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2005 News Clips are listed below. Click here to read the 2002-2004 News Clips.

Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Agree Environmental Standards Cannot Be Too High and Continuing Improvements Must Be Made Regardless of Cost
Harris Poll; October 13 2005
Three in four U.S. adults (74%) agree that "protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost." In addition, a plurality of adults (47%) agree that "there is too little government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection." These attitudes are significantly more pro-environment than in 2000, the last time Harris Interactive examined these issues. These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 1,217 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between August 9 and 16, 2005. It is important to note that this survey was conducted prior to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, events which have placed some additional focus on environmental issues.

Alliance wants to save farm
Jaclyn Pitts, Potomac News; October 20, 2005
Spanning about 300 acres southeast of Nokesville, Merrimac Farm portrays what many may think nature is supposed to be about -- pure appreciation.
But the farm's future could bring development of 30 homes, and the Prince William Conservation Alliance, in conjunction with Quantico Marine Corps base, is working to save the farm.Kim Hosen, executive director of the PWCA and Prince William County planning commissioner, said the group is working with Quantico in efforts to open the land as a public environmental education center.

Of Marxists and RPAs
Martin Jeter, Letters, Washington Post; October 23 2005
I hate to interrupt all the rhetoric flying around regarding the Resource Protection Area (RPA) issue and bore everyone with facts, but I just don't think childish name-calling is helpful to a rational discussion. Regarding a recent letter to the editor citing "Marxist environmentalists" [Extra, Oct. 16], it looks like the spirit of Joe McCarthy lives on!

Protecting Our Water
Kevin Parker, Letters, Washington Post; October 23 2005
Mr. Robert T. Molleur is the one who "doesn't get it" [Extra, Oct. 16]. Property owners have a responsibility not to harm others or degrade our common resources. Private property rights are not absolute. You cannot legally pour oil on your lawn and contaminate the water or have a mosquito breeding ground in your back yard. You cannot prosecute the rain for trespassing or charge it with theft when it moves a little dirt to your neighbor's yard.

Wellington Glen decision deferred
Jaclyn Pitts, Potomac News; October 21, 2005
…. Robert Joiner, a resident of Independence Townhomes in Manassas , said his property directly abuts part of the site and expressed concern involving a perennial stream that runs behind his property. He said it's normally a gentle stream, but with rains it becomes a “raging rapid” that has caused severe erosion to its banks. “I feel the added water [from the new development] would be disastrous to my property, as well as my neighbor's,” he said. “I just don't understand how this plan has been approved by the staff of the Planning Office.”

Commission denies rezoning request
Jaclyn Pitts; Potomac News; October 7, 2005
A little more than four acres of land in Woodbridge caused substantial debate among members of the Prince William County Planning Commission on Wednesday evening.
Members of the Planning Commission denied a rezoning application for the 4.37-acre Dawson Property, citing several environmental and storm water management issues.

Board Gets Outline of Woodbridge Redevelopment Plan
Lila de Tantillo, Washington Post, October 20, 2005
The latest residential development issue in Prince William County doesn't concern building houses on agricultural land but instead is focused on north Woodbridge , and a key 164 acres that would be the gateway into the redeveloped area and into the county. …. Planning officials have held three meetings with north Woodbridge property owners to discuss the redevelopment, and another is planned for Nov. 9. Thomas said she hopes the supervisors will take action to begin pursuing one of the two procedures for redevelopment at their Nov. 22 meeting. [For more information about the November 9 community meeting, email staff Planner Pat Thomas or Woodbridge District Supervisor Barg .]

A Boom In Town Centers; Many Are Planned; Reston's Is a Model
Heather Greenfield, Associated Press, October 20, 2005
It started on the drawing board two decades ago as an office park. Today it features townhouses and condos. And somewhere along the line, Reston Town Center became a national model as an attractive suburban place to live, work and play.That model is about to be replicated across Northern Virginia.Town centers are planned in Lorton near the Virginia Railway Express station and at Dulles Station near Route 28 and the Dulles Toll Road. Others are planned in Leesburg and Gainesville and near Potomac Mills. A mixed-use waterfront development that includes a conference center and nearly 4,000 homes has been proposed in eastern Prince William County .

County lags behind in serving homeless
Keith Walker, Potomac News, October 12, 2005
The number of homeless people in the county has hovered around 500 over the last several years. …. Fran Becker, executive director of the Partner's Homeless Shelter in Alexandria , presented the study to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday. It showed there are 15,439 homeless in the metropolitan area, as of the last count in January. While the number of homeless has declined in the county, the percentage being housed is smaller by far than other jurisdictions, Becker said

Va. Agency May Help Fund Spriggs, Linton Hall Roads; County Could Be Model For Innovative Financing
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post, October 16, 2005
Prince William County could be the first jurisdiction in Virginia to finance a road project by selling bonds through the Virginia Resources Authority , a quasi-government agency that lends local governments money for construction. On July 1, the General Assembly gave the authority, also known as the VRA, the power to lend money for roads. The VRA previously was limited to selling bonds for projects and programs, such as water, sewer, public safety and airports.

Prince William Parkway's Last Section Opens
RSS Feeds From ABC 7, October 19, 2005
The last section of the Prince William Parkway is complete, connecting Route One in Woodbridge to Interstate 66 in Manassas . Lawmakers say the cost of the final section, slightly less than a mile, was about $12 million.

City Council oks tansit projects
Tory Parrish, Manassas Journal Messenger: October 19, 2005
Transportation improvement was a recurring theme in Manassas this week.In addition to approving the design of projects to add a fifth lane on Centreville Road and to widen Wellington Road from two to four lanes, the Manassas City Council heard a presentation about the Virginia Railway Express Gainesville-Haymarket extension plan on Monday. About 30,000 cars travel Centreville Road between Sudley Road and Liberia Avenue daily, according to Public Works Director Michael Moon.

Virginia Rail seeks business back-up for extension
Joe Coombs , Washington Business Journal; September 23 2005
Businesses in Prince William County are being asked to open their wallets and help pay for an 11-mile extension of Virginia Rail Express service, a project expected to cost $150 million to $281 million. …. Meanwhile, others -- such as Nissan Pavilion operator Clear Channel Entertainment and tenants at the county's massive Innovation business park -- already are being asked for private donations to help pay for preliminary engineering and environmental studies, says Mark Roeber, a spokesman for VRE VRE officials also will apply to the state's Department of Rail and Public Transportation in October for at least $5 million to pay for preliminary studies. Once the project is moving forward, the Fairfax division of Brookfield Homes has already agreed to foot the bill for an entire station east of Gainesville and near the Nissan Pavilion. Brookfield is planning a 1,500-acre development called Brentswood in an area near the proposed train station.

Openness on state highway jobs urged
Edie Gross, Fredericksburg Free Lance Star; October 20 2005
Road projects submitted under the state's Public-Private Transportation Act will undergo a slightly different review process in the future, one that may be a tad more open to the public. …. Virginians have complained in the past that the process doesn't allow for a lot of public comment. Though residents can send e-mails and letters throughout the process, they've been allowed to speak during only one HOT-lanes meeting. The altered law doesn't really change that.

Haymarket seeks input on developmen t
Jacklyn Pitts, Potomac News; October 10, 2005
During last week's Haymarket Town Council meeting, Councilman John Cole presented questions about future town development, and now the council is looking to get residents involved. With efforts spearheaded by six-year resident and newly appointed member of the town's Planning Commission Joe Minor, council members are looking to host an official town meeting where residents can voice their opinions about development.

Developers Pouring Cash Into Va. Campaigns
Michael Shear, Washington Post; October 23 2005
Virginia's developers, home builders and real estate agents have more than doubled their campaign contributions from four years ago, a sign that their businesses are flying high and that tensions over growth and sprawl are rising. …. By the end of September, real estate developers had given this year's statewide candidates $3.4 million, according to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project . By contrast, developers gave $1.4 million to the statewide candidates in the 2001 elections.

Enrollment less than expected
Amanda Stewart, Potomac News; October 10, 2005
Enrollment in Prince William County Public Schools fell short of projections this year, for the first time since 1998.School officials projected an enrollment of 69,021 students for the current school year. As of Sept. 30, the schools were 787 students below that projection, at 68,234 students.

Plenty of Seats Remain Available At Some Schools Inside Beltway
Nick Anderson , Washington Post, October 20, 2005
Many parents and educators lament school crowding. Few complain about campuses that are underused. But, in Prince George 's County, new enrollment data show that many public schools are well below their official student capacity. A Washington Post analysis of the school system's enrollment shows that 96 elementary, middle and high schools have fewer students than the state says they can handle. Fifty are less than 90 percent filled.

Dulles South Plan Changes On Hold; Rt. 50 Task Force Proposals Advance
Leesburg Today, October 21, 2005
"Yet again, the priority order for projects in the county planning department were shuffled Tuesday when the board of supervisors voted to temporarily freeze work on a controversial comprehensive plan amendment that would add nearly 24,000 homes to the Dulles South area, ordering staff instead to focus on proposals developed by a task force for the Rt. 50 corridor from the Fairfax line to Rt. 15..."

Metro Postpones Vienna Land Sale
Washington Post, October 21, 2005
"Metro's board of directors voted yesterday to hold a public hearing on the sale of land it owns to the developers of a controversial project at the Vienna Metro station, prompting Rep. Thomas M. Davis III to withdraw his threat to withhold federal transit funding. Before the $1.5 billion spending bill for Metro passed a House committee yesterday, Davis (R-Va.) softened language that would have prevented the agency from selling or leasing 3.75 acres it owns at the Vienna station. Developer Pulte Homes had been negotiating with Metro to buy the land, saying it would be a critical link between the station and its 56-acre MetroWest project, where 13 residential, retail and office towers would rise in a transit-oriented development that Fairfax officials are pushing..."

Focus on Fairfax: Washington Post Blog
Topic – The Nov. 1 Hearing on Metro Land Sale Near Vienna Metro
OK, let's start this morning with the story about the Metro Board delaying a vote on the sale of land near the Vienna Metro station. Connolly and Davis both are claiming victory …

Large Numbers Of 'Snakehead' Fish Appear In Potomac River Tributary
Mike Baron, Post Chronicle; October 14, 2005
A predatory non-native species of fish known as the Northern Snakehead, discovered 3 years ago in waters east of the Chesapeake Bay, were caught in large quantities on a small feeder creek of the Potomac River earlier in the week. The numbers were significant enough to convince some biologists that the species is not going any where, and to echo concerns over what the voracious fish will inevitably do to the natural balance of the water's ecosystem. Snakeheads, hundreds of them, were reportedly slithering among the minnows, rising up through the concrete blocks that dam Dogue Creek near Fort Belvoir , Va. "They're in there by the thousands. You could see them literally coming up along the banks," said Mark Hammond, an avid bass fisherman, according to published reports. "We would throw one in the cooler, two others would jump out and we'd have to chase them through the woods."

State offers plan to eradicate zebra mussels
Jaclyn Pitts; Potomac News; October 18, 2005
It's been three years since a diver discovered the state's first infestation of zebra mussels in Millbrook Quarry near Haymarket. Now, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is prepared to rid the quarry of the non-native, densely populated species. The department prepared a draft environmental assessment for public review and comment through Oct. 28 on zebra mussel eradication and will hold a public information meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Fairfax Water Board room, 8570 Executive Park Ave., Fairfax .

Learn more about the Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries proposal
Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries; Millbrook Quarry Zebra Mussel Eradication

States take on feds over environment; Some 27 states are involved in a dozen initiatives or lawsuits.
Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor; October 6, 2005
"There's a clear lack of leadership and effective environmental protection at the federal level, so many states - rather than just throw up their hands - have decided they have to take the initiative on a regional level or individual state level," says Judith Enck, policy adviser to Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general for the state of New York . He and other attorneys general this year spearheaded a nine-state pact to cap power plant emissions to help curb global warming.

A leadership deficit
Editorial, Baltimore Sun; October 19, 2005
How's this for an unlikely scenario? In notoriously tax-averse Anne Arundel County , citizens are clamoring for a new fee on property owners to restore eroded and polluted waterways. Elected officials, though, are wary. A grass-roots movement of environmental and civic groups is working to build support for creation of a dedicated fund that would be used to redesign the county's antiquated storm water management system and rescue the properties, waterways and wildlife being destroyed by unchecked runoff. Their proposal is based on a county study of options for financing an estimated $400 million backlog in restoration work required on Anne Arundel's 1,239 miles of freshwater rivers and streams.

Developer settles wetlands complaint; A Newport News site will revert to natural state; fine will be paid
Andrew Petkofsky, Richmond Times Dispatch; September 30, 2005
A developer has agreed to re-establish 26 acres of wetlands in Newport News and pay a $250,000 fine to settle legal disputes with the federal and state governments. Newdunn Associates LLP of Norfolk, the developer, and two of its contractors who filled in the wetlands near Interstate 64 in 2001 without obtaining federal and state permits, will allow the land to revert to its natural state under a settlement announced yesterday. Federal and state officials hailed the agreement as an affirmation of the Clean Water Act and the government's ability to enforce regulations that protect the environment.

Newport News to move forward on reservoir; With permits in hand, the city hopes to begin building the $230-million reservoir in King William County by 2011.
Fred Carroll, Daily Press; October 12, 2005
Back in 1993, Newport News expected to build a reservoir in King William County for about $130 million. On Tuesday, the City Council got a new cost estimate - $230 million. …. Officials can move ahead with construction because in July they got a long-sought permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, which almost derailed the project in 1999. Over the next 18 months, officials expect to buy about 6,500 acres and to decide how to finance the project. Construction could begin in 2011. …. State and federal regulatory agencies added requirements to reduce environmental damage, such as restoring 2 acres of wetlands for every acre destroyed and researching the spawning cycle of the American shad, a bony fish protected by a fishing ban in Virginia . Planners initially expected to fill the reservoir by about now, and the delay means labor and construction materials will cost more. Council members have yet to decide how to pay for the project.

Court Takes Up Landmark Wetlands Case
Gina Holland, Associated Press; October 11, 2005
The Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for what could be a landmark ruling on government authority to regulate wetlands and control pollution, giving new Chief Justice John Roberts his first chance to limit federal regulation of property rights. The justices agreed to take up claims that regulators have gone too far by restricting development of property that is miles away from any river or waterway. …. The outcome could have implications for government authority in regulating construction in obviously environmentally sensitive areas, like Hurricane Katrina-decimated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi , and even land that is not adjacent to water.

How to Fix America's Crumbling Infrastructure
By Julie Taraska, Metropolis Magazine; August 9, 2005
Like most Americans, you probably don't think about our nation's infrastructure--the public works that serve as the backbone of our country--until something goes wrong: you find yourself snarled in a traffic jam, or hear a report about a possible contaminate in the water supply, or become frustrated at your plane's two-hour delay. But waiting until one of these works fails is a critical mistake, says the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) . The group, which notes that a sound infrastructure not only helps the economy, but also is a quality-of-life issue, recently judged the country on 15 infrastructure categories ranging from aviation, drinking water, and hazardous waste to rail, schools, and security. The resulting “ 2005 Report Card for America's Infrastructure " awards the U.S. an overall grade of “D”: a step below the cumulative D+ received in 2001, the last time the ASCE issued the report. The document also offers an analysis of each of the 15 areas, as well as breakdowns of infrastructure quality in each of the 50 states .

Report Card for America's Infrastructure: Virginia
American Society of Civil Engineers , 2005

Satellite Image: Hurricane Katrina Erodes the U.S. Gulf Coast
NASA Earth Observatory; October 3, 2005
Hurricane Katrina's strong winds, storm surge, and battering waves scoured the islands, leaving them reduced or gone altogether. These images of the islands were taken by the Landsat 5 satellite. The top image, taken on September 16, 2005 , shows the Mississippi and Alabama coast line, including the line of islands that bore the brunt of Katrina's fury. The lower images show the northern section of the Chandeleur Islands at full resolution. In the 11 months that passed between October 15, 2004 , when the right image was taken, and September 16, 2005 , when the left image was taken, the islands have wasted away.

System Failures Seen in Levees; Investigators looking into the breaches in New Orleans find problems in design, construction and maintenance of the flood-control barriers
Ralph Vartabedian and Stephen Braun, L.A. Times; October 22 2005
The massive failures of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, which flooded the city and caused hundreds of deaths, resulted from flaws at almost every level in the conception, design, construction and maintenance of the region's flood-control system, according to the preliminary findings of investigators. The Army Corps of Engineers, local levee boards in Louisiana and other agencies failed to grasp warning signs over the last decade that the levees were not as strong as expected, reflecting a cultural mind-set that did not pay enough attention to public safety, according to Robert Bea, an engineering professor at UC Berkeley who is part of a National Science Foundation investigating team.

Safety Places a Distant Second in Race to Repopulate New Orleans
Michelle Chen, New Standard News; October 18, 2005
The new New Orleans is a post-apocalyptic frontier town. Residents trickle in to scavenge among the ruins or begin scraping layers of mold from waterlogged homes. Workers pile sodden chunks of houses into putrid mounds on the street, feeding an estimated 50 million cubic yards of hurricane debris. Amid warnings that the city is reassembling itself in the deepening shadow of toxic contamination, local officials are undaunted. Backed by reassurances from state and federal environmental authorities, Mayor Ray Nagin is beckoning people to come back, clean up, go on with life and get back to business.

Rating System Asks: Where You At? New standards reward developers who build in the right places
Carolyn Kelly, Great Lakes Bulletin News Service; October 20 2005
A new system will soon begin rating development proposals by how they help communities become more walkable, transit-friendly, and affordable. Several Smart Growth organizations that teamed up last year to compose new standards for developing what they consider to be great neighborhoods are looking for a few more good ideas. The team recently published its first draft of the standards, which it calls Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND). The standards provide a system for rating a proposed development's environmental impact and Smart Growth characteristics, including walkability, access to public transportation, and zoning that allows residential, business, and retail activity within the same area.

City [of Manassas] endorses tri-county parkway plan
Tory N. Parrish; Potomac News; September 28, 2005
That plan, however, would not receive funding from the Federal Highway Administration because of the environmental impact to Bull Run Regional Park and wetlands, said Kenneth Wilkinson, VDOT project manager. The Fairfax County Park Authority and the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority have already expressed opposition to the comprehensive plan alignment. "These are quick fixes. They deal with symptoms, not sources," said Kim Hosen, executive director of the Prince William Conservation Alliance, who said better regional planning was needed to resolve transportation issues.

Battlefield officials consider tree-clearing
Jaclyn Pitts; Potomac News; September 28, 2005
Manassas National Battlefield Park wants to continue to follow its mission of preserving historic landscapes of the battles of Manassas . And the latest efforts to preserve landscapes could mean clearing 140 acres of timber between Brawner Farm and Deep Cut in the park.

Manassas National Battlefield Park Brawher Restoration EA [Environmental Assessment]
The purpose of this assessment is to implement an action approved in the Park's General Management Plan; the clearing of approximately 140 acres of timber between Brawner Farm and Deep Cut in Manassas National Battlefield Park. This document is available for public review and comment through October 28, 2005 . Click here to read the environmental assessment .      Submit comments (Click on name for email): Robert Sutton, Superintendent; Ray Brown, Cultural Resources Manager and Bryan Gorsira, Natural Resource Program Manager. Manassas National Battlefield Park, 12521 Lee Highway, Manassas, VA 20109, 703.754.1861

Supervisors to hear Park Authority report
Keith Walker; Potomac News; October 3, 2005
The supervisors will learn Tuesday that a study of the Upper Occoquan Watershed shows that Prince William streams and waterways are not as clean as they could be. Many of the streams that flow into the watershed are "impaired," or contain too many bacteria or not enough bethnics. Bethnics are macro-invertebrates that live near the bottom of a stream. A bethnic impairment means the water body is not sustaining as complex an ecosystem as it should. The invertebrates are food for other life in the streams, so bethnic impairment means a body of water cannot produce enough food for a good diversity of life. Drinking water from the Occoquan Reservoir, which shows bacterial impairment, is treated with disinfectants that kill virtually all of the bacteria, so it is safe to drink.

Promised spending, tax cuts would leave $78 million hole in county budget
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; September 30, 2005
County residents can't have everything they want and lower taxes too. That was the gist of the message last week when the county's budget staff sat down to discuss finances with the Board of County Supervisors. Assistant County Executive Melissa Peacor and Finance Director Chris Martino walked supervisors through a list of existing standards that the county is supposed to be meeting. They added to that the cost of improvements that the supervisors had requested. Then they factored in the cost of further cuts to the real estate tax. The equation results in a $78 million hole in the budget next year, followed by an $86 million hole the year after that. The gap only increases as the years go by, which means, Peacor said, supervisors need to make some decisions about what it is they really want.

Web Site Lists Political Donors
Pamela Stallsmith; Potomac News; October 1, 2005
Want to find out who is Jerry W. Kilgore's biggest benefactor in Richmond ? Interested in knowing the name of Timothy M. Kaine's largest donor in Henrico County ? Then point your browser to www.vpap.org , the Web site of the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks money in state politics.

Chesapeake's 'dead zones' set a record
Tom Pelton; Baltimore Sun; October 4, 2005
"Dead zones" in the Chesapeake Bay - areas with so little oxygen that fish can't live - grew to cover a record portion of the estuary last summer, according to a federally funded monitoring program. An average of 5 percent of the bay was classified as "anoxic" during the summer months, meaning the water had almost no dissolved oxygen, researchers from the Chesapeake Bay Program reported yesterday. The lack of oxygen suffocates oysters and drives fish and crabs in search of water where they can breathe. The dead zones are the result of farm fertilizer and other pollution, which breed algae and oxygen-devouring bacteria. An August of stultifying heat and little wind aggravated the problem.

Residents: Protect Fairfax streams
Christy Goodman; Washington Examiner; September 30, 2005
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a housing development on the Wedderburn property in the Providence District, which includes a stream that was recently declassified as a protected area. "This reveals a very serious flaw in our county Chesapeake Bay Ordinance and it needs to be addressed forthwith because there are other such cases that are coming up," said Frank Crandall, a Dranesville representative on the Fairfax Environmental Quality Council. In Crandall's McLean neighborhood, Scotts Run is in the process of being declassified, similar to the stream on the Wedderburn property, because water flow could not be seen. Crandall said there are several streams in Fairfax that appear to be "bone-dry" but still flow in deeper beds.

Metro pulls out all the stops
Rebecca Durvin; www.timescommunity.com ; September 28, 2005
Steven Taubenkibel, public affairs specialist for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said that, even before post-Katrina gas prices, more riders have been using the system. He noted that, over the last four years, WMATA has seen a 2.3 percent increase in ridership, especially during the evening rush hour between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. He said that evening rush hour ridership has increased 5.7 percent.

Second Dulles rail tax district emerges
Dominic Bonaiuto and Kali Schumitz; www.timescommunity.com ; September 28, 2005
Petitions to create a second special tax district to support the further expansion of Metrorail into the Dulles corridor are being circulated among commercial property owners around Reston and Herndon. It would be a companion district to the one created last year by business property owners between Tysons Corner and Reston to support the first of two planned phases for Metro's expansion out to Dulles International Airport Loudoun County . The special tax districts are expected to cover Fairfax County 's 25-percent share of local construction costs. Loudoun will help pay its share.

Shaken by a Looming Boom: Would Growth Alter the Takoma Park Area? If So, for Better or Worse?
Phuong Ly; Washington Post; September 29, 2005
Local myth has it that opening a chain store is against the law in Takoma Park . Development skipped over the downtown of this quirky enclave for so long that many residents had accepted the myth as fact. Now, more restaurants and shops are planned not only for the downtown but also for the adjoining commercial area of the Takoma neighborhood in the District. The construction boom in the historically connected communities is sparking a debate over growth and its impact on the area's character.

[Editorial] On Track: Mass transit and business make obvious partners (Free Registration Required)
Washington Business Journal; September 23, 2005
Herndon biotech Mediatech is bringing 200 jobs to the Innovation park in 2007, and President Jim DeOlden thinks those new workers would embrace mass transit: "I know a lot of employees here who, if they had access to rapid transit, they'd use it," he tells Staff Reporter Joe Coombs. It remains to be seen how much he and other business leaders in Prince William County feel about an 11-mile extension of Virginia Rail Express service from Manassas to Haymarket. We'll know soon enough, as VRE is asking them to kick in and help pay for the tracks, a project expected to cost $150 million to $281 million.

PEC, Residents Raise Foxcroft Road Traffic Concerns
Dan Telvock; Leesburg Today; October 3, 2005
Environmental Council organized a small protest Monday along Foxcroft Road near Middleburg, attacking development proposals they say will affect the scenic twisting road and historic sites in the area.
Fifteen people representing four different organizations attended the event, held on a pull-off beside Foxcroft Road , hours before the planning commission opens its public hearing on the Dulles Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Small green signs stating, “Don't Supersize Middleburg” and “No More Traffic On Foxcroft Road,” dotted

[Fauquier] Planners discuss 'proffers' increase
The Fauquier Citizens; September 22, 2005
Should developers pay Fauquier more to offset the effects of new growth on public services? If so, how much? The county planning commission will discuss those and related issues in a work session at 2 p.m. Warren Green Building 's second-floor conference room. Virginia law allows local government to accept cash, land and road improvements when a developer seeks greater residential density through rezonings. Planners call the contributions "proffers." The planning commission will consider recommending an increase in the suggested, developer cash donation per dwelling. Fauquier expects developers to donate $14,854 per home site approved through rezonings. The staff has recommended that amount increase to $18,329 per dwelling.

Drought takes toll on area farms: Eight counties tagged disaster areas
Christy Goodman; Washington Examiner; September 29, 2005
Prince William County is one of eight Virginia counties that has been deemed agricultural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to this year's drought. Low-interest federal loans are offered to farmers in affected counties who can prove at least 30 percent of their crops have been destroyed. Of Prince William County 's 222,615 acres, 37,881 acres are used for active farming, according to a county spokeswoman. Prince William County Supervisor Willy [sic] Covington III, R-Manassas, who owns a 200-acre farm, said large farms where the crops provide a family's sole income will be affected.

Bonds pitched as way to clean up bay: N.Va. delegate also proposes creating agency to draw up cleanup plan, track progress
Rex Springston; Richmond Times-Dispatch; September 30, 2005
"I'd bet Virginians would be excited about buying bay bonds," the retired Army colonel said after the meeting. "Then they can participate, get involved, beyond slapping a sticker on their bumper." Lingamfelter also proposed creating a Chesapeake Bay authority, or agency, that would develop a cleanup plan and prepare an annual progress report, among other duties. The staff would include a director, finance director and marine scientist.

Developer settles wetlands complaint: A Newport News site will revert to natural state; fine will be paid
Andrew Petkofsky; Richmond Times-Dispatch; September 30, 2005
Newdunn Associates LLP of Norfolk, the developer, and two of its contractors who filled in the wetlands near Interstate 64 in 2001 without obtaining federal and state permits, will allow the land to revert to its natural state under a settlement announced yesterday. Federal and state officials hailed the agreement as an affirmation of the Clean Water Act and the government's ability to enforce regulations that protect the environment.

Plant a Shrub; Grow a Habitat
Gary Pendleton; Bay Weekly; September 29, 205
Fall is for planting, so that makes late summer the time to plan. By the time you read this it might be too late to put in lettuce, kale, radishes and carrots for a fall salad garden, but you still have time to purchase and transplant a nice native shrub. What does that have to do with a picture of a butterfly on a flower? The flower is cardinal flower, a beautiful and brilliant native that is related to tobacco. It is easy to grow in a home garden, and it is blooming now in sunny wetlands, where it attracts not just butterflies but hummingbirds, too.

Road-Block Stalls Tri-County Parkway Plans
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; September 23, 2005
Prince William County commuters hit a major roadblock in the proposed Tri-County Parkway last week when a planner reported that federal officials may block efforts to build the only route that would relieve traffic on Route 28.
VDOT study manager Ken Wilkinson was delivering a routine presentation on the parkway plans during last Tuesday's Board of County Supervisors meeting when he dropped a bombshell: two different federal groups may veto the route preferred by citizens and all three local governments.

Tri-County Parkway Proposal Doomed: Corps Cites Route's Impact on Wetlands
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; September 15, 2005
After four years of study and $4 million, the favored route for a tri-county parkway -- a proposed highway that would connect Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax counties -- is unlikely to get the federal funding or the approval it needs to be built as it is currently proposed, said Ken Wilkinson, project manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation study. Wilkinson said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looks for roadways that cause the least disturbance to the environment, and that the route favored by 40 percent of the public -- as determined through e-mails, letters and surveys -- is not the best of four proposals.

Supervisors consider Battlefield Bypass
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; September 23, 2005
Public opinion on the bypass falls into three categories, he said. The largest group said they prefer that no action be taken. They said they'd rather the roads stay open and the bypass not be built at all. The second largest group is the "Fix Alternative G" camp, made up of residents who want to see a modified version of a southern route around the battlefield. The third group of responders said they prefer the northern route, Alternative D, which was chosen by planners. Officials have previously identified that group as being made up primarily of Fairfax County residents. There is also a fourth contingent. A number of special-interest groups, such as the Coalition for Smarter Growth, support closing the battlefield roads but have a different idea for a bypass. Rather than construct a new road, they'd prefer to see improvements made to Interstate 66, to allow traffic from U.S. 29 to use the interstate instead.

Candidates Discuss Hot Lanes
Keither Walker; September 21, 2005
Earnie Porta, the Democratic nominee for the 51st District of the Virginia House of Delegates, reiterated Tuesday that he opposes High Occupancy Toll lanes. His opponent, Delegate Michele McQuigg, R-Woodbridge, hasn't yet staked out a position. "I like to hear all sides of an issue before I make up my mind on something," McQuigg said.

VRE: Raise Funds Now
Keith Walker; Potomac News; September 22, 2005
A Virginia Railway Express extension to Gainesville and on to Haymarket might be as far off as seven years, but it's not too soon to start raising money to build it, railway officials said. "I would not ask for [state matching] funds for this extension unless you and the VRE commission approved, or made a positive decision, to pursue that extension," VRE chief executive officer Dale Zehner told the Prince William Board of County Supervisors .

Supervisors apply for grant to preserve land
Keith Walker; Potomac News; September 23, 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted Tuesday to apply for a grant of up to $4.5 million from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation Grant Program.
The county would have to match the funds if the grant is approved. The money would be used to buy Williams Ordinary in Dumfries and purchase additional acreage at the Manassas Battlefield Park , Bristoe Battlefield and the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre.

[Manassas City] Council Hears Rezoning Concerns
Tory Parrish; Potomac News; September 21, 2005
Views on traffic impact from a proposed commercial development vary. Residents of the south Grant Avenue Hastings Drive to Wellington Road -- say their neighborhood will sustain a huge increase in traffic congestion, but the developer says otherwise. So, Manassas City Councilman Robert J. Oliver has asked the city's staff to do its own traffic analysis. He made the request following a public hearing Monday that drew vocal neighborhood residents who have been opposed to the project -- citing traffic, safety and aesthetic concerns.

Fairfax Maps Tourist Gems
Lisa Rein; Washington Post; September 27, 2005
The issue has galvanized many residents frustrated by the rapid pace of development on the county's remaining buildable land. Opponents, who lobbied to scale back the project, said the developers would jam too many houses onto the wooded property and provide an insufficient buffer to the adjacent bike trail. And they were angry at the county's decision to reclassify a stream on the property to allow development around it.

Traffic is Top Concern at Fort Belvoir
Dominic Bonaiuto; Fairfax Times; September 21, 2005
The commander of Fort Belvoir and other local leaders discussed strategies for improving the already congested flow of traffic in southern Fairfax with thousands of new jobs heading to the base. As part of the Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure actions, Fort Belvoir would grow by as many as 19,000 jobs, both military and civilian, during the next four years. That nearly doubles the number of jobs on base right now.

