The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) voted on a Fairfax County budget resolution and a Winchester Homes development application.
The two items were voted on at the association’s April 5 Board of Directors Meeting.
The MCA resolution on the Fiscal Year 2007 Fairfax County Budget passed with little discussion. The resolution includes fourteen detailed recommendations, the first of which asks the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to limit spending increases in the General Fund, thereby permitting the County to reduce the tax rate by an additional six cents per $100 of assessed value. This would be beyond the already proposed seven cent reduction for a final tax rate of $0.87 per $100 of assessed value.
MCA Board member Ed Saperstein questioned just how realistic the $0.87 tax rate is.
"I happen to agree with the direction of this, but is that realistic?" asked Saperstein. "With our quality of life is that doable?"
Members of the MCA Budget and Taxation committee maintain that it is.
"We didn't just push spending," said Budget and Taxation committee member Rob Jackson. "We said that there are some things you can do to maintain revenues, like proffers… there are things you can do without cutting the programs."
Jackson added that "a lot of people realize that we are reaching the ticking point on taxes."
"What we want them to do is not eliminate programs that people need," he said.
The MCA resolution also strongly urges the county to eliminate other taxpayer subsidies to the real estate development industry "by increasing county fees for land development services… and zoning services to levels that recover all of their costs, rather than requiring taxpayers to subsidize those services by $10.4 million," as is proposed in the Fiscal Year 2007 budget. It goes on to ask that the county do a better job in collecting cash proffers from real estate developers, and requests that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors "exercise its existing statutory authority to imposed cost-based development impact fees."
The resolution did commend the county and the board of supervisors for dedicating a source of funding for storm water management projects, for holding multiple town meetings, and for responding to the MCA's questions in a timely manner this year.
AN APPLICATION from Winchester Homes was the other topic of discussion at last week's meeting. The development company filed for a rezoning of the so-called McLean Glen property that is bounded by Lewinsville Rd. on the north, Charity Baptist Church on the northeast, Odrick's Lane on the south, a strip of land owned by Fairfax County on the southeast, and the Bellmeade subdivision on the west.
The development plan calls for increasing the housing density of the property to 2.34 units per acre, for a total of 19 units. The MCA resolution opposes the proposed density and states that the base density of two dwellings per acre, as proposed by the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan, should be the maximum number of units allowed. However, the MCA does support the developer's efforts to build the properties as a Planned Development Housing (PDH) district.
The MCA Planning and Zoning Committee has been meeting with the developer and the surrounding communities to get a handle on what would work best for everyone involved.
"I think we've got everybody's support as much as we can," said Planning and Zoning Committee member Lynn Bays Fueschel.