jobs are projected to increase most on the Peninsula and east of the Elizabeth River, but housing will grow most on the southwest side of Hampton Roads - increasing the demand for more transportation funding to build/expand bridges/tunnels in the regio
Source: Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, Commonwealth Transportation Board presentation (July 28, 2016, p.12)
But what's the "wrong place" for housing?
Perhaps it's easier to identify the right place, at least from a land use planning perspective. Housing built in an area with adequate public facilities - schools, sewers, water pipelines, police stations, firehouses, libraries, parks, hospitals, and of course roads - will minimize the increased burden on a community. Housing built in isolation, on farms in the rural countryside away from the community's infrastructure for services, will require new and expensive construction. School buses will have longer trips, sheriff patrols will be extended, and other common costs supported by taxes will increase.
parcels converted into subdivisions include some infrastructure built by developers, while the public pays long-term costs for operating new schools, fire/police services, etc.
Source: Historic Prince William, Heathcote Blvd. - #286
Most fundamentally, housing that is built far from where people work will require an investment in roads. Highway construction requires massive investment of tax dollars, and transforms the landscape - physically and politically.
suburban shopping districts are pedestrian-hostile, in contrast to walkable downtowns
Source: Historic Prince William, Manassas - #321
Arlington County preserved low-density neighborhoods by concentrating new development in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, accommodating population/job growth in high-rise buildings next to Metrorail stations
Source: Arlington County, Arlington County, as seen from the air
So sprawl is inefficient development with relatively high costs for each unit built. Because those costs are imposed on others in the community, raising the taxes of existing residents to accommodate newcomers, sprawl is a political issue in Virginia. Low tax and "save the environment" advocates find a common cause in opposing new roads, so they tend to form the nucleus of the smart growth movement advocating changes in existing economic subsidies and increased government restrictions on building new housing in areas far from jobs.
There's an old saying that "politics makes strange bedfellows." Smart-growth advocates may have very different backgrounds and view the role of government very differently, but they share a common support for logical, efficient planning backed by state and local regulations that limit the costs on existing residents by development for new residents. The most ambitious planners suggest urban growth boundaries could be adopted by counties and cities that form metropolitan regions. Growth would be encouraged within the agreed-upon boundaries, and discouraged in rural areas.
Suggesting the government limit the development potential of private property is controversial. Zoning has been commonplace since the 1920's, and both Oregon and Hawaii adopted comprehensive state-managed land use planning processes in the 1970's.
The Oregon initiative was led not by politically-connected lawyers or newly-arrived social activists, but by old-line farmers seeking to preserve their agricultural life. They knew from experience that, when suburban homes are built adjacent to a farm, the new neighbors complain about the smell of fertilizers and the dust from plowing. They knew from experience how free-running dogs and cats arrive along with new suburban homes on quarter-acre lots, and how difficult it can be to move tractors and other farm equipment through suburban traffic.
Planning could steer housing and commercial construction to areas where the soils were relatively poor, preserving the most-valuable farmland. Buffer zones between parcels intended for very different uses could be designed to minimize incompatible activities, so industrial plants are not built next to elementary schools and townhomes are not located next to dairy farms.
subdivisions can be compact, or houses can be constructed on larger lots that transform greater acreage
Source: Historic Prince William, Atkins Way - #298
More commonly in Virginia, individual developers are granted permission to subdivide parcels and the private sector determines what parcels will be developed, and when those parcels will be developed. Counties and cities have some controls via planning and zoning ordinances and building codes, but the leverage is limited. Under a legal doctrine known as the Dillon Rule (named for Judge John Dillon, an Iowa Supreme Court Justice), Virginia's local communities have no authority to control land use unless specifically granted that authority by the General Assembly.
Virginia's counties have the authority to require "proffers" before agreeing to development proposals. In some fast-growing counties, builders may proffer $30,000 or more per house before receiving approvals to build new subdivisions.
However, counties do not have authority to require developers to delay construction until "adequate public facilities" (schools, roads, libraries, parks, etc.) have been built. Parcels may be developed and new residents move to a subdivision years or even decades before counties can build the infrastructure to reduce congestion on highways, at ballfields, etc.
by converting Pine Street into a pedestrial walkway, Longwood University created a walkable community
Source: Prince William Conservation Alliance, Building Better Burbs with Tom Eitler, Urban Land Institute
subdivisions centered on a golf course were popular in the 1990's
Source: Historic Prince William, Piedmont Golf Club, Haymarket - #291
Dource: 2019: Creating a Region Where Everyone Can Live and Thrive from COG Video on Vimeo
multi-story buildings requiring elevators, such as the Sudley Tower built after IBM came to Manassas, are rare in suburbia
Source: Historic Prince William, Manassas - #324