Editorial: Cutting Corners Can Have Catastrophic Impact
Tim Horn; Gainesville Times; September 17, 2005
After Richmond American wrongly cut down trees at Saratoga Hunt, the county, in lieu of filing a lawsuit, made promises they would ensure all the i's were dotted and t's crossed in terms of government development oversight and ensuring permits. That and a settlement from Richmond American were supposed to be enough to prevent a reoccurrence of the problem However, after Richmond American cut down more trees, why weren't more serious sanctions taken? Now KSI's development at South Market has again come on the radar screen. What sanctions has the county taken against KSI for failing to have all their permits in order?

Tree Replacement Pledged at Goat Farm
Dominic Bonaiuto; Fairfax Times ; September 21, 2005
A builder is proposing to “significantly increase” the number and size of trees he will plant on seven acres near Vienna known as the Goat Farm to compensate for cutting down trees that were expected to be saved. During last week's initial public hearing on the controversial case, neighbors and county planning commissioners scolded the developer for violating tree save requirements and pledged to hold him and other builders more accountable in the future. “Once the mature trees are gone, it doesn't matter how many saplings you plant. You can't replace the mature trees everybody likes,” said commissioner Laurie Frost Wilson (at-large). Commissioners deferred decision on the case until Oct. 6.

The Chesapeake: Two Decades of Bay Reporting, And Bay's Future Appears Bleak
Lawrence Latane III; Richmond Times Dispatch; September 25, 2005
Readers of my stories sometimes call or e-mail me with their thoughts about the state of the Bay. They are frustrated, impatient, and sometimes outraged that pollution still spoils the estuary. They are constant reminders that the clean-up effort is 20 years old and counting, but the Bay's future is by no means assured.

Farmers feeling pinch in Chesapeake Bay watershed
Bob Stuart; The News Virginian; September 26, 2005
Weyers Cave cattle farmer Kevin Craun knows the Shenandoah Valley portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed is threatened like never before by development. “We're losing farmland more and more. All the land is turning into residential and commercial,'' he said. It would be better for the health of the watershed, Craun said, to keep farms than to “have houses stacked on top of each other.

Decline in farmland acreage harming state waterways, report says
Mary Ellen Slayter; www.gazette.net ; September 22, 2005
The precarious financial position of the region's farmers, who are under pressure to sell their land to developers and often unable to afford environmentally friendly practices, threatens the health of Maryland 's waterways, according to a report released Tuesday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Conservation groups push to fund runoff repair work
E.B. Furgurson II; The Capital; September 25, 2005
Watermen, conservationists and community groups are nudging a proposal to pay for repairs to damaged waterways to the forefront of the county's agenda. Most recently, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation went before the council on Sept. 19 to propose the creation of a storm-water utility, that could cost roughly $60 annually for the average homeowner, to fix watersheds scoured by runoff and erosion.

Editorial: Bay pollution: More to do
Daily Progress; September 27, 2005
With farm runoff identified as a big source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay , farmers and watermen - who should have much in common - instead have been cast on opposite sides of the issue. So have farmers and environmentalists often been on opposite sides.
Recently, they have been striving to work together.

Supervisors Get [Battlefield Bypass] Study Results
Keith Walker; Potomac News; September 14, 2005
Alternative D, the preferred alternative of the Federal Highway Administration, would start just east of the park on U.S. 29 and transect an eight-acre section of the park that is adjacent to Fairfax County near Poplar Ford Trail. It would continue along the Fairfax County line and skirt the battlefield near Catharpin Run to Va. 234 and turn south to skirt the west end of the battlefield and meet I-66.  Supervisor Corey A. Stewart, R-Occoquan, noticed that most of the alternatives added an average of an additional six minutes to a trip around the battlefield.  "Why would we do that?" Stewart asked Van Dop.  Van Dop said "Congress in its wisdom" decided to close the roads to protect the park.

Auto shop in HiMart approved
Jaclyn Pitts; Potomac News; September 9, 2005
The Prince William County Planning Commission approved a special use permit Wednesday night for Paik Auto Service to use six existing service bays in the HiMart building, located on the southwest corner of Jefferson Davis Highway and Gordon Boulevard.  Pat Thomas, of the county planning office, represented applicant Joon Park at the meeting and emphasized the facility would not require any additional construction or new parking spaces at the center.

Pumped Up About Life in Far Suburbs:  Long Commutes in SUVs Taken in Stride by Some
Stephan McCrummen; Washington Post; September 11, 2995
The price of regular gasoline hovered around $3 last week along Route 29 near the entrance to Piedmont -- one of the farthest-flung subdivisions in the region, where two-hour commutes are the trade-off for 4,000- to 7,000-square-foot houses, and where every other driveway, it seems, has at least one sport-utility vehicle.  In many ways, residents of western Prince William County, on the edges of suburbia, would seem likely to be among the most concerned about the recent spike in gasoline prices, given the hours they spend driving, the cavernous houses they heat and their preference for gas-gulping Durangos and Land Cruisers.  Although some homeowners were given pause last week, an informal survey of a handful of residents in Piedmont -- a development near Haymarket -- found that most were as committed as ever to the large-house, long-commute lifestyle that continues to proliferate.

GMU Hopes Biotech Grant Helps Build Image:  Lab Seen as Chance To Expand Campus
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; September 11, 2005
George Mason University's receipt of a $25 million grant last week to build a lab on its Prince William campus signals the school's increased stature in scientific research and boosts the county's profile as a center of biotechnology, university and county officials said.

Editorial:  Being a Good Neighbor
Kim Hosen; Gainesville Times; September 9, 2005
Not long ago I looked out my front window and was surprised to see my neighbor outside cutting my grass. When I thanked him, he replied it was no bother, he just kept on going after his yard was cut.  Good neighbors are important in our day-to-day lives. They are also important on a larger scale, as Virginia Beach recently discovered when the BRAC commission threatened to close the Oceana military base. Development around the Oceana base was the point of contention. For years, Virginia Beach officials approved new homes and shops near Oceana, despite safety concerns and over the Navy's objections.

[Fauquier] WSA responds to Chesapeake Bay regulations
Cheryl K. Chumley; Fauquier Times-Democrat; September 13, 2005
Looking ahead to 2010, Fauquier County 's Water and Sanitation Authority finds potentially bad news on the horizon for customers: rising rates due to tightening Chesapeake Bay cleanup regulations. Asked to qualify that level of impact, Durrett said, "noticeable."  The year 2010 is when states across the entire watershed area of the Chesapeake Bay -- from Virginia and the District of Columbia to Maryland and Pennsylvania -- will be pressed to comply with additional nutrient level guidelines, he said.  These guidelines will further limit the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous allowed into the bay.  "The watershed's worst problem is nutrient pollution, which is caused by the overabundance of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous," the official Chesapeake Bay program site reports.  An overabundance of nitrogen and phosphorous is an upset to the ecosystem, Durrett explained.  "It can create algae and that reduces the amount of oxygen," he said. "It can kill (fish), cause problems with their reproduction."

River land provides corridor for wildlife
Rusty Dennen; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 11, 2005
Fredericksburg is sitting on a real-estate treasure that may be unique in America: nearly 5,000 acres of undeveloped riverfront land. Few rivers in Virginia look anything like the Rappahannock upstream of the city, with its vast expanse of emerald green. In contrast, much of the Potomac, James and York river shores are dotted with houses, manicured lawns and docks. Whether the Rappahannock will follow suit may be decided within the next few months as City Council considers protecting the land with a permanent conservation easement.

Some states moving to link up natural areas
Rusy Dennen; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 11, 2005
Across much of the Fredericksburg area, land protected from sprawl--parks, military bases, conservation easements--stands out like green oases in a sea of rooftops.  For example, Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline, four Civil War battlefields, Caledon Natural Area in King George and Crow's Nest in Stafford offer food and shelter for wildlife in a landscape where natural areas are fast disappearing.  What if those green areas were connected to other nearby green space, greatly expanding the range of wildlife?  Florida, California and Maryland are among states creating "wildlife corridors" as a key component of their land-protection efforts.

Va. high court hears reservoir case:  Environmental groups want the court to revoke a permit for the proposed King William Reservoir.
Fred Carroll and Matt Sabo; Daily Press; September 15, 2005
Environmental groups asked the Virginia Supreme Court to revoke a permit issued by the State Water Control Board in 1997. The permit allows Newport News to withdraw water from the Mattaponi River to flood a 1,500-acre valley in King William County .

Purchase of Bird Refuge Is at Issue in Campaigns
Michelle Boorstein; Washington Post; September 11, 2005
Stafford County's political leadership could undergo a major shift this fall, when four of seven seats on the Board of Supervisors will be up for election. The election in November will come as Stafford -- the second-fastest growing county in the Washington region -- struggles with growth and prepares to rewrite its development master plan. Among the key issues is what should be done about Crow's Nest, a 4,000-acre heron rookery on Potomac Creek that is one of the largest privately owned undeveloped tracts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Shrinking habitat Wildlife losing out to suburban growth
Rusty Dennen; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 11, 2005
IT'S A SCENARIO familiar to anyone living in the Fredericksburg area:
Forests, fields and farmland are purchased by developers. The big timber comes off, then the bulldozers and graders show up. Not long after, houses, roads, schools and shopping centers follow.  For the most part, the developments are planned to avoid harming sensitive wetlands, and to provide parks and green space for people.  But wildlife--deer, songbirds, wood ducks, rabbits, squirrels, beavers, turkeys and a host of other animals--are an afterthought, left to fend for themselves.  Sprawl, according to biologists and state game officials, is taking a toll on wildlife populations. According to a recent report by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, more than 900 species, including the peregrine falcon and loggerhead turtle, are on the decline because of habitat loss and pollution.

Upping the ante:  County mulls squeezing developers for more cash in rezonings
Don Del Rosso; Fauquier Citizen; September 8, 2005\
New homes demand more public services.  More school seats, more parks and recreation activities, more libraries and so on. Indeed, more than 700 homes probably will be built in Fauquier this year, Community Development Director Rick Carr estimated.  Thus, county government's cost of doing business has steadily soared in recent years. To help offset the cost of new growth, Fauquier gets cash contributions - as well as land for schools, libraries, parks and fire and rescue stations - from developers seeking additional home sites through rezonings.

Pollution Findings Prompt Groups to Clean Streams [Login Required]
Val Van Meter; Winchester Star; September 12, 2005
In a recent test, this unnamed tributary of Willow Brook had a count of more than 3,500 colonies of coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters of water. "One hundred twenty-six colonies per 100 milliliters is considered impaired," by state and federal standards, said Christopher Bates, who heads the Willow Brook-Crooked Run Watershed Initiative.
This citizens' group is aiming at nothing less than turning this rectangle of southeast Frederick County into a model of stream cleanup.   

Replacing Parts of Lawn With Gardens Can Help Preserve the Chesapeake Bay
Joel M. Lerner; Washington Post; September 10, 2005
"Lawns are up to 90 percent impervious," Lathan said. "Most people don't realize that." Impervious spaces -- not just lawns, but buildings, driveways, parking lots, streets and highways -- fail to catch and hold rainwater. Instead, the water simply runs off, carrying with it any contaminants or pollutants (gasoline, fertilizer, pesticides) and filling storm sewers or swelling streams, which in turn pour potentially deadly water down through watersheds and into bodies of water such as the Chesapeake Bay... Water should slowly percolate into the ground, becoming cleaned and purified, then replenish the aquifer, the water-holding layer that is the source of well water. Water that runs off never gets to the aquifer, and it never gets cleaned of chemicals that can lead to reduced oxygen in bodies of water, such as the Chesapeake Bay, endangering fish, crabs and other forms of life…Volunteers also help at the gardens. A recent project has been removing asphalt from swales designed to funnel runoff from the school's parking lots into a nearby stream. Now we know there are better ways to handle runoff than building drainage culverts. The swales will be turned into "rain gardens," planted areas where water will not run off, but will be absorbed into the soil.

Editorial:  When Good Highways Go Bad
Bob Burke; Bacon's Rebellion; September 12, 2005
There was a justification for Route 288 -- a decade ago. Today, Richmond's newest highway stands as a monument to bureaucratic inertia and the power of special interests. 

In Depth:  Residential Real Estate
Joe Coombs; Washington Business Journal; September 5, 2005
Arlington County is ramping up its efforts to retain affordable housing lost in the current wave of condominium conversion projects. The county ( www.arlingtonva.us ) has set aside $150,000 for the Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development to pay for a consultant and a "housing specialist" who would work with developers of conversion projects. The goal is to convince builders to keep some affordable units available after an apartment building is converted to condominiums, says Ken Aughenbaugh, the county's director of housing.

Letter to the Editor:  DEQ comes through in taking tough stand with lake erosion case
Roanoke Times; September 10, 2005
A big "hats off" to the Department of Environmental Quality for addressing Grand Harbour's violations and environmental damage to Smith Mountain Lake.
A fine of $7,564 was imposed on the developer, and he was required to pay for the dredging to remove approximately 10 dump-truck loads of sediment from the lake in front of our property.  Erosion control is a big issue, and it can be enforced. We all see that development is going to continue to move forward, but hopefully without such negative impacts to the lake's environment and the existing residents.

Snyder To Pay $37,000 For Trees:  Settlement Covers Unapproved Cutting
Tim Craig; Washington Post; September 8, 2005
Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder will pay Montgomery County $37,000 as part of a settlement for his removal of 130 mature trees from his Potomac riverfront estate, according to an agreement announced late yesterday.  The money will be placed in a fund used to protect forestland in other parts of the county. Snyder also is required to post a $45,000 bond with the county to guarantee that he replants 55,000 square feet of land near the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal that he deforested last fall without county permission.

Environmentalists Condemn Snyder's Tree Deal:  Advocacy Groups Find Law Too Weak To Deter Wealthy
Tim Craig; Washington Post; September 9, 2005
One day after the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission announced that it had reached a settlement with Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder and his wife, Tanya, over removal of 130 mature trees from his Potomac riverfront estate, environmental leaders said serious flaws exist in county efforts to protect slowly dwindling forests.

Tree-cutting in critical area nets fine from [South] county
E.B. Furgurson III; The Capitol; September 11, 2005
The county has issued a stop-work order and two $1,000 citations after a 5,000-square-foot section of trees was cut in the critical area along a marsh in Churchton. An inspector visited the property at 5640 Gunner Run Road on Aug. 20 after receiving a tip on the county environmental hotline.  A $1,000 civil citation was issued to each of the two property owners of record, Philip Garofolo and Heather Kinney, neither of whom could be reached for comment. Both fines were paid on Aug. 24.  Betty Dixon, county land-use and environmental coordinator, said the owners would have to plant three trees for every one that was cut down.  Mr. Garofolo should have worked on a clearing plan with the county for the 18,000-square-foot property, she said.

Area Treatment Plants Strained By Regulations [Login Required]
Laura Withers; Winchester Star; September 10, 2005
New federal regulations to clean up the Chesapeake Bay could mean a slowdown in industrial development for Winchester and Frederick County if local lawmakers do not curb residential growth. That was the harsh realization that members of the Winchester-Frederick County Economic Development Commission came to Friday morning after hearing a presentation about the local impact of a six-state agreement to diminish pollution of bay tributaries.

Oxygen's in short supply for fish in troubled waters
Tom Pelton; Baltimore Sun; September 11, 2005
ON THE Chesapeake Bay - Motoring through lifeless waters, charter boat captain Richie Gaines suddenly ran into a patch boiling with hundreds of silver-bellied rockfish, packed together so tightly they were leaping out of the water.  Tails thrashed. Seagulls shrieked and dove at the feast near the mouth of the Chester River. Gaines unholstered his fly rod, plucking out 27 fish in just a few minutes, reeling in another with nearly every cast. He might have been delighted - but instead he found the thicket of fish disturbing. This summer has been one of the worst in the Chesapeake Bay 's history for low-oxygen "dead zones," which force fish to flee into the few remaining areas where they can breathe.

Sewage Plant Turns Nose Up at Helping Bay
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; September 3, 2005
The proposed state regulations, which follow guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, are part of a massive effort, estimated to cost $10 billion, to save the Chesapeake. Chuck Epes, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia, said the Upper Occoquan sewage treatment plant should stop fighting the changes. "They question the science. They question the timing. They question everything. And they are alone in that," Epes said. "There are several square miles of Gatorade green water [in the Chesapeake] that is so full of algae that it looks like green oatmeal floating in it." An underlying problem, he said, may be the other green: money. "We are very much aware that localities and ratepayers will be saddled with the bill," Epes said.

Editorial: The Dead Zone
Potomac News; August 28, 2005
Americans - whether from Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia - are to blame, but they can also help work toward a solution. A recent survey conducted by scientists from Maryland and Virginia concluded that 41 percent of the Chesapeake Bay cannot sustain life due to an oxygen-depleted "dead zone." This low-oxygen band of water drifts south from Maryland each summer and this year has reached the waters off Deltaville at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Never before has this dead zone encroached this far south. It starts at depths of 20-feet below the surface and often forces fish and other aquatic life toward the surface in search of oxygen.

Housing market slowing, except in Prince William
Heather Greenfield; Associated Press/Potomac News; September 6, 2005
Buyers, sellers and real estate agents in northern Virginia will be watching home sales after Labor Day to determine if the real estate bubble in their own backyard has finally burst. Home sales in Fairfax County dropped 7.7 percent in July compared to last year. In Arlington, they tumbled nearly 19 percent, due to a sharp decline in condo sales. Loudoun County fell 12.3 percent. "It's something we've been waiting for. It's just a natural market balance. We thought it was coming last year,'' said Amy Ritsko-Warren, spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. Prince William County sales show the only increase - 3.2 percent this July compared to last.

Reservoir proposal moves forward Interior Department won't review plan for the project sought by Newport News
Lawrence Latane III; Richmond Times Dispatch; September 3, 2005
Thursday's decision represented a victory for Newport News, which says it needs the 1,500-acre reservoir to meet projected water demand through 2040 in the Newport News and Peninsula region. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which sought the review last month, was concerned the city could not replace the forested streamside wildlife habitat lost to the reservoir. It also complained that the need for the reservoir had not been demonstrated. The reservoir would destroy more than 400 acres of marsh, streams and swampland on Cohoke Mill Creek, making it the biggest single loss of wetlands in Virginia since they received federal protection in 1972.

Southern Fairfax to compete with Tysons, Reston for offices
Dominic Bonaiuto; Fairfax Times; August 31, 2005
Shuffling tens of thousands of military-related jobs to Fort Belvoir in southern Fairfax County is bringing the Richmond Highway out from under the shadow of the county's larger, more well-known office corridors in Tysons Corner and Reston. "A series of major local, regional and national players have suddenly gotten religion about the areas around Fort Belvoir and understandably so," said Antonio Calabrese, a partner in the real estate division of Cooley Godward. "This is a seismic shift in the office- and government-oriented market."

MAP: Washington Area's [BRAC] Gaines and Losses
Washington Post; August 29, 2005  

Gas Prices Drive Up Commuting Costs – Unless You Take the VRE
Katie Teller; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 5, 2005
Rick Hood is feeling the effects of soaring gas prices. Hood owns ABS Vans, a van-pool company that serves Fredericksburg-area commuters. With prices higher and summer ending, he expects more commuters to use his van service and quit driving.

2 Power Plants in Md. Are Cited As Being Among Worst Polluters
Washington Post/Associated Press; September 4, 2005
Two Maryland power plants were listed among top polluters in a report issued last spring by a Washington-based environmental group.The Chalk Point power plant just north of the Charles County line in Prince George's County was listed as the fourth-worst power plant in the nation for nitrogen air pollution, which is washed into the Chesapeake Bay and causes low-oxygen "dead zones" that suffocate marine life, according to the report by Environmental Integrity Project. In addition, the Morgantown generating plant on the Potomac River in Charles County was cited as one of the 20 worst power plants for sulfur dioxide pollution, which causes acid rain and soot.

Fee hike for builders proposed
Dana Nichols; The Record; September 6, 2005
The San Joaquin County agency charged with preserving habitat for endangered bugs, birds, plants and other species is proposing a 73 percent hike in the basic per-acre fee it charges when builders put homes or businesses on habitat. The fee for converting an acre of farmland to rooftops, for example, would rise from $1,819 to $3,145. Other types of land have larger or smaller fees depending on how hard it is to replace the habitat that is destroyed. Officials close to the matter say they expect to win the necessary approval from the county's seven city councils and the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

Orange braces for fight
Robin Knepper; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 5, 2005
Planning commissioners have finished their work on Orange County's comprehensive plan, and residents will be able to voice their opinions on the effort next month. The comp plan, which is the county's blueprint for growth and land use, is expected to foster contentious debate. Factions that formed during and after community meetings last spring are poised to rally support for their arguments. On one side are those who want no growth or very limited growth. To promote the latter position, the Piedmont Environmental Council has organized a lobbying group that includes the Farm Bureau, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Friends of Barboursville, Orange County Concerned Citizens, the Dolly Madison Garden Club and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Plan for Growth Elicits Opposing Views of Preservation
Fredrick Kunkel; Washington Post; August 28, 2005
In 1972, when he was a lad in an Orioles baseball cap smiling for a camera, the Old National Pike highway pictured behind him carried a mere 1,450 vehicles a day through the middle of town. By 2002, the same road, also known as Route 144, carried 6,300 vehicles a day. Today, 10,000 travel the highway daily. With the Frederick County government considering a plan that would boost development and transform more farmland into housing in the area, the number of vehicles traveling through the town (population: 427) could reach 16,000 a day.

'You Guys Are Close'; Commissioners Commend Centex, But Deny Application
Molly Novotny; Leesburg Today; September 6, 2005
Although Leesburg Planning commissioners said they were "pained" to do it, they voted 7-0 to deny Centex Homes' rezoning request to build 1,006 homes and 334,000 square feet of retail and office space on 324 acres in southern Leesburg. Prefacing their votes with commendable statements recognizing Centex' progress on expediting the construction of Battlefield Parkway, providing a larger school site and dedicating the town park sooner, commissioners also admonished the applicant for hand-delivering a new set of proffers to them the night before their meeting.

Centex shrinks mixed-use plan for Bealeton project
Fauquier Citizen; September 6, 2005
Dallas-based Centex Homes first wanted comprehensive plan and rezoning approval for 650 homes at the northwest quadrant of Routes 17 and 28. On Aug. 18, Centex filed a revised concept with the community development department for 373 homes. During a public hearing in February, the county planning commission and residents objected to the project's scale. The planners recommended denial of the comprehensive plan amendment request because they believed the proposal bore no resemblance to Fauquier's vision for the site.

Rain Gardens Are Becoming More Popular (Subscription Required)
Laura Withers; The Winchester Star; August 29, 2005
After rain hits the hot pavement of the parking lot next to Winchester's War Memorial Building in Jim Barnett Park, it quickly flows down to a patch of grass and shrubs put there especially to collect the storm runoff. As the water enters the nutrient-laden soil housing many types of vegetation, impurities and pollutants are filtered out, leaving the end product safe to enter area waterways. The system is called a rain garden, and more of them are popping up around Winchester. A rain garden is just one of the many tactics regional gardeners and landscapers use to diminish pollutants entering streams and creeks leading to the Chesapeake Bay.  

In Charles, Ehrlich Promotes Cover Crops Program
Joshua Partlow; Washington Post; August 28, 2005
Down a dusty dirt road past a field of soybeans, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) came to Charles County on Friday to discuss crops and the water they can't live without. Ehrlich warned state legislators, county commissioners and other local officials against "inappropriate development in the outer suburbs" and talked about how farmers, by planting crops that soak up nitrogen and phosphorous, can play an important role in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. Farmers "live with the importance of water," Ehrlich said.

“Big Chicken” Poops on Chesapeake Bay: Dead zones caused by nitrogen pollution continue to steal vital habitat from stripers and other gamefish.
Florida Sportsman; September 2, 2005
Water quality monitoring data collected on a research cruise August 8 through 11 by Old Dominion University and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program show a large increase of anoxic--oxygen-less--water in the main stem of the Chesapeake Bay since the end of July. The cruise recorded the fourth largest volume of anoxic water in the Bay's main stem in the last 20 years. As has become typical in summer, the lowest dissolved oxygen levels occur in the deeper waters of the Bay (generally from 30 feet down), while upper parts of the Bay's water column retain enough oxygen to support resident fish and shellfish, though those upper waters may be uncomfortably warm and stressful for species like rockfish (stripers) and gray trout (weakfish).

Construction spill muddies Spring Creek, may kill fish
Mike Joseph; Centre Daily Times; September 1, 2005
About 250,000 gallons of muddy construction site runoff flowed untreated into Spring Creek headwaters Wednesday, six days after an environmental regulator told a contractor to install equipment that the regulator said would have prevented the event.

DEQ fines business, landowner
Rusy Denner; Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star; September 1, 2005
Ridner, who lives at 205 Nomini Bay Drive, ran into trouble with the state after clearing and grading land without first obtaining the proper permits.The county reported the unauthorized work, involving an unnamed tributary near his house, to the DEQ in February. An inspection found that all the vegetation, including wetlands, bordering the tributary had been cleared and excavated and the area graded, with drain pipes installed. Fill dirt had been placed over the pipes to bring the land to a level grade.

Somerset County Septic Hauler Jailed for Water Pollution
WBOC 16; August 29, 2005
The former owner of a waste hauling company will spend a year in jail after a conviction for illegally dumping grease and sewage in Somerset County.
Paul Adkins was the owner and operator of American Septic Care, which cleans out septic tanks as well as restaurant grease traps. The company was paid to haul waste to licensed disposal facilities. But witnesses say on March 31, Adkins and a helper discharged a large amount of waste into Manokin Run- leaving a brown, greasy residue on vegetation along the creek bank.

Frederick County, city end water talks
Associated Press, Baltimore Sun; Sept 4 2005
Frederick County and city officials have ended negotiations over how a 15-mile water line from the Potomac River will be used. The county will still build the line, and the city will still get water -- but not as much as it wanted. …. Mike Marschner, county director of utilities and solid waste management, said the 2000 agreement grants the city 2 million gallons per day when water becomes available and up to 4 million gallons per day by 2010. …. The city had wanted up to 8 million gallons per day.

Wildlife disappearing from Virginia
Rex Springston; News & Messenger; August 18, 2005
More than 900 species of animals in Virginia are dropping in numbers or are otherwise imperiled, according to a draft report from the state's wildlife agency. The animals range from ones long known to be in trouble, including the peregrine falcon and loggerhead sea turtle, to others that are considered common but declining, such as the whippoorwill, eastern box turtle and northern bobwhite quail. “There are lots of species showing declines. That tells us something is wrong,” said David Whitehurst, director of wildlife diversity for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The first-of-its-kind report lists 925 species that are declining in numbers, are already at dangerously low numbers or facing other threats. The reasons for the declines, the report said, include habitat destruction; fragmentation of habitats, as when new roads make less land available for deep-forest animals; and water pollution that hurts fish and other aquatic animals.

Editorial: Diminished wildlife, a diminished Virginia
Roanoke Times; August 21, 2005
According a draft report from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, 925 species of wildlife are declining in number or jeopardized by human activity in the state. Natural factors such as weather variations may contribute in some cases, but the blame mostly falls to people: People plowing under wild habitat for housing developments and shopping malls. People demanding idyllic but grossly inefficient home sites far from established population centers, services and infrastructure. People polluting the soil, air and water and reluctant to pay for their cleanup. People overfishing and overharvesting.

Survey: County Roads, Growth Need Work
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; August 19, 2005
Citizens said they were the least satisfied with ease of travel around Northern Virginia, coordination of development and roads, getting around in Prince William County, planning and land use, and efforts to preserve open space.

Red-hot real estate market cools
Amanda Stewart; Potomac News; August 22, 2005
According to the a Prince William Association of Realtors report, a house for sale in the area stayed on the market an average of 22 days in July. That's up from July 2004 when houses stayed on the market for an average of only 16 days.

An area's qualities can make buyer willing
Jim Watkins , Washington Times; August 19 2005
Quality of life? It's in the eye of the beholder. Consider Cynthia Taeuber. Tired of a commute that kept getting longer year after year -- despite the fact that she continued to live in the same house in College Park and work in Suitland -- Ms. Taeuber moved to rural Maryland . "I take the train into Baltimore to work," says Ms. Taeuber, "and I can sit on my deck observing the flow of the Susquehanna River . This has certainly improved the quality of my life, except for when I need to go shopping or see a doctor. At least at this stage of life, you can see my priorities," Ms. Taeuber says. In contrast, along the banks of the Occoquan River in Virginia 's Prince William County , priorities seem to focus on the quality of schools, safe neighborhoods, big yards, community churches and recreation, says Woodbridge-based Weichert Realtor Wendy Singer.

Editorial: Your Piece of the Planet
Jake Hosen; Gainesville Times; August 19, 2005
Prince William is at a crossroads. Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe's statement at the Aug. 12 Potomac Watershed Forum was apt: Prince William County is making decisions now that Fairfax County was making years ago. We can use this knowledge to repeat our neighbors' success and avoid their failures, creating a comprehensive vision for Prince William. Transportation choices are at the core of any plan for the future; they will decide what this county will look like many years from now. For hundreds of years communities and cities have been planned, whether intentionally or not, in concert with the realities of transportation.

Conservation Alliance Plans Community Roundtables
Gainesville Times; August 19, 2005
The Prince William Conservation Alliance has planned a new series of Green Plate Breakfasts, which are roundtable groups where citizens can discuss local issues with experts. The monthly events will be held at the Old Country Buffet restaurants in Woodbridge and in Manassas . Green Plate Breakfasts are held on Saturdays, begin at 8:30 a.m. and are open to the public. The events are free but participants buy their own breakfast. "How You Can Protect Your Local Waterway" is the topic of the Sept. 17 breakfast, which will be held at the Woodbridge Old Country Buffet, 2942 Prince William Parkway . The talk will be led by Ned Foster, a founding member of the Friends of Little Rocky Run, and will focus on the degradation of local waterways and how residents can form community groups to protect or restore creeks and streams in their neighborhoods.

The Importance of Protecting Riparian Areas along Smaller Brooks and Streams
Russell Cohen, Mass. Dept. of Fisheries
It is equally, if not more, important from a scientific perspective to preserve corridors of natural vegetation along the smaller brooks and streams as it is to maintain them along the larger rivers. The water quality and quantity in mainstem rivers is largely determined by what they receive from their many smaller tributaries.

Virginia Wetlands Report: Annual Summary of Permitted Tidal Impacts - 2004
Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Spring 2005

Editorial: Easement Progress
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star , August 20 2005
LOVE IS ETERNAL, a wit said, as long as it lasts. Regional cooperation is much like that. With cooing pledges, Fredericksburg-area politicians vow their fidelity to the notion, which usually survives exactly as long as it takes for the pettiest parochial interest to raise its piddling head. But now, embodied in a river easement proposed by some members of the Fredericksburg City Council, regional cooperation has a chance to really last eternally--by law. A council majority believes that the best way to protect 4,232 acres of unspoiled city-owned land along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers is to convey it forever, in the form of a conservation easement, to one or more nonprofit groups. However, a lame-duck council that last year tried to create the buffer got ahead of itself, riling five riverfront counties--Spotsylvania, Stafford, Orange, Culpeper, and Fauquier--whose transportation and other plans could be hampered by an impassable easement. The counties wanted conversation and concessions.

Rain Gardens Save the Bay and the Basement
Jeanne Huber; Washington Post; August 18, 2005
Q: Last week, you recommended diverting water from gutters to a rain garden. What is a rain garden, and how do I build one? AA rain garden is a way to turn a problem -- excess storm water -- into an amenity. Instead of dumping your gutter water into a storm drain or letting it empty next to your foundation, where it can make your basement or crawl space damp, you funnel the water to a low spot on your lot. There, plants soak up some of the water and the rest mostly percolates slowly into the ground. If you do it right, you'll get lovely, low-maintenance landscaping that attracts birds and butterflies.

