Where's the road money?
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

This bumper to bumper line of traffic on route 360 is typical of rush hour any day. Residents not only cope with too much traffic, they also are used to seeing orange cones and merging traffic as the widening of the road continues.

Last fall, after a transportation summit and with considerable hoopla, the county government was saying Chesterfield would have a road funding solution in place by the time the budget was approved. The FY08 budget was approved on Apr. 11, but no money has been set aside for improving Chesterfield roads.

The county staff proposed nine options to raise $300-500 million over the next ten years since the county estimated it needs $1 billion to meet Chesterfield's needs back in 2004, and the Chesterfield Transportation Department says the gap has grown in the past three years. County Administrator Lane Ramsey said the transportation plan would be in the FY08 budget to be approved this spring and suggested Chesterfield might take action on some options even earlier.

Thus far, no solutions have been approved. Last month, on a 3-2 vote the county board set the property tax rate at 97 cents per $100 of assessed value without any set aside for roads. The proposed one penny rate for roads would have raised $3 million in the first year and grown to a nickel rate over five years.

"We have to do something different because we're not getting much [money] from the state," said Kelly Miller, chairman of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors.

"Our road future isn't very pleasant," concurred Transportation Director John McCracken.

To reconstruct a two-lane road costs $8 million per mile. To widen a two-lane road to four lanes costs $10 million while widening a four-lane road to six lanes costs $13 million.

In the Six Year Road Plan, Chesterfield will not quite have enough money to improve a two-lane road for one mile in an average year. But even if Chesterfield received in one lump sum all the monies that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has given it over a 23-year period, that would be only 11 percent of the funding the county needs. From FY1991-FY2013, VDOT will have given the county $114.5 million for secondary roads.

"The county says VDOT is at fault for the current [road] situation," said Planning Commission Chairman Dan Gecker. "It's revisionist history, in a sense, to say our transportation problem is caused by VDOT. It may be acerbated by VDOT, but it's not caused by VDOT."

While more proffers would help, all proffers collected since 1991 - the first year proffers were enacted - only total $35.9 million. Those proffers pay for the impact of new growth on roads, schools, police, fire/EMS, libraries and parks and recreation. Since 1991, the amount of money collected for roads is only $15 million. Together, VDOT funding plus road proffers equal $130 million.

Asked when a financial formula might be taking shape, Ramsey replied, "The board will have to take action on BPOL [a tax on businesses] this summer or lower the cap." Using tax revenues over the current BPOL cap of $15.6 million annually could generate $70-80 million in borrowing for roads over the next decade.

Possible solutions

The county may be behind its own time schedule, but several solutions are being studied. As a result of new legislation enacted by the General Assembly, Chesterfield is investigating imposing impact fees on thousands of lots that were rezoned residential before proffers were enacted. Those impact fees - for roads only - could come to the board this July.

The Budget and Management Department is doing its annual review of proffers which should be ready by next month. Last year, the board rejected an increase in the maximum proffer from $15,600 to $22,600 per residence. The proffer portion pledged to build roads would have been hiked from $8,942 to $12,748.

A proposed transportation district for Magnolia Green is on hold while the county negotiates with the large residential development west of Hampton Park. Under discussion is the possibility that Chesterfield would get $25 million up front to widen Otterdale Road to four lanes divided from Route 360 to Woolridge Road and Woolridge Road to the Swift Creek Reservoir, a distance of about four miles. The concept - called a Commercial Development Authority - would have Magnolia Green property owners paying a higher property tax rate for up to 30 years until the bonds used for road building were paid off.

McCracken said he has discussed extending the Powhite Parkway from Route 288 west nine miles to Route 360 "with three or four companies." While VDOT could put out a request for bids to build the Public Private Transportation Act project, McCracken thought "Chesterfield was in a better position to do that." A limited access, four-lane divided highway is estimated to cost $300 million, but a toll road builder could use the right-of-way that the county already has for about one-half of the distance.

There is a slim possibility that two primary roads in Chesterfield might be widened if VDOT has enough funds left over from new state road funding for interstate highways and primary roads. They include adding lanes on Route 60 from Courthouse/Huguenot roads west to the Village of Midlothian and Route 10 between I-95 and I-295.

"They were identified several years ago as being desperately in need of remedy," explained Chesterfield/Powhatan Residency Engineer Dale Totten, "but there's not any funding for them at this juncture."

The county board could ask the voters to approve a bond referendum for roads, but that may not be likely until after the elections this November. The most recent $40 million road referendum passed easily.

Background

In 1932, the General Assembly gave counties the option of building and maintaining its own roads. Only two - Henrico and Arlington counties - chose that option, and the others still rely on VDOT to build and maintain existing secondary roads. Recently, the state increased the amount of money Chesterfield receives for secondary road improvements - from $31 million to $45 million - over the next six years. The priorities of VDOT in order are debt reduction, maintenance and then new construction - for the money that is left over.

"If the state dumps secondary road construction on local governments," said Tyler Craddock, director of public and government affairs for the Richmond Home Building Association, "it should provide a revenue tool because the [current] revenue system reflects that roads are a state function... [or] it could divert state revenue directly to counties."