Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart said Thursday he wants the controversial moratorium on new housing developments extended into next year.
“We need to keep housing development very, very slow,” Stewart told The Examiner on Thursday. “We should work to extend the moratorium and keep residential development in check.”
The county’s policy delaying reviews on all residential rezoning proposals for one year is set to expire Dec. 31. Although the law only delays consideration to the maximum length of 12 months, the moratorium has been a key signal of the county’s slow-growth emphasis.
Citing overcrowded schools, congested roads and a swamped real estate market with more than 5,000 homes seeking buyers, Stewart said, “This is a terrible time to be approving new developments.”
Critics cited the moribund housing market to hammer the proposal.
Growth has already fallen to pre-1990s levels, said Mark Granville-Smith of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association.
“It makes no sense,” he added. “They want to stop growth, but there is no growth. … The board shouldbe trying to stimulate the real estate market, not restrict it.”
But the moratorium’s author, Brentsville Supervisor Wally Covington, said the law has placed pressure on the General Assembly to push for more Northern Virginia road funding.
The General Assembly gave the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority the power to raise about $400 million in new regional taxes for transportation, but supervisors said they need more support from state tax dollars.
“I don’t know that I want to continue it just for another year,” Covington said, “If you’re going to do it, make it permanent … until the General Assembly fixes the transportation funding system.”
The moratorium is just one way the board will approach infrastructure and development concerns over the coming months, Stewart said.
After Tuesday’s election, dominated by illegal immigration concerns, consideration of extending the moratorium brings the spotlight back on the slow-growth platform that helped propel Stewart to the office in 2006.
But real estate agents facing a dismal climate said Thursday that any additional restrictions on business would be poor public policy.
