Brian Robinson OR Carol Goter Robinson OR Bill Robinson
2004-02-02 04:58:31 UTC
Note how the article below is studiously vague on whether this
means funding for either leg of the DC-area rail project is secure.
In fact the Washington Post is taking pains to keep us guessing on
this for as long as possible. "Revive" Dulles Metro? When did the
Post declare it dead? Musta been another piece of transit non-news.
As it happens, the article fails to point out that if the feds don't
recommend the ENTIRE project out to Dulles, not just the fully funded
portion, the local airports authority won't allow it to get built.
They control the Dulles highway median all the way to the WMATA Metro
Orange Line at West Falls Church.
The Post also failed to followup to tell us whether the Fairfax (VA)
county council voted to approve this multi-billion dollar self-taxing
district created by landowners in Tysons Corner -- a plan which
involves more self-taxing money than the entire cost of many of those
mickey-mouse light rail projects out West.
Why, you ask? Well it just so happens the Post believes we're spending
too much money on transit. According to the DC city paper's media critic,
the Post's leading staff reporter for transportation issues was recently
shit-canned for spending too much time reporting on "transit-related" issues.
Herndon city council echos the Post attitude in this article by saying that,
now that their landowners are in no danger of being taxed, they "have no dog
in this fight." After all, it's not like Herndon residents would benefit
from Metro even as far as Reston, right? Only riff-raff ride the train.
One last point -- it seems that nobody, up to and including longtime
posters on this newsgroup, seems to care if they actually live to see
Metro to Dulles. I guess it's a nice thing to merely think about;
what's another 5 years more or less?
Va. Landowners Offer Special Tax to Revive Metro Dulles Route
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2004; Page B01
Backers of a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport
have developed a plan to pay for the first leg of the 23-mile
project, a month after the Herndon Town Council scuttled a plan
to help finance the full route.
A group representing 800 landowners in the Tysons Corner area submitted a
petition to Fairfax County yesterday to set up a special tax district for
commercial property owners, who would pay an added real estate tax to
extend Metro from West Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue in Reston.
"Rail is back on track," said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), who has met several times with major
property owners in the Dulles corridor. "We went back to the drawing
board. There emerged a sense of importance of resurrecting the
financing of the project."
The new plan for the Tysons district, scheduled to go before the county
board Monday, is designed to help Fairfax cover its $540 million share
of what ultimately could be a $4 billion rail project. But it remains
uncertain whether landowners along the western portion of the rail line
will come up with their own plan for a tax district. Those landowners
have not prepared a petition to fund their potential share.
Without a local financing plan, the long-sought rail extension cannot
move forward and would miss a deadline to seek federal funding this spring.
"We are moving ahead, with a positive signal to the [federal government]
that once this project is started, it will be finished," said Eric
Peterson, director of the Fairfax County landowners group known as
LEADER, or Landowners Economic Alliance for the Dulles Extension of Rail.
The group drafted the plan submitted to the Board of Supervisors
yesterday.
To form a tax district, a majority of property owners must support it.
The owners of 63 percent of the Tysons area property signed the petition,
Peterson said.
Herndon officials, representing the interests of property owners in
Reston and Herndon, rejected the original plan to create a single tax
district for the corridor. That would have provided Fairfax's share of
the funding for the entire 23-mile rail line out to the Dulles area.
The landowners feared that the project would tax them for new tracks
that might never reach much farther west than the Tysons area should
the federal government stop funding the extension.
The new plan is intended to address those concerns by having Tysons
landowners pay for the tracks that would reach them. The western
landowners could choose to create their own tax district, through which
they would contribute to the second phase of the rail line construction,
which planners estimate would get underway in 2010.
The western landowners would start to tax themselves earlier than that,
but under a new agreement between LEADER and county officials, those
landowners would get their money back if federal financing for the
second leg is not secured by 2006, according to Fairfax officials
who helped put the plan together.
Connolly said: "The western landowners have indicated a firm
commitment to proceed, on the heels of the first district."
Leaders of the Reston-Herndon property owners could not be reached yesterday.
Herndon Vice Mayor Carol A. Bruce said her council "doesn't have a dog
in the fight right now." But, she added, "LEADER is doing what they
should have done to begin with." © 2004 The Washington Post Company
Yeah, the nerve of those selfish bastards! Proposing to tax themselves
for the equivalent cost of an entire light rail line, when a minority
of property owners out in the exurban gloaming would prefer to get
a free ride! Good thing it's only an inessential rail line... --BER
means funding for either leg of the DC-area rail project is secure.