Commission puts unprecedented limit on the harvest of menhaden
Scott Harper; Virginia Pilot; August 18, 2005
Environmentalists and sports fishermen applauded a decision Wednesday to impose a strict, first-ever cap on the harvest of an important little fish in the Chesapeake Bay , the menhaden. The Move by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission came in dramatic fashion after months of debate and protest over the silver, oily, leaf-size species, which filters algae and improves water quality in the Bay and is a key foodstuff for prized game fish such as striped bass and bluefish.

Menhaden Killed in Fishing Run , MDE Officials Say
Ben Penserga; Daily Times; August 19, 2005
Hundreds of menhaden recently found dead in the Chesapeake Bay were likely killed during a commercial fishing run in Virginia waters, Maryland environmental officials said Thursday. About 600 to 1,500 menhaden were found floating a few miles from Smith Island , said Richard McIntyre, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Environment. The fish had already been dead about three to four days when MDE officials went out to investigate Wednesday. McIntyre said MDE officials believe the fish died earlier in the week after they were caught by commercial fishermen in the nearby Virginia waters through a technique in which two boats travel in a circle and drag a wide net between them.

Two Cultures Come Together: Bay Watermen Visit With Valley Farmers To Talk Water Quality, Farming Practices
Jeff Casale; Daily News Record; August 22, 2005
"We've got about 67 cows," says Kenny Will, dressed in overalls, knee-high boots and dirtied cap. "We start about 5 a.m. and get them done within an hour or so." But on this day, Kenny and his son Jeremy have some extra help. Eric Marshall and Wes Bradshaw, of Smith Island , Md. , are learning what it's like on the farmer's end of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Marshall and Bradshaw are boat captains for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Growing up on Smith Island , which is near the middle of the bay, about a 20-minute boat ride from Tangier Island , the two have seen the struggle watermen have had over the past few decades. High nutrient loads and sediment pollution have killed off underwater grasses and taken its toll on the blue crab population. In the past, environmentalists, media and politicians have blamed agriculture runoff as the primary culprit of the bay's decline.

A wetlands education
Joel Baird; News Leader; August 20, 2005
Last month Zadrozny joined a group of students and scientists on a field trip to the Chesapeake Bay . The recent fish kills in the tributaries of the Shenandoah River intensified her appreciation for identifying and stopping pollution in the upper reaches of the watershed. "You have to love the bay in order to help the bay," she said. "I want to help."

Toxic Algae Takes Over College Lake
Shannon Brennan; The News & Advance; August 16, 2005
College Lake has not been sporting its usual fudge-colored brown in recent days - it has been covered in blue-green algae. “It's a pretty nasty species of algae,” said Tom Shahady, environmental studies professor at Lynchburg College . “This is a toxic species.” Even when the green bloom disappears from the surface - as it did Monday - the algae is still there, he said. Microcystis, the scientific name of this algae, can kill fish, and can even kill cattle if it gets into a farm pond, Shahady said. “This one definitely responds to lots of nutrients and warm weather,” he said.

River cleanup outlook raises concerns: Tioga fears costs, economic impact
Debbie Swartz; Press & Sun-Bulletin; August 19, 2005
A plan to clean up the water that flows into the Chesapeake Bay has some Tioga County officials concerned about increased costs for sewage treatment and lost economic development opportunities. The Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy, agreed to by Gov. George E. Pataki in June 2000, seeks to reduce the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment in several bodies of water, including the Susquehanna River . The pollutants get into the river through industry, acid rain, automobile exhaust, wastewater treatment plants, private septic systems and runoff from urban, suburban and agricultural land.

Sewer Groups Will Keep Tabs on Nutrients
Chris Birk; The Times-Tribune; August 22, 2005
Lackawanna County 's four sewer authorities are among 190 sewage and industrial facilities tapped to monitor their nutrient discharges as part of the state's Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. The wide-ranging water quality program aims to reduce amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous in the commonwealth's waterways, many of which drain to the bay. The state, charged with eliminating about 40 percent of those compounds from the watershed by 2010, will soon require sewer authorities and other agencies to cut their nutrient loads.

Project aims to drill into impact crater on Eastern Shore
Diane Tennant; Virginia Pilot; August 22, 2005
An international project involving 13 countries will drill more than a mile deep into an ancient impact crater on the Eastern Shore , looking for clues to prehistoric climate, modern-day water problems and the beginnings of life on Earth and Mars. In three weeks, the first samples of rock and sediment should start coming out of a hole on a farm just north of Cape Charles . From them, scientists hope to learn about Earth's climate history, what really happens when an asteroid or comet collides with a planet, how life survives in the presence of tsunamis, massive fires and shock and, of more local concern, why groundwater in Hampton Roads is so salty.

Joint Panel Examines Annexation Options
Molly Novotny; Leesburg Today; August 19, 2005
To ensure Leesburg has enough land for its future economic growth, members of the town council and planning commission Monday night discussed incorporating a large swath of land along the town's southeastern border. The discussions are in the preliminary stages—it's just the second time the subcommittees of both bodies have met together—but the three council members and three planning commissioners easily agreed the town had to look southeast for future office development.

Survey shows support for VRE, Metro funding
Valerie Walker; Gainesville Times; August 12, 2005
The study, dated July 28, confirmed what Prince William residents have been saying in town hall and Board of County Supervisors meetings for years. "Two-thirds of residents are frustrated with the trips they take," the survey stated in its conclusions. "Of those, almost nine in 10 cited traffic as the reason." Other possible sources of frustration included aggressive drivers, poorly timed lights, accidents and construction, although those options received only token responses. What was more surprising is that half of all respondents in the region (even people who don't normally use Metro, VRE, or buses) said that public transportation is their top priority. Only a little more than one quarter said they'd rather see road improvements. In Prince William, 49 percent cited public transportation as their major priority and 32 percent cited roads and highways.The survey also found that people are willing to pay more to fund both road and public transit improvements.

Survey shows transit tops commuter priority list
Dominic Bonaiuto; Times Community Papers; August 9, 2005
Proponents of investing more in transportation say they have new ammunition in the ongoing battle for the hearts and wallets of the region's commuters and their elected decision-makers. A new survey conducted earlier this spring by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority shows that 85 percent of respondents are willing to pay for a greater investment in bus and rail projects. Respondents also favored expanding transit by a 2-to-1 margin over making highway improvements, particularly in the Capital Beltway and Dulles corridors where more than 70 percent ranked Metrorail expansion as their highest priority.

Long-Delayed Sudley Park Might Be Finished Next Year
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; August 14, 2005
Sudley Park, the controversial park off Route 234 in Sudley Springs, could be completed by the fall of 2006…The park, which will feature 11 playing fields, has been the subject of political infighting, an investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest, an audit and accusations that contaminated dirt was hauled onto the site. The troubles began in 1999, when the county bought land for the park from a campaign contributor to Edgar S. Wilbourn III, the supervisor representing Gainesville at the time. Later, Wilbourn was investigated in conflict of interest allegations after his employer, excavation firm Anderson Co., began building the fields in 2002 without a contract.

Nissan Pavilion Inches Closer to Traffic Relief
Aymar Jean; Washington Post; August 14, 2005
Road widening began in April, after the county settled problems acquiring land and relocating utilities, said Prince William transportation chief Thomas Blaser. The project should cost slightly more than $5 million, about 12 percent of the $42.7 million road bond budget for 1998, when planning began.

No surplus funds for Bull Run Mountain or Gainesville rescue
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; August 12, 2005
Bull Run Mountains residents hoping for road improvements lost out last week in their bid to get part of the county's budget surplus. So did Gainesville residents looking for extra emergency personnel. During the last meeting before its summer break, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors traditionally votes to spend its budget surplus from the previous year. Supervisor John Stirrup, R-Gainesville, had planned to ask that some of the surplus be used for road improvements on Bull Run Mountain and that more of the surplus be spent to hire a crew to staff the heavy rescue unit in Gainesville . But he ran into problems before he even had a chance to make his request. That's because this year, all of the $20 million budget surplus had already been spent or had already been promised for other projects.

Your Piece of the Planet: Resource meeting was a good start
Kim Hosen; Gainesville Times; August 12, 2005
Nearly 200 people attended the Aug. 1 public meeting on Virginia 's Chesapeake Bay regulations hosted by Prince William government. The regulations focus on preserving a 100-foot wide buffer strip, called a resource preservation area, along waterways that flow year-round. These waterfront buffers are our last and best defense against pollution. Everyone's support, from home owners to developers, is needed to ensure that resource preservation areas are conserved to protect our drinking water supply and the Chesapeake Bay .

KSI pitches new Springfield skyline
Joe Coombs , Washington Business Journal; August 14 2005
KSI Services has a high-rise vision for the juncture of interstates 95 and 395, and the Vienna-based developer hopes Fairfax County shares the view. KSI wants to tear down the Springfield Tower office building and several other commercial properties, then replace them with a trio of 23-story residential buildings, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 40,000 square feet of office space and a 10-story, full-service hotel.

NoVa housing prices climb, sales slow
Jeff Calbaugh; Washington Business Journal; August 12, 2005
While the prices rise, the sales slow. The group's report shows sales of single-family homes, condominiums and co-ops totaled 3,058 in July, down 11.8 percent from the sales a year ago. There were 4,843 active residential listings in Northern Virginia at the end of July, up more than 22 percent from inventory that time last year.

Housing Market Update: It's Changing
Maragaret Morton and Dusty Smith; Leesburg Today; August 12, 2005
In a survey conducted by Leesburg Today in May, some local Realtors hinted at a possible softening in the Loudoun residential market, but few saw any change to the then-blistering sales pace, when values were appreciating anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent annually. Four months later, the story is a bit different, with most stating that there are definite signs of a slowdown and that the market is undergoing a correction—a healthy one. Most reported an across-the-board slowing, a build up of inventories and a shift in power from the seller-dominated market of the past few years back to the buyer—a move that is not lost on today's home purchasers who are quick to see the benefits of such leverage.

Despite $1.5 Billion Incentive, Rivalries Hinder Metro Plan; U.S. Transit Aid Requires Area Unity on New Funding Source
Michael Laris , Washington Post; August 13 2005
In reality, said Dorn C. McGrath, a professor emeritus of regional planning and geography at George Washington University , "it pretty much is each jurisdiction for itself." "The record is not one to be proud of," he said, citing traffic tie-ups, scattered construction patterns and damaging algae blooms in the Chesapeake Bay fed by pollution. "It takes real political leadership to get something like this going," McGrath said. "No technician will tell you how to do that. Political leadership that favors -- or believes in -- planning is not popular."

New price tag for Dulles rail is $1.8 Billion
Jerry Schanke; Times Community Papers; August 10, 2005
A new cost estimate for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project (DCM), slated for submission to the Federal Transit Administration August 15, is $1.8 billion. That figure is $300 million more than the $1.5 billion estimated in 2004, but $600 million lower than the highest of a number of estimates in June 2005. Project officials released the new cost estimate today (August 10) crediting a series of cost-cutting measures, including $100 million in redesigned elevated support structures. But the lion's share of the cost savings-nearly $200 million-will come from a shorter tunnel through Tysons Corner.

Park Authorities Stand United
Bonnie Hobbs; Centre View Connection; August 11, 2005
Under blazing 90-degree heat, Friday morning in Bull Run Regional Park , Bill Dickinson and Hal Strickland stood shoulder to shoulder and firmly denounced the Tri-County Parkway alignment that would decimate a large area of that very park. Chairmen of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) and the Fairfax County Park Authority, respectively, they announced a joint resolution passed by both their boards opposing this alignment that's on the [ Fairfax ] county's Comprehensive Plan. "These are normally nonpolitical bodies," said county Park Authority spokesman Judy Pedersen. "But when it came to this alignment, these boards felt obligated to speak out about the impact it would have on living things, as well as the risks it poses to historical and cultural resources, wetlands and the county's water supply."

Park panels blast Tri-County Parkway route at Bull Run
Jerry Schanke; Gainesville Times; August 12, 2005
There are three north-south routes under consideration to link Manassas with the Dulles corridor, but it is the one that would bisect Bull Run Regional Park that has two appointed park authority boards stepping into what could eventually become a multicounty political fray. That most easterly route would begin at the intersection of Route 28 and the Route 234 Bypass in Manassas and run northeast through the city and Bull Run Regional Park. From there the road would pass through the northeastern side of the Bull Run battlefield, turn north to South Riding and on toward Dulles International Airport . The two park agencies stopped short of endorsing either of the two alternative, more westerly routes, basing their opposition to the route through Bull Run Park on what they see as unacceptable, negative environmental impacts.

Redskins Owner Tried to Buy Permission to Cut Down Trees
Tim Craig; Washington Post; August 10, 2005
Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder offered to pay the National Park Service $25,000 nearly four years ago in exchange for permission to remove trees behind his Potomac estate, according to Interior Department documents released this week. Park Service officials denied the offer, explaining that cutting down trees in an environmentally protected area was not up for financial negotiation, the documents show.

Reservoir-plan approval challenged: Fish and wildlife official restates agency's concerns over Newport News project
Lawrence Latana III; Richmond Times Dispatch; August 13, 2005
An acting regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took steps yesterday to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from immediately giving Newport News a permit to build a controversial reservoir. In a letter to the corps, James G. Geiger restates the service's concern that the 1,500-acre reservoir in King William County carries "unacceptable impacts on aquatic resources of national importance." He says he is recommending that the fate of the project be taken out of the corps' hands and placed before an assistant secretary of the Army.

BZA Finishes Landowners' Feud
Fauquier Times-Democrat, August 09, 2005
It had all the makings of daytime television drama -- a battle between wealthy landowners with undercurrents of perceived betrayal, profit-motive and control. But unlike traditional soap operas that drag plots on endlessly, this cliff-hanger reached its end Thursday, with a ruling from Fauquier County Board of Zoning Appeals members upholding the zoning administrator's interpretation of code. What resulted is that Chuck Rice of Superior Construction does indeed hold potential for 13 development rights on his 715 acres of Marshall DistrictNorth Wales landowner Michael Prentiss' claims that the property only carried six. The decision follows months of effort on the part of Prentiss -- a Texas resident, according to BZA files, who also owns 145 acres locally and is a listed member of Piedmont Environmental Council's Board of Directors for Fauquier -- to limit Rice's development rights to six.

Citizens Still Oppose Meadowbrook
Loudoun Times Mirror, August 10, 2005
Citizens of Leesburg stood firm before the Planning Commission in their opposition to the proposed Meadowbrook development at an Aug. 4 public hearing. The hearing gave citizens an opportunity to voice their opinions on developer Centex Homes' third installment of the Meadowbrook plan. If built, the neotraditional community would consist of 1,006 homes, changing current R-1 zoning of one house per acre to Planned Residential Community Zoning of three houses per acre. Meadowbrook would include a mixed-use center for office and retail space.

Group: More builders in violation of law
Johnathan Marino; The Washington Examiner; August 14, 2005
Citizens angered by developers' abuses of construction laws have launched a city-by-city investigation of builders as Montgomery County 's government scrambles to mount a probe of its own. One member of the Montgomery County Civic Federation said he has been told of as many as 10 other projects that violate county law in ways similar to the Clarksburg Town Center . "I have no confidence this planning process is being run right," said Jim Humphrey, the federation's planning and land use chief.

92% of Virginia Voters Back Assembly Funding to Clean Up State Waters: Also, more than 3/4 of the state's voters support ongoing funding to clean the Bay and improve water quality statewide
Chesapeake Bay Foundation; July 20, 2005
An overwhelming majority of Virginia voters -- 92 percent -- support the Virginia General Assembly's $50 million investment in protecting state rivers, streams and the Chesapeake Bay, a statewide survey has found.The survey, conducted jointly by Democratic and Republican polling firms in April for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), also found that more than three-quarters of the electorate back additional spending by the legislature each year on an ongoing basis to clean up Virginia's waterways.

Hampton University awarded grant to study gridlock
Washington Examiner; August 14, 2005
Hampton University will receive up to $3.2 million in federal funding to study regional and national transportation issues. The grant, which came from a $286 billion transportation bill signed by President Bush, will go to the university's new Eastern Seaboard Intermodal Transportation Center . The center, which opened this year with a much smaller federal grant, plans to train students for careers in transportation management and consulting.

Make Them Stop Driving
Ari Cetron; Fairfax Connection; August 11, 2005
If everything works just perfectly, the MetroWest development at the Vienna/Fairfax Metro Station will be able to reduce the amount of traffic it generates by enough to comply with the county's comprehensive plan. The plan change which allows the development (planned for up to 2,250 residences, 100,000 square feet of retail space and 300,000 square feet of office space), was approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in December 2004. As part of the change, the developer, Pulte Homes, had to show that it could reduce the amount of traffic, expressed in “trips,” by 47 percent for the residential component and 25 percent for the office component. If the trip reductions were not possible, then the size of the development would need to be reduced by a corresponding amount. The reductions only need to come from the peak hour of weekdays.

Culpeper Traffic Threatens To Overwhelm Warrenton Roads
Fauquier Citizen , August 11, 2005
Traffic on Route 211 west of Warrenton will triple in the next two decades, according to a new study. Most of the increase will result from intense development at Clevenger's Corner, a busy crossroads just across the Rappannock River in Culpeper County . With a recent rezoning for mixed-use development and a planned wastewater treatment plant, Clevenger's Corner, eight miles west of Warrenton, will grow to an estimated 1,500 homes by 2018. Traffic engineer C. Richard Keller's study projects the effects of that development and other land use changes in the area. Released in April, Mr. Keller's report anticipates extraordinary challenges for the Town of Warrenton

Some Summer Air is Cleaner, EPA Says
Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post; August 19, 2005
New federal pollution controls have improved the summer air breathed by 100 million Americans, according to a study released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency. Under rules that took effect last year, 21 eastern states and the District of Columbia must reduce regional nitrogen oxide emissions by 1 million tons between May 1 and Sept. 30. On hot, sunny days nitrogen oxides combine with pollutants called volatile organic compounds and form ozone smog, which has been linked to asthma and premature death.

Residents get info on resource protection
Amanda Stewart; August 2, 2005 ; Potomac News
More than 160 people crowded the McCoart Administration Building on Monday night, looking for answers to their questions about resource protection areas. The meeting, hosted by the county's public works department and the state's Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department, was designed to answer the questions most frequently asked by residents with RPAs on their property.

Respecting the RPA
Editorial; August 8, 2005; Potomac News
There are many property rights [in] Virginia , but this is one of the few responsibilities in which homeowners must adhere. Development in the Chesapeake Bay watershed - especially in Northern Virginia and Maryland - has created problems associated with bay pollution that the Bay Act tries to remedy. Maintaining a buffer between developed land and the water is the cheapest way to avoid excessive runoff. Anyone who believes runoff is not a problem only needs to look at what has transpired over the past 40 years. During this time, home construction and population has soared in Northern Virginia . This development has coincided with harmful pollution (such as nitrogen runoff) that has resulted in the depletion of vital bay grasses and a number of key fish species such as crabs and Oysters.

To Advocates, Money Does Grow on Trees; Study Spotlights Financial Benefits Of D.C.'s Foliage
Petula Dvorak , Washington Post; August 4 2005
The Casey Foundation released a study this week that calculates stem diameter, height, crown width, species type and other attributes of the city's 1,928,000 trees, and plugs those facts into an equation that helps determine carbon storage, pollutant removal, particulate removal and many other attributes that scientists associate with trees. The
Urban Forest Effects Model, created by the U.S. Forest Service and used in the study, showed that the tree canopy covering 28.6 percent of the District saves $2.6 million annually in utility costs in buildings and that it removes 540 tons of air pollution particles each year.

'Spirited' Debate Over Surplus; Supervisors Disagree On How to Spend Money
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; August 4 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors this week carved up a $20.5 million surplus from fiscal year 2005 and designated money for land acquisitions for new schools, a property tax reduction, transportation improvements and a rainy day fund. … By the end of a lengthy discussion, the board unanimously voted to give $3.3 million
toward transportation improvements, $5.2 million for real estate tax reduction, $7.6 million to the rainy day fund and $4.4 million to the school district for site acquisitions.

Real Estate Agent Stresses Quantico's 'Gated' Features
Ian Shapira , Washington Post; August 7 2005
Because of Prince William's increasing affluence, the modest homes in the military town of Quantico can sometimes be a tough sell. But real estate agent Maura Sullivan has figured out a way to varnish the town's reputation and woo potential buyers. ... Quantico ? A gated community? You bet.

Supervisors OK plan to bring 360 homes
Amanda Stewart; August 4, 2005 ; Potomac News
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved the third largest residential development to join the Potomac Communities plan for U.S. 1 on Tuesday. The supervisors voted to rezone 20 acres at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Rippon Boulevard to allow for the development of up to 360 multi-family units in Caroline Village , a five-story condominium complex. … Supervisors approved Potomac Club II, at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Dale Boulevard , and Potomac Heights , at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Delaware Drive . Together the three complexes could bring a maximum of 1,302 multifamily residential units to that stretch of U.S. 1.

Letter To The Editor: Crowing US 1
Kith Kessler; August 8, 2005 ; Potomac News
All three new developments will bring 1,302 multifamily residential units to the Route 1 corridor, yet county planner Pat Thomas claims there will be an "increase in residential traffic which will ultimately "REDUCE traffic on U.S. 1." By increasing traffic you reduce it? What an amazing concept! We need to keep building more homes so we can reduce congestion. Add 2,604 cars (2 per unit) multiplied by six trips (per county estimates) and wow, I now realize how the traffic decreases. With all the other projects taking place on U.S. 1 and in particular the large amount of new homes which will result from KSI's project on the Cherry Hill Peninsula, by county estimates we will reduce traffic and increase speed. What kind of illogical thinking is this?

Lane Ranger
August 8, 2005 ; Potomac News
Sit in the traffic at 5 p.m. going 2 mph and watch the HOV crowd speed by at 75 mph. Now our supervisors are adding insult to injury by approving massive growth along the U.S. 1 corridor. These are the same supervisors who refused to fund the Metro to Potomac Mills, and have never pressed for a fourth lane from the Occoquan. Regarding the HOT lanes. Why should a small segment of the population be subjected to increased taxation by paying extra to get to work because of the ineptness of our politicians and the poor choices they make?

Feds OK $33.6 million for Gainesville interchange
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; August 5 2005
Prince William officials are expressing cautious optimism in the wake of last week's announcement that the Gainesville interchange is slated to receive another $33.6 million in federal funding. … The Gainesville interchange money is part of an estimated $98 million funding package for Northern Virginia , which includes $27.6 million to widen Interstate 66 inside the Beltway and $1 million for Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission buses.

Favored Route for Tri-County Parkway Draws Fire
Michael Allison Chandler; August 7, 2005 ; Washington Post
Officials from two parks authorities stood before a lily pad-covered wetland at Bull Run Regional Park on Friday to oppose one of the suggested routes for a tri-county parkway, saying that it would bisect the park and have a devastating environmental impact. "Build the roads where you need to build them, but don't build them through our parks," said Harold L. Strickland, chairman of the Fairfax County Park Authority Board.

Region to Receive Millions for Transit
Steven Ginsberg; July 29, 2005 ; Washington Post
A proposed east-west highway in the Maryland suburbs, widening projects on Interstates 66 and 95, and several other major transportation initiatives in the Washington region are in line to receive tens of millions of dollars in federal funding, according to details of a
congressional agreement announced yesterday. Local governments have been counting on the money to advance projects that they said are critical to getting drivers and transit riders where they want to go.

Davis targets Vienna land with Metro funding bill
Dominic Bonaiuto; August 2, 2005 ; Fairfax Times
U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th) is drawing praise and scorn from the community this week after introducing a bill that would commit $150 million a year in federal aid to the region's cash-strapped Metro system for the next decade. In addition, Davis added a provision in the bill prohibiting Metro from selling 3.75 acres of land near its Vienna station to homebuilder Pulte, which is proposing to build a dense community of homes, offices and shops nearby. Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth, a countywide coalition that has questioned the intensity of Pulte's proposal, cheered Davis ' action. But both the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the Fairfax chapter of the Sierra Club derided Davis for undermining the concept of transit-oriented development, which promotes high-rise living and working next to transit stations.

Connecting With Future As Highway Takes Shape
Dana Hegpeth; August 1, 2005 ; Washington Post
Montgomery officials say the intercounty connector is not designed to prompt new development. They've promised a strict policy of not rezoning any land along the proposed highway, which would cut through an area where much of the land has already been built up, mostly with houses. But a close look at one narrow strip in the eastern part of Montgomery, along Route 29, reveals the road's potential to greatly intensify development, planting the seeds along one suburban highway of what could over time become a new urban corridor. Based on current zoning, 10 commercially zoned parcels could support nearly 10 million additional square feet of office, retail or housing, from Zimmerman's Hardware store in Burtonsville, which could only add a building the size of two tennis courts on its property, to the WesTech Business Park near the Prince George's County line, which could add an office building the size of eight football fields stacked on top of each other, according to zoning records, local developers, planners and land use lawyers.

Town Centers: The Newest Fad
Dusty Smith and Molly Novotny, Leesburg2Day; August 5 2005
Between them, eastern Loudoun County and Leesburg may get 15 separate mixed-use developments encompassing 4,500 acres—many that are self-proclaimed “town centers”—designed to provide a full-range of amenities if all the proposed projects are completed. Kalriess said the development of too many town centers has been a common concern among town commissioners and planners. “After a while, what's the purpose of a town center that attracts people from a 15-mile radius [being built] three miles apart” from another similar center, he asked.

What Makes a Place Great?
Project for Public Places; August 2005
Over the past 30 years Project for Public Spaces has evaluated more than 1,000 public spaces, and informally investigated tens of thousands more. Paying attention to these qualities can help you evaluate the public spaces in your own community, and make the changes that can transform them into great places.

Clarksburg Crisis Looms Over Head Planner
Cameron Barr; August 1, 2005 ; Washington Post
In a county whose leaders all but worship planning, Derick Berlage is
the high priest. No one has more influence over the pace and location of development in Montgomery County . As Planning Board chairman, Berlage oversees the Department of Park and Planning, the $92 million-a-year agency that manages parkland and regulates development. The five-member board devises land-use policy subject to County Council approval. That is why responsibility for the problems unfolding in Clarksburg -- where a developer and four builders constructed hundreds of townhouses that are too tall and too close to the street, in violation of a legally binding site plan -- might come to rest with Berlage.

Eminent-Domain Uproar Imperils Projects*
Wall Street Journal; August 3 2005
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that governments had broad power to take private property to boost economic development, real-estate executives cheered. But an unexpected backlash against the ruling stopped the cheering and threatens to derail some projects that depended on the use of eminent domain to seize property. … the issue has struck a nerve with Americans. In Connecticut , where the Supreme Court case originated, a Quinnipiac University

Sludge divides farmers, neighbors
George Whitehurst; August 7, 2005 ; Fredericksburg Free Lane Star
Biosolids contain organic matter, bacteria, some viruses and some trace elements such as lead, copper, zinc, nickel, mercury and cadmium. It's the possible presence of those trace elements that worries Woodrow Chewning, who lives on Catharpin Road with his wife, Jeanne. "There's a stream that comes down through that property, and it runs across the road and down toward [ State Route ] 649," he said. "My concern was if it was going to get into the water of the stream."

Dissension on the Chesapeake Industry: Opposes Effort to Put Eastern Oysters on Endangered Species List
Joshua Partlow; August 4, 2005 ; Washington Post
A Maryland environmentalist alarmed by the steady decline of the Chesapeake Bay 's native oyster population is trying to get it on the federal Endangered Species list -- a proposal that has sparked an uproar of opposition in the oyster industry from Maine to Louisiana . Wolf-Dieter Busch, an environmental consultant, believes bay pollution
and ineffective regulations could prove fatal to the eastern oyster. Ravaged in the past by overfishing, and now undermined by disease, 99 percent of the eastern oyster population in the bay has disappeared since the late 19th century, according to federal fisheries statistics.

Bay Scientists Chagrined At Being Right: Low-Oxygen Predictions Prove to Be Accurate
Eric Rich; August 4, 2005 ; Washington Post
You might think the scientists would have been distressed by their findings and, in a way, they were. They had detected one of the largest volumes of oxygen-depleted water ever recorded in the Chesapeake Bay -- more than 900 billion gallons that could not sustain a rockfish, blue crab or any of the bay's other cherished species. Yet the bad news was,
in a sense, good as well. Researchers dedicated to untangling the complexities of the nation's largest estuary had found more or less what they predicted in their first attempt at ecological forecasting.

The Bay's Problems
July 26, 2005 ; Washington Post
THE SUBURBS: The watershed's forests and bogs used to do a good job of trapping trash, pollution and sediment (floating dirt) before it reached the Chesapeake . But these green places are being replaced by houses and stores. More streets and parking lots result in more rainwater being fast-forwarded -- grit and all -- into storm drains, and eventually the bay. Sediment blocks light, which kills the bay grasses where baby crabs, little fish and other animals live. The teens recall seeing one very brown, sediment-filled creek pouring into the clear waters of the Potomac . It was like "that chocolate river in the Willy Wonka movie," said Justin Powers, 17.

Montgomery County puts a halt to building permits
Joe Coombs; Washington Business Jounral; July 18, 2005
Residential developments in Montgomery County are being put on hold following an investigation that showed a builder violated height and setback restrictions on a project in Clarksburg . The county's planning board has put a freeze on residential building permits for more than 190 projects until those developers can verify building heights and setback plans for their proposals. The move was made after it was revealed that San Diego-based Newland Communities built 433 townhouses above the county's height limits and 102 townhouses too close to streets in connection with the Clarksburg Town Center project.

County Halts Home Building for Most New Subdivisions
WJLA News; July 19, 2005
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan and the chairman of the county's Planning Board ordered the home building freeze for most new subdivisions. They want to give officials time to examine several lapses in the county's planning process. The move comes as a reaction to widespread violations that have been reported in Clarksburg Town Center . Residents there say they discovered hundreds of houses were built too tall or too close to the street. County officials never realized the problem.

Developers Push for Permitting Changes
Dana Hedgpeth; Washington Post; July 25, 2005
Local developers are anxiously watching to see how long Montgomery County officials leave in place a moratorium on commercial and residential building, imposed last week in response to building code violations in Clarksburg . The County Council is meeting tomorrow to consider what types of new procedures may be needed to prevent similar violations and when to allow building to resume.

A clean bay by 2010?
Rex Springston; Richmond Times Dispatch; July 21, 2005
Virginia faces a 2010 deadline for cleaning the Chesapeake Bay , but it's tough to find anyone who thinks the bay will be fixed by then. "I don't see any way we get there by 2010," said Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William. "Even if we stand on our heads and whistle ' Dixie ,' we can't do it." Lingamfelter spoke yesterday during a meeting of a General Assembly panel studying ways to raise money for cleaning the bay and polluted rivers. Virginia and other bay states pledged in 2000 to make the bay so much cleaner by 2010 that it would be removed from the national list of polluted waters.

Residents Face Environmental Restrictions
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; July 24, 2005
About 9,100 property owners in Prince William County have homes and land in Chesapeake Bay resource protection areas, flood plains where development and construction are severely restricted.But many of them don't know it, said Wade Hugh, Prince William's chief of watershed management. This month, the county sent those property owners letters explaining the designation and inviting them to a public meeting on the areas, known as RPAs, at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at the McCoart Administrative Complex. At a Board of County Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Hugh is scheduled to give the supervisors a preview of what his division will tell the public Aug. 1.

Saving the Bay
Editorial: Kim Hosen; Gainesville Times; July 20, 2005
Nearly everyone wants to save the Chesapeake Bay . However, Virginia regulations aimed at turning this slogan into action are more controversial. To help bring things into focus, Prince William County and the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department (CBLAD), will host a public meeting on Virginia 's Chesapeake Bay regulations on Aug. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the McCoart Government Center . When the Chesapeake Bay was first included on the EPA's dirty waters list, leaders of the states within the watershed resisted the traditional regulatory approach. Governments within the watershed pledged to save the bay through voluntary efforts and formalized this commitment by signing onto the original Chesapeake Bay Agreement.

