Comments on The Road to Ruin: Metro West Approved - A Victory of Statewide Impor...

That is all I have been saying. There is nothing w...

2006-03-29T09:33:00.000-05:00

That is all I have been saying. There is nothing wrong with making efficient use of our land and transportation resources. My beef here has been that PEC and company is wholly unrealistic about their proposed policies and the results they might achieve. Furthermore, they seem to completely ignore the costs involved, especially if those costs fall on individuals.

Ray Hyde: I think you see this one correctly. It...

2006-03-29T07:33:00.000-05:00

Ray Hyde: I think you see this one correctly. It's time for Virginia to move beyond hollow platitudes and look at these issues with factual analysis based as as much data as can be obtained reasonably. Some of these concepts might work -- but we need fair ground rules first. The fact that the Fairfax County BoS approved a so-called TOD project before defining what TOD is borders on malfeasance in office.

I don't have any stake in this, so I don't see it ...

2006-03-28T10:02:00.000-05:00

I don't have any stake in this, so I don't see it as all that impportant. It probably will make my lot with actual land around it with natural flora and fauna still more rare and valuable. I regard this as a real opportunity to settle some issues with a rare real life experiment.

This approval is hardly a surprise, though. The supervisors have demonstrated their disdain for real public input by holding hearings in rooms too small (this is hearsay) and refusing to appear at meetings called by the opposition. The staff report on the project opened with a litany of smart growth homilies, stated as goals for the project, but nowhere was there any evidence as to how those goals would be achieved.

As you say, Virginia has some excellent modelling capabilities. Let's hope that someone will take the initiative and do a total, comprehensive traffic and business analysis for an area as large as five or ten miles from this place right away, and then repeat the process five and ten years from now.

We should do the same for Albemarle Place and some other locations with strong growth restrictions, such as The Plains, VA, for comparison.

Then we will be able to tell if this is really one of the most important zoning decisions of the year. If the results prove out as promised, I'll concede I've been wrong in my skepticism.

I'm not too worried about having to eat the humble pie, though, because I doubt the evidence will ever surface. If it does, it will take a long time, and do nothing to resolve our current problems.

It is probably incorrect to put the neighbors fears about increased congestion in the past tense just yet.