In fact the Washington Post is taking pains to keep us guessing on
this for as long as possible. "Revive" Dulles Metro? When did the
Post declare it dead? Musta been another piece of transit non-news.
As it happens, the article fails to point out that if the feds don't
recommend the ENTIRE project out to Dulles, not just the fully funded
portion, the local airports authority won't allow it to get built.
They control the Dulles highway median all the way to the WMATA Metro
Orange Line at West Falls Church.
The Post also failed to followup to tell us whether the Fairfax (VA)
county council voted to approve this multi-billion dollar self-taxing
district created by landowners in Tysons Corner -- a plan which
involves more self-taxing money than the entire cost of many of those
mickey-mouse light rail projects out West.
Why, you ask? Well it just so happens the Post believes we're spending
too much money on transit. According to the DC city paper's media critic,
the Post's leading staff reporter for transportation issues was recently
shit-canned for spending too much time reporting on "transit-related" issues.
Herndon city council echos the Post attitude in this article by saying that,
now that their landowners are in no danger of being taxed, they "have no dog
in this fight." After all, it's not like Herndon residents would benefit
from Metro even as far as Reston, right? Only riff-raff ride the train.
One last point -- it seems that nobody, up to and including longtime
posters on this newsgroup, seems to care if they actually live to see
Metro to Dulles. I guess it's a nice thing to merely think about;
what's another 5 years more or less?
Va. Landowners Offer Special Tax to Revive Metro Dulles Route
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2004; Page B01
Backers of a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport
have developed a plan to pay for the first leg of the 23-mile
project, a month after the Herndon Town Council scuttled a plan
to help finance the full route.
A group representing 800 landowners in the Tysons Corner area submitted a
petition to Fairfax County yesterday to set up a special tax district for
commercial property owners, who would pay an added real estate tax to
extend Metro from West Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue in Reston.
"Rail is back on track," said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), who has met several times with major
property owners in the Dulles corridor. "We went back to the drawing
board. There emerged a sense of importance of resurrecting the
financing of the project."
The new plan for the Tysons district, scheduled to go before the county
board Monday, is designed to help Fairfax cover its $540 million share
of what ultimately could be a $4 billion rail project. But it remains
uncertain whether landowners along the western portion of the rail line
will come up with their own plan for a tax district. Those landowners
have not prepared a petition to fund their potential share.
Without a local financing plan, the long-sought rail extension cannot
move forward and would miss a deadline to seek federal funding this spring.
"We are moving ahead, with a positive signal to the [federal government]
that once this project is started, it will be finished," said Eric
Peterson, director of the Fairfax County landowners group known as
LEADER, or Landowners Economic Alliance for the Dulles Extension of Rail.
The group drafted the plan submitted to the Board of Supervisors
yesterday.
To form a tax district, a majority of property owners must support it.
The owners of 63 percent of the Tysons area property signed the petition,
Peterson said.
Herndon officials, representing the interests of property owners in
Reston and Herndon, rejected the original plan to create a single tax
district for the corridor. That would have provided Fairfax's share of
the funding for the entire 23-mile rail line out to the Dulles area.
The landowners feared that the project would tax them for new tracks
that might never reach much farther west than the Tysons area should
the federal government stop funding the extension.
The new plan is intended to address those concerns by having Tysons
landowners pay for the tracks that would reach them. The western
landowners could choose to create their own tax district, through which
they would contribute to the second phase of the rail line construction,
which planners estimate would get underway in 2010.
The western landowners would start to tax themselves earlier than that,
but under a new agreement between LEADER and county officials, those
landowners would get their money back if federal financing for the
second leg is not secured by 2006, according to Fairfax officials
who helped put the plan together.
Connolly said: "The western landowners have indicated a firm
commitment to proceed, on the heels of the first district."
Leaders of the Reston-Herndon property owners could not be reached yesterday.
Herndon Vice Mayor Carol A. Bruce said her council "doesn't have a dog
in the fight right now." But, she added, "LEADER is doing what they
should have done to begin with." © 2004 The Washington Post Company
Yeah, the nerve of those selfish bastards! Proposing to tax themselves
for the equivalent cost of an entire light rail line, when a minority
of property owners out in the exurban gloaming would prefer to get
a free ride! Good thing it's only an inessential rail line... --BER