Selling Out to Special Interests

Dick Black is interested in representing only some of his constituents.

Black opposes local authority over growth and its costs

Loudoun, now the fastest growing county in the U.S., has for several years asked the General Assembly for more authority to manage its own residential growth and its associated costs. A number of legislators representing Loudoun have introduced legislation to enable localities to keep growth at a more sustainable level. In 1999, Delegate Joe May and Senator Bill Mims sponsored HB2135 and SB998, bills allowing localities by ordinance to establish the maximum number of residential building permits to be issued in each calendar year according to an "affordability index".

In 2000, Mims introduced SB463, again an affordability index based on the issuance of building permits. May introduced HB852, the companion legislation. Also in 2000, May introduced HB853 (with Mims as its patron in the Senate) which would have expanded the impact fee provisions to include school facility improvements and to be applicable in Loudoun. In 2003, Mims co-patroned an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance bill, SB1126. A number of similar bills were introduced that year by Delegate Bob Marshall, who continued to champion growth control legislation in 2004.

Meanwhile, Dick Black continues to oppose the responsible growth control legislation that Virginians overwhelmingly support - according to Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, former Gov. George Allen's pollsters, more than 83 percent support impact fees and adequate public facilities legislation.

Sources: HB 2135, SB 998, SB 463, HB 852, HB 853 SB1126, HB 1540, HB 1539, HB 1538, HB 2039, HB 729, HB 748, Leesburg Today, Jan 9, 2004, Leesburg Today, Jan 29, 2003

Black says our air quality is fine: "Keep it just as it is."

Loudoun's air quality is getting worse as more people move to the county, drive more miles and use SUVs, according to Dorn McGrath, principal investigator for the Loudoun County Environmental Indicators Project (LEIP). LEIP, a partnership project between the county and George Washington University, was tasked with monitoring and interpreting key indicators of the county's environment, and anticipating future trends. Their research indicates a correlation between ozone and land cover.

The Ashburn Air Quality Monitoring Station, which was established in 1998 to monitor the county's air quality, showed the county exceeded the EPA's ozone standard 23 times in 2002. High levels of ozone pollutant over an extended period of time pose potential danger to human health. Most at risk are active children, adults who exercise vigorously outdoors, and people with asthma and other respiratory diseases. A researcher at GWU warns that "as the number of active, energetic youngsters continues to grow, efforts to curb ground-level ozone pollution should be in the forefront of all environmental protection policies."

According to Dick Black, however, the air quality problem has been created by the Environmental Protection Agency, which sets, he charged, "artificially low levels" for ozone in the air. "The air at Board Run is as clean and clear as on a mountain top in the Rockies," he said. "When I can detect polluted air at Broad Run, I'll be worried and take action. I'm not worried now."

Black must believe that his detection capacity is superior to that of the monitoring site at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, which registers ozone above the national standards for air quality. "I've never breathed cleaner air than in Loudoun County," says Black. "Keep it just as it is."

Sources: Loudoun Environmental Indicators Project, Indicators of Change, Dec. 2002, Volume 4, Number 3, Loudoun Connection, Oct. 28, 2003, Loudoun Times-Mirror, Dec 3, 2002

Black puts builders' schedules before public health

Ever faithful to his developer contributors, Dick Black successfully introduced legislation that rescinds the County's power to require Health Department reviews prior to issuing construction approvals for septic fields, putting builders' construction schedules ahead of the health of future homeowners and their neighbors. "That approval places the homeowner in a potential situation where they are heavily invested in a lot, a house and sewage disposal system constructed before the health department sets foot on the property for the first time", points out Supervisor Sally Kurtz. "If Health Department staff find problems at this late stage in the development process the homeowner, through no fault of his own, may find himself with an unacceptable system and a house on hold."

Sources: HB 2726, Leesburg Today, Feb. 20, 2001

Opinion

Black submits nuisance legislation to thwart local governance

In 2002, Dick Black introduced legislation that would require all rezoning notices to be sent by registered or certified mail. Changing the notice from first-class mail to certified mail would cost taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for everyone affected by a planned comprehensive rezoning of the county, County Attorney Jack Roberts warned. He added "I see no reason for this... other than to complicate things and drive up costs."

Legislative liaison Memory Porter pointed out that the law had already been changed in 1996 to require first-class mail to every landowner affected by comprehensive rezonings. First class mail is quicker and doesn't depend on the recipient to sign for or pick up the notice, she explained. Notification wouldn't be faster or more reliable, but administrative time and costs would rise significantly for notification through certified mail.

Some Loudoun supervisors speculated on Black's motivation to submit such legislation; Supervisor Mark Herring (D-Leesburg) said "I don't think anyone should be fooled by this," and went on to explain that the notification bill was supported by those opposed to the board's efforts to manage growth. Other bills submitted by Black in 2001 and 2002 stipulated that no amendment to the zoning map shall be instituted without the written consent of or just compensation to the landowner whose property is the subject of such amendment. Porter said such a law would cripple localities across Virginia from making land use decisions.