Hopefuls for governor take heat on bay cleanup
Hugh Lessig; Daily Press; July 21, 2005
The House Appropriations chairman said Wednesday that both major-party candidates for governor are failing to address the expensive cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay . "They're ducking the issue," said Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax, who is chairman of a legislative study group that is exploring funding options for the bay and its tributaries. The group, meeting for the second time, heard sobering news: It will cost the state government $2.34 billion to clean up its waterways. Of that, $1.74 billion is needed for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries by 2010, a deadline specified in a federal court agreement.

Tight fists won't clean up Chesapeake
Roanoke Times Editorial; July 22, 2005
Virginia legislators and environmentalists concerned about the Chesapeake Bay were in moaning mode Wednesday. None of the candidates for governor, they noted, has discussed how he'd fund the state government's $1.7 billion share of the cleanup bill. Even Republican renegade Russ Potts - the voice of candor on other issues, especially in comparison with Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore - has been silent. All three may deserve a measure of criticism for "ducking the issue," as Del. Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax County , put it. But most of the condemnation should be reserved for the worst villains. The Chesapeake 's worst enemy in Virginia is ... Virginians.

Students take month-long journey to the Bay
Scott Harper; Virginia Pilot; July 21, 2005
They have seen a floating dead cow, a shock-green algae bloom that resembled a Jackson Pollock painting, fish with lesions like cigar burns, bugs, pollution and, finally on Wednesday, their destination: the Chesapeake Bay. For the past 30 days, 16 high school students and their agriculture teacher paddled canoes and kayaks from their country homes in the Shenandoah Valley to the wind-blown expanse of the Bay – a journey covering 355 miles, and one they will not soon forget.

Residents upset over common areas
Amanda Stewart; Potomac News; July 24, 2005
Residents of the Markham 's Grant subdivision in Woodbridge had hoped that their town houses would be surrounded by lush green common areas by now.
When the complex's developer, D.R. Horton, finished construction on the last house in the neighborhood in October 2003, the county set a deadline of June 30, 2005, for the company to finish work on exterior areas. The work included planting grass in the common areas, fixing cracked sidewalks and curbs and fixing drainage problems behind some houses. The deadline is past and Markham 's Grant resident Chris Brown says the work is still not done.

Residents Fight Plan for Road Through Subdivision
Aymar Jean; Washington Post; July 21, 2005
A small subdivision, tucked away and surrounded by towering trees, is embroiled in a housing battle over a plan that residents say threatens to disrupt the calm of their development in the middle of Prince William County.Riverview Estates, with a little more than 200 houses, is fighting Classic Concept Builders over a road the developer wants to build through the subdivision. The developer needs the access road for another subdivision it wants to build adjacent to Riverview, off Davis Ford Road . "I think it's grossly unfair for corporations who have a lot of money to throw around to disrupt the peaceful tranquillity of folks who just want to lead a quiet life," said neighbor Gina Binder, 42, who lives next to where the road would be built.

Helping Keep Back Yards Safe for Grilling
Nikita Stewart; Washington Post; July 19, 2005
Prince William is the only county in Northern Virginia that sprays regularly every summer. Other counties and towns have deemed spraying to be less effective at addressing mosquito-borne illness, such as West Nile virus and malaria, than killing larvae by putting pellets in ponds and other water sources. "Adult spraying only gets those mosquitoes flying at the time," said David Goodfriend, director of the Health Department in Loudoun County , which has not sprayed since three cases of malaria occurred there two years ago.

Campground closes next week
Valerie Walker; Gainesville Times; July 22, 2005
There are only a handful of weekend days left before Mountain View Campground at Silver Lake closes for good on July 31. Toll Brothers has placed a contract on the land, and has a complex set of plans for Silver Lake , with repercussions for Dominion Valley Country Club and the rest of Haymarket. "A lot of people kind of assume that it's us that's closing down and selling out," Teri Scott said. Scott and her husband run the campground that leases the Silver Lake land. "It's just the natural process of what happens to land," Scott said. In contrast to Dominion Valley 's master-planned community and organized sports leagues, Mountain View has grown into a sort of un-planned community, where seasonal renters set up their RVs and spend nearly every weekend swimming, fishing and playing together.

Advocates oppose Battlefield bypass
Keith Walker, Potomac News; July22, 2005
Members of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Southern Environmental Law Center met at the Manassas National Battlefield Park on Thursday to oppose any north/south routes around the battlefield. They came armed with a study by Smart Mobility Incorporated that they said showed that such highways would do little to ease area traffic woes. "The major traffic today and in the future is east/west," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the coalition for Smarter Growth.

It's decision time for the Battlefield Bypass
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; July 15, 2005
Mobley said Monday that he has received hundreds of local comments on the proposals, in addition to a very large national e-mail campaign. He and other planners are now compiling the comments, which will be reported to the FHA and National Park Service. Sometime late this fall, the two organizations are expected to review the comments and the draft study and then issue a decree on what should be done next. Public opinion is "definitely a key part of what we present to them," Mobley said. "To be honest, that is a big driver. That is always a chief part of the presentation." And public opinion on the bypass falls into three categories, he said. The largest group said they prefer that no action be taken. They said they'd rather the roads stay open and the bypass not be built at all.

Voters take road building into their own hands
Tara Slate Donaldson; The Gainesville Times; July 22, 2005
Since 1988, Prince William voters have gone to the polls every four years or so to approve a new set of road bonds, essentially pledging tens of millions of tax dollars each time to pay for specific road projects. That adds up to more than $156 million in road bonds over the years, and that figure is about to skyrocket.
Between 2006 and 2020, Prince William voters will be asked to approve $1.6 billion in road bonds so that the county government can construct the roads that the state government doesn't have the money to build.

Old site in Prince William to become park
WAVY.COM; July 25, 2005
An old Civil War site in Prince William County is being preserved -- as part of a one-point-two (m) million-dollar deal. A Dumfries (DUMM'-frees) couple included that as a condition for the sale off Cockpit Point, which overlooks the Potomac River and the Charles County, Maryland shoreline. The Washington Post reports that the site was instrumental in the South's successful blockade of Potomac River approaches to Washington , D-C during the first two years of the Civil War.

Mixed-use district draws discussion
Tony N. Parrish; Potomac News; July 19, 2005
A proposal to bring a planned mixed-use district to Manassas attracted a larger-than-normal crowd to City Hall on Monday night. About 40 residents were on hand for a public hearing on the planned mixed-use district, or PMD. The new zoning category would allow a combination commercial and residential developments anywhere in the city, if approved by the City Council. Developers who apply for projects under the PMD zone would be required to dedicate between 30 and 60 percent of developments for non-residential use. Two of the main goals of the PMD would be to create upscale, all-inclusive communities and reduce driving for residents in those communities.

D.C. Area Housing Market Cools Off
Kirstin Downey and Sandra Fleishman; Washington Post; July 25, 2005
Washington area temperatures may be sizzling, but the once-torrid real estate market seems to be cooling off as houses stay on the market longer and the number of homes for sale rises. Home sales tend to slow in the summer, but the number of houses for sale in the Washington area has climbed by 50 percent in recent months. The available inventory has risen to about 35,300 homes, up from an average of about 23,000 in the past three years, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., which runs the local multiple-listing service. The average number of days a house stays on the market has crept up by two days in Fairfax County , to 16 days in June from 14 days a year earlier. In Montgomery County it has risen to 20 days from 18 days, according to MRIS. Those are, however, still short turnaround times by historic standards.

For Souter, Seizure Ruling May Hit Home
Beverly Wang; Associated Press; July 25, 2005
People from across the country are joining a campaign to seize Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter's farmhouse to build a luxury hotel, according to the man who suggested it after Souter joined the majority that sided with New London, Conn., in a decision favoring government seizure of private property. "We would act just as these cities have been acting in seizing properties. We would give Souter the same sort of deal," said Logan Darrow Clements of Los Angeles . A rival proposal from townspeople would turn Souter's land into a park commemorating the Constitution.

Preserving, Enjoying Land on the Agenda
Lila de Tantillo, Washington Post; July 24, 2005 Gilbert sees the authority's mission as twofold: preserving the land and finding ways for people to enjoy it. That's also what he did in his previous job as president of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, a private nonprofit that tries to preserve land from development through easements and donations. The trust's 1,300 acres are in the same jurisdictions as the park authority's, plus Prince William and Stafford counties. Virtually all of that land -- including 800 acres buffering public parkland -- was conserved during Gilbert's leadership.

[Loudon] Board Members Spar Over Zoning
Dusty Smith; Leesburg Today; July 22, 2005
Lines were clearly drawn Wednesday evening with supervisors accusing each of other of ignoring their own philosophies as they hashed out a starting point for rezoning western Loudoun after the state Supreme Court overthrew the 2003 downzing.
Two members of the Republican majority who broke ranks and joined with the two Independents and one Democrat on the board to push for 20- and 40-acre base densities received a tongue lashing from the other four Republicans, but held their ground.

Town To Ask Developers To Pay Fees For Schools
Washington Post, July 14, 2005
The Leesburg Town Council has voted to ask developers to help pay for additional schools that might be needed as a result of new subdivisions. After weeks of discussion, the measure passed at the council's meeting Tuesday night by a vote of 6 to 0. Council member Fernando J. "Marty" Martinez was absent. The town will ask developers who request higher residential density to make a proffer of a specific amount for each house, townhouse or apartment above what current zoning allows.

Mirant to face suit to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide
Tom Pelton; Baltimore Sun; July 22, 2005
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and three other environmental groups notified Mirant power company yesterday that they plan to sue to stop what they described as illegal amounts of nitrogen oxide pollution pouring from a power plant in Montgomery County. The air pollution from the Dickerson plant -- the equivalent of what 40,000 sport utility vehicles would spew in a year -- helps create low-oxygen "dead zones" in the bay and triggers asthma attacks and premature deaths, according to the foundation, which was joined in the legal action by the Environmental Integrity Project and Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. "Every pound of pollution has a cost, increasing the dead zone and making large portions of the Chesapeake Bay uninhabitable for fish and shellfish," said Kim Coble, the foundation's Maryland executive director.

Greenpeace stages peaceful Omega protest
Lawrence Latane III; Richmond Times Dispatch; July 24, 2005
Debate has been growing for years over whether Omega's multimillion-metric-ton catches of the bait fish have any impact on the aquatic food chain, but it took Greenpeace to raise the debate's profile with the first demonstration against the company's sprawling creekside facility. The international environmental organization is known for attention-grabbing, boat-borne protests.

Study Says Ethanol Not Worth the Energy
Mark Johnson; Associated Press; July 17, 2005
- Farmers, businesses and state officials are investing millions of dollars in ethanol and biofuel plants as renewable energy sources, but a new study says the alternative fuels burn more energy than they produce. Supporters of ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than fossil fuels, reduce U.S. dependence on oil and give farmers another market to sell their produce. But researchers at Cornell University and the University of California-Berkeley say it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. For switch grass, a warm weather perennial grass found in the Great Plains and eastern North America United States, it takes 45 percent more energy and for wood, 57 percent.

Supervisors approve Linton Hall Estates
Amanda Stewart; Potomac News; July 7, 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved plans for the construction of Linton Hall Estates during its meeting Tuesday night.  The development will bring a maximum of 18 single-family homes to the Ashley Ridge subdivision on Linton Hall Road in western Prince William, said John McBride, attorney for the estates' developer.  As a part of the agreement, Linton Hall Estates developers will coordinate their construction with the completion of Sudley Manor Drive, McBride said.

Nissan Inches Closer to Traffic Relief
Aymar Jean, Washington Post, July 10, 2005
Prince William County's plan to widen two-lane Wellington Road to four lanes has been postponed several times since it was proposed in the late 1990s. The county expects to widen Wellington, the only way in and out of Nissan Pavilion, from Limestone Drive to Balls Ford Road -- 2.15 miles. Construction, originally scheduled to be completed in December 2004, is now scheduled to finish in September 2006.
For patrons, getting into Nissan Pavilion in Bristow is a small challenge compared with leaving it, when sometimes, after a major concert, more than 8,500 cars pour onto Wellington Road. The wait to leave can last as long as two hours. An average show produces about 5,600 cars and a wait of less than an hour, said Bruce Edwards, Nissan Pavilion's general manager.  ...   The project should cost slightly more than $5 million, about 12 percent of the $42.7 million road bond budget for 1998, when planning began.

County tries to get moving
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; July 8, 2005
The other major problem is funding. Mary Lynn Tischer, one of the governor's top transportation advisors, told the supervisors that over the next 20 years, Virginia needs an estimated $203 billion in transportation funds.  'The current estimate in revenues is about half that," she said, explaining that the state can only expect to get about $95 billion of the needed funds. That means that all state funds available for construction are expected to run out in 2025.

Symposium outlines county's transit problems
Keith Walker; Potomac News; June 30, 2005
Mary Lynn Tischer, a transportation advisor to Gov. Mark R. Warner, told the board the “long-term picture” for funding area transportation was “bleak and unacceptable.” Tischer said that the commonwealth's transportation cost over the next 20 years will be about $203 billion. Revenue in that same time will be about $95 billion.

I-95 traffic woes continue
Richmond Times Dispatch; July 7, 2005
The heavily traveled interstate was shut down in both directions near Fredericksburg ealier today after a three-truck crash that resulted in a chemical spill and one death.  The heavily traveled interstate was shut down in both directions near Fredericksburg ealier today after a three-truck crash that resulted in a chemical spill and one death.

PW traffic must be considered regionally
Kim Hosen; Gainesville Times; July 8, 2005
if the region continues to develop like we are today, the future looks unaffordable.  There is hope however. Mr. Kirby pointed to the many underused areas around Metro stations east of D.C. Right now the region is not using the eastern capacity, which he felt was unfortunate from a transportation point of view. Traffic congestion is a regional problem that needs regional solutions.

Officials Pleaded Guilty, but Town Was Changed Forever
New York Times; July 11 2005
A federal inquiry into corruption in this town led to the arrests of a former mayor, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges this spring; a former utility authority commissioner and Democratic leader, who on Tuesday pleaded guilty to extortion and bribery charges; and a local developer, who is charged with bribery. At the same time, a flood of subpoenas have been served on current and former town planning and zoning officials. The arrests and subpoenas are part of a broader sweep of Monmouth County that has led to 19 arrests or indictments of elected and appointed officials or contractors and three guilty pleas this year, with the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the office of United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie continuing.

Conn. Lawmakers Urge Eminent Domain Halt
New York Times; July 11 2005
Democratic state lawmakers on Monday urged municipal leaders not to use their eminent domain powers until the legislature has time to consider changing Connecticut 's laws on seizing property. The legislative leaders said they want time to thoroughly examine the issue in the wake of last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that municipalities have broad power to bulldoze people's homes and put up shopping malls or other private development to generate tax revenue. In its ruling, the court said states could ban the practice.

Carroll planning board threatened with jail
Mary Gail Hare; Baltimore Sun; July 8, 2005
A Circuit judge orders the Caroll County Planning and Zoning Commission to approve a 254-townhouse project -- in an area already faced with water shortages, overcrowded schools, and road congestion -- or face being jailed for contempt.  "The proposed development 'totally ignores every regulation we have in place to protect the citizens' quality of life,' Gouge said last year."

A shared resource
Editorial:  The News Leader; July 11, 2005
There is a Russian saying that goes, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, but what's ours is nobody's." This saying may typify what is perhaps a mindset regarding common areas and state property in that country. Unless one directly owns a piece of property then responsibility for its care and upkeep lies elsewhere.  Thankfully in this country most of us feel quite a bit different about public areas where we do not directly hold ownership.

Area builders face 'stress' of shortages
Chris Sicks; Washington Times; July 8, 2005
Some rural counties are slowing down the process so they can work on the infrastructure new residents will need -- teachers, policemen and firefighters. "Entitlement" is a word used by industry insiders to name the process by which a city or county receives the builder's construction plans, reviews them and grants approval to begin work. "Here's an example of what bogs down the entitlement process," Mr. Furnells says. "Prince George's County recently imposed a rule that requires any new subdivision to pass a 911 test. If an emergency call is made from the proposed construction site, it must be answered by a police officer, ambulance or fire truck within a specific number of minutes."

City, Spotsylvania weigh development decisions
George Whitehurst; Fredrickburg Free-Lance Star; July 11, 2005
Tricord Inc. is jumping through more hoops in hopes of winning approval of a planned 1,500-home town-style community in Spotsylvania County. The developer has agreed to speed up its pledged payment of $6 million to build a Virginia Railway Express station off the U.S. 17 Bypass, should Spotsylvania ever join VRE. Tricord officials also are giving the Board of Supervisors the flexibility to shift that money into the county's newly created Purchase of Development Rights program. That program aims to preserve open space, family farms and environmentally and historically sensitive spots by buying development rights on the lands and placing permanent conservation easements on them.

Builders, Developers form Pro-Growth Advocacy Group
Associated Press, July 10, 2005
Members of the Stafford Council for Progress say Stafford has become northern Virginia's toughest locality in which to get building projects approved, as it hasn't accepted that it must absorb "its fair share" of people coming to the region.The group is funded by its 30 members and has a paid staff, a Web site and a newsletter. It formed in time for the fall campaign, in which four of seven seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for election. It's unclear what influence it will have in the voting booth, but the group is the most organized public effort the building industry has made in the burgeoning Fredericksburg region.

Whose Growth it it?
Sean T. Connaughton; Gainesville Times; July 1, 2005
Prince William County is in the center of one of the fastest growing regions in the nation. According to the Weldon Cooper Center, in four years the population of Northern Virginia grew by 245,000, representing 66 percent of Virginia's population growth from 2000 to 2004. Prince William County accounted for a quarter of that growth.

Over-development to blame for Prince William traffic woes
Gary C. Friedman; Gainesville Times; July 1, 2005
There is neither doubt nor disagreement that transportation woes throughout the state, especially in the Northern Virginia and the Hampton Rhodes areas, severely dampen business efficiencies and therefore profits. This has caused millions of Virginians to pay the price of dramatically lowered quality of life for governments' failures on this issue.

Political Misinformation Abounds
Tim Horn; Gainesville Times; July 1, 2005
He and I are in agreement that Richmond has not served our county well; however, further in his column, the chairman makes some interesting contentions that deserve scrutiny. In one sentence he claims the Board of County Supervisors has "dramatically reduced the number of new residential units being approved." That sentence alone strains credulity.  The 1998 Comprehensive Plan for Prince William County estimated the build-out rate for the development within the county could remain steady for 20 years without needing to impact the Rural Crescent. Now the development community has gone to the Board of County Supervisors admitting that they will complete the build out in slightly more than eight years. That is not "reducing the number of residential units being approved." My question is: will anyone call Chairman Connaughton on his record or will they settle for the status quo? I know what a true American would say.

VRE launches longer trains today
Associated Press; July 12, 2005
It's a big day for some Virginia Railway Express passengers as the commuter rail service adds some longer trains to its roster in an effort to get more people into seats on the most crowded trains.

MD Approves Intercounty Connector Route
Steven Ginsberg and Katherine Shaver, Washington Post, July 12, 2005
More than a dozen of those opponents served as a backdrop to yesterday's announcement, interrupting Ehrlich several times and carrying signs that included "The ICC Is Such a Scam. It Will Not Ease the Traffic Jam." Highway opponents contend that instead of relieving traffic, a new suburban highway would spur more residential development that would beget even greater traffic problems. Opponents also charge that the road would one day become a link in an outer beltway that they say would lead to another generation of suburban sprawl. They also say the environmental impact for a road that would slice through county parks, streams and wetlands would be too great a price to pay. They propose improving other roads, expanding mass transit and encouraging development closer to Washington.

My House, My Tax Burden
Ellen Hoffman; Business Week Online; July 11, 2005
If you've owned a home in Alexandria, Va., or Virginia's Fairfax, Loudoun, or Prince William counties over the last few years, congratulate yourself on a great investment. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, the value of the average home in these areas is estimated to have increased from 114% to 131% since 2001. But home values aren't the only thing that has increased in the area. Real estate tax bills are up anywhere from 58% [Prince William County] to 111% [Loudoun County]. Such hikes in both property values and tax bills aren't uncommon in the country's hot housing markets [see the federal government's latest data on housing price increases in metropolitan areas].

[Loudon] Supervisors Okay Deal On Density
Michael Laris; Washington Post; July 7, 2005
Supervisors voted 5 to 4 to change county plans and approve an application to build 224 homes on 225 acres, about three times what the previous rules would have allowed. The plan changes will also allow increased development on more than 200 nearby acres owned by others, according to the county. Dawson and Greenvest had sued Loudoun after supervisors on a previous board denied their request to build about two homes per acre on the property. … Burton and other opponents of the development said it was too intense for the area, and out of step with neighboring jurisdictions. Fairfax County allows one home per five acres in nearby areas, while Prince William County allows one home per 10 acres nearby.

State wants more testing for South Norfolk Condo Project
Robert McCabe, July 9, 2005, Virginia Pilot
Portlock Square was one of two South Norfolk condo proposals reviewed by the council last month that generated controversy about the compatibility of the p rojects with the gritty industrial uses nearby. The projects also offered a test of the city's tough new environmental review standards.

Suffolk considers fee for runoff program
Edward Lebow, Daily Press, July 9, 2005
SUFFOLK -- Suffolk's plan to impose a fee to pay for a new program to handle rainwater runoff could be aired at public meetings this fall. It's too early to say how much the fees will be or when they might take effect, said Public Works Director Eric Nielsen Jr., whose department will probably oversee the program.  "The aim of the program is to improve the quality of the runoff," said Nielsen. "You don't want the silt and other pollutants running into your reservoirs or rivers."

Rivanna eyed as national model
Annie Johnson; Daily Progress; July 11, 2005
A $1 million donation from Nestle Waters, the world's largest distributor of bottled water, will help underwrite a pilot project launched by the Nature Conservancy to investigate environmentally safe water management practices and find new approaches for storing and diverting river water. The Rivanna is one of only two sites chosen for the project - the other is in Texas.  Brian Richter, director of the Sustainable Waters Program at the Nature Conservancy, said that water management is an issue many communities face. “This is a ubiquitous problem across the U.S. and we want to demonstrate ways to meet challenges and be an example to other places,” he said.   Richter said that the Rivanna was chosen because its watershed remains healthy despite serving many users. “Virginia has identified the Rivanna watershed as one of the most important,” he said.

Population boom spawns super cities
Haya El Nasser, Usa Today; July 10, 2005
Ten megapolitan areas have more than 10 million residents or will have that many by 2040, according to a new study by Virginia Tech. They extend into 35 states and include parts of every state east of the Mississippi River except Vermont. They incorporate less than a fifth of the land area in the continental USA but house more than two-thirds of the population. Four states are completely megapolitan: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Citizens debate advent of rail
Beverly Crawford; Fairfax Times; June 28, 2005
The reality of commuter rail service from Tysons Corner to Dulles Airport brought forth strong opinions at two public meetings sponsored by citizen groups and “smart growth” advocates in Tysons and McLean last week.  Jeff Speck, director of design for the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke at a forum June 21 that was sponsored by the Coalition for Smarter Growth. He said Tysons is defined by “insistence on the automobile as the principal element” and a formula of “one car for each adult.”  to convert an “auto-oriented space” into one that is pedestrian-friendly, Speck said walking must be encouraged. People walk when they have a reason to walk, feel safe and comfortable walking and find the environment interesting, he said.

Western officials seek species protection for Asian fish
Associated Press, July 11, 2005
A group of Western county commissioners has filed to have an Asian fish that's invaded Virginia waters protected under the Endangered Species Act. The officials are seeking federal protection for the northern snakehead fish not because they really want to protect it but to show how silly the process can sometimes be.

Occoquan Problems: Runoff, Dissolved Oxygen
WTOP News; June 20 2005
… The aim is to help planners develop long-term plans for controlling urban runoff, agricultural runoff and other pollution sources in the watershed. Runoff from agricultural and urban areas is the biggest threat to the 1,700-acre Occoquan Reservoir, Grizzard says.

Land use blamed in recent fish kill; Runoff likely culprit for smallmouth bass losses in North River
Associated Press; June 25 2005
State wildlife biologists say a rapid runoff of sediment and fertilizers in April most likely caused a massive fish kill in the Shenandoah Valley 's North River . … "It's not a classic fish kill that you can trace to a pipe," said Paul Bugas, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "It's almost certainly a land-use issue. It brings everybody in the watershed under the gun."

Paved Paradise?
Science News; Sept. 2005
Impervious surfaces affect a region's hydrology, ecosystems—even its climate
… As an environment becomes inhabited, therefore, less precipitation soaks into the ground and runoff increases. As a result, floods occur more often and develop more rapidly. These hydrological changes, along with the pollutants picked up by water as it pours across the urban landscape, can wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems and damage habitats alongside waterways.

Fowler Vows Court Action Over River
Amit R. Paley, Washington Post, June 16 2005
Judging by C. Bernard Fowler's wet sneaker test, the Patuxent River is not getting any cleaner. Fowler, a former state senator who is a lifelong advocate for the river, stepped into the waters at Broomes Island on Sunday for his 18th annual "wade-in" to measure the health of the river. It was a short stroll. When he reached a depth of just 21 1/2 inches, he couldn't make out his white shoes in the murky water. That's less clarity than last year, when his sneaker-clad feet disappeared at a depth of 31 1/2 inches. "Our river is dying," said Fowler, 81. "It's no better than it was 35 years ago, regardless of what all these fancy people tell you about what they've done for the bay."

The Chesapeake Bay Is Ailing, and This Time It's Serious
Angus Phillips , Washington Post; June 26 2005
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. I was keenly anticipating returning to my home waters of Chesapeake Bay last week after a month crossing the Atlantic and cruising the Adriatic . The water in both places was clear as Russian vodka but not too productive. No crabs, no oysters and few fish, at least not that I could catch. … The dark drumbeat actually started two years ago when Howard Ernst, a political science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, concluded three years of research by writing a worrisome book called " Chesapeake Bay Blues ," in which he made the case that almost nothing in the bay is getting better and all kinds of things are getting progressively worse. Meantime, he maintained, public agencies and private organizations in position to change things do little but trumpet nonexistent or incremental improvements while wasting time and money on reports and studies to back their claims.

Getting Real
Hampton Roads Daily Press; June 22 2005
The legislative study group that sat down in Richmond last month to try to find the money to clean up Virginia 's dirty rivers, streams and bay has some things going for it. It is meeting at the right time, away from the too-fast, too-furious, too-foolish pace of the General Assembly. It has a deadline, to complete its work before the next session. It has the right people, in positions to make real progress. It can tap into widespread public support for investing in conservation and environmental action. Convincing the public isn't the challenge. It will be convincing the legislature that it has to stop dancing away from the issue and carve out within the state budget a permanent and adequate - read those words again, for they get to the heart of the issue - source of funding for state government's share of the cost of cleaning up Virginia 's polluted waters.  …  Virginia is still relying on a funding strategy that allots money to water quality improvement out of surpluses - when they come along (and they didn't in 2001-2004). That approach has an analogy in personal finance: You can't fund major initiatives out of leftover money any more than you can fund retirement out of spare change. Relying on unpredictable surpluses is also troublesome because it sends the message that clean water isn't a priority, but something that can wait until after the important stuff is taken care of.

A regional ripple
Staunton News Leader; June 19 2005
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a long way from the flatlands and marshes of the Northern Neck and the Eastern Shore . The drainage-canal-sized rivers of the Shenandoah Valley are pale shadows of the Rappahannock , Potomac , Coan, Susquehanna and other broad estuaries that feed the Chesapeake Bay . We're up here; they're down there. And therein lies the rub; whatever goes into the streams and rivers of the Valley flows downhill to the bay — excess nutrients from fertilizers meant to nourish crops, yards and gardens; pesticides and industrial wastes; sewage from animal and human sources. All that glop winds up filtering into the waters of the Chesapeake via a complicated system of watersheds, including the one we call home. It's a classic case of "out of sight, out of mind," and it's the reason Waynesboro is faced with an expensive — $35 million worth of expensive, by some estimates — price tag to upgrade its antiquated wastewater and sewer system.

N.Va. Wells That Serve 9,500 May Exceed New Arsenic Standards
Leef Smith , Washington Post, June 15 2005
Arsenic levels in some wells serving several schools and community water systems in Northern Virginia may be too high to meet new federal drinking water standards that go into effect early next year, state officials said yesterday. … Possibly affected are well-water sources for Greenwich Presbyterian Preschool and Brentsville High School in Prince William County … Irene Cromer, a spokeswoman for the Prince William County school system, said yesterday that officials were aware of the new arsenic standards and are considering a variety of ways to address the issue. "One of them is water softeners," Cromer said. "That's what we'll probably use."

Haymarket pays $1.5 million
Potomac News; June 24 2005
A few years ago, Haymarket's Town Council turned down an offer to buy the Winterham property across the street from town hall. The $400,000 price tag for the downtown land "mortified" officials, according to Haymarket's mayor. In 2005, the Town Council sees property acquisition in a different light. Mayor David Taylor signed a contract Wednesday for the town to purchase Phillip and Nancy Harrover's 4-acre property on Washington Street for $1.5 million.

Supervisors put planning measure on hold
Chad Umble, Potomac News; May 24 2005
Confusion about how plans for Harbor Station on the Cherry Hill peninsula should have been approved two years ago led to more confusion last week when county supervisors discussed a measure that was supposed to clear up such situations. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors considered -- but eventually tabled -- a zoning text amendment last week that defined how companies could change some development plans after supervisors have approved them. The recommendation for the zoning text amendment came in the wake of what was called a "minor" change made to Harbor Station plans two years ago, which sparked outrage from plan opponents and led to the temporary postponement of the convention center and hotel.

Expansion planned for Harbor Station
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; June 9 2005
KSI has revealed its plans to transform the Cherry Hill Peninsula shoreline from an industrial wasteland to a playful waterfront and marina. The Vienna-based developer has already started building roads for the 1,800-acre Harbor Station development, which includes a gated golf community, town center, train station and hotel and conference center. To complement Harbor Station's residential and commercial amenities, KSI filed plans Wednesday to expand Harbor Station to include another 200 acres of the Cherry Hill Peninsula . The addition's plans include 1,487 more homes and an office campus …

Condo Plan Heightens Traffic Worries ; Proposal Pits New Image for Woodbridge 's Route 1 Against More Congestion
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post, June 7 2005
A major developer of luxury condominiums wants to build three upscale towers on Route 1 in Woodbridge , a move that supporters say would help Prince William revitalize a gritty corridor that has long been home to cheap housing and fading strip malls. The project, dubbed Rivergate and being proposed by the Rosslyn-based IDI Group, would overlook the Occoquan River and enhance other projects slated to bring much-needed new retail, office space, and high-end housing to the county's eastern side, its supporters say. The plans for Rivergate call for 720 condominium units in three, 15-story buildings. This is the view from Route 1. Even so, the project has already drawn disapproval. With 720 units, it could also overwhelm the region's transportation system, critics say, adding more traffic to an already congested Interstate 95, Route 1 and even the region's commuter rail system, Virginia Railway Express, which is already at capacity.

IDI plans condos in Woodbridge
Joe Coombs , Washington Business Journal; June 24 2005
IDI Group wants to dress up part of the Occoquan Harbor Marina by bringing 720 condominiums to the water's edge in Woodbridge . The Arlington-based company has applied to rezone a plot of land near Route 1 and Interstate 95 that's currently home to a patio enclosure manufacturer, says Carlos Cecchi, IDI's vice president. … IDI hopes to get the land zoned for residential use by the end of this year, and if so, construction would start on the first of three condominium buildings in 2006, Cecchi says. The complex could be finished by 2010 and costs are still being calculated.

