Great Idea Chairman York.
In a work session last week Chairman Scott K. York made a great point, and I would like to thank him for it. He told his fellow Board members that, “Rt. 28 barely got built, and the only reason it got built is because the landowners came together and said they would fund 75 percent of it.” Bravo Chairman York!
Here’s how it worked. In 1987, the Virginia General Assembly gave localities the go-ahead to create special tax districts to finance transportation improvements. Fairfax and Loudoun Counties quickly teamed up with Route 28 landowners to form the first transportation improvement district in the Commonwealth. Funding for this project was largely provided by the district’s tax revenues.
This how Metro should be financed if it comes into Loudoun at all. The current funding deal is simply not structured this way. As structured now it places the cost burden on the individual taxpayer, not the businesses who stand to profit the most.
I ask the Chairman to lead our Board of self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives to vote 9-0 to Opt Out and allow the Dulles Rail project to connect to the Dulles Airport. If MWAA choses to work with the property owners who have expressed a desire to move this forward, let them do so, but please do not hand over a blank check to be paid for with our taxes.
Sincerely,
Cathy McNickle
Sterling, VA
[Editor's note: The Loudoun Board of Supervisors is considering two types of tax districts, possibly in combination, to pay for rail construction. Patch will have a story about the May 22 meeting on the that topic soon.]
http://loudounoptout.blogspot.com/2012/05/chairman-scott-york-slams-door-on.html
Who's kidding who? The plan is to foist Phase II onto Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, because the public is apathetic and ignorant. Phase II is full of overcosts of 70% to 100%. The arguments, even from the most knowledgable groups, are only going to push these overcosts onto taxpayers, in the name of 'fairness'. All of you need to snap out of it and wake up. Phase II is a deliberate ripoff, and you are its victims. Rail to Loudoun is premature, and you are heading to another expensive mistake, like the Dulles Greenway bankruptcy in 1996. Dulles Rail Phase II, aka Rail to Loudoun, aka Rail to Dulles, aka The Silver Line (Phase II), is a bad plan, premature, overpriced, and VERY badly designed at Dulles Airport (far beyond the old above ground / below ground smokescreen argument). JUST SAY NO! Send this failure back to the drawing board, and don't let your 'leaders' lie to you again. Don't fall for Chicken Little who says "OH! OH! You HAVE to approve this NOW, or The Sky Will Fall." It's time to think and act like actual adult human beings, not like sheep or cattle being directed for somebody else's purposes. You don't think that a billion plus dollars of extra profit serves somebody else's purposes? Snap out of it!
Ahh, Loudoun, always making me proud. The Kansas of the DC metro area.
http://ashburn.patch.com/articles/lte-opt-out-on-upcoming-metro-vote
And people are worried that someone like me, who lives less than three miles from the Loudoun County border... might... (gasp!) COMMENT on the huge mistake that this rail line is.
Oh, but Metro on the east side of the county means that you don't have to drive any more. You can just float over to a station, and ride to Centreville... oops, well to Leesburg... oops, well to Purcelville... oops. Well, you can get to Tysons, and DC, if that happens to be where you are going. Loudoun County was richer than Fairfax County, despite Fairfax County having 3 Metrorail lines on its east side for years, if you count the Orange line to Vienna, the Blue line to Springfield, and the Yellow line to Huntington. But now Loudoun County may get Metrorail on ITS east side, so I guess it can be less rich now, like Fairfax County.
And CC - do you really have any better reason to desire this overpriced rail line than that you just want to ride it all around? Wouldn't a BUS in a dedicated BUS lane do just as well now - and for many future years - if not better? Oh, and how will the train get people to jobs in those big buildings along Rt 66 and Rt 50? People will need BUS for that, or they will have to drive. Or they could float to them on magic carpets, I suppose. The situation is much like that of businesses along the western side of Loudoun County, who might want their employees and customers to get to them by rail. How to get them to and from the stations? BUS? And why not go all the way on bus, then? But these are inconvenient questions, so you will probably complain about them. Here, I'll put them into the spreadsheet.
Anyway... As I recall, there was a discussion about the integration of the Silver Line and buses at the meeting last night. I'm not against buses, I don't think there will be enough benefit to a bus-only strategy, and those costs aren't really worth the ROI, and the impact on the environment AND traffic with buses only will only make things worse. Also, there were quite a few discussions last night, from what I understand, and you've got some pretty foul people on "your" side of all this. I'd be careful out there.
"Vote NO to Metro,"