The citizens of Northern Virginia voted tonight for smarter growth for their communities. This is a victory for the grassroots. Voters rejected the status quo, the old approach of simply widening highways, while continuing to scatter development and consuming open space without regard to the traffic impact. Voters rejected writing a blank check to subsidize more sprawl. This vote signals an end to the domination of Virginia politics by the land development industry. Despite a 20-1 margin in expenditures, the No Sprawl Tax Coalition tapped into a deep concern for the sprawl development that has defined this region for the past thirty years.

This vote shows that most people understand that building new roads will not ease traffic congestion. They understand that transportation decisions must be made in conjunction with transit-oriented development, affordable housing closer to work, open space protection, and economic development in places where development already exists. The defeat of this referendum shows that people recognized that the transit component was overrated and underfunded and would be undermined by new sprawl-inducing bypasses. Voters understood that a big reason for the heavy developer support for the tax were road projects they sought to have built beyond Dulles Airport, where developers own at least 65,000 acres for speculative development.

We plan to work together to create smart growth policies to reduce sprawl, reduce traffic, create more walkable communities and more transit access, protect open space, and clean up our air and our water.

Together we need a Blueprint for a Better Region and a Blueprint for Virginia that focuses first on changing where and how we grow. If we really want to reduce traffic, protect open space and our environment, save tax dollars and state and local budgets, and protect our quality of life, we must:

1. Revitalize our cities and towns.

2. Focus development, and especially jobs, at our current and then future transit stations.

3. Allow more housing closer to jobs. Use less land for our office and shopping centers, reserving that land for housing and parks.

4. Invest more of our existing transportation funds in transit, pedestrian, bicycle and local streets.

5. Do all of these things in the key suburbs of Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William where scattered development has contributed so much to traffic and loss of open space.

6. Create a better state and local government partnership in planning.

We have already released a comprehensive set of recommendations attached under the title: Blueprint for a Better Region: Policies for Implementing Smart Growth Solutions to Traffic Congestion. We hope that the Governor will also:

Initiate a long-needed study that documents the enormous fiscal burden on the state that results from excessive land area zoned for development by local governments and from building infrastructure far in excess of the state's real population growth.

Immediately save $12 million by canceling the Western Transportation Corridor environmental impact study and end his support of the other bypass, the Techway, so that the region can focus on making transit and Smart Growth work together. Over and over again, the Governor and the proponents of the sales tax increase stressed that the program did not and would not include outer beltways and the Techway.

Publicly endorse the smart growth efforts of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and to use his close relationship with the land development community to end their pointless litigation, which is contrary to the will of the majority of citizens and residents in Loudoun and the region.

Work with the General Assembly to use their combined resources and power to achieve the goals of Smart Growth, clean air, clean water and land conservation set out in the Virginia State Constitution, various state policies, and the 2020 Agreement for the Chesapeake Bay.

What an opportunity we now have to work together to change where and how we grow, to reduce the growth in driving and traffic, to create more walkable communities and to protect open space and provide a cleaner environment.

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