Developer proposes Rivergate
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; June 16 2005
The developer that built Watergate and other luxury high-rise buildings is grasping at opportunity in northern Woodbridge . The IDI Group has applied for permission to build $250 million high-rise condominium towers next to Virginia Concrete overlooking the Occoquan River near U.S. 1. … Rivergate's architecture is meant to provide a transition from the nearby Town of Occoquan to other high-rise developments that IDI anticipates will follow. When Prince William County officials cemented the Potomac Communities plan last year, they opened the door to dense, high-rise development as IDI has proposed.

Government buys land at Innovation
Bennie Scarton Jr., Potomac News; June 23 2005
The federal government has purchased a 116-acre site and building at Innovation@Prince William for $63 million. The secured, corporate campus property, located at Prince William County 's high-technology office park west of Manassas , includes a 335,662 square foot "mission-critical" facility that is partially leased. …. Officials from T-Rex Capital, LLC, the real estate investment firm that handled the sale, said they did not know the government's plans for the site. However, many agencies housed in Washington , D.C. and Northern Virginia locations are being moved to more secure quarters to protect them from terrorist attacks. The site was developed in 1984 by IBM and subsequently transferred to Lockheed Martin with the sale of that division and then to T-Rex Capital and finally to the federal government.

Incentives still in tact for Eli Lilly despite facility cut back
Neil Adler , Washington Business Journal; June 8 2005
Prince William County and Virginia remain committed to providing millions of dollars in incentives for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which will build a massive new insulin manufacturing plant in Manassas by 2009 but scaled back plans for the facility Wednesday. Already two years behind schedule, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly told county officials June 7 their proposed insulin manufacturing center will be slashed in half, from 600,000 square feet and 700 employees to 300,000 square feet and 350 workers. The facility's total cost will drop from $425 million to $325 million.

Loudoun County puts on developer hat in Ashburn
Joe Coombs , Washington Business Journal; June 24 2005
Real estate developers are constantly redrawing the map of Loudoun County with new residential subdivisions and changing the skylines with office parks around Dulles International Airport . Now the county wants in on the action. Loudoun, not known for developing land on its own, could cash in on a prime piece of property it's sitting on in Ashburn, where government officials are considering the development of a technology business park. … If Loudoun County decides to go head with a technology park, it has a good model nearby, says John McClain, a senior fellow and deputy director of George Mason University 's Center for Regional Analysis. The Innovation at Prince William Technology Park , a 500-acre property developed by Prince William County , will eventually house a $425 million Eli Lilly plant and is already home to several businesses that have brought hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue to Prince William.

Two plan to bring winery to county
Amanda Stewart, Potomac News; June 21 2005
John Delmare and Chris Pearmund are one step closer to bringing a winery to Prince William County . The winemakers' plans were originally stalled by the county's zoning ordinances that did not allow the kind of winery they envisioned. The ordinance allowed vineyards, but no wineries to cultivate grapes, produce wine and serve small amounts of food. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted to change that zoning ordinance during its June 7 meeting. … The new amendment allows commercial wineries in agricultural districts on a minimum of 10-acre lots. The wineries must limit sale of food and wine tasting to 20 percent of their total income. In addition, wineries may serve small amounts of food and host some special events on-site.

Quantico Looking to a Busier Future; Town Tucked Alongside Marine Base Tries to Make a Name for Itself
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post, June 19 2005
… A combination of circumstances, including the Pentagon's base realignment and closure plan to funnel 3,000 additional employees to the base, just might revitalize Quantico . … The museum will open its first phase -- a $50 million wing -- in November 2006. Virginia Railway Express and CSX Corp. recently refurbished and reopened the town's train station, which was closed 34 years ago for poor ridership, and VRE expects the current 500 riders a day to increase with the museum's opening. … The $1 million renovation of the train station was paid for mostly by federal funds … The road to Quantico runs three miles inside the Marine Corps base, and tight security requires people who are trying to get to the town to show identification at a checkpoint just off Route 1 before they drive there. During rush hour, cars and trucks can sit on Route 1 for an hour waiting to pass the checkpoint, causing backups not only along Route 1 but to nearby Interstate 95, as well.

Judge halts logging on developer's land; Court sides with Stafford in dispute over timbering of land slated for development .
Fredericksburg Free Lance Star; June 22 2005
Stafford County Circuit Court Judge J. Martin Bass has forbidden a local developer to cut down any more trees on property where the company is building a subdivision. Bass affirmed the county's position yesterday that a developer who cuts down trees on land it one day intends to put houses on is engaged in site development work, not forestry. That means Stafford-based Garrett Development Corp. cannot do any more timbering on the 478 acres it owns near Willowmere Park , in northwestern Stafford , unless the county approves

Chesapeake, Va. Draws Up Plan to Protect Homeowners
Robert McCabe, The Virginian-Pilot; June 16 2005
Chesapeake , Va. , city officials are expected to lay out an aggressive series of steps to tighten their review of developments on sites that may have once contained or been near old dumps, landfills or other properties with environmental issues. The plan, which has been in the works since March, comes after revelations earlier this year that three residential developments in Chesapeake -- one already built, another under construction and a third in the planning stages -- were on land that included old dumps and, on one of the sites, a former junkyard. In two cases, the developers' preliminary subdivision and site plan applications did not fully disclose the environmental history of the sites, though a section of the city's forms required applicants to report any former landfill operations.

The overcrowding squeeze
Rob Seal, Potomac News; June 20 2005
As the regional population grows and affordable housing dwindles, many local governments in Northern Virginia are confronting a new problem: too many people living in too little space. A recent report from the Northern Virginia Regional Commission provides figures from the different overcrowding inspections programs in the region. That report shows that the Manassas program has had the most success in finding residential overcrowding violations -- at a rate of about one violation for every three houses inspected. … According to the NVRC report, Prince William County averages about 34 such complaints per month, compared with 23 per month in Manassas . No data was given for Manassas Park .

Job Gains Slow In Parts of N.Va.
Washington Post; June 20 2005
Prince William County , which added jobs faster than any other large county in the United States in the 12 months ended March 2004, slowed down a bit in the months that followed. Still, it remained one of the nation's fastest generators of jobs. In the 12 months ended March 2004, the county added jobs at an 8 percent rate, according to Labor Department data, to rank No. 1 in the nation for job growth. According to recently released data for the 12 months ended September 2004, the pace of job growth dipped to 5.8 percent …

County Urged to Open Group Home for Mentally Ill
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post, June 23 2005
The Prince William County Community Services Board, the county's mental health agency, urged the Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday to consider opening a $600,000 24-hour group home to serve the mentally ill. … The county serves about 123 clients at any given time through counseling and group homes. … The proposed group home would have four or five beds. Although it would not solve the county's crisis, "we'd like to start there," …

VDOT Says New Roads Must Meet State Standards
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; June 19 2005
Prince William County will no longer be allowed to use state transportation funds to improve existing rural roads if it continues to approve new roads that do not meet state standards, transportation officials said. On July 1, the Virginia Department of Transportation will begin enforcing minimum standards for roads -- rules that have been in place since 1949 but not enforced. Some jurisdictions, including Prince William, still have subdivision ordinances that allow roads to be built with lower standards, said Michael Estes, director of VDOT's local assistance division.

County considers rural road policy changes
Amanda Stewart, Manassas Journal Messenger; June 22 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors decided Tuesday to consider revisions to the county's rural roads policy that would allow the county to remain eligible for state Rural Addition Program funds. The funds are used to maintain and improve rural roads, mainly in the Rural Crescent . …. At Tuesday's meeting the supervisors agreed to consider revisions to the county's policy that would mandate all roads in the Rural Crescent be built to VDOT standards, Chairman Sean T. Connaughton, R-at large, said.

Gainesville: Moving from chokepoint to gateway
Fauquier Times Democrat, June 24 2005
In the realm of strategic chokepoints, tiny Gainesville in Prince William County ranks up there with the very best. The community that was little more than a wide spot on the road only 10 years ago is now a full-fledged bedroom community, complete with shopping center, restaurants and traffic, plenty of traffic. On a typical commuter morning, 30,000 cars speed east along Interstate 66, carrying residents from Loudoun, Fauquier and points further west to jobs in Fairfax or Washington , DC . On U.S. 29, 20,000 more trundle along. Twelve thousand vehicles cruise down Route 55. Then, at Gainesville , where all roads plus a freight railway converge, everything slows, crawls and stops.

VDOT comes through for Gainesville
Gainesville Times; June 24 2005
When VDOT's Six Year Plan was approved last week, Prince William commuters got a shot of good news. The new long-term spending plan includes major funding for the Gainesville interchange, the widening of Interstate 66, a preliminary study for the Buckland Bypass and a stoplight at the intersection of Route 234 and Gum Spring Road .

Virginia 's first ever rail fund to provide $23 million of annual improvements
Richmond.com; June 20, 2005
Last week Governor Mark R. Warner signed legislation creating the Rail Enhancement Fund, the first dedicated revenue stream for investment in rail infrastructure in Virginia 's history. The Fund, which will be created on July 1, 2005 , will support improvements for inter-city passenger, commuter, and freight rail throughout Virginia . … There are 3,400 miles of rail track in Virginia , all of which are privately owned by freight railroads. 71 percent of freight rail traffic hauled in Virginia is coal. The majority of freight in Virginia is through-traffic, bound for destinations outside the state. There are currently two passenger railroads in Virginia, VRE and Amtrak, which operate on approximately 616 miles of track. In 2002, these railroads carried 3.8 million passengers.

Heat issues hinder N.Va. train line
Media General News Service; June 23 2005
The heat is on CSX Corp. -- again. This week, the head of the Virginia Railway Express pleaded for relief from operating mix-ups and heat-related procedures that have created logjams for passengers and hampered the commuter railroad's on-time performance. … T he VRE, a publicly owned transportation partnership, pays CSX about $3.6 million to run on CSX lines. It provides nearly 16,000 passenger trips a day.

VA Transportation Board OK's 6-Year, $9.4B in Projects
WTOP News; June 17 2005
The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a plan Thursday to spend $9.4 billion on highways, rail and public transportation projects over six years. The bulk of the spending _ $7 billion _ will be for 2,029 highway projects, including 103 new ones. The six-year plan also allocates $1.5 billion for rail and public transportation and $900 million, more than half of it federal dollars, for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

Road program in decline? Outgoing official says current funding for construction too low
Peter Bacque, Richmond Times Dispatch; June 17 2005
The infusion of $848 million this year will keep the state's roadbuilding program alive for a few more years, but it is still in a steady decline, the state's outgoing transportation commissioner warned yesterday. "The catastrophe is held off some five to seven years," state Transportation Commissioner Philip Shucet said. "The end game is the same," a transportation program that does nothing more than repair the existing 57,000 miles of state highways.

The Road to Ruin
Bacon's Rebellion; June 2005
Bacon's Rebellion launched The Road to Ruin project to provide in-depth coverage of the debate over Virginia 's transportation future. Traffic congestion is one of the public's hot button issues, and transportation funding is shaping up as the most contentious issue of the 2006 General Assembly session. Our goal is to explain why Virginia 's transportation system seems to be going "all to hell" and what can be done about it.

New HOT Lanes Could Imperil Carpool Practice; Free-Riding 'Slugs' Object To Virginia 's I-95 Plans
Steven Ginsberg , Washington Post, June 20 2005
… As Virginia pursues plans to build high-occupancy toll lanes on many of its major highways, slugs have emerged as an outspoken force against them. They fear for the future of carpool lanes, which they said will be overrun by toll-paying customers. "Within five or 10 years, they're going to eliminate HOV completely," said Scott Hirons, a slugger from Stafford County who started the Committee to Save HOV to fight the I-95 proposals. HOT lanes generally are free to carpoolers, and others can use them for a fee. The lanes are characterized as a congestion-free way to commute because tolls are raised as traffic escalates to prevent clogging.

Lessons of California's toll lanes
Washington Post; June 20 2005
Howard Gottesman jumped onto the Route 91 Express Lanes the day they opened in 1995. For a mere $2.50, the property manager and father of two could veer off one of Southern California's most congested freeways and zip home on the private new toll road that paralleled it. Some days, it nearly cut his evening commute to Corona in half. Soon, though, the secret was out. More and more drivers filled the Express Lanes, and on some nights the drive wasn't so express. Road operators reacted by jacking up the peak-hour fees -- to $2.95, and later $4.75, then $5.50 and more. Last month, Gottesman was staggered to learn that his evening drive would now cost as much as $7.75 a day.

Mini-City Plan Discourages Use of Cars; Fairfax Wants MetroWest to Provide Incentives Not to Drive
Lisa Rein, Washington Post, June 22 2005
Fairfax County planners last night offered a vision for a mini-city at their westernmost Metro station that would begin to transform how people live and commute in Washington 's largest suburb. In a place where cars and growth have always gone together, the county wants to offer incentives to the residents and workers in the planned MetroWest development at the Vienna station to not even own a car -- let alone drive one.

Whatever happened to smart growth?
PERC Reports; June 22 2005
“Smart growth” policies, which became popular nationwide during the 1990s, are regulations designed to reduce suburban sprawl and control growth. They encourage people to live close together within walking distance of shops and offices. One goal is to reduce the use of the automobile; another is to create neighborhoods full of interesting “streetscapes”; and a third is to cluster people in high densities in order to preserve large areas of open space. Today, smart growth policies seem to be in retreat. Setbacks have occurred in Maryland , Virginia , and Oregon , and new census information suggests that the public does not really embrace the smart growth way of life.

High court OKs personal property seizures; Majority: Local officials know how best to help cities
CNN; June 24, 2005
Justices Rule Cities Can Take Property for Private Development
New York Times; June 23 2005
Court Ruling on Land Pleases D.C. Officials
Washington Post; June 24 2005
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses -- even against their will -- for private economic development. It was a decision fraught with huge implications for a country with many areas, particularly the rapidly growing urban and suburban areas, facing countervailing pressures of development and property ownership rights. The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas. As a result, cities have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes to generate tax revenue.

Bankers Tell Congress Why They Should Be Able to Sell Real Estate
The nation's banks got the chance this week to make the case for the government allowing them to enter the real estate field. …. In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Elizabeth A. Duke, an executive vice president of Wachovia Bank and chairman of the American Bankers Association, said that banks' entry into the real estate market would affect Realtors, but that no business should be immune from competition. … A chorus of consumer, community and small business advocates have voiced their support for the Community Choice in Real Estate Act because they say that if big banks were allowed to sell or manage real estate, there would be a negative impact on communities across America, leaving home buyers and sellers with fewer choices, higher loan fees and reduced customer service.

Home Sweet Homebuilders
CNN; June 20 2005
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Housing bubble? P'shaw! Many investors clearly don't believe that the torrid housing market is going to collapse anytime soon. And why should they? The soaring price of real estate from coast to coast has caused many to view homes as a solid short-term investment. Relatively low mortgage rates have helped fuel demand for housing as well. Homebuilder KB Home (Research) reported stellar fiscal second quarter results last week. Earnings surged nearly 80 percent and profits topped analysts' forecasts by 16 percent. These kinds of results have made homebuilder stocks among the biggest winners on Wall Street this year. The S&P Homebuilding index is up 32 percent year-to-date.

The global housing boom; In come the waves
The Economist; June 16 2005
Never before have real house prices risen so fast, for so long, in so many countries. Property markets have been frothing from America , Britain and Australia to France , Spain and China . Rising property prices helped to prop up the world economy after the stockmarket bubble burst in 2000. What if the housing boom now turns to bust? According to estimates by The Economist , the total value of residential property in developed economies rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years, to over $70 trillion, an increase equivalent to 100% of those countries' combined GDPs. Not only does this dwarf any previous house-price boom, it is larger than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s (an increase over five years of 80% of GDP) or America 's stockmarket bubble in the late 1920s (55% of GDP). In other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history.

Economists warn of slowdown in the economy by year's end; Report: Housing market at risk
San Diego Union Tribune; June 21 2005
By the end of the year, America 's bubbling housing prices will likely flatten or pop, causing an economic slowdown, economists warned in a flurry of reports yesterday and today. Red flags issued by such diverse sources as the Merrill Lynch investment firm, the University of Maryland and the UCLA Anderson Forecast warn that a stumble in housing prices could take a major bite out of economic growth, damaging the already weak job market.

Work Here, Live Elsewhere
Vienna/Oakton Connection; June 24 2005
Walter Lopez moved to the United States from Guatemala eight years ago. He rents an apartment in Falls Church , even though most of the clients of his lawn-care business live in the McLean and Vienna areas. He'd like to get a house, he said, because his apartment only offers him one parking sticker. He uses the sticker for his work truck, and parks his car on the street. In a way, Lopez's story is an example of the two main growth trends in Fairfax County . Immigrants like Lopez are arriving in the area in great numbers. In 1990, almost 130,000 foreign-born residents lived in the area, and by 2000, this number had almost doubled. The 2003 community census recorded 280,000 foreign-born people living in Fairfax County . At the same time, housing development has boomed. Between 2003 and 2004, the number of houses in the process of planning or building increased by 20 percent, from 31,000 to 37,500.

Growth Summary Trends
Loudoun Connection; June 22 2005
The Loudoun County Department of Economic Development has released its annual Growth Summary, a synopsis of demographic and economic trends in Loudoun and the region. The document in available online at http://www.loudoun.gov/business/growth_summary_2004.htm

Loudoun Forwards 2 Growth Plans
Washington Post; June 22 2005
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors advanced two competing plans for limiting home building in a vast area of the county yesterday, three months after Virginia 's Supreme Court threw out a more restrictive set of zoning rules on a technicality. Substantial new home building would be allowed under both plans, which now move to public comment sessions. But both plans also would sharply reduce the number of homes that could be built in the western two-thirds of the county now that decades-old zoning rules for the area have been restored by a local judge

Centex Wants 87 Homes Near Marshall
Fauquier Citizen , June 24, 2005
It could have been worse. About 2-1/2 years ago, a Chantilly-based company wanted county approval to build a concrete plant on a 64.9-acre site at Whiting and Belvoir roads east of Marshall . At full tilt, the "batching" plant would have generated 270 truck trips and used up to 32,000 gallons of water per day. Faced with intense community opposition because of such impacts, DuBrook Concrete Inc. withdrew the proposal. Dallas-based Centex Homes wants rezoning approval to build 87 homes on a 58-acre portion of the site. Existing zoning permits industrial and residential uses.

Marshall's Water Woes Prompt Dueling Lawsuits
Fauquier Citizen, June 24, 2005
The businessman would have to "add rooftops" to fix what ails Marshall 's decades-old water system. When he bought the system in 2001, Charles V. "Chuck" Rice planned to make about $2.2 million in upgrades to the Marshall Water Works. Then, he would transfer the system and its remaining debt to the Fauquier County Water and Sanitation Authority. To pay for the system upgrades, Mr. Rice wanted to develop 40 acres along Route 55 at Marshall 's west end. The water system would serve Carter's Crossing, a proposed 95-lot subdivision.

EPA Passes Power Over Parks Air Quality to States
Environmental News Service; June 16 2005
A federal rule approved late Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hands state governments a lead role in deciding how to improve air quality at many national parks and wilderness areas. States have until 2018 to fully implement the rule, which aims to cut emissions from a wide array of industrial facilities built prior to 1977, including utility and industrial boilers, pulp mills, refineries and smelters. Pollution from these facilities is reducing visibility and negatively impacting 156 national parks and wilderness areas across the United States , including Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains , Glacier, Big Bend , Acadia , Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks .
… Park advocates say the new EPA rule fails to match the scope of the air quality problems faced by America 's 156 parks and wilderness areas. The rule condemns “many national parks to a future of unsightly and unhealthy air pollution,” said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association. State implementation plans for reducing haze in the specially protected areas must be submitted to the EPA by December 2007.

Chesapeake 's summer outlook: algae, low oxygen, more grass
Karl Blankenship, Bay Journal; June 2005
By taking a look back at the past two decades, Bay scientists believe they may be able to see the future of the Chesapeake —at least for the summer. But the outlook in their first ever “ecological forecast” isn't a pretty picture. They predict the fourth largest area volume of anoxia—water with no oxygen—seen in the past two decades. They also predict a harmful algae bloom on the Potomac River that will cover at least 10 miles starting in June and last about two and a half months. Their prediction for grasses, the most uncertain of the forecasts, is a bit better. The scientists generally expect increases in the lower and upper Bay, with little change in the middle Bay.

Critical Tool To Protect Farmland, Open Spaces In Jeopardy
Bay Journal, June 01, 2005
Congressional tax policy experts have proposed to sharply limit tax deductions for farmland easements, eliminating a powerful tool to curb the conversion of farmland into development. If enacted, the recommendations of the professional staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation would stymie efforts to reach a goal set by Bay watershed officials and advocates—to protect one-fifth of the farmland and other open spaces in the Bay watershed from development by 2010.

Too many oblivious to waters' decline; Development: As new roads and parking lots gobble up more land, the threat to the bay and other bodies of water in the state likewise grows.
Tom Horton, Baltimore Sun; May 6 2005
If we were unschooled, but attuned to nature, instead of the other way around, we wouldn't need to study and dissect all the ways water dies as you develop its watershed. We would just accept that when you keep wounding any animal - in this case the watershed, the creature containing all other creatures - as you replace its living, breathing skin with dead concrete and asphalt, you are killing it. Eventually, modern ecological science does tend to bring us to the same place as native wisdom.

Clean Water Act Comparative Ranking for Prince William County
Environmental Defense; Scorecard , The Pollution Information Site

Troubled Waters
WTOP Begins Five Part Series
Residents of Maryland , Virginia and D.C. all share one thing in common – they all live near the nation's largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay . For those who love boating, fishing and eating local seafood, the need for a healthy bay is obvious. Yet, many of the more than 16 million people who live in the bay's watershed from New York to Virginia don't realize the impact of this 18-trillion-gallon body of water. The health of the Chesapeake Bay is a quality of life issue that touches everyone. In its Troubled Waters series, WTOP's reporters will spend the next five weeks around the Chesapeake Bay watershed bringing you insight into what's happening with these waterways.

Prince William Shifts Strategy For Struggling Office Park
Jenalia Moreno , Washington Post; May 30 2005
More than a decade ago, Prince William County leaders looked past the tall grass, grazing horses and abandoned barns on a large patch of farmland just west of Manassas and envisioned an office park filled with high-tech companies. The project, now called Innovation at Prince William, has not worked out quite the way they imagined. More than a third of the park's 1,500 acres are still vacant. …. County officials are working with the park's tenants on a master plan that will be presented to county planners and supervisors in July. The plan will include retail and services, such as restaurants and dry cleaners, for the park's occupants.

Innovation@ Prince William Current Occupants
Washington Post; May 30 2005

Supervisors consider 'town center'
Amanda Stewart, Potomac News' June 6 2005
This Tuesday, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors will consider taking the initial steps toward promoting the development of a "town center" at Innovation@PrinceWilliam, the high-tech business park west of Manassas . The county staff has recommended that the board rezone the land at Innovation@PrinceWilliam to allow the construction of the town center, which will offer services to people at the office park and the neighboring George Mason University . A town center could include food vendors, retail space, housing, a Virginia Railway Express station and a hotel and conference center.

BRAC expected to affect U.S.1 traffic
Aileen Streng, Potomac News; June 5 2005
The recommended addition of more than 21,000 federal employees to the two military installations along U.S. 1 could turn the already congested commute into a gridlocked nightmare. …. "[The county] has taken the position that it is not going to wait for the Virginia Department of Transportation to finance Route 1 improvements," said Pat Thomas, a county planner. County voters approved a road bond in 2002. Voters will vote a second one in 2006.  ....  Turning the Va. 234 intersection with U.S. 1 into a "super intersection" that would connect to a new road into the Southbridge and Harbor Station communities is already in the works. Money to pay for the intersection and the roadway would come through taxing the property owners of the new Harbor Station development.

Community rallies against quarries
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; June 3 2005
Neither water supply assurances nor $2 million in roadwork could convince the Nokesville Civic Association that it should welcome Vulcan Material's quarry as a new neighbor. Vulcan Materials officials offered a few ways the company and its proposed quarries could be neighborly to the town of Nokesville at a civic association meeting Thursday. Even so, 75 of the 79 Nokesville Civic Association members said they didn't want the quarries to come to town.

Work begins on Somerset Elementary; Gainesville school to open in 2006
Valerie Walker, Gainesville Times; June 3 2005
The facility is the county's 82nd school. When complete in fall 2006, it will be 89,911 square feet, with a capacity for 950 students. It will have six kindergarten classrooms, 12 primary (grades one and two) classrooms and 16 intermediate (grades three through five) classrooms. …. Somerset , which will cost around $16.1 million to build, will help alleviate overcrowding at nearby Tyler and Alvey Elementary schools . …. At the ground-breaking, no one predicted that the completion of Somerset would be the end of the west side's overcrowding crisis.

County Might Eliminate Bids on Some Purchases; One Contractor Would Handle Repair Jobs Less Than $500,000
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; June 5 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will vote on whether to change the county's purchasing rules so that all public repair jobs of less than $500,000 would go to one company. … n Prince William, there are an average eight projects annually that cost less than $500,000 that could benefit from the change, Scarton said. Thomas Bruun, assistant director of public works, pointed to work on historic properties, such as the 260-year-old Rippon Lodge, the oldest home in the county.

Historic home left to city
Rob Seal, Potomac News; June 2 2005
After a 1905 fire destroyed much of what is now Old Town Manassas, Speiden aided in the reconstruction by designing several brick buildings that still stand today. During that era, he designed the old Town Hall, the Hopkins Candy Factory, several downtown churches and the building that currently houses Okra's Louisiana Bistro, as well as other downtown structures, Herzog said. Now, because of a donation to the city in his daughter's will, a local museum may be in the works that would commemorate both Speiden's work and his era.

County Is 'Preserve America ' Community
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; My 26 2005
Prince William County, home of the historic Manassas Battlefield Park, where thousands of soldiers lost their lives during the Civil War, has been designated a Preserve America community, part of a White House initiative that recognizes efforts to maintain cultural heritage. …. Most of the county's centuries-old homes, stores and other buildings have long since crumbled, remembered only with historical markers erected in out-of-the-way spots along busy roadways. Strip malls and subdivisions dot the once-rural landscape. But, about five years ago, county officials began working to end further destruction of historic properties, hiring Prince William's first historic preservation manager, Brendon Hanafin, and creating a division for the effort. The county also is working with developer Centex Homes and the Civil War Preservation Trust to preserve Bristoe Station, the site of another significant Civil War battle …

'Hallowed Ground' At Risk
Free Lance-Star, June 04, 2005
Civil War battlefields in the Fredericksburg area have been in a running battle with sprawl for years. Now, a national preservation group is sounding the alarm for other battlefields, historic sites and scenic areas in a 175-mile corridor from Monticello --Thomas Jefferson's Charlottesville home--to Gettysburg , Pa. The National Trust for Historic Preservation on Thursday named "The Journey through Hallowed Ground" corridor to its 2005 list of America 's Most Endangered Places.

20,000+ homes in Dulles South?
Anne Keisman, Loudoun Times; May 24 2005
New development battles brew in Loudoun almost daily. Both the rural and suburban halves of the county feel the pressure of prosperity -- more jobs, more residents, more houses, more conflict. A new group has formed to fight for the middle ground – a large swath of land known to planners and developers as Dulles South, running on both sides of U.S. 50 between U.S. 15 and Route 659. Current zoning regards it as a low-density “transition zone” between the urbanized east and rural west. Six developers have pitched proposals to the county to bring suburban-style neighborhoods to the area – an increase of more than 20,000 homes to land now zoned for 12,000 houses. One developer, Greenvest LLC, wants to put 14,700 homes on 4,200 acres.

Commission Denies Village At Leesburg; Too Many Questions Left Unanswered
Molly Novotny, Leesburg 2Day; June 3 2005
A few minutes after midnight last night, the Leesburg Planning Commission voted to recommended denial of KSI's application to build a mixed-use development along the south side of Rt. 7 at its intersection with River Creek Parkway . The Village at Leesburg project would include 635 homes, 300 of which are age restricted, more than a million square feet of commercial uses, including a 140,000-square-foot Wegmans grocery store, a million square feet of commercial uses and a 235-room hotel.

New Post Splits Panel
Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star, June 02, 2005
The fate of New Post--a 1,500-home "smart growth" community--remains in limbo after the Spotsylvania Planning Commission deadlocked last night. A 3-3 vote killed a recommendation that the Board of Supervisors rezone 418 acres at U.S. 17 and State Route 2 for the development.

What Makes a Great Place ? The New City Beautiful
Francesca Lyman, Yes Magazine; June 2005
It can happen in your town: Streetscapes blooming with wildflowers, industrial waterfronts transformed into parks, and creeks once again dancing with salmon. A green urban renaissance is growing ...

Reconnecting young America with the natural world
Neil Peirce; Seattle Times; May 9 2005
With today's superhighways, thick traffic, shopping malls and rigid control by community associations, fewer children get a chance to walk or bike to school. A study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990, the radius around the home that children were allowed to play had sunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970.

Developers See Green In 'Brownfield' Sites
Ray Smith, Wall Street Journal; June 2 2005
Brown is the new green in a hot real-estate market. Years ago, only brave developers would touch brownfields, the name given to environmentally contaminated properties that are abandoned or unused. But in an era of high land prices, fierce competition for real estate and federal-government incentives, investors and developers are actually competing for abandoned steel mills, gas stations, and shuttered factories.

Complete the Streets! New state and local policies require that virtually all roads be built to serve all types of users.
Barbara McCann, American Planning Association; May 2005
…. Complete streets are not limited to a few designated corridors. Many communities have launched main street initiatives, adopted bicycle plans, or undertaken special planning processes for nonmotorized travel in specific places. In contrast, complete streets policies strive for diversity on just about every thoroughfare. And the process of creating complete streets is leading planners and engineers across the country to approach street design in fundamentally new ways.

Regional Rigor Mortis
E.M. Rissee, Bacon's Rebellion; June 5 2005
The latest Urban Mobility report confirms what we all know: Traffic congestion is getting worse. As Virginia 's transportation systems decay, so do our regional economies and quality of life.

New HOT lanes proposed
Keith Walker, Potomac News; June 4 2005
One of the initial steps toward High Occupancy Toll lanes and Bus Rapid Transit was taken Friday when two construction companies submitted plans for the transit project to the Virginia Department of Transportation. …. The proposed Interstate 95/395 Bus Rapid Transit HOT Lanes Systems Project would add an extra lane to the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes between Quantico Creek and the 14th Street Bridge, and extend HOV lanes to Massaponax in Spotsylvania County . People who use the lanes to travel in single occupancy vehicles would have to pay tolls. Vehicles with three or more passengers and buses would still travel the lanes for free.

Efforts To Repair Aging System Compound Metro's Problems
Washington Post, June 05, 2005
Washington's world-class subway system, which for three decades has shaped the metropolitan region and delivered thousands of commuters to work on time, has fallen into a decline -- and mismanagement has been a key factor, records show....Trains break down 64 percent more often than they did three years ago, and the number of daily delays has nearly doubled since 2000. Although the vast majority of trains are on time, more than 14,400 subway riders a day are inconvenienced by a delay or a mechanical problem that forces them off broken trains.

VRE Gets More Seats
Free Lance-Star, June 04, 2005
VRE to offer more seats, thanks to Amtrak deal Virginia Railway Express will add 1,800 new seats to its trains in the coming budget year thanks to an updated agreement with Amtrak. Amtrak will continue to operate and maintain the VRE fleet. The new agreement gives VRE extra daytime storage space in D.C., allowing it to add cars to some of its more crowded trains.

Speed up planning of new bay crossing, lawmakers urge; Members of House panel press transportation chief
David Nitkin, Baltimore Sun; May 27 2005
As Maryland braces for hours of bridge delays during the summer beach season, the need for a third Chesapeake Bay crossing is so clear that planning should be accelerated, lawmakers told a top state transportation official yesterday.

