The following letter was mailed by Prince William Conservation Alliance to all candidates for the Board of County Supervisors in mid-April, 2003. Responses will be posted here as they are received.

Dear ______,

The Prince William Conservation Alliance (PWCA) is a grassroots organization working to advance healthy communities by preserving and restoring Prince William's valuable natural resources. PWCA projects reflect our focus on the importance of public education, volunteer action and public policy development.

We believe that the strong connections between a quality environment and quality of life conditions for residents are meaningful topics in this election year and of great interest to Prince William citizens. After decades of focusing primarily on development of a suburban vision, the economic and quality of life benefits of Prince William's rich natural resources are increasingly becoming a part of the debate. As a candidate for the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, PWCA members and the local communities are eager to better understand your plans and commitments in these areas.

Although PWCA is not in the business of endorsing political candidates, we strongly feel that good communication and access to information will help Prince William residents make informed choices during the coming election. We offer you, and all other candidates, the opportunity to complete a brief questionnaire to communicate your perspectives and goals in environmental areas. A copy of our questionnaire is attached. We request that you return the completed questionnaire to our office no later than Friday, May 2, 2003. At that time we will release the collected questionnaires to the general public, local press and post your responses online at www.pwconserve.org. Please feel free to contact us at 703.499.4954 should you have questions or to request an electronic copy of the questionnaire.

Thank you for your time to help Prince William citizens understand your environmental goals and your commitment to a better Prince William. We wish you the best of luck in the coming election and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Kim Hosen
Executive Director

CANDIDATE NAME:

DISTRICT:

PARTY AFFIILIATION:

WEBSITE:

Word Limit: 150 words per question
Due Date: Friday, May 2, 2003
Submit by Mail: PWCA, 9116 Center Street, Manassas, VA 20110
Submit Electronically: [email protected]

1. Unmanaged development has a significant impact on the ability of localities to protect green open space and natural resource areas. The Virginia General Assembly has said that local governments have the tools they need to manage and contain growth within their jurisdictions. These tools include (1) the proffer system; (2) the issuance of permits for building and sewer hook ups; (3) planning and then legislating dedicated local funding mechanisms to leverage state and federal dollars for acquisition of parks and open space; and 4) comprehensive planning, zoning, and use of tax assessments to encourage/discourage types of development.

How will you use these tools to manage the pace of development and direct where growth occurs?

2. Inadequate infrastructure – including storm water management, transportation, school and public safety systems – results in preventable increases to pollution levels, reduces quality of life for residents and challenges the integrity of valuable natural resources. There are currently 34,000 residential units approved for development in Prince William County that could accommodate 100,000 more people, increasing the current population by one-third.

What will you do to improve the current Levels of Service, and how will you ensure that new rezoning requests to accommodate new development will not make the current problems worse?

3. Prince William County's current transportation system cannot accommodate traffic from existing development. The resulting traffic congestion increases automobile emissions into the air within the Northern Virginia region, recently reclassified as “Severe” for air pollution. The 2000 Census shows that only 3.2% of Prince William County residents use public transportation to travel to and from their place of employment.

What would you do to increase public transportation options for local residents and/or revamp land use patterns so jobs and housing are closer to each other within 20 years, especially in areas where redevelopment opportunities can maximize investments?

4. The rapid pace of development in Prince William County challenges government capacity to adequately enforce existing Chesapeake Bay and other environmental regulations. And when infractions are identified, the current penalties are often insignificant compared to the financial benefits that can be realized through noncompliance. As a result, many infractions are either not corrected in a timely manner or not addressed at all.

What would you do to ensure regular, timely and comprehensive enforcement of existing regulations to safeguard Prince William's valuable natural resources?

5. As a signatory partner to the Chesapeake Bay agreements, Virginia has committed to invest in productive strategies that support better ecological health of the Chesapeake Bay. Prince William has taken positive action to fulfill this commitment through efforts that begin to assess the ecological health of many County streams.

Do you support a comprehensive stream protection strategy similar to that in Fairfax County, including the development of management strategies for the protection and/or restoration of County subwatersheds?

6. Steep slopes and highly erodible soils characterize many of the remaining undeveloped parcels in Prince William's designated development area. These landscape conditions necessitate the use of cut-and-fill development practices and have significant negative impacts on water quality, protected stream buffers and other natural resources. Although prevention is considerably more economical than mitigation, current regulations and requirements provide little, if any, protection for these valuable natural resources.

What tools and/or strategies would you use to protect these environmentally sensitive areas?

7. Prince William's designated rural area (Rural Crescent) was adopted in 1998 to preserve open space, agricultural resources and our groundwater supply. Since that time, development pressures continue to challenge local capacity to sustain these goals. Other open space areas protected by state and federal agencies are threatened by encroaching development. Prince William surveys repeatedly show that residents want more green, open space and passive recreation opportunities, such as birding, hiking, photography and other nature explorations.

What tools, strategies and/or funding mechanisms would you use to protect and increase green, open space areas and agricultural resources? Would you support a comprehensive system of greenways and trails connecting parks in the county?

8. Over 80% of Prince William public water users rely on the Occoquan Reservoir for clean drinking water. Although it is now too late to protect lands along the southern side of the reservoir, much of the headwaters lie in western Prince William. Conservation and preventative efforts offer significant economic advantages over technological solutions, as documented by the EPA in their assessment of New York City's successful watershed protection strategy.

What tools, strategies and/or funding mechanisms would you use to protect the public drinking water supply? How will you protect the headwaters of the Occoquan Reservoir as development increases in the upstream sections of Bull Run, Cedar Run, and Broad Run watersheds?