Starting July 1, commercial landowners in the Dulles corridor will pay an extra 22 cents per $100 of assessed value to help build a Metro extension between the West Falls Church station and Wiehle Avenue in Reston. Fairfax County supervisors Monday formally set the tax rate, which is expected to raise about $380 Million, to cover the county’s share of the project’s $1.5 billion cost.
Landowners representing most of the value of the commercial properties in the corridor presented a petition to the Board of Supervisors in January asking for the tax increase in an effort to speed up the construction of the rail line.
The project got another boost June 11, when the Federal Transit Authority gave the go-ahead to begin the engineering on the project.
The Wiehle Avenue phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by 2009. The rail is set to reach the Dulles Airport by 2015. But those dates could be delayed if the federal government does not provide $100 million a year for the project in the six-year transportation funding bill Congress is scheduled to vote on this year.
But Dan Alcorn, of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, told board members during a public hearing before the vote that the federal government’s decision combined with the establishment of the special tax made the group optimistic that the project would be built on schedule.
“We’re feeling very enthusiastic about the financing of the project,” he said.
Although Monday’s action only applies to landowners between West Falls Church and Wiehle Avenue, landowners between in the second phase of the project are working on a petition of their own to help finance the second phase of the project.
Leo Scheffer, president of the Washington Airports Task Force, said the rail line was necessary in light of the economic activity in the corridor.
In 1980, he said, businesses in the corridor represented 4 percent of the region’s economy. Today, they represent 22 percent and will represent 26 percent by the end of this decade, when the rail line is set to reach Wiehle Avenue.
“I would urge you to set the tax rate so that this project, which has a lot of popular support move smartly and aggressively forward,” he said.
But Ken Reid, an opponent of rail, urged the board to put off implementing the new tax, saying landowners would be paying the tax for years before the new line opened.
“What is the hurry in collecting the tax now?” he said. “The proper time to begin is when, and if, this project survives preliminary engineering review.”
Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (D) said he would “enthusiastically” support the new tax.
“When you look at the Dulles corridor,” he said, “it’s also going to be the second largest employment center in the region next only to the core of Washington, D.C. itself.”
The vote passed unanimously.