Leaders of Maryland , Virginia , D.C. confer; To foster regionalism, they discuss air quality, baseball, security, gangs
Gwyneth K. Shaw; Baltimore Sun; June 1 2005
The governors of Maryland and Virginia met with Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams yesterday, as part of their continuing effort to foster regional cooperation on issues ranging from the environment to tourism to gang control. After the meeting, Williams, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signed an agreement creating the Interstate Air Quality Council, to help bolster the progress in improving air quality in the area. The secretaries of the environment and transportation from the three governments make up the council, and will work to help meet new federal ozone standards and other benchmarks.

Leaders of DC, VA and MD establish new air quality council
Heather Greenfield, Potomac News; May 31 2005
As the Washington region teeters on the brink of violating the federal Clean Air Act, leaders of the District of Columbia , Virginia and Maryland are appointing a new team to clear the air. They signed an agreement Tuesday to create the Interstate Air Quality Council. It is comprised of the environmental and transportation secretaries from the three jurisdictions.

The strain of sprawl draws Md. , Pa. to talk; Bi-state summit discusses impact of development
Timothy B. Wheeler, Baltimore Sun; May 27 2005
"Drive a little, save a lot," the real estate ads say. Lured by the prospect of cheaper housing prices and lower taxes, Marylanders are migrating in growing numbers from Baltimore 's increasingly pricey suburbs to the quiet boroughs and pastoral countryside of south-central Pennsylvania . …. Planners, activists and elected officials from Baltimore, Carroll and Washington counties in Maryland met here yesterday with their counterparts in the three Pennsylvania counties on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line in what organizers described as the first bi-state summit on the impact of the development affecting them all.

World Marks Green Day; Big City Mayors Sign Pacts
New York Times; June 6 2005
Big city mayors from around the world signed a series of pacts on Sunday to improve the conditions of urban centers, capping a five-day U.N. World Environment conference in San Francisco , the city where the United Nations was founded in 1945. The signing ceremony on World Environment Day in the ornate rotunda at City Hall committed more than 50 of the world's largest cities to ``build an ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable future for our urban citizens,'' organizers said.

Urban Dwellers Mainly Cause Global Warning, but See Little of It
Uta Harnischfeger, Associated Press; June 6 2005
Urban dwellers are mainly responsible for global warming, but see little of the effects because they have their biggest impact in isolated and sparsely populated regions, the U.N. environment agency said. "Cities use vast amounts of resources like water, food and timber while also producing a large amount of waste," said Klaus Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment Program, or UNEP. "People living in San Francisco or London may look at these images of deforestation or melting Arctic ice, and wonder what it has to do with them," Toepfer said on Friday. "Their impacts stretch beyond their physical borders affecting countries, regions and the planet as a whole."

Can industry spread its green fever? General Electric puts new focus on global warming
Marianne Lavelle, US News and World Report; June 6 2005
General Electric's new environmental push, dubbed "Ecomagination," features a TV commercial showing an elephant so animated by the industrial giant's clean technology he dances to "Singin' in the Rain." GE can claim some fancy footwork, indeed, since its high-profile plan to cut its own greenhouse-gas emissions and boost environmental technology spending, along with similar recent moves by key businesses, has begun to shift the political landscape in favor of action on climate change.

Seeing Growth Potential in Being Green; Finnish Companies Benefit From E.U.'s Eco-Friendly Rules
Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post; June 1 2005
Lassi Noponen, chief executive of Finland 's Proventia Group, has his eye on General Electric Co., a firm thousands of times bigger than his own that recently announced plans to remake itself with "ecomagination," emphasizing ecologically friendly research and products to make money from being green.

Authority warned of violating water laws
Potomac News; May 20 2005
The Prince William Service Authority was warned last week that it might have violated state clean water laws when 642,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed into the Quantico Creek. … DEQ has told the service authority that it wants to see its plan and timetable for making corrections to the Canal Road station, as well as any other station that has the same electrical design.

Development leads to property damage
Tim Horn, Gainesville Times; May 20 2005
Possum Point Road has been inundated with soil [stormwater] run-off from the construction of area developments for several years. … One of his gravest concerns was the fact that various stretches of Possum Point Road flooded and the moving waters can be treacherous. This flooding could be directly connected to the construction above his house. The runoff is so substantial that Mr. Sentiger believes safety vehicles would have a difficult time getting to some of the homes in a severe rainstorm. It is a difficult thing to fight city hall. This is especially true when you feel you are fighting alone.

Get Serious About the Bay
Editorial, Washington Post; May 15 2005
With a federally mandated deadline hanging over their heads, Virginia environmental officials have presented lawmakers with a jaw-dropping price tag for the state's share of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay : $10 billion. … The reality is that Virginia has little choice but to get serious about cleaning up the bay. The Environmental Protection Agency has told the commonwealth that it must meet certain goals for reducing the flow of nutrients into the bay by 2010 or face unspecified action, a threat some officials say could mean sticking Virginia with an even larger bill later than it would face now.

Cost to Clean Bay, Rivers:  $12.5 Billion
Richmond Times Dispatch , May 13, 2005
Cleaning the Chesapeake Bay and other polluted waters across Virginia will cost an estimated $12.5 billion, state officials said yesterday.Assistant Secretary of Natural Resources Russ Baxter revealed the estimate -- Virginia's first-ever tally of statewide costs -- at a meeting of a legislative panel studying ways to pay for the cleanups. "That's an astronomical figure," said Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Occoquan celebrates dredging
Potomac News, May 15 2005
The $4.7 million, 3-year dredging project by the Army Corps of Engineers is completed, and the town was celebrating.

Dredging makes boating safer
Potomac News; May 12 2005
One notoriously dangerous portion of the river near the Belmont Bay Marina where shoaling had compromised the depth to as low as 2 or 3 feet has been dug out. … The Occoquan had not been dredged in 43 years and gradually with each passing year more silt has settled in the river's bottom. Over the last five years, more and more recreational and commercial boaters began experiencing groundings and damage to their vessels due to the shallow channel.

New law a baby step
On the Bay: Tom Horton; Baltimore Sun; April 16 2005
The impact of pollution from Pennsylvania and Virginia makes it painfully clear that Maryland 's best efforts to clean up the bay will be squandered without more progress from upstream and down. Of the 277 million pounds of nitrogen the bay receives in an average year, about 45 percent flows down the Susquehanna River , mostly from Pennsylvania . Another 20 percent to 25 percent comes from the Potomac River , to which Virginia is a big contributor. The Susquehanna and Potomac contribute half the phosphorus that pollutes the bay. The flush tax should meet more than half of Maryland 's cleanup goal for nitrogen - but little more than 10 percent of the baywide goal. Virginia is floundering in most aspects of meeting its 2010 cleanup goals. Pennsylvania is likely to pass a bond to upgrade sewage treatment - but sewage is a minor part of its pollution.

Gainesville Farmers Fight Bay Pollution At The Source
Gainesville Times , May 13, 2005
Beth and Duane Miller know that the Chesapeake Bay needs some cleaning. It's infiltrated with sediment and nutrients that are leeched from areas upstream and hinder aquatic life cycles. The Millers know that their 13-acre farm in Gainesville is the beginning of the bay's watershed... Beth Miller said she kept them away from the pond in winter months, but in the summer months, their hooves could dig holes near the banks, causing erosion and sediment deposits down stream. They found in the Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District an upstream opportunity to purify water flowing from Virginia 's mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.

Rural Crescent faces change
Chad Umble, Potomac News; May 15 2005
Whether they know it as the Rural Crescent , Rural Croissant, Rural Subdivision or simply as the Rural Area, many in Prince William County have a love affair with an 80,000-acre swath of land across the southern and western part of the county. But like many love affairs, this one is showing signs of age. After seven years, many residents, county officials and developers are vaguely dissatisfied with the Rural Crescent ; yet they remain fiercely loyal to using the area to preserve the county's rural heritage in the face of rapid growth.

Wentworth Green decision is up to the 'fickle four'
By Robert B. Weir, Gainesville Times; May 13 2005
The potential impact of land use applications is often evident to even the casual observer. Having served on the Haymarket Town Council and Planning Commission for nearly a year, I have much greater understanding of the dynamics of such applications and their potential for adverse impact upon the community.

Wentworth Green OK'd
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; May 20 2005
In a debate that did not begin until after 11 p.m. and lasted until almost 1 a.m., supervisors and residents discussed whether the development's good points -- the stores and school site -- were worth the burden of 475 new homes and the added traffic they would bring. … At last month's public hearing before the Planning Commission, resident opinion was mixed, with some supporting the plan and others arguing that the new homes would only add to already-gridlocked roads in Gainesville . On Tuesday, however, only supporters of the project were on hand to speak up when the public hearing was opened shortly after midnight .

Gainesville to get Wentworth Green
Chad Umble, Potomac News; May 19 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved a development Tuesday that could bring 475 homes, upscale shops, restaurants, a new middle school and a soccer stadium to a 153-acre site between Linton Hall and Wellington roads near Gainesville .

Descendants Of Slave Settlers Sell Prince William Enclave
Washington Post, May 15, 2005
An acre of land in Gainesville wasn't worth much in 1865. It was worth so little, in fact, that white landowners were willing to rent it to freed slaves who had traveled there in search of land. In a flurry of sales during the 1880s, many of the former slaves bought property for $10 an acre or even less. They called the land, which lies roughly along Routes 29 and 15, the Settlement. It became one of Northern Virginia's most significant, and most stable, black communities.

Extreme Makeover On Route 1's Horizon; Board Hears Latest Development Plan
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; May 12 2005
Route 1, the north-south roadway that time and poor zoning have turned into a hodgepodge of aging strip malls, gas stations and scrappy businesses, will be the site of major developments in the next two years that could change its reputation as Prince William County's second-rate retail and business district, a county planner said.

As The County Grows, Demographics Change
Washington Post, May 15, 2005
Prince William County 's population will continue to explode, and the community that was once a sparsely occupied, rural outpost of metropolitan Washington could have a population of 415,300 in five years and 531,000 by 2030, according to new estimates released Friday.

Residents speak out against Battlefield Bypass route
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; May 13 2005
It came as no surprise last Thursday that almost no one was happy with the official proposal for the Battlefield Bypass. Public opinion has been against the Federal Highway Administration's preferred route since it was unveiled earlier this year. On May 5, residents lined up to put their opinions on the record. "This is a really tragic waste of public money," said John Gordon, of Gainesville , who argued that the feds should nix the entire bypass plan altogether.

Tri-County Parkway Gets Mixed Reviews; Some Residents Urge East-West Fix First
Julia Feldmeier , Washington Post; May 15 2005
Speakers at a public hearing last week expressed frustration over congested roads in Northern Virginia but questioned whether the proposed north-south tri-county parkway linking Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties should be built before east-west traffic issues are resolved.

Better land-use, not new roads, is the answer
Kim Hosen, Gainesville Times; May 17 2005
Years and years of experience show that building new roads generates increased traffic and thus fails to relieve existing congestion problems. Last week's public hearings for the Battlefield Bypass and Tri-County Parkway studies brought scores of citizens to the podium to remind officials about the strong connections between transportation and land use.

Tri-County plan blasted
Dominic Bonaiuto, Fairfax Times; May 11 2005
Residents of western Fairfax said, in no uncertain terms this week, that they do not want a new parkway running through their community, particularly one that would cut through Bull Run Regional Park, a prized community landmark.

'Multiple-bypass surgery': Coalition for Smarter Growth contends new roads would exacerbate traffic
Valerie Walker, Gainesville Times; May 13 2005
A Western Transportation Corridor is an idea that has been floated, dropped and floated again for decades. There are no longer any official plans for such a road but many believe that the Battlefield Bypass and Tri-County Parkway are back door approaches to getting the controversial corridor built.

Tri-County Parkway draws mixed opinions
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; May 17 2005
State officials got a mixed bag May 9 when they opened up the floor to public comment on the proposed routes for the Tri-County Parkway . Monday's hearing, held at Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas , was the first of three hearings on the three routes being considered for a north-south connector road linking Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax counties.

FBI Office Will Move to Prince William
Jenalia Moreno , Washington Post; May 11 2005
The FBI will relocate its Northern Virginia office from Tysons Corner to Prince William County , bringing the first major federal government office to the bedroom community. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors agreed yesterday to sell 15 acres of land to the U.S. General Services Administration for $2.6 million. The GSA will select a developer by next year to build a 199,110-square-foot building that will be leased to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Government Offices May Shift Away From D.C.
Washington Examiner, May 16, 2005
The Department of Defense's proposal to close 3.9 million square feet of leased office space in Crystal City and shift 23,000 jobs could result in a "traffic disaster" as commuters follow their employers to outer suburbs, one transportation group says. "The shift would take thousands of commuters off transit and put them on already-overburdened highways," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. But so far, the prospect of future traffic congestion doesn't faze county officials. Last week Prince William County announced the FBI's Northern Virginia regional office would be making its home in a technology business park just outside Manassas . Now the county is seeking to entice more federal clients to its economic base.

Base Plan Undercuts Sprawl Battle
Washington Post, May 15, 2005
"No rezoning has ever had the impact that this one decision will have on our community . . . and it is a step backward from a transit-oriented point of view," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman, noting that the proposed changes would redirect thousands of employees out of Metro trains and into their cars.  ...  Connolly was referring specifically to the Defense Department plan to move more than 18,000 jobs to Fort Belvoir in burgeoning southern Fairfax, but other jurisdictions face similar challenges. About 5,400 jobs could be moved to Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County and 3,013 to the Marine Corps base at Quantico in Prince William County.

Real Estate Roulette
WTOP, May 16, 2005
... Between 2003 and 2004 eight of the country's fastest growing areas were outside the Beltway in Virginia . They are Loudoun County , Prince William County , Manassas Park City , Spotsylvania County , Stafford County , Culpeper County , King George County and Berkley County , W.Va. In some of these counties home prices have tripled in the past several years. But that's where people can afford to buy. In Hagerstown , Md. , Hancock , Md. and York County , Pa. , developers are building homes for Washington-area commuters. How can you tell? The prices -- $300,000 and $400,000 -- are out of reach for the locals. But those prices are a couple of hundred-thousand dollars cheaper than around D.C.

Average Northern Virginia Home Price Tops $500,000
Prince William Times , May 17, 2005
The average home sales price in Northern Virginia climbed above $500,000 in the first quarter of 2005, according to a report by Alexandria-based realty group McEnearney Associates. ... Data compiled by the firm's newsletter, Market Watch, said that the average sales price of $505,912 in March 2005 was a 21.5-percent increase over March 2004, when the average sales price was $416,526.

Property Taxes Questioned As Prices Zoom
New York Times; May 22 2005
Soaring property taxes are a top worry in state legislatures across the country, where lawmakers are trying to appease disgruntled homeowners and, in some cases, courts that are demanding change in the system so schools are more equitably funded. Some states are weighing plans to lower taxes. Others just want to keep them from rising too fast. Still others are aiming to substantially change the tax system and find another way to help pay for schools that closes the quality gap between wealthy and poor communities.

Supervisors Float Western Zoning Ideas
Dusty Smith, Leesburg 2Day ; May 18 2005
Following several weeks of silence, the board of supervisors last week trotted out their own ideas for western Loudoun rural zoning in the aftermath of a recent state Supreme Court decision that, left untouched, will revert most of that part of the county to A-3. If there was any consensus among those offering new ideas, it was that the old A-3 will not be revived under any circumstances.

KSI's Rt. 7 Development Goes To Public
Molly Novotny, Leesburg 2Day; May 19 2005
Developer KSI's proposal to build 635 homes, more than a million square feet of commercial uses and a 235-room hotel along Rt. 7 will be before the public tonight during a Planning Commission public hearing that is set to start at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Known as Village at Leesburg, the mixed-business proposal requires numerous amendments and special exceptions, the most significant being the amendments to the zoning ordinance and town plan.

Developer Backs Off Plan To Swap Loudoun Parkland; Proposal Included Money for Road Projects
Michael Laris , Washington Post; May 18 2005
In three decades developing communities in Northern Virginia , Leonard S. "Hobie" Mitchel has been a provocative advocate for both private and public projects. He likes pushing creative solutions, he said a couple of months ago, even if that makes him a lightning rod. Yesterday, though, Mitchel acknowledged that his approach had fallen short in a major Loudoun County proposal he has touted for months.

Hot properties: Office development becomes growing niche in Fauquier
Paul Smith, Fauquier Citizen; May 19 2005
The Fauquier office condo development blitz continues with no letup in sight. "The time is right," says Bill Chipman, who with business partners invested more than $4.5 million in the 25,200-square-foot Walker Business Park in Warrenton. At least seven office condo sites in the county remain under construction, while several others move closer to approval.

Builder Contests Decision
Free Lance-Star, May 17, 2005
Hazel Land Cos. is seeking a court order to permit it to develop an apartment complex in eastern Spotsylvania County 's Lee Hill area. In a lawsuit filed last week in Circuit Court, Hazel complains that the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors demanded “illegal impact fees” in exchange for the rezoning needed to allow construction of Lee's Hill Town Center . ... Hazel pitched the planned Lee's Hill Town Center as a “complete mixed-use community” that included the apartments and a variety of retail shops, professional offices, hotels, restaurants and recreational facilities.

River Land Purchased
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, May 19, 2005
Twenty acres of Fredericksburg riverfront land, part of which is home to the Virginia Outdoor Center and Friends of the Rappahannock , has changed hands. The longtime owner, Petra Franklin, sold the tracts to a partnership—Sandy Bottom at the Fall Line—for $2.1 million, according to a deed filed in city Circuit Court. Tom Van Arsdall, fundraising chairman of the river preservation group, said Tuesday that the sale of the parcels along Fall Hill Avenue is good news. “We're optimistic that everything will work out well concerning the permanent protection of the land,” he said.

The Wave Of The Future May Be The Past
Fauquier Times-Democrat, May 18, 2005
The importance of preserving a community's "sense of place" and the ways to accomplish this worthy goal were the central themes of Edward T. McMahon's presentation at the Rice Theater at Highland School 's Center for the Arts on May 11. "If you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are," said McMahon, referring to the increasing homogenization of American townscapes and residential subdivisions. "There is a connection between the people and the land ... a sense of place is what makes us different, and what makes our surroundings worth caring about." McMahon, a resident of Takoma Park, Md., and Senior Fellow at the Urban Land Institute, spoke on the "Dollars and Sense of Preserving Character" to a receptive and appreciative audience.

Forest 's Colorful Jewels in a Fight for Their Lives
New York Times; May 17 2005
In parts of the Eastern United States , forests are widely thought to be on the rebound as land cleared for agriculture and now abandoned reverts to its former state. But research is showing that much of the diversity in those forests is missing and that many spring woodland wildflowers have not reappeared. "What we have back is a shadow of its former self," said Dr. Canham of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies . "There's very little rigorous documentation of plants like trillium or bloodroot. They could be much rarer now than they were 50 years ago, but it would be very hard to prove that."

County Unswayed by Developer's Plea; Supervisors Seek to Stop Construction That Damaged Pond in Triangle
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post; April 17 2005
Prince William County filed an injunction last week to halt construction of a 291-home development in Dumfries because of the developer's failure to control sediment runoff and erosion that neighbors say damaged a pond and causes flooding during heavy rains.

Confidential memo leaves questions
Chad Umble, Potomac News; April 8 2005
Opponents of the Harbor Station development on the Cherry Hill peninsula say a nearly two-year-old confidential legal memo from the Prince William County Attorney's Office proves that officials are showing favoritism to the area's developer. County officials counter that the memo is only legal advice that did not need to be followed. … [Board Chairman] Connaughton said he is not worried about warnings in the Spear memo. He said that, if needed, the county attorney's office could find another legal angle. "For every land use matter that comes before the board of supervisors, we have alternative legal memos," Connaughton said.

Prince William Charges Builder Over Muddy Pond
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post, April 8 2005
Prince William has charged Edgemoore Homes with 50 environmental violations, most for failure to control sediment runoff and erosion. During rainstorms, debris and dirt can be seen trickling down a hill and into the pond, which then overflows and floods streets in the area just a short distance from Quantico Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River . … Edgemoore's conduct has been unusual, [Acting County Attorney] Howard said. "Normally, we do not have that number of violations, and normally, we do not have them recurring without prompt action," he said.

Dumfries to take action on creek erosion
Aileen Streng, Potomac News; April 8 2005
The proposal is based on two studies -- one by the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- that provided plenty of scientific data as to the condition of the creek, the reasons for it and how it should be addressed. The cost of the first phase of the project, about $153,000, will be put in the fiscal year 2006 budget, Barkley said. It will be paid for through bond money the town has already gotten as well as through storm water management fees it collects for residents.

Small Defense Player at Home in Innovation Park
Jenalia Moreno , Washington Post, April 7 2005
Prince William County added jobs faster than any other U.S. county in 2004, and part of the credit goes to small companies such as ProLogic, according to the county Economic Development Department. In Prince William, ProLogic employs 80 people who make an average annual salary of $62,500, said Paul Maguire, ProLogic's vice president of business development and marketing.

Brentsville parents raise school concerns
Valerie Walker, Gainesville Times; April 8 2005
New school construction was the first aspect of growth that parents wanted to hear about. Some asked if there were a plan for a new high school to help alleviate the overcrowding at Brentsville District High. Johns tried to explain the delay the school system has had in finding another high school site. He said that high school sites generally need to be about 80 acres to accommodate the building, parking, and athletic fields. The sites must also have access to water, sewer and electric lines. At present, Johns said, there are few 80-acre parcels left in Prince William that have access to public utilities. The owners of those few parcels, he said, generally want to wait for a better offer from housing developers. The county's difficulty in acquiring land has put officials in the position of waiting for proffers from developers, Johns said.

Holy Family expansion denied
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; April 8 2005
Plans to expand a private school in a rural neighborhood did not meet the expectations of six Prince William County Planning Commissioners on Wednesday. ... parents said the school's popularity has grown in Catholic circles by word of mouth, and some families have moved into the neighborhood to be closer to the school. But neighbors of the school, most of who said they had no problems with the existing size of the school, said an expansion doesn't fit the character of the neighborhood. One man said the big buildings could be better suited in a more urban setting rather than in Buckhall, a sleepy country neighborhood.

Board mulls heavy rescue unit for Gainesville
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; April 8 2005
During Tuesday's meeting of the Board of County Supervisors, Brentsville District supervisor Wally Covington, whose district includes Gainesville , asked that money be found to pay for heavy unit staff. "Right now, the only heavy tactical unit is down in ... the Dale City area so when there's a problem, they either come from Dale City or Fairfax ," he said. "As I look through the list, the fire and rescue really seems to be the highest priority for me." The list he referred to is a table of funding requests -- more than $7 million worth -- for the current year's county budget. After cutting taxes and funding the county's top priorities, supervisors are left with roughly $2 million in unallocated funds that can be spent on some of those requests.

EPA Ordered to Act on Regional Smog Plan
D'Vera Cohn , Washington Post; April 9 2005
A federal judge has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to approve or reject a smog-reduction plan for the Washington area by May 3, saying the EPA has an "unblemished record of nonperformance" in complying with parts of the Clean Air Act. The court ruling, issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Robertson, was the Sierra Club's fourth legal victory on the issue in three years. The environmental group contends that the EPA repeatedly missed deadlines and allowed localities to do less than required. The group, represented by Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, filed its latest suit in December.

Public transportation chief backs rail extension
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; April 8 2005
The head of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation had some promising news regarding Virginia Railway Express to Gainesville last week. In a meeting with Times Community Newspapers on Friday, Karen Rae said that rail extension to western Prince William could happen in the foreseeable future. "I think it has a lot of promise," she said. "As you look at (Interstate) 66, the concept of rail to Gainesville-Haymarket ... probably offers one of the more comprehensive solutions."

Warner names transportation's new secretary; Clement's chief deputy Pierce Homer to take boss's job on April 1
Peter Bacque, Richmond Times Dispatch; March 25 2005
Gov. Mark R. Warner has appointed Pierce R. Homer, a career public servant, as the state's new secretary of transportation.Warner appointed Homer deputy secretary in 2002. From 1987 to 2002, Homer was Prince William County 's deputy county executive, where responsibilities included transportation and public safety.  ...  Shucet said he was especially pleased that Homer is a strong advocate for transparency in government. That certainly fits well with VDOT's direction, he said.

[Fauquier] Planners say 'no' to Centex
Cheryl K. Chumley, Fauquier Times Democrat; April 5 2005
It's not often a government body receives mass applause, but constituents Thursday sure were approving of the Fauquier County Planning Commission, after members put the brakes on a proposed 679-unit development. Called Arrington Knolls, Centex Homes planned to construct 679 duplexes and single- family homes for those aged 55 or higher, on roughly 483 acres located to the west of Wal-Mart. The property included by-rights for only 226 units, according to a report conducted by planners with the Department of Community Development.

Some Loudoun Landowners Want To Save Zoning Controls
Washington Post, April 05, 2005
...Yesterday, the Baldwins joined other landowners outside the Loudoun County Government Center with an unusual request for a local judge: Make them defendants in a long-running legal battle over development. They want to fight a ruling by Virginia's Supreme Court that would allow them to cut up their farm into lucrative lots.

How Far, How Fast, How Much? County Broadens Debate On Future Of Dulles South
Washington Post, April 03, 2005
...The area, or parts of it, has alternately been called Dulles South and the "transition policy area," reflecting both the proximity of Dulles International Airport and the conflicting visions of what the area should become. Development advocates have long seen the area south and west of the airport as a logical -- and profitable -- location for large subdivisions like the planned community of South Riding.

Townhome Prices Rising Out of Reach, Montgomery Report Warns Middle Class
Tim Craig , Washington Post; April 10 2005
Researchers at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission predict that within two years, the county's median annual household income -- now $84,000 -- will not be enough to support the purchase of at least half the previously occupied townhouses on the market.

Finding a better way to 'develop and grow'; Growth group staff member hopes to get area thinking about suburb alternatives
Will Jones, Richmond Times Dispatch; April 6 2005
Michael McDevitt grew up in rural Prince William County in Northern Virginia . He watched as fields and woods were gradually transformed into suburbs and shopping centers. He wants the Richmond area to avoid a similar fate. As the first full-time staff member of the new Partnership for Smarter Growth, McDevitt hopes to help put together a blueprint for the region's growth.

New Approach To Managing Growth
Washington Post, April 04, 2005
Last summer, when his cousin's farm went up for sale, Jim Staley walked down Scrabble Road and told his neighbors what they already knew: Because the farm was only an hour-and-a-half drive from Washington, any buyer would likely want to plant houses, a lot of them, on the land... On the ride home, Thomas's cell phone rang: The 300-acre farm was theirs, for $3.6 million.

Outcry reinforces importance of Baltimore County growth line; Water, sewer resolution weakens border, critics say
Baltimore Sun; April 3 2005
The Urban-Rural Demarcation Line exists only on planners' maps. But since its establishment in 1967, the URDL has functioned like the girdle with which the acronym rhymes, squeezing 90 percent of the county's population in around the Beltway while preserving the farmland and trout streams that have become a rarity elsewhere in the Baltimore region. The line, and restrictive zoning imposed in the 1970s to enforce it, have earned Baltimore County national recognition as a pioneer in the fight against suburban sprawl. Along the way, the growth boundary also has become a "third rail" of county politics, something that elected officials touch at their peril. … "The reality is that I see that the traditional zoning and development process is under attack," Holzer added. "So when someone comes along and says they want to change the URDL line ... it's been like the Great Wall of China ." Kamenetz said that he is looking into ways to "reaffirm the sanctity" of the line, perhaps through new language in the county's master plan.

Green Scene
New York Post; April 9 2005
These projects are part of a spike in green building that's underway in the city. It runs the gamut from eco-friendly high-rises and low-income housing to homeowners who choose nontoxic building materials for their renovations. … Landmark green buildings that have opened in recent years include the Helena; the Solaire in Battery Park City, the city's first residential tower to get a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council; 1400 Fifth Ave. in Harlem, the city's first green low-income housing.; and 4 Times Square, the city's first green office building. Robert Politzer of Green Street Construction, which does green renovations and construction, compared green building to where organic food was a few years ago - a concept moving from the fringes into the mainstream. Like others, he predicts a "groundswell shift" in the coming years, as people "recognize that a green building is a superior building."

Waste spills fuel 'flush tax' debate ; Military bases the source of major sewage overflows; U.S. won't pay bay-cleanup fee
Baltimore Sun; April 10 2005
Three military bases in Maryland have together spilled nearly 20 million gallons of sewage into Chesapeake Bay tributaries over the past decade, raising further questions about the military's refusal to pay the state's "flush tax," aimed at cleaning up the bay. An often overwhelmed World War II-era waste treatment plant at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County has flushed 5.4 million gallons of partly treated sewage into the Bush River over the past two years, according to state records. The Naval Surface Warfare Center in Charles County has received two federal violation notices in the past six years, one for washing coal ash from a power plant into the Potomac River and another for spilling more than 14 million gallons of sewage, records show. And Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County has spilled more than 200,000 gallons of raw sewage over the past four years into the Little Patuxent River and nearby waterways, records show.

Nature, man conspire to endanger blue crabs
Scott Harper, Virginian-Pilot; April 10 2005
Ironically, while blue crabs have received more study and attention in the Chesapeake Bay than anywhere else, “we're probably the closest to a collapse,” said Rom Lipcius , a crab researcher and conference organizer from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Blue crabs are synonymous with the Bay, cultural and culinary symbols of the Chesapeake and its bounty. While not as important economically as they once were, crabs still support thousands of jobs and are worth more than $30 million annually to Virginia.

Eco-firms see growing profits
Christian Science Monitor; April 7 2005
Just a niche market in the 1980s, ecosystem restoration has surged in the past five years, with announced multi-year projects exceeding $70 billion worldwide and annual revenues in the US of more than $1 billion a year, industry sources say. "From an ecological restoration standpoint, there's something on the order of tens of billions of dollars in the pipeline just in this country," says Bowers, who also is chairman of the Society for Ecological Restoration International in Tucson , Ariz.

Rural Crescent remains unchanged
Chad Umble, Potomac News; March 17 2005
Prince William County 's Rural Crescent found a host of defenders among residents and supervisors this week, as four proposals to build more houses in the area failed. Two of the proposals that called for higher-density development in the Rural Crescent were withdrawn the day before the supervisors' meeting, the third did not make it to a vote and the fourth failed to pass.

EPA clean-up could cost county
Sari Krieger, Potomac News; March 26 2005
EPA regulations say Virginia and other states in the bay watershed must clean up their waterways by 2010, or else. The ramifications for missing the deadline have been vaguely worded, which worries Corbin. "The EPA has carte blanche," Corbin said. "It's very open ended." If Virginia fails to meet the clean-up deadline, the federal government's enforcement actions could depend on the administration's political leaning in 2010. The EPA could potentially fine the commonwealth, promulgate stringent regulations on the farming community or eliminate Virginia 's ability to permit its own wastewater treatment plants.

Occoquan tributaries fail EPA standard
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 22 2005
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some streams that feed the Occoquan River are too polluted with fecal coliform. Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality is starting to develop a plan to clean up Broad Run, Kettle Run and other tributaries to half of Prince William County's water source.The process begins with a public meeting March 30. That's where people can hear from DEQ the results of a stream survey that listed almost 30 miles of polluted waterways in Prince William County . DEQ officials are looking for public input on how they clean up these "impaired" tributaries.

County planners want more money for streams
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 18 2005
Prince William County Planning Commissioners have recommended taking a closer look at funding stream improvement efforts as part of the county's annual capital improvement program review. … Ultimately, less erosion will occur and less sediment will flow into the Potomac River when the ponds are brought up to standard, Fry said. Storm water flooding over Possum Point Road was also a cause for resident concern and request for capital improvement money. "When they say they can't get to and from their homes from time to time … I think there's a tremendous responsibility on the county's part [to fix the problem]," said Brentsville District Commissioner Ronald Burgess.