Sources: HB1367, HB603, HB 2702, Leesburg Today Jan. 22, 2001, Leesburg Today Jan. 23, 2002

Opinion

Black gets a zero from the Virginia League of Conservation Voters

The Virginia League of Conservation Voters rated Dick Black a zero for his environmental voting record in the 2004 General Assembly, making him one of the ten worst legislators for the environment in Virginia. (That would be a big goose egg for Goose Creek, the source of drinking water for the entire 32nd delegate district.)

Black opposed all six of his Loudoun GOP colleagues in the General Assembly in voting against HB549, a bill patroned by Delegate Joe May and championed in the Senate by Senator Russ Potts. The bill allocated $1 from recordation fees to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which was established to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property in order to promote the preservation of open-space lands.

Sources: HB 549, 2004 General Assembly Conservation Scorecard, Virginia League of Conservation Voters

Black praises his acolytes on Loudoun County Board of Supervisors

"The new board of supervisors is off to a very fine start" declared Dick Black just two days after their first meeting on Jan. 4, 2004.

Black's board got right to work. Its first act was to add a long list of action items to the agenda without notice to the public or to colleagues. Among these actions were to extend public water and sewer lines to central Loudoun's transition area, which opponents said could substantially increase development in the area; revive a plan to build the Western Transportation Corridor (WTC), a major new highway through eastern Loudoun; allow schools to be built in industrial zones; rescind a countywide historic preservation effort; reverse measures to protect Loudoun's water quality, withdraw from the regional Coalition of High Growth Counties, and instruct the county's lobbyist in Richmond to reverse course and oppose impact fees, a tool to offset the cost of the roads and schools required by residential development.

Senator Bill Mims promised to press for the legislation anyway. "I will continue to support that legislation. I will do whatever I can to help it along.""If the Board of Supervisors wants to let developers off the hook, I don't see much popular support for that at all," said Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) in response to the more than fifty residents who spoke two days later at a Town Hall meeting with Loudoun legislators.

Sources: Leesburg Today, Jan. 9, 2004, Loudoun Connection, Jan. 14, 2004, Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2004

Opinion

Black says localities shouldn't be able to control their own zoning

To address the financial impact of being one of the nation's fastest growing counties, Loudoun embarked in 2001 on a three year process of rewriting its comprehensive plan.

The draft comprehensive plan relied on one of the only tools permitted localities by the General Assembly to plan their own development, zoning. But Dick Black wanted Loudoun stripped even of this management tool. "I don't want more for them", Black said. He then introduced legislation which would effectively prohibit local governments from rezoning, in order, as he put it "to control Utopian planners." His bill died in committee.

Black then began to spread the misconception that the intent of the plan was "density packing" in eastern Loudoun - that is, that density was increased in the east to compensate for downzoning in the west. "You have misunderstood or have not read the draft plan," Chairman Scott York wrote in a January 9, 2001 letter to Black. In fact, the previous plan designated the eastern part of the county as an "urban growth area", while the new plan retained the same suburban density "allowed in traditional neighborhoods that are the stated preference in the 1991 General Plan." Contrary to Black's specious talk of imaginary "density packing", the plan actually reduced the planned buildout of eastern Loudoun by nearly fifty percent.

Black doesn't think localities should control their own tax rates, either

The Virginia Association of Counties states that local governments can no longer accommodate the State's unwillingness to fund state mandated programs and the reduction of State revenues to localities. The 2001 Commission on Virginia's State and Local Tax Structure for the 21st Century has recommended a complete revision of Virginia's tax code, with the assurance of local authority to meet service obligations. Working to counter the unfairness of this archaic code ought to be a legislative priority for Loudoun's elected representatives.

Although Dick Black neglected to mention it during a meeting with the Loudoun Board of Supervisors prior to the 2003 General Assembly session, he introduced a bill that year that would have removed local authority to set property tax rates.

According to the Commission on Local Government's Local Fiscal Impact Estimate, this bill would result in a significant loss of local revenue, would negatively impact the bond ratings of Virginia localities, and would result in an increase to other local taxes, fees and service charges.

In moving to oppose Black's bill, the Board of Supervisors assessed its impact as a "disaster" in fast growing communities like Loudoun, and speculated that Black's actual intent was to force a restructuring of the role of local government.

Sources: HB 1519, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Board minutes, Jan. 6, 2003, Northern Virginia Regional Commission 2004 Legislative Priority Position

Black doesn't even think localities should decide what to do with local revenue

Dick Black patroned a bill in 2003 that restricted the authority of local government to allocate Transportation Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenues as they think appropriate.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to oppose this bill, viewing it as an attempt to strip them of the authority to support open space programs such as Purchase of Development Rights (PDR). Even Republican Supervisor Drew Hiatt, although he opposed the PDR program, was in agreement that Black's bill would create an unacceptable "erosion of local prerogatives and authorities."

Sources: HB 1517, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Board minutes, Jan. 6, 2003

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