Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis Rooker
was a guest on WINA’s
Charlottesville Live
radio program as part of the station’s monthly Government Day feature. Hosts
Rick Daniels
and
Jane Foy
interviewed Rooker about
legislation in the General Assembly
that would eliminate Virginia’s cash proffer system in favor of impact fees with a capped rate. Rooker said Albemarle’s proffer expectations for each single family home would go down from $17,500 to $5,000 and the County would no longer be able to accept cash contributions into its affordable housing fund. The Board of Supervisors
just adopted new cash proffer expectations
last June which raised the amount from $3,200 per home.
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:
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Rooker encouraged the public to lobby local legislators in opposition to
Senate Bill 768
which he said would have “a devastating impact on the ability of communities to somewhat recover the costs of growth as it impacts infrastructure.” The bill is being pushed by home building industry. Jane Foy asked if an unintended consequence of the caps might be that local governments stop approving new developments. Rooker referred to a Washington Post article (
Bill Could Force Curb On Growth, Fairfax Says
, W. Post 1/4/08) that reports some Northern Virginia localities as saying the bill will curtail or freeze rezonings.
The public can read the bill and post comments at the
Richmond Sunlight website
.
In the remainder of the interview, Dennis Rooker responded to questions about the proposed changes to several rural area ordinances which are scheduled for a public hearing before the Board of Supervisors tomorrow.
Brian Wheeler
