodd Jr.

Spotsylvania