PW voters seek tax cuts, spending hikes
Tara Slate Donaldson , Gainesville Times; March 25 2005
At Monday night's public hearings on the proposed county budget and tax rate, only three people spoke out on taxes -- a far cry from the turnout in previous years. Instead, the supervisors were met with a number of residents and agencies seeking funds for human services programs. … [Citizens also noted] "The general fund budget is 60 percent higher than fiscal year 2002," Hendrix said. "These increases are significantly higher than the amount needed to cover inflation and population growth."

Gainesville moving closer to upscale shops
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 19 2005
Note: Due to problems with public notice requirements, the Wentworth Green Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Rezoning for 475 homes and associated retail on Linton Hall Road is scheduled for a new public hearing and vote at the April 6 Planning Commission meeting .

Brentsville, Woodbridge Developments to Proceed
Nikita Stewart , Washington Post ; March 17 2005
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted Tuesday to allow plans for two major developments on both ends of the county to go forward, despite county planners' advice to reject them. The projects include more than 6,000 houses in Brentsville, dubbed the Brentswood Community, and a high-end retail mall and luxury apartments in Woodbridge , proposed by the owners of outlet mecca Potomac Mills Mall. In addition, the board approved two other residential projects in Brentsville and a third in Coles. Voting 4 to 4, the board rejected a plan to build 365 houses in Brentsville despite the developer's offer to realign Vint Hill Road , a project that the county might have to take on. Supervisors Maureen S. Caddigan (R-Dumfries), Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), Corey A. Stewart (R-Occoquan) and John T. Stirrup Jr. (R-Gainesville) rejected the project.

Supervisors to take closer look at Gainesville development
Chad Umble, Potomac News; March 16 2005
By 5 to 3, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted to initiate further discussion of the proposed 1500-acre development near Linton Hall Road and Interstate 66. The development would be built over 20 years and include a mix of houses, retail areas and office space. … The county's planning staff will now study the Brentswood proposal further, and then send it to the Prince William County Planning Commission. >From there, the proposal will come back to the board of county supervisors for a public hearing and possible final approval.

Brentwood request must be monitored closely
Gary Friedman, Gainesville Times; March 25 2005
On the Ides of March, 2005, with a split (5-3) vote, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors gave the go-ahead for county planners to further study the much-publicized Comp Plan amendment application to allow construction of 6,800 new homes, plus commercial development, on about 1,500 acres near the already overstressed Gainesville sector area at Interstate 66 and U.S. 29. It should be noted that the vote was only for further study of the application, not for approval. However, these "further study" votes usually are straw votes on supervisor positions regarding the underlying rezoning.

Haymarket begins plans for renewal
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 24 2005
"Our focus is to get buildings removed and create some sort of open space," Taylor said "But the final design is going to take time and effort to put together a space to make sure that it really meets the needs of the community." Open space is something that residents continually talk about since there is not a lot of it in the town, he said.

A Wine Trail Leading East; Fauquier Vintner Eyes Prince William
Jenalia Moreno , Washington Post; March 27, 2005
Chris Pearmund, who owns Pearmund Cellars in Fauquier, and Rappahannock winemaker John Delmare envision building Prince William County 's first winery along the slopes of Bull Run Mountain . Although the county has vineyards, it has no wineries, where wine is produced and customers can sample it or taste how it pairs with certain foods.

Manassas considers higher developer fees
Rob Seal, Potomac News; March 15 2005
Manassas has been getting some money through proffers since 2002, but the city has never had a set formula for calculating how much developers should pay, City Manager Lawrence Hughes said. … Under the proposed guidelines, a developer would have to pay the city $27,650 for each single-family home built in the city. That money would be divided between schools, transportation, public safety and parks and recreation. The majority of the funds, $14,860 per house, would go to the schools. For town houses, a developer would have to pay $27,694 per unit, with $16,275 of that going to the schools. The schools get a larger percentage of the money from a town house because, according to data complied by school staff, the average town house in Manassas has more children in school than the average single-family home.

As Va. Area Evolves, Views Diverge ; Some See Safe Haven in Pr. William's Irongate Neighborhood; Others Live in Fear
Stephanie McCrummen , Washington Post; March 15 2005
The neighborhood called Irongate is a horseshoe-shaped subdivision of brick- and vinyl-sided townhouses in the dense middle of Prince William County, behind the Dollar Tree, the Starbucks and the constant traffic of Sudley Road.It is a community of families -- construction workers, teachers, middle managers, security guards -- where the 7-Eleven has recently become Arbol de la Vida Pentecostal Church, where a man named Candido Guerrero, in a white cowboy hat, walks down the sidewalk past families named Purschwitz and Chhoeut.

Airport rules worry business owners
Rob Seal, Potomac News; March 24 2005
A proposed set of new rules for businesses at the Manassas Regional Airport has some in the aviation community crying foul. The airport is in the final stages of adopting a set of minimum standards that would regulate what kind of businesses can operate at the facility. Critics of the proposal say that it is too restrictive and will hurt small businesses.

Water quality package now law
Lynchburg News Advance, March 25, 2005
An environmental proposal establishing a nutrient-credit exchange program among Virginia's 120 private and public wastewater treatment plants became law after receiving Gov. Mark Warner's signature Thursday morning. The legislation, introduced by Lynchburg Republican Del. Preston Bryant during the 2005 General Assembly session, is part of an eight-bill package of environmental proposals that Warner said will “significantly strengthen Virginia's ability to protect its environment and conserve its natural resources.”

Drowning the bay
T erry Reardon, Gainesville Times; March 25 2005
Many Virginia and Maryland residents are aware of the problems facing the Chesapeake Bay from nutrient pollution and overdevelopment. What is not as well known is that the rapid rise of sea level -- 4 millimeters per year, which is twice the global rate of increase -- is slowly submerging the small islands scattered about Chesapeake Bay and inundating the mainland shoreline.

At risk of ruin
Fredericksburg Free Lance Star; March 14 2005
THE NATION has been given a grade of "D" on the state of its infrastructure. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the USA 's roads, bridges, schools, and drinking-water systems--the things we take for granted--have been assumed healthy for too long. The engineers' report, issued on Wednesday, is actually down from the D+ received on the last report card four years ago.

U.S. Infrastructure: Increasingly Unsafe
Alan Caruba, Canada Free Press; March 21 2005
How bad is it? The ASCE report, issued every four years, gives the national infrastructure an overall grade of D, down from a D+ in 2001. The Society estimates it would take a total investment of $1.6 trillion dollars over five years to bring these various elements up to acceptable levels. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure," says William Henry, ASCE president, "we'd all live in shacks." "The nation's infrastructure is sliding toward failure and the prospect for any real improvement is grim," says Henry. One thing I know about civil engineers, they are not prone to exaggeration.

Country Club Fights Soil Erosion; Banks reshaped and lined with mats to hold soil in place
Gale Curcio, Fairfax Connection; March 17 2005
“The urbanization upstream from the club over the past 50 years has steadily increased the amount of water in the streams,” said Pete Van Pelt, general manager and PGA director of golf. “These creeks drained George Washington's Union Farm, but they were only a few feet wide from then until the 1970s. Now the main stretch is 30 feet wide and we are losing a thousand square feet of the golf course every year to erosion.” 

Homeowners work to hold back the tide; As development soars along the bay, fighting erosion is big business
Lawrence Latane, Richmond Times Dispatch; March 13 2005
Allan L. Whittaker's new lot in Northumberland County 's Ditchley Cove subdivision is classic Chesapeake Bay area waterfront, offering pleasant waterfront living accompanied by an erosion problem. Waterfront residents are finding that erosion, storms and even boat wakes take a constant toll on their land. … Certain stretches along the Potomac are known to lose about 3 feet of land a year. There are portions on the bay shore where erosion claims even more.

City seeks new water sources as old plans fall through
Gaithersburg Business Gazette; March 24 2005
City staff and quarry managers came to a stalemate in negotiations to let the city use 2 million gallons per day of quarry discharge after LaFarge management balked at tests required by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Similar tests were already conducted. … The dye trace test in question is designed to determine if water from nearby Carroll Creek is draining from the creek through bedrock into the quarry. If so, the creek water pollutants, not usually found in groundwater, would require different treatment to make it potable. Another sticking point is that LaFarge does not want to give the water to the city in perpetuity, making it impossible for the city to allocate the quarry water for new development

Green in Gridlock
Paul W. Hansen , Washington Post; March 15 2005
During the 1990s the major laws governing the fundamental environmental infrastructure of our nation -- the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and Superfund -- were all due to be reauthorized. All had been reauthorized before, some several times. But in the past 15 years, none of them has been reauthorized. During that time progress came to a stop on emerging issues, such as climate change -- which threatens the entire planet -- and on old ones, such as improving energy efficiency, which saves money, prevents pollution and reduces dependence on foreign oil. The Environmental Protection Agency tells us that 860 billion gallons of raw sewage still flow into our waterways annually. And while our air is cleaner, it is still not healthful.

VDOT to release Tri-County Parkway study
Potomac News; March 22, 2005
Virginia Department of Transportation officials have reported that details on the Tri-County Parkway study will soon be released. A draft environmental impact statement is due in "early spring," according to a release from the agency. The Tri-County Parkway is proposed to connect the Manassas Regional Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport via one of three routes. A no-build alternative is one of the considered options, too.

Tri-County Parkway Location Study
Virginia Dept. of Transportation

Va. Road Projects Show Varied Degrees of Progress
Ron Shaffer , Washington Post; March 17 2005
Dr. Gridlock asked for an updated list of the major road projects in Northern Virginia so you'll know the nature of the projects and when they will be finished. The list was compiled with the assistance of Virginia Department of Transportation spokespeople Joan Morris and Ryan Hall and Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project spokesman John Undeland.

Lighting alternative for Va. 123 bridge?
Aileen Streng
The 10-foot high streetlights to illuminate a pedestrian walkway along the Occoquan side of the bridge had been part of the overall design for much of the project's development over the last few years. Prince William and Fairfax counties long ago agreed to split the cost of the lights, their installation and maintenance. The Dominion Virginia Power Company was on board to install and maintain them. … The plan, however, hit a snag in recent weeks when Dominion officials pulled out. An alternative solution is now being sought.

Tysons rail route shifted
By Marcia McAllister, Fairfax Times; March 23 2005
State and county officials have decided to move part of the future Metrorail line in Tysons Corner into the median along Route 7 after preliminary engineering showed it would ease construction impacts and save millions. … In addition, the relocation "allows for balanced transit-oriented development on both sides of Route 7," according to Sam Carnaggio, director of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

$185 million for new road construction
Peter Bacque, Media General News Service; March 17 2005
The largest part of the infusion, as much as $346 million, will be used to cover outstanding deficits on roads that have already been built and to repay highway construction loans. An additional $70 million will go to stimulate privately developed design-build-finance projects, but those public-private partnerships will almost inevitably require users to pay tolls or other types of fees, officials said. Some long-desired roadwork will finally move forward, officials said, but the additional money will not be a bonanza for either the Virginia Department of Transportation or the construction industry.

More road money for Manassas Park
Rob Seal, Potomac News; March 21 2005
Partially as a result of last year's state budget surplus, Manassas Park is in a position to save up to $1.6 million in road construction over the next six years. Certain city projects, including a series of improvements to the intersection of Manassas Drive and Euclid Avenue , could be funded by money from the Virginia Department of Transportation, something city officials didn't think would happen until at least 2007.

Residents speak out against HOT lanes
Sari Krieger, Potomac News; March 16 2005
The $407 million Clark proposal would include the completion of the Springfield Interchange -- connecting the HOT lanes to the Beltway -- as well as new park and ride lots and a 20-year warranty to VDOT. Many in attendance opposing the HOT lanes were "sluggers," or people who carpool with strangers they meet at area park-and-ride lots in order to use the HOV lanes. "HOT lanes will put more single-rider vehicles on the HOV lanes," said Scott Hirons, chair of the Committee to Save HOV. "That's going to cause more congestion." The high toll cost would encourage, not discourage carpooling, Groat said. But a woman in the back of the auditorium shouted that it would encourage only less wealthy residents to carpool.

Pavlov's Pols
Jim Bacon, Bacon's Rebellion; March 14 2005
Politicians act as if the only solution to traffic congestion were building expensive roads and rail lines. Perhaps they should stop salivating over higher taxes and read the VTrans2025 report.

CCC adamant in secession stance
Lynn Wolstenholme, Loudoun Times Mirror; March 22 2005
Western Loudoun residents who are organizing to secede from the county met last week to formalize their organization. The group is calling itself Citizens for Catoctin County , or CCC. Leaders were chosen and committees were formed. Karl Phillips, Purcellville council member, and Nancy Meissner were selected as co-chairs, and Purcellville council member C. J. Walker was named treasurer. Committees were also set up to look into matters ranging from legal action and economic research to recruitment and fundraising.

Cities seek $10 million to buy land for conservation corridor
Virginian-Pilot, March 26 2005
One goal is to keep new homes from being built under a flight path that the Navy considers critical to Oceana Naval Air Station.
Besides that, officials said, the corridor could be used to replace wetlands destroyed by the long-sought Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt, to protect rare plants and animals from development, and for public recreation. Beach officials said the money also could compensate landowners affected by plans to reduce the number of new homes built in jet-noise zones under the Navy's flight path.

Everglades project hits federal snag; Five years into a restoration project, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers memo details federal inaction and little monetary help
By CRAIG PITTMAN, St. Petersbsurg Times; March 19 2005
The Everglades plan, approved by Congress and the state Legislature in 2000, is supposed to restore the River of Grass to a semblance of its former glory and provide enough water for South Florida 's population to double. "This is the most important project we're working on in the country," said Hardesty. Yet so far federal agencies have spent a mere $230,000 on the Everglades restoration plan, at a time when the state has spent more than $1-billion. The state and federal government are supposed to be 50-50 partners on the cost, which according to some estimates may top $14-billion.

DEVELOPERS CAST EYE AT RURAL CRESCENT
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 10 2005
Prince William County is quickly running out of land planned for two-acre lot subdivisions, so developers are turning to farmland to satisfy the bullish housing market, said one attorney representing two of nine land use applications up for review next week. The only problem is that farmland in Prince William's "Rural Crescent" is only allowed to be developed at one house per 10 acres, a mixture that fetches about the same amount as a custom home on about two acres, said Jay du Von.

PLANNERS OPPOSE 6,000-HOME PROJECT IN GAINESVILLE
The planning department's advice on Brentswood is part of the recommendations it will make to the board Tuesday on nine proposed amendments to the county's Comprehensive Plan. The board is to consider whether to initiate further study of the nine proposals. If the proposals are approved, the Planning Commission would hold public hearings on them and the amendments would then go back to supervisors. At Tuesday's meeting, the planning department also will recommend that the board reject two proposals and approve two others to build high-density housing in the Rural Crescent , an 80,000-acre swath that the county is using to preserve open space by limiting houses to one per 10 acres.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; March 13 2005

NOKESVILLE RESIDENTS LEARN ABOUT QUARRY
Eighty Nokesville residents gathered Thursday evening to learn about a proposed quarry in their neighborhood and to cultivate organized opposition to the Vulcan Materials project. … Civic association leaders encouraged residents to call the county's planning office by March 15 to submit their written comments before a meeting with Vulcan officials.
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; March 11 2005

SEEING OPPORTUNITY IN PW
... Alter Group, plans to start construction this fall on the first building of a new complex in western Prince William County. Although the company has not made a final decision to proceed, Ward said the company expects to build 550,000 square feet of offices over five years in several buildings on 47 acres at Interstate 66 and Balls Ford Road near Manassas National Battlefield Park.
Dana Hedgpeth, Was hington Post; March 7 2005

POTOMAC MILLS OWNER PROPOSES UPSCALE MALL
The company that helped define the county as the place to go for cheap clothes now says it's time to make a change, or at least "complement" the outlet mall with an alternative for upscale shoppers, said Ramsey Meiser, group vice president of development for Arlington-based Mills Corp.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; March 12 2005

COUPLE USES RIGHT TO KNOW TO FIGHT CORRUPTION
This is a story about a quiet, unassuming couple who relentlessly took on a huge state government bureaucracy and won at every turn. It illustrates how the state's Freedom of Information Act is not just used by pesky reporters but most often by Virginians who want to figure out what's going on in their government.
Gordon Hickey, Media General News Service; March 13 2005

AREA RESIDENTS IN THE DARK ON FOIA
Residents should be able to find out as much as they can, said Manassas resident Carole Bellacera. "I don't know that much about [FOIA], but it seems like something good," Bellacera said. "The more information we have as a community, the better."
Sari Krieger, Potomac News; March 13 2005

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: THE VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

VIRGINIA COALITION FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT

COMMITTEE ASKS TO SAVE CITY'S TREES
Manassas already has a tree preservation ordinance, but no real way to enforce it other than asking a developer not to tear down certain trees, City Manager Lawrence Hughes said. "[The ordinance] was written in a fashion that made it solely voluntary for the developer," Hughes said. "There is a concern about tree preservation, but when the ordinance was written there was also some concern about property rights."
Rob Seal, Potomac News; March 11 2005

LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD TREES; PW UPDATING ROSTER OF 'CHAMPIONS'
The county's list is called big and historic, but it's not the same as, say, being on the National Register of Historic Places, which could rescue a house from destruction, Flanagan said. "The designation doesn't carry any legal weight," she said. It does carry sentimental weight and often persuades developers to preserve certain trees, said Pat Reilly, a natural resources specialist with the extension service. "It is possible that developers will look at a property and configure the development around the tree," Reilly said.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; March 6 2005

THE BAY'S HARD EDGES; EFFORTS TO CURB EROSION MAY HURT ENVIRONMENT IN THE NORTHERN NECK
Wetland boards in Virginia 's coastal counties approved 1,077 erosion-control projects resulting in 19 additional miles of protected shoreline last year, said Karen Duhring, a marine scientist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's Center for Coastal Resources Management. One partial survey found that 13 new miles of shoreline had been covered with bulkheads or riprap between 1985 and 2000 in Virginia and Maryland , said Scott Hardaway, a coastal geologist at VIMS. That survey sampled only 400 miles of the 10,000-mile-long coastline shared by the two states. Even so, a total of 71 miles of waterfront in the survey area was found to be armored against erosion at the time.
Lawrence Latane, Richmond Times Dispatch; March 13 2005

RAIL DEAL COULD DOUBLE DEVELOPMENT NEAR TYSONS
The plan to build a Metrorail line from West Falls Church through Tysons Corner is advanced as a means of easing Northern Virginia's traffic woes. But the rail project is in many ways a monumental real estate deal that some critics say will further develop an already crowded crossroads.
Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post; March 13 2005

AFFLUENCE IS CHANGING THE FACE OF PRINCE WILLIAM
What is driving the dramatic change in Prince William are 20,000 homes built in the past five years -- a nearly 25 percent increase in housing stock. Most of the new homes are larger, on bigger lots and worth much more than the county's older homes and townhouses. Many of those new homes are in the booming western part of Prince William, near Lake Manassas, Gainesville and Haymarket -- close to where Walt Disney Co. wanted to build a theme park that residents fought. Planners and real estate agents say people moving up from townhouses in Fairfax County or other inner suburbs are buying many of those expensive homes.
Eric Weiss, Washington Post' Feb 27 2005

CONNECTOR CONSTRUCTION TO BEGIN THIS MONTH
By October 2006, a four-lane Sudley Manor Drive will connect Vint Hill Road to the outskirts of Manassas Park ...The advantage [with a public-private partnership] was to speed up the process," said Supervisor Wally Covington, R-Brentsville, who said he's cautiously optimistic about the process. "It doesn't really become successful until we cut the ribbon and drive on it."The agreement allows a public-private partnership in which CH2M Hill administers, designs and builds the road, including a section of Linton Hall Road to Devlin Road."
Lillian Kafka, Potomac N ews; March 6 2005

THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE TRAP
Virginia tried funding transportation projects through "public-private partnerships" in the 19th century. Advocates of that approach today might think twice if they knew their history.
Patrick McSweeney, Bacon's Rebellion; Feb 14 2005

VRE STATIONS GET EXPANSION MONEY
The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission received a $3 million federal grant Friday to expand parking at two Virginia Railway Express stations. The transportation commission will use $2 million of the grant to complete the multi-level parking garage at VRE's Old Town Manassas station … The remainder will be spent to expand parking at the Burke Center VRE station …
Keith Walker, Potomac News; March 5 2005

EPA HAS OBJECTION TO ICC ROUTE PLAN; STATE'S EFFORTS TO LESSEN IMPACT OF ONE PROPOSAL FALL SHORT, SAY REGULATORS
Federal regulators are objecting to one of two proposed routes for a highway that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has called his No. 1 transportation priority, finding that the state's efforts to lessen the road's impact fall short of what is needed to protect the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency said it also has "concerns" about an alternative northern route for the Intercounty Connector but suggested that proposal would be more acceptable.
Michael Dresser and Rona Kobell, Baltimore Sun; March 2 2005

MILLS, LERNER PLAN TOWN CENTER NEAR POTOMAC MILLS
Mills Corp. and Lerner Enterprises have proposed a 95-acre town center in Woodbridge , across Interstate 95 from Potomac Mills. The project calls for 650,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of office, more than 400 apartments and possibly a hotel on the east side of I-95, between Dale and Opitz boulevards. The retail mix is likely to include tenants that would test Prince William County 's shiny new legislation curtailing development of stand-alone stores larger than 80,000 square feet.
Washington Business Journal; Feb 18 2005

POTOMAC CENTER WOULD COMBINE OFFICE AND RESIDENTIAL SPACE
Submitted plans for Potomac Center include space for 650,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of office space and room for up to 433 residential units. Some of the residential units would be above retail space. On March 15, developers will ask county supervisors for permission to proceed with additional planning for Potomac Center . However, a go-ahead from supervisors in March will not guarantee final approval for the plan. Supervisors will also need to approve zoning changes and a comprehensive plan amendment in order to accommodate Potomac Center .
Chad Umble, Potomac News; Feb 24 2005

PROPERTY NEAR HAYMARKET REZONED
"Our project is a teaspoon in an ocean of traffic," said John McBride, who presented the project on behalf of landowners Rodney and Cora Stringer. However, despite assurances about traffic, supervisor John Stirrup, R-Gainesville, still voted against the plan. Stirrup said the project seemed fine on its merits but he was worried about approving any new development in the area until overall transportation problems are addressed. Stirrup's vote was the only one against the plan.
Chad Umble, Potomac News; March 3 2005

WOMAN REFUSES TO GIVE IN TO DEVELOPER
A representative from Opus didn't return a message left Wednesday. Walters' property is the only land in the neighborhood not owned by the developer, which means that her house might stick out a little bit when it's surrounded by town houses or condominiums. But she said that doesn't bother her. "I told them, 'you're wasting your time talking to me,' " she said.
Rob Seal, Potomac News; Feb 24 2005

COUNTY FLUSH WITH FUNDS BUT HOMEOWNERS PINCHED
Martino presented a five-year revenue forecast that showed continued income growth as the county benefits from low interest rates, high home values and plenty of jobs. Nevertheless some supervisors worried that the area is becoming too expensive and that residential property owners may be footing too much of the tax burden.
Chad Umble, Potomac News; March 2 2005

COUNTY ENDS WITH SURPLUS
The county will end this year with a $15 million surplus, due in part to the soaring value of homes in the county. While about half of those extra funds will be stashed away for a rainy day, the rest will go to schools, road improvements or maybe even an additional tax cut. "We have programmed in to always try to run a slight surplus so we can use those funds to build up our cash reserve, our rainy-day fund," Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton (R-at large) said Wednesday.
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; March 4 2005

LEADERS JOIN FORCES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING; NEW POLICIES PLEDGED FOR PW, FAIRFAX
Headlining the chamber's monthly policymaker series, Connolly and Connaughton said Northern Virginia's skyrocketing residential real estate values have resulted largely from high demand in a hot job market. Fairfax created 25,000 jobs last year, and Prince William added 2,068 -- together representing nearly 39 percent of the 70,000 new jobs in the Washington region.
Lisa Rein, Washington Post; March 3 2005

SCHOOL BOARD AWARDS $31.4 MILLION FOR NEW SCHOOLS
The Prince William County School Board awarded a total of $31.4 million in contracts to finance the construction of two new elementary schools and the transformation of Osbourn Park High School .
Rob Seal, Potomac News; March 4 2005

GRAVE DOUBTS ABOUT GRAYSON RESTING PLACE
The road to William Grayson's grave was crowded, and getting more so. It was rush hour on the Revolutionary War route of George Washington and Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, count of Rochambeau -- Route 1 -- bounded at this stretch by a closed car wash, an abandoned gas station and a Dunkin' Donuts, open for business.
Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post; Feb 27 2005

'OUT THE WINDOW' - EIGHTY HOMES OK'd AT SITE OF [FAUQUIER] COUNTY'S LARGEST CIVIL WAR BATTLE
Local historians only recently realized the exact site of the Battle of Rappahannock Station - just in time to see the county's planning commission approve a housing development right on top of it. The commission last Thursday voted unanimously to approve Danforth Homes' preliminary plan to build 80 single-family homes on about 20 acres along the north bank of the Rappahannock River . "I'd like to express disappointment that we're losing historically significant land," Commissioner Richard Robison (Center District) said after the vote.
Eric Beidel, Fauquier Citizen; Feb 25 2005

LOUDOUN SPRAWL LIMITS THROWN OUT; COURT RULES GROWTH RESTRICTIONS INVALID, CITING TECHNICAL FLAWS
The high court did not address the substance of the new rules but said a notice of public hearings published in a county newspaper was too vague in its description of what property would be covered.
Paul Bradley, Richmond Times Dispatch; March 4 2005

HIGH COURT KILLS [LOUDOUN] COUNTY GROWTH CURBS
The revisions, which are now voided by the court, had lowered the number of houses that could be built in most of the west to one house per 20 or 50 acres. Now they will revert back to the previous zoning: one house per three acres. The court's ruling also threw out the county's stipulations that developers build using "conservation design," a policy that aimed to curb the impact of development on the surrounding environment. The basis for the court's decision was non-compliance with public notice requirements dictated by state law. Specifically, the county's public notices failed "to satisfy the 'descriptive summary' requirement" in the state code.
Anne Keisman, Loudoun Times Mirror; March 4 2005

SUPREME COURT RULES LOUDOUN MUST RE-ADOPT RURAL ZONING
The Court did not rule on the substance of the rezoning nor that the letters to property owners and the public hearings did not provide sufficient notice. The Court ruled that the newspaper advertisement, which under current law is the defining element of public notice, may not have provided sufficient definition of “ Western Loudoun ”.
Press Release, Campaign for Loudoun's Future; March 3 2005

BALANCING PRIVATE PROPERTY AND PUBLIC GOOD
The domestic political landscape is increasingly altering the physical landscape, and the issue is all about ownership. In municipalities across the country, growing numbers of citizens and businesses want government to get out of the way of landowners who want to build houses on the land they own.
Roger Lewis, Washington Post; March 5 2005

ANTI-SPRAWL LAWS, PROPERTY RIGHTS COLLIDE IN OREGON
The property-rights law, which was approved overwhelmingly by voters last fall and is known as Measure 37, is on the brink of wrecking Oregon's best-in-the-nation record of reining in sprawl, according to state officials and national planning experts. They say the new law illustrates a nationwide paradox in public opinion: Although voters tend to favor protection of farmland and open space, they vote down these protections if they perceive them as restrictions on personal rights.
Blaine Harden, Washington Post; Feb 28 2005

SMART GROWTH PACE SLOWER IN MARYLAND; WHAT MAKES THE STATE SPECIAL - THE BAY, FARMS, OLD BATTLEFIELDS - IS FADING AMID THE SPREAD OF HOUSING, MALLS AND OFFICES
Getting better development means that communities need to forge a shared vision, McMahon says, and then have the conviction to choose among development proposals until they get what they're looking for. Failure to safeguard what is special about a community will undermine its attractiveness to visitors, and its economic viability, he warns. "It's all about quality of life," McMahon says. "All things being equal, people will go to places that have quality of life. ... [But] if every place looks like everyplace else, there's no reason to go anywhere."
Timothy Wheeler, Baltimore Sun; March 6 2005

MIDDLE CLASS DRIVES SOARING PURCHASES OF SECOND HOMES
Sales of second homes soared last year and accounted for more than a third of all residential sales transactions, according to a study released yesterday. The study, conducted by the Washington-based National Association of Realtors, showed that nearly one in four U.S. homes bought in 2004 was purchased for investment purposes; 13 percent were bought as vacation homes.
Daniela Deane, Washington Post; March 2 2005

D.C. ASSESSED VALUES RISE 14.6 PERCENT; HOUSING PRESSURE GIVES WORKING-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS THE BIGGEST INCREASES
T he new figures show a wave of increasing home values that is washing eastward across the city, said Thomas Branham, the District's chief assessor. That wave will bring higher taxes for homeowners and increase the pressure on city officials already struggling to find ways to maintain an inventory of affordable housing for longtime residents and newcomers.
Eric Weiss, Washington Post; Feb 25 2005

WHO'LL STOP THE DRAIN? IF YOU NOTICE A FOUL STENCH WHILE YOU'RE WALKING ALONG ROCK CREEK, YOU MAY BE PART OF THE PROBLEM
I had never thought much about what happened after the toilet flushed. The contents simply went away. But that was before I moved to Cleveland Park—and before my toilet started flushing up, rather than down, during rainstorms. And before I became obsessed with Washington's sewer system.
Amy Longsworth, Washington City Paper; March 4-10 2005

CONTROLLING STORMWATER WITH SENSE
The No. 1 priority identified in Chester County 's Watersheds Plan is to reduce stormwater runoff and flooding in the county's watersheds. Stormwater is the most widespread water problem and it affects every municipality in Chester County . The new post construction stormwater management model ordinance provides an example of how these problems can be addressed …
Rick Smith, Chester Daily Local; March 1 2005

WARNER, OTHERS SEEK U.S. FUNDS FOR BAY CLEANUP; VIRGINIA, MARYLAND GOVERNORS, D.C. MAYOR MAKE PLEA
After meeting on Capitol Hill with senators from Maryland and Virginia , Warner said he and Ehrlich could make a stronger case for federal help because their states have stepped up their role. The Virginia General Assembly just passed a budget committing $82 million for Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts, he said. Maryland has adopted a new "flush fee," he said; it is intended to help fund bay cleanup.
Peter Markin, Richmond Times Dispatch; March 2 2005

POLLUTERS GET AWAY WITH WHAT THEY CAN
Edward Prescott of Arizona State University and Finn Kydland of Carnegie Mellon demonstrated that the success of broad, public policies depends more than anyone thought on how individuals perceive the ease of "gaming" them. Key in the Nobelists' findings for bay-saving policies is the following, King says: "If governments cannot commit themselves credibly to a specific course, their attempts to regulate are likely to be futile."
Tom Horton, Baltimore Sun; March 4 2005

HIGH-RISE PROPOSAL DEFEATED; COMMISSIONERS VOTE AGAINST ROUTE 1 PLAN
Hazel Land, headed by John T. "Til" Hazel, the man who helped build Tysons Corner, envisioned four high-rises -- eight to 16 stories high, with a total of about 1,000 units -- overlooking the Potomac River and close to the Virginia Railway Express Rippon station, which is near Route 1 in Woodbridge. ... Last March, the supervisors adopted an amendment to Hazel's plan that included a maximum of 50 units per acre and required that 50 percent of development be nonresidential. Hazel Land could not make the development work under those restrictions, Thomas said. Two Hazel Land representatives, visibly upset after the supervisors voted on Tuesday, would not comment.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; Feb 17 2005

