Hhmm...maybe this would help the toll road

I agree with a lot being said here. I get the feeling many of the residents of Loudoun county don't realize the magnitude of the traffic problem for the future. As said there are no more planned improvements for waxpool ,expect as said, more lights.

The road system is only as good as it's weakest link. So when developers say they will build a couple of interchanges and a little of widening of 50 for 28,000 thousand new homes are treating the residents of Loudoun county and fairfax county like idiots. That many new homes coupled with the very few improvements will bring the entire rt 50 corridor to total grid lock. That amount of homes must be stopped at all costs, such as what happened to centex's project going from wanting several thousand homes back to 191. That is a major victory for the residents of Loudoun County. I am very sad to what is happening to Loudoun County since the 1980's especially the Eastern side. I am going to put forth inb the next several months a grass roots campaign to fight for better managed growth and for a better looking loudoun county and the region. The power lines just put near loudoun county parkway is an example of ugly growth. Not only that they have not put up any silt fences and have covered the roads in dirt and mud without cleaning it up. Throwing their ugly power in the faces of everyone one in Loudoun County that they are above the rules. I have complained to the authorities from vdot to loudoun and just get lip service and very little action, but I think my time lapsed photos I have taken during their rampage through Loudoun might get some attention in Richmond, soon. My main concern is keeping the transportation system in the DC area in line with the furture growth before it is almost impossible to fix in our life time. Many are surprised that I come from the builder developer side of the equation.
My training in design and architecture has me very worried about the future of Loudoun County's look and transportation.

Lee J Buividas

 

Lee, re developers won't do any improvements: You have said you are in the business, so I want to ask you what kind of developer you are? The larger ones who submit planned rezonings are the ones who have built the few improvements we have. The custom builders don't build on a scale to be able to do serious impact-offset improvements.

Based on some of your more recent comments, are you a custom builder? Because it sounds like you support no growth or by right.

As a builder, you know no growth is not realistic.

As a custom builder, you may prefer large lot zoning and by right development, because the customer who is seeking 5, 6, 8K sq feet designed to their personal specs is not going to put a home like that on a small lot.

By the same token, if everything is locked into large lots, it pretty much ensures that the only customer base is the multimillion dollar buyer.

Great for the custom builder, bad for the region: by right is not planned growth, and by right development pays for nothing--yes the homes pay higher taxes, but the impact of the home and its inhabitants plus the impact of the wastefully used land outweighs the "benefit" of a fewer number of astronomically expensive homes, at least in my opinion. And the higher taxes still don't get any services or amenities going without inclusion in a budget and passage of a bond.

Check the numbers on the PEC propapganda--28,000 comes with a lot of subtractions (existing built land, wetland, steep slope, eased land) that are never factored in for the scare sheets.

And the question: do you work with corporate developers or custom?

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I'm curious to know what impact Pacific and Atlantic Blvd will have once they are completed.

I believe they are supposed to parallel Rt. 28, which will give more alternatives for us to use.

 

Thanks for the winking smiley, Lee. Nope, I don't work for developers, corporate or "castle". I've just lived in NVa all my life, and I watched it not work in Fairfax and not work here.

The Post this a.m. has an unattributed preview of Kaine's smart growth plans, and the part they're still leaving out is that any alteration of the state constitution to achieve this panacaea requires passage by two successive GA sessions, and then a popular vote. Is one term enough for that? I doubt it, and in the meantime while they're duking that out what happens? Why, more of the same I guess.

The problem a moratorium on "sprawl" does not address is the existing traffic conditions--created by concentric rings of "rural" reserves (castles?) in the counties surrounding DC. Most of the well-heeled "smart" growthers come from these areas in Fairfax, PW and Loudoun. And large-lot castle homebuilding with affordable housing bumped out yet another county only contributes to the lack of roads (don't build them and they won't come--that's worked for 30 years now, eh?) and the ongoing traffic.

Raising the price of the most important commodity in homebuilding by limiting the supply of affordable land does nothing to either stop growth or address traffic. It will begin to affect the economy (jobs need houses and mobility), and when the "acheivement" of a dwindling economy has been met, then "smart" growth will have acheived its no-growth unstated goals.

Funny how smart growth and sprawl have such malleable definitions--I'd think that large homes on large lots (with no service offset) would typify sprawl land use. But not if that's where the spear carriers live. And if the only people who can afford what is allowed to be built are millionaires, then there is some credence to the discriminatory aspects of "smart" growth too.

Thanks for the info--I bet your castles are beautiful--and I also bet that 20+acre lots are a necessary component of building them.

Happy MLK Day!

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

Barbara, you are one of the more reasonable people that I see post here and I truely mean that.

I have just a few quick things to respond right now and later this week I would like to explain in detail a better vision for Loudoun that is NOT "no growth" but I like the phrase Beautiful Growth rather then smart growth. On my architecture and planning forums we have in depth discussions from professionals on how to achieve beautiful growth that is a win win for all.

First toll brothers and most of the other major builders don't build afforable housing and if you read into their philosophy it is all about higher end housing because that is where the big profits are with a little low income housing thrown in. Nowhere do these builders build for the average income of the average wage earner in this country and I mean almost nowhere like they did many years ago.

Now we are seeing the gated communities spring up everywhere which I personally loath. Several good books written on this which goes into the problems they create in society.

Most of the so called home town projects also don't work. Look at just in our area all those porch homes with rear entry garages the homes too close together and to the street. They don't even begin to recreate the older beautiful neighborhoods which my very middle class factory working grandparents lived in Cleveland Ohio. Their old neighborhood is far beyond most of these so called new hometowns which are just plain ugly. Anyway I could write volumes on this disaster.

I don't just design what you call castles I also design affordable housing and I am now working on a project that will truely replicate in a updated version of what grandmas neighborhood was really all about.

Barbara as I said before I think we are trying to acheive the same same thing for Loudoun maybe it's the way we differ on how to achieve this goal. The Toll's of the world are not going to make Loudoun a better place and more of the same is turning this county into pockets of beauty because all the cheesy architecture gets built in between and that is what is connecting the dots and what we see from the main roads not the beautiful interiors of the broadlands and south riding etc. The dots must be connected better or the county is going to look like the vegas strip and it is starting to happen. Personally Kaine does not want to stop growth he just wants us to slow down a bit and look at the big picture first and see what needs to be done in a intelligent fashion because what has happened in the past is not working. If we want true afforable housing first we are not going to get it from the major builders unless we the residents here speak up and force them to rethink the developments of today and change them for a true tommorrow and not just a lot of lip service. Personally I am happy our politicians of today are waking up and trying to make Loundoun a place for all not every neighborhood full or close to all million dollar homes. My few multi million dollar homes are not even close to affecting this area as much as tolls and all the other developments full of homes at a million or close to a million. They are the ones making Loudoun full of million dollar homes it is certainly not me. I have many ideas to bring true affordable housing to northern Virginia and Loudoun but the big boys are not listening hopefully our new elected leaders will.

Lee J Buividas

 

Lee, the Tolls and the others are hampered by the fact of the market: in the face of continuing demand, limiting the supply of the most necessary component drives up the cost of the product. That's just a fact.

No business is going to lower prices in the face of decreased supply and increased demand. That's also a fact.

I agree on beautiful growth.

I disagree that "smart" growth is anything other than an extortion racket: people who neither produce nor consume demanding a seat at the table, and basically saying "give us what we want and we won't **** with you. Much.". And just like Fat Tony's jukebox in the diner, it drives up cost for the actual producers and consumers.

I'd love to have a dialogue. Just know that every "smart" growth talking point will be met with a request for specificity and reality. Deal?

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.