Affordable Housing in the Fredericksburg Area

On Rappahannock Review (which will air again Monday on Ch.3 at 8:00pm), I challenged Stafford Supervisor Gary Pash on this very issue concerning a tax on new homeowners mortgages to support public services such as schools. I argued that it was simply another tax that drives up the cost of housing, while Gary ultimately defended it as something other than a tax. . . a “benevolence fee” perhaps?

Now comes this article from the Free Lance-Star highlighting the twofold problem of affordable housing in the Fredericksburg area. Problem #1 is that there simply isn’t any affordable housing, and problem #2 is that there will never be any affordable housing so long as NIMBYism is seen as an ally of smart growth.

At the moment, supervisors are content to force growth to “pay its own way,” which is all well and good. The problem is when you start focusing all developments as inherently bad for Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties, which forces supervisors (and in the case of Idlewyld, our own Fredericksburg City Council as well) to approve high income housing which generates higher levels of property tax income. In short, there is no incentive for developers to build low income housing, nor is there any incentive for supervisors to approve of residential development that “doesn’t pay its own way”.

It’s a rock and a hard place. But there are some factors that exacerbate the problem. One is focusing taxes on new developments and first-time homeowners. Sure the smaller developments take their toll, but that is why large-scale town concepts that fuse commercial and light industry together are the solution (something that Chancellorsville has unfortunately thrown a wet blanket upon). Secondly is the rash of NIMBYism (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) that has swept over Spotsylvania County Democrats over the past few years. Encouraged by their recent phyrric victory over Chancellorsville, they intend to take their no-growth approach countywide. Such an approach only drives up the cost of existing housing, and futher impacts working families.

So what is the solution? Large-scale town concepts are a start, followed by a serious look at the true costs of each new resident and promoting cost-effective alternatives. School construction is the first enemy of the new homeowner, so promoting solutions such as public/private partnerships is a start. Pushing for a top-down re-evaluation of the School Board is another, followed by fiscally sound designs for new school buildings that can be used repeatedly, student vouchers for private and parochial schools, and an examination of charter schools in Spotsylvania and Stafford.

Those are solutions. Hopefully the issue of affordable housing will bring itself to light in the 2003 county elections.