Prince William County is earning itself quite a perplexing reputation. Last Friday, while most of us were recovering from turkey hangovers, the Washington Post reported that Prince William, whose representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates have been instrumental in defeating bills to help pay for Northern Virginia transit improvements, will consider a bill placing a one year moratorium on new home construction. According to county officials quoted in the Post story, the move would represent a “shot across the bow” of the governor and the state legislature in Richmond, which have been “collecting these tax dollars for years, and they have been neglecting our infrastructure.”
Not that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine needed the wake up call. As part of his continuing efforts to improve his state’s infrastructure needs, the Governor took to Northern Virginia on Monday to discuss growth and transportation issues, including the importance of giving local governments “more tools to reject development,” in the words of the Post. During his visit, the Governor was careful to note that he shared Prince William County’s frustration, but he also mentioned that it might be helpful for residents there to solve their own problems, so to speak, by taking matters to their stubborn delegates. One imagines it took quite a bit of restraint on the Governor’s part not to word his message a bit more strongly.
With increasing frequency, this is the way things work in the Washington area. In a region that continues to grow faster than most of the nation, frustration with the inability of government to put together solutions has exploded, and voters are responding by turning to local authorities. In Prince William and Loudoun County in Virginia, and in Montgomery County in Maryland, residents have expressed a desire to step on the brakes, but while this inclination is understandable, these decisions are often at odds with the plans of other jurisdictional forces. Montgomery County might want to fight sprawl, but Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich’s Intercounty Connector is likely to encourage the great push outward. Prince William may want to halt growth, but the federal government seems determined to place thousands of new jobs there, at the Quantico Marine Base, or on the county’s doorstep, at Fort Belvoir. And all the while, the District is pouring millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours into efforts to bring new economic activity and people to the south and east of the city — an area with enviable geographic and transportation advantages. It’s no wonder Prince William County can’t get its local officials and its delegates on the same page; in the politics of regional expansion, it’s every man for himself.