COUNTY NIXES HIGHER-DENSITY APARTMENTS
The developer and county planners began visualizing an area of mass residential housing coupled with mass transit near that station last March.That's when Hazel Land Companies gained the board's blessing to start planning the county's first "mass transit node."They began with talks of building 440 apartments and condominiums on an 11-acre tract near the VRE station off Farm Creek Drive.On Tuesday, six of the eight board members scoffed at a request to double that density.
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Feb 16 2005

MILLS, LERNER PLAN TOWN CENTER NEAR POTOMAC MILLS
Mills Corp. and Lerner Enterprises have proposed a 95-acre town center in Woodbridge, across Interstate 95 from Potomac Mills.The project calls for 650,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of office, more than 400 apartments and possibly a hotel on the east side of I-95, between Dale and Opitz boulevards. The retail mix is likely to include tenants that would test Prince William County's shiny new legislation curtailing development of stand-alone stores larger than 80,000 square feet. Sources say the developers are courting Hecht's for a department store, as well as Wegmans Food Markets and Barnes & Noble as anchors.
Eleni Kretikos, Washington Business Journal; Feb 18 2005

GAINESVILLE VRE PLAN GETS A BOOST
[Loudoun Delegate] May has called for $5 million in transportation funding to begin the environmental study, design and engineering of the rail and stations. If it is ever approved and funded, the project would create a Haymarket/ Gainesville line to Washington, D.C. by leasing the Norfolk Southern tracks that run from Manassas to Washington. ...Last month, the Fauquier Board of Supervisors also discussed the idea of expanding service to Gainesville. It was estimated at that meeting that a Gainesville or Haymarket station could be developed in two stages with capital costs estimated at $63 to $78 million. Fauquier officials suggested that ridership could be as high as 5,000 trips per day, roughly 2,500 riders.
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; Feb 17 2005

BATTLE BEGINS OVER SEWER IN THE RURAL CRESCENT
In debating the issue, supervisors briefly touched on the larger question of whether sewer lines should be allowed in the Rural Crescent at all. That issue is likely to resurface later in the spring when the board takes up sewer lines again. ...Instead, the board voted to hold a work session to determine how and when exemptions should be granted. Public input will be sought. Covington said Wednesday that he's going to keep talking about the issue. "What I wanted to do is get the facts out on how many problems are out there," he said of the failing drainfields and privies that dot the landscape throughout his district. "Everyone seems afraid to talk about it."
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; Feb 17 2005

PW PARKS ARE A REGIONAL TREASURE
Although Comprehensive Plan goals focus on making sure a minimum of 39 percent of the county's total land area will be maintained as open space, the plan largely relies on state and federally owned parks and the Rural Crescent's large lot development to protect important natural and cultural resources. Federally protected land accounts for about 11 percent of the total county acreage. State, business and private investments preserve more than 2,000 additional acres. Nearly all these natural areas are open to the public.
Kim Hosen, Gainesville Times; Feb 11 2005

[SARATOGA HUNT] DEVELOPER CLEARS TREES ACCIDENTALLY
A contractor for the developer that agreed to a $1 million settlement for not following development plans accidentally cleared more trees, according to a Prince William County official. Attorneys for Richmond American Homes are working to find the best way to deal with the recent clearing of about 2,500-square feet of woods, said Assistant County Attorney Angela Lemmon-Horan.
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Feb 11 2005

QUANTICO AREA TO GET MORE OFFICE SPACE
The Quantico Center I, a 52,000-square-foot office building on Va. 234 near its intersection with Interstate 95, is scheduled to open in March. A second building of identical size is planned at the site.In Triangle, Quantico Gateway, a 40,0000-square-foot office building just outside of the Quantico base, should open in June.
Aileen Streng, Potomac News; Feb 17 2005

SUPERVISORS OK HOMES ON LAND AROUND GOLF COURSE
County planners say pieces of land around golf courses are not a priority for open-space preservation and so they have no objection to homes being built there. On Tuesday, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors concurred with county planners and removed an open space designation on 235 acres of land in the Bull Run Country Club, paving the way for the construction of 26 new homes amidst the 18-hole golf course.
Chad Umble, Potomac News; Feb 17 2005

COUPLE SUES COUNTY TO BUILD ON OPEN SPACE
The Prince William County Office of Planning and Zoning has not allowed the Wilcoxes to build on the land based on the 1977 plan for Woodmont Estates, which required the recreational space. The county never took ownership of the land, preferring to keep it as open space. ...  On Tuesday, McBride addressed the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and asked the board to use its power to vacate the park designation. After meeting in closed session, the board decided to fight the lawsuit, said Joseph L. Howard Jr., the interim county attorney.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; Feb 20 2005

COUNTY REFUSES TO PAY COUPLE FOR PROPERTY
McBride questioned the legality of the regulations that governed the 1977 subdivision, where the developer of Woodmont Estates was required to set aside the property as a park. Of the 1977 law, McBride asked: "Was it legal or not? Who knows?" Assistant County Attorney Angela Lemmon-Horan, said it was. "I think Virginia law does allow local governments the authority to point out to [developers] the impact of their developments on public infrastructure," Lemmon-Horan said. McBride contends that the requirement was comparable to a developer impact fee, which, in Virginia, is illegal.

AIMING TO MAKE HISTORY ACCESSIBLE, ONE PLAQUE AT A TIME
The journey began inauspiciously with Roadside Marker No. 1, which was clustered with Roadside Markers Nos. 2, 3 and 4 on a tossed-off piece of grass -- one of those triangle scraps leftover from the cutting of roads and dividing of lots -- alongside Route 1 and in front of Virginia Concrete, where sand was sliding down shoots into trucks headed for the next construction site.
Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post; Feb 10 2005

ROOS ON THE LOOSE; FAUQUIER TAKES THE LEAD ON OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is a state agency and it works closely with municipalities, private citizens and nonprofit organizations. By creatively combining the resources of governmental agencies and private groups, Fauquier can extend the reach of conservation easements with programs such as the Purchase of Development Rights program. The PDR program, funded for the first time in 2004, allowed the county to buy development rights on four working Fauquier farms. This ensures that the farms will stay in agricultural production, or as open lands, and gives working capital to farm families.
David Roos, Fauquier Times Democrat; Feb 15 2005

ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE: HARD TO FIND; LORTON VALLEY DEVELOPMENT OFFERS FAIRFAX COUNTY'S FIRST AFFORDABLE HOUSING WITH SIX FULLY ACCESSIBLE UNITS
“The need for affordable housing that's accessible is greater than the need for market-rate housing,” said Carmen Sanchez, Fairfax County Disability Services Planning and Development. “The [Board of Supervisors] has dedicated $1.5 million to increase affordable accessible units within the county.”
Brynn Grimley, Fairfax Connection; Feb 17 2005

BURNED BY THE BOOM IN NoVA REAL ESTATE; SOARING PROPERTY TAXES OVERWHELM HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOMEOWNERS
 In recent months, Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia has launched a campaign to persuade localities to provide tax relief for their homeowners. It is arguing that the Habitat homes shouldn't be assessed at market rates because deed restrictions prevent their owners from selling the homes for profit or getting home equity loans until the 20-year mortgages are paid. If Habitat homeowners sell their homes before 20 years are up, they must sell them back to Habitat for the amount they cost -- $80,000 to $120,000 in most cases, Cleveland said, which is the restricted value. The campaign has had some success in Fairfax County, where assessors granted several appeals last year. They resulted in a reduction of up to a 50 percent in some cases, Cleveland said.
Annie Gowen, Washington Post; Feb 14 2005

THE SLEEPING GIANT: GILBERTS CORNER
"There's a strong feeling from the communities there that the county west of Mount Zion Church ought to remain rural," said Loudoun County Supervisor Jim Burton, whose district begins on the west side of U.S. 15. The church, itself a historic building, is just east of Gilberts Corner. But just a few miles east of the church, development encroaches. Nearly 27,000 homes have been proposed by developers or have been already approved on U.S. 50, east of U.S. 15 to the Fairfax border.
With growth at this rate, Gilberts Corner seems poised to change -- but to what?
Anne Keisman, Times Community Newspapers; Feb 15 2005

DIGGING DEEP FOR ROAD WORK; I-66 EXPANSION SHOWS RISING COST OF PROJECTS ON AGING HIGHWAYS
About 46 percent of the Virginia Transportation Department's budget will go toward maintenance, compared with 29 percent on construction. The rest is split among administrative costs, debt service and other expenses. ... Today, Virginia is responsible for 57,082 miles of road, trailing only North Carolina and Texas in the amount it maintains. ... Shucet said the only way to pare costs is to stop building roads. "If one presumes that the cost of infrastructure will only continue to rise, then I think it's prudent for areas to think about working with what they have," he said.
Steven Ginsberg, Washington Post; Feb 17 2005

VDOT TO AWARD LINTON HALL ROAD CONTRACT
Construction to add up to four lanes to Linton Hall Road between U.S. 29 and Devlin Road could begin next month, said Tom Fahrney, Prince William County transportation manager for VDOT. During the early phase of construction, a traffic signal would be installed at Glenkirk Road, Fahrney said. Construction, which is expected to begin mid-March, is scheduled for completion in fall 2007, he added. Linton Hall Road between U.S. 29 and Glenkirk Road is slated to be widened to six lanes. The section between Devlin and Glenkirk roads is planned for a four-lane road.
Lillian Kafka, Potomac Hews; Feb 14 2005

ROUTE 28 INTERCHANGE: BOON OR BURDEN? [Route 28 and Waxpool/Church Road]
Several business owners at that intersection worry that bringing Route 28 into the 21st century will cause permanent damage to their businesses. ... Ironically, it is the business community that banded together to upgrade Route 28 - a heavily trafficked north/south corridor that provides access in Loudoun to the Washington Dulles International Airport, Route 267 and Route 7. In 1987, a special tax district was created for businesses along the road to fund 13 interchanges and other improvements.
Anne Keisman, Times Community Newspapers; Feb 15 2005

TRANSPORTATION BOARD APPROVES TOLL INCREASE
The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved toll increases on the Dulles Toll Road today, Feb. 17, that will help fund the state's share of the project extending Metrorail to Dulles International Airport. Many residents of the Reston and Herndon areas said in a series of public hearings over the past week that the toll increase is unfair because rail will not reach the western end of Fairfax County for years. The increases--to 50 cents on ramps and 75 cents at the main toll plaza--will take effect May 22.
Kali Schumiyz, Times Community Newspapers; Feb 17 2005

NEW TOLLS, NOT TAXES, FAVORED FOR AREA ROADS; POLL RESPONDENTS DIFFER ON HOW TO ASSESS FEE
Supporters argue that tolls are an equitable way for people to pay for roads -- if you drive it, you pay for it. Detractors question whether a system of toll roads would save money or draw enough users. They also worry that the system would price out the poor.Peak-period tolls on the Dulles Greenway were raised 50 cents in September to help its private owner pay off debt. The road has lost money every year since construction began in 1993, and state officials have approved more increases, which could push the toll to $3 by 2007. ...  If the region is filled with toll roads, [Virginia Transportation Commissioner] Shucet said, "people are going to pay through the nose for transportation."
Steven Ginsberg, Washington Post; Feb 16 2005

LIVING AND WORKING ADJACENT TO RAILS SOUNDS GREAT, BUT WHERE DO WE PARK?
The overall pattern, however, is clear. People who work adjacent to transit stops will ride transit if it is fast and convenient, and if driving is an expensive hassle. But people are more likely to change their habits if they live near a good transit stop. That's because people tend to shape their daily lives around what they do when they walk out their door. If they get in their car, they tend to stay in their car - unless conditions at the destinations are extremely adverse to driving. If they can walk to a bus or rail stop, they're more likely to make the whole trip without a car. But perhaps the most interesting point is why people buy in TODs. Is it because of proximity to transit? No. In fact, the study found that proximity to transit had declined over the last decade as a reason for living in a TOD. What's on the rise is “the quality and type of housing.”
William Fulton, California Planning and Development Report; Feb 18 2005

ANATOMY OF AN URBAN IN-FILL DEVELOPMENT
After watching the occupancy of this building drop from 100 percent to 30 percent over the course of 12 months between January 1996 and January 1997, and after considering one disappointing retail concept after another, we concluded that the time was ripe to pursue a much broader development opportunity. ... Today, the property is 95 percent leased and occupied and is generating a stable and reliable cash flow. It has become a legacy asset for each of the partners. It represents what is truly a "fortress" piece of real estate: a highly functional and attractive asset, located at a prominent corner in an affluent market. It serves its niche extraordinarily well.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT: RETAIL AND RESIDENTIAL ISSUES
Develop less expensive housing options first (e.g., apartments before single family), so you don't create your own opposition group later on in already-established residential users. ... leave room in your project vision for the possibilities of big box retail. Early on, Reston Town Center retail was unsuccessful until the big boxes moved into an adjacent project and created more retail traffic.
National Association of Industrial and Office Properties

FROM NEGLECT TO BIOTECH; PAUL ALLEN'S URBAN PROJECT: A $2 BILLIONBID TO TRANSFORM DECAYING DISTRICT IN SEATTLE
The ultimate dream for the next 10 years is to create a biotechnology hub with an additional seven million square feet of offices, shops and homes that will serve all income levels. Yet many people in Seattle are furious that Vulcan and the city are seeking an additional $500 million of federal, state and city money for infrastructure improvements, including a streetcar system. ... "The controversy comes in where people have a natural reaction, "Well, why does a billionaire need help?" says Tim Ceis, the city's deputy mayor. "They [Vulcan] need to make a profit on this as well. They're not doing this to be a benefactor to the city."
Ryan Chittum, Wall Street Journal; Feb 16 2005

COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT ON PLANT EXPANSION; POTENTIAL ADDITION TO [LAKE ANNA' NUCLEAR SITE WORRIES MANY AT HEARING
Dominion is seeking an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would give the company up to 20 years to decide whether to build one or more additional nuclear reactors on the site, adjacent to an existing nuclear plant on Lake Anna and about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The plant has two reactors.
John Reid Blackwell, Richmond Times Dispatch; Feb 18 2005

DEBATE TO BEGIN OVER RURAL CRESCENT SEWER LINES
Lillian Kafka, Pot omac News; Feb 6 2004
On Tuesday the Board of County Supervisors will consider the first step toward overturning the Planning Commission's decision to allow the sewer line extension, which is about 200 feet across the eastern Rural Crescent boundary near Va. 28.

PRINCE WILLIAM'S RURAL CRESCENT
Kim Hosen, Gainesville Times; Jan 26 2005
The county received nine applications to change the Comprehensive Plan. Several proposals, covering nearly 900 acres, request increased densities that range from one home per acre to three homes per acre for properties inside the Rural Crescent.

FEDS PREFER NORTHERN ROUTE AROUND [BATTLEFIELD] PARK
Tara Slate D o naldson, Gainesville Times; Feb 4 2005
Martha Hendley, the Gainesville District planning commissioner and a battlefield-area resident, said none of the northern routes were good."They cut through the Rural Crescent, they cut through a lot of neighborhoods and this one in particular cuts through a lot of historical sites," she said.

BATTLEFIELD BYPASS DRAFT AVAILABLE
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Feb 6 2005
The western portion of the bypass' route is proposed for the VA 234 vypass extension that Prince William County has in store for a 2010 road bond referendum. The study proposes  that the eastern portion be aligned with a tri-county parkway on the west side of the Battlefield.

COUNTY AIMS TO ADD BETTER-PAYING JOBS; BUILDING ON EMPLOYMENT GROWTH A GOAL
Michael Flagg, Washington Post; Feb 6 2005
Pay grew only 2.2 percent in Prince William through the first quarter of 2004 from the same period in 2003, to $637 a week. The county ranked 215 out of the nation's 317 largest counties surveyed by the bureau. The national average pay rose almost 4 percent, to $758 a week. Pay in nearby Fairfax County rose almost 5 percent, to $1,156 a week.

COUNTY EVOLVES INTO NEW ROLES; JOBS, AFFLUENCE, CULTURE TRANSFORMED
Eric Weiss, Washington Post; Feb 6 2005
Recent U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the county has a median household income of nearly $83,000 -- about a $12,000 jump in one year.

COUNTY TO HAVE OWN ARCHEOLOGIST
Lillian Kafka, Po tomac News; Fan 30 2005
Part of the $350,000 that Washington Homes and Richmond American Homes paid during an out-of-court settlement with Prince William County is going to be used to hire an archeologist.

STATE SAYS [DUMFRIES] LANDFILL MUST CLOSE BY 2010
Aileen Streng, Potomac News; Feb 3 2005
In a consent order pending with the state Department of Environmental Quality, Potomac Landfill has agreed to stop accepting construction debris on Jan. 1, 2007. It must remove all landfill material and completely close down its operation by Dec. 31, 2010.

SUPERVISORS WEIGH ROAD BOND OPTIONS
Lillian Kafka, Potomac N ews; Feb 2 2005
Supervisor Chairman Sean T. Connaughton, R-at large, said the board would schedule a work session to discuss the implications of asking voters to approve a $170 million road bond in November.

PROFFER BILLS KILLED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE
Sari Kreiger, Potomac News; Feb 5 2005
The House of Delegates Counties, Cities and Towns Committee approved two bills Friday that local officials say will stymie their ability to build roads and other infrastructure.

RECORD BREAKING ACREAGE PROTECTED IN THE PIEDMONT; 4.121 ACRES PROTECTED IN RAPPAHANNOCK
Fauquier Times Democrat; Feb 2 2005; Link Only
The Piedmont region continues to lead the state of Virginia, while Virginia is among the top five states in the nation for protecting land through conservation easements. The nine counties of Virginia's Piedmont including Loudoun, Clarke, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Orange, Greene, and Albemarle have protected more land with conservation easements then almost any state in the nation.

STATE MAKES HEADWAY ON BAY TRIBUTARIES PLAN
Rusty Dennen, Fredericksburg Free Lance Star; Feb 4 2005
"As it stands, there are no real [pollution] allocations by locality, so there's no means of accountability" for each river.
"The key is to empower citizens to hold local governments responsible," Tippett said.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA OFFER PLAN TO SAVE BAY; 10-YEAR EFFORT AIMS TO REPAIR SEWAGE SYSTEMS, ENCOURAGE FARMERS TO REDUCE RUNOFF
Bob Lewis, Associated Press; Jan 31 2005; Link Only
In using existing general funds, Virginia would avoid imposing a "flush tax" of $1 or more on households served by a local sewage treatment plant or who have septic tanks. Maryland last year imposed a $2.50 fee on each home in that state served by a treatment plant.

WAIT-AND-SEE STANCE IS LEAVING BAY'S MENHADEN IN DEEP WATER
Candus Thomson, Baltimore Sun; Feb 6 2005; Link Only
The oily, silver-sided fish filter bay water and act as food for bigger fish, especially striped bass. One could argue that they are as important as oysters and bay grass. In fact, most Eastern Seaboard states (except Virginia and North Carolina) have acknowledged their vital role by banning industrial harvesting.

BUILDING STRATEGIES TO MAP OUT GROWTH
Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post; Feb 3 2005; Link Only
Organizers agreed that the day of planning, if it stops there, will solve little. But yesterday's conclusions, analyzed by planners at the University of Maryland, will be encompassed in a report that eventually, organizers hope, will be used as the basis for regional agreements on growth.

RULE, SUBURBIA; THE VERDICT'S IN. WE LOVE IT THERE.
Joel Kotkin, Washington Post; Feb 6 2005
The urbanization of suburbia -- the creation of a more sophisticated, self-sufficient community -- is already beginning. From the suburbs of Northern Virginia to the Los Angeles basin, cities are restoring the commercial cores of what had once been autonomous small towns.

EDUCATION AND HUMAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
E .M. Risse, Bacon's Rebellion; Fe bruary 2005; Link Only
The first step is for individuals to become involved in the school-siting, school-size and boundary-adjustment process in their jurisdiction. They should bring along the resources cited in this column and build a coalition of like interests.

REBIRTH AT TYSONS CORNER; OWNERS OF THE LARGEST MALL IN NoVA HOPE TO DOUBLE SIZE
Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post; Feb 4 2005; Link Only
According to documents presented to Fairfax County planning leaders last week, the mall would be ringed by office, residential and hotel mid-rises, essentially increasing the amount of floor space on the property to more than 5 million square feet, or more than twice as much as in the Empire State Building.

LIVING HERE, WORKING THERE
Fauquier Citizen, January 2005 Series on Commuting

SEEKING 'BALANCE;' ROADS, TRANSIT CAN'T KEEP PACE WITH COMMUTER DEMANDS
Lawrence Emerson; Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
"The only (solutions) I can think of are a shift to regional planning and educating people for fundamental change," Dr. Risse said. ... Dr. Fuller agrees that "balanced communities" offer the only real hope to address commuting's problems. He shares Dr. Risse's view that development density should be much greater in areas closer to Washington, where Metro trains and buses offer viable options for getting to work.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES; LONG DAYS KEEP MOST COMMUTERS OUT OF COUNTY'S CIVIC LIFE
Don Del Rosso, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
Lack of time combined with family obligations make it even tougher for people, especially commuters, to volunteer on weekends, Warrenton Lions Club President Bill Mayo said."You have things to do at home," explained Mr. Mayo, who said his club's membership has dropped from 80 to about 22 since the mid-1960s. "Or (parents) have soccer or football. And they don't have time to participate."

HE BUDGETS THE TIME
Don Del Rosso, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
"The easy way would be to start out by joining an organization that's active in the area that interests you," said Mr. Medvitz, who moved from Southern California to Fauquier in 1992. "It could be taxes, spending or whatever."

AT WHAT COST? FAUQUIER COMMUTERS  SPEND MILLIONS GETTING TO AND FROM WORK
Ty Bowers, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
"Commuters make very logical choices based on their issues," TRIP Research Director Moretti said. "Typically, housing trumps transportation."

WAY OF LIFE; COMMUTING FAMILIES MAKE BEST OF IT, DESPITE TIME CONSTRAINTS
Paul Smith, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
Susan Sharp directs Fauquier Community Child Care Inc. - a state-licensed, nonprofit organization that provides youth supervision at nine county schools. "We have between 700 and 800 in our program in any given school year," Ms. Sharp says. "Maybe 15 to 20 percent of those spend the full 12 hours with us each day."

VANS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES; FAUQUIER COMMUTERS HAVE OPTIONS, BUT MOST DRIVE ALONE
Scott Shenk, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
A 2003 study conducted by Dr. Thomas Guterbock for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission concluded that most commuters in this region drive alone. The study included more than 1,400 telephone interviews of people in Fauquier, Culpeper, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties.

FAUQUIER BECOMES A BEDROOM COMMUNITY
Lawrence Emerson, Fauquier Citizen; January 2005
"It seems to me that the way we got here is a failure to balance land use and transportation," says planning consultant Ed Risse, a Warrenton resident. "Secondly, there's the failure of citizens to make informed decisions as individuals." ... Ultimately, gridlock will make commuting from Fauquier an impossible choice, he predicted.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF CLEVENGER'S CORNER
Don Audette, Fauquier Times Citizen; Feb 1 2005; Link Only
The first facilities to be constructed will be a new water system and a new wastewater system. These might take up to two or three years. Once elements of the new water system are available, major pieces of houses will arrive on flatbed tractor-trailers, and dwellings will go up in a surprisingly short time.

[FAI RFAX] COUNTY TO DELAY ZONING RULE CHANGES
Dominic Bonaiute, Fairfax Times; Feb 1 2005
The proposed changes are intended to clarify when exceptions to the local zoning requirements for yard setbacks, lot sizes and fence heights should be granted for projects like a bedroom addition or a new deck. ... Local and state actions were prompted by last spring's Virginia Supreme Court decision o verturning a variance, or exception, to the county's zoning ordinance granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals. ... Local officials interpreted the court ruling to mean they had been too lax in dispensing variances.

NINE MORE CRISIS AREAS FOR BILDIVERSITY; THREATENED 'HOTSPOTS' HARBOUR HALF THE WORLD'S PLANT SPECIES
Jessica Ebert, Nature Magazine; Feb 2 2005; Link Only
The 34 hotspots house three-quarters of the world's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians. About half of all plants and 42% of land vertebrates are found only in these regions. The combined area of the hotspots was once equivalent to Russia plus Australia; now it is slightly larger than India.

FAUQUIER URGED TO JOIN TRANSIT PARTNERSHIP
Lila de Tantillo, Washington Post; Jan 20 2005
Al Harf, executive director of PRTC, said one option would be to extend commuter rail southwest from Manassas toward the Bealeton/Remington area. That project would cost about $33 million and serve an additional 400 people daily  ... VRE is also considering extending rail service past the Manassas airport to the Gainesville/Haymarket area, which could benefit Fauquier residents. The current freight route, however, consists of a single track. Putting in a double line with signals would ratchet up costs to as much as $78 million.

TRAIN SERVICE TALKS CONTINUE
Cheryl Chumley; Fauquier Times Democrat; Jan 18 2005
Because the Gainesville-Haymarket plan will still benefit Fauquier County commuters, while the "proposed facility in Bealeton will serve only 800 riders, 200 from Fauquier County," Robison said he favored the rail extension plan into Prince William County. "The cost at this point does not justify a station in Fauquier County," he said.

NEW STUDY PROPOSES [ICC] CONNECTOR ALTERNATIVES; ENVIRONMENTALISTS ASSAIL MD RESEARCH
Katherine Shaver, Washington Post; Jan 19 2005
The options examined in the groups' study cost between $626,000 and $2 billion. The state has estimated that an intercounty connector would cost as much as $2.4 billion, not including financing costs. ... "What they're promoting -- improving transit, balancing development so jobs are closer to where people live, and improving the local road network -- are all things we support," Flanagan said. "Where we differ is we think those should be done in addition to building the ICC. . . . "

RAIL FOE SUGGESTS WIDENING OF I-66, DULLES TOLL ROAD
Associated Press; Jan 23 2005
"This is not a project," Zimmerman said. "This is an effort to kill Dulles rail. Physically and financially, you can only do one or the other" - rail or widening the highway.

AS WORKERS MOVE FAR OUT OF THE CITY, SO DO THE JOBS
Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post; Jan 23 2005
Virginia Employment Commission data show that professionals and business service employees make less than their counterparts to the north, as do retail employees. According to the commission, Stafford residents who work close to home make an average of $570 a week, compared with $609 in Spotsylvania, $649 in Prince William, $925 in Loudoun and $1,085 in Fairfax.

ARLINGTON PROPERTY VALUES UP 24 PERCENT; RISE HIGHLIGHTS CRISIS IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Annie Gowen, Washington Post; Jan 19 2005
The rapid growth is in keeping with residential home values in other affluent counties close to Washington, such as Montgomery, which also saw residential values jump nearly 70 percent in the last three years. Loudoun County home values are already up 20 percent over last year, and similar increases are expected in Alexandria and Fairfax County when assessments are mailed next month.

COUNTY RESTRICTS RESIDENTIAL GROWTH; SUBDIVISIONS LIMITED IN RURAL PRINCE GEORGE'S
Ovetta Wiggins, Washington Post; Jan 12 2005
In addition to the one-year ban on applications for new subdivisions, the bills approved yesterday impose building standards on new houses and a four-month time frame for using a building permit.

THE BOOMBURBS AT 'BUILDOUT': FUTURE DEVELOPMENT IN LARGE FAST-GROWING SUBURBS
Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech; January 2005

NEARING GOAL, [POTOMAC] HOSPITAL STARTS FUND-RAISING PUSH
Neil Adler, Washington Business Journal; Jan 14 2005
Potomac Hospital, built in 1972, recently added 16 beds to its emergency department, bringing the total to 42. That expansion was made to account for "explosive" population growth in Prince William County. "Every nine minutes, someone is coming through the [emergency-room] door," Moss says.

CONNAUGHTON TO REMAIN ON BOARD AS HE RUNS FOR LT. GOVERNOR
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; J an 20 2005
If Connaughton won the general election in November, that's when he'd step down from the county's dais, he said.
"Depending on how everything works out in June and November there would potentially be a need for a special election in the spring of 2006 to replace me," Connaughton said.

THINK CROW'S NEST IS SAVED? WRONG: THE COUNTY MUST ACT.
Celia Kirkman and Kay Pangburn, Fredericksburg Free Lance Star; Jan 18 2005
While the county's efforts have moved slowly, the landowners of Crow's Nest have spent the past year rapidly advancing different development plans. ... And just last month, the landowners submitted their own plan to develop over 600 houses spread across the entire peninsula, permanently destroying the fragile ecosystem there.

DEVELOPERS START TO THINK 'GREEN'
Antoinette Martin, New York Times; Jan 23 2005
"At some point," he continued, "rising costs and public awareness will peak, and tenants are going to begin demanding green buildings. That's why we want to brand ourselves as sustainable-building developers."

BILL WOULD SHIELD VA DEVELOPERS FROM PROFFERS UPFRONT
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; Jan 20 2005The bill, if passed, would also end Prince William's new practice of using the steeply rising costs of building materials and road construction to calculate the amount of a proffer between the time it is offered and the time it is paid. The bill would limit such increases to the annual rate of inflation.

GAINESVILLE SECTOR PLAN RESURFACES
Tara Slate Donaldson; Gainesville Times; Jan 21 2005
It was the Planning Commission that first suggested reopening the sector plan. When the commissioners took up the issue of the three parcels last month, Gainesville Planning Commissioner Martha Hendley asked the county staff to undertake a comprehensive study of Gainesville's transportation problem. ... "I'm not certain that the community support is there to reopen the Gainesville Sector Plan,"  [Stirrup] said. He added that he's still seeking input from citizens but that he doesn't see overwhelming support for it.

INCREASED FUNDING, TIGHTER GROWTH CONTROLS ARE NEEDED
Michael Baldauf, Fauquier Times Democrat; Jan 18 2005
The plight of the average Fauquier County commuter is going to worsen dramatically in the next few years, as development in Gainesville and Haymarket grows exponentially, effectively choking off access to Interstate 66 from U.S. 29 and 15 -- not to mention the gridlock they will face once on I-66.

MUSSELS MAY HAMPER BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Jan 19 2005
A Virginia Tech study in 1998 found [endangered] brook floaters and four other species of mussels totaling over 2,500 within a 500-meter reach of the bridge, he said." Just based on the number of species in the area of Broad Run … that indicates to me the relative health of Broad Run seems to be good," Watson said. "We treat that as a critical area as far as trying to protect wildlife."

MANASSAS BATTLEFIELD MAY GET NORTHERN BYPASS
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Jan 23 2005
Van Dop, a Federal Highway Administration official, said a public hearing on alternative D will be scheduled about a month after the draft statement is released to the public.

REZONING BID OFFERS MILLIONS FOR ROAD WORK; DEVELOPER PLANS TOWN CENTER, 6,000 HOMES IN PW
It is "the largest remaining property zoned for Agricultural use in this area of the County," according to the developer's application to the Prince William planning department last week.
Nikita Stewart, Washington Post; Dec 22 2004

DEVELOPER PLANS ROAD IMPROVEMENTS
In total, about 6,000 homes and millions of square feet of office space have been proposed, said county officials. The development is planned on the Hunter property, a forested area between the Nissan Pavilion, Linton Hall Road and Devlin Road.
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Dec 24 2004

CONSTRUCTING THE PROBLEM
A Brookfield representative says the company's proffer will eliminate congestion. Is that before or after adding the 15,000 cars that 6,000 more homes will bring?
Bruce Lavell, Letters, Washington Post; Dec 27 2004

GAINESVILLE SECTOR PLAN RESURFACES
Connaughton said he had opposed the initial Gainesville Sector Plan and would support any move to reopen it or to create a new one.
Tara Slate Donaldson, Gainesville Times; Dec 30 2004

STUDY SHOWS COUNTY LACKS OPEN SPACE
"Strong competition for land threatens the long-term sustainability of this network," says the study. "Our region's green necklace needs a broadly coordinated planning effort if we wish to enjoy it in the future."
Lillian Kafka, Potomac News; Dec. 27 2004