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Waiting for rail taxing for landowners
On Monday, Fairfax Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-at large) presided over a roughly eight-minute meeting of the Dulles Rail Transportation Improvement District Commission, which voted to recommend a district tax rate of 22 cents on commercial and industrial properties, the same rate as last year.
However, for landowners in the tax district, which stretches from Reston to Tysons Corner, things are not so simple. Continuing uncertainty about the future of the Dulles Rail project is starting to shake the region's confidence, and not every landowner affected feels good about paying higher property taxes to fund a project that may never happen.
“We in the business community have paid too much in and not received anything in return. I think it's time to dial it back,” said Mike Cooper, a member of the Dulles Rail Transportation Improvement District Advisory Board and executive vice president of Brandywine Properties, based in Tysons Corner.
According to Cooper, Brandywine has paid about $1.6 million into the fund already. Total, the district has collected $76 million to fund the project, and expects to collect $28 million more this year.
“[The FTA] may never say no, they could just create a hurdle that can't be reached. ... This could go on forever as a standoff,” said Cooper, who added that his company supports the rail project but is concerned about its uncertain future.
Brandywine and other landowners in the district are caught in a difficult position – they want the rail project to succeed, but if it fails, they don't want their money tied up in a possibly useless fund. Further complicating the matter is a third concern: the Federal Transit Administration.
“If we set the tax rate to zero, couldn't this be the straw that broke the camel's back?" asked Pete Rosen, chair of the advisory board.
“There are concerns about the message it would send,” said Rick Stevens, the county's project manager for Dulles rail.
The rail project's cost-effectiveness is already teetering on the edge of the FTA's standard, so lawmakers and landowners alike are concerned that anything that could be perceived as hurting the project's funding would destroy it.
“[Keeping the same tax rate] makes sense. The project is in flux right now,” Connolly said.
At the advisory board meeting, Cooper urged that the tax rate be dropped to zero until the FTA grants final design approval to the rail project. Board member Brenda Krieger of Dweck Properties also entertained the idea, but the advisory board ultimately voted 3 to 1 to keep the current rate.
“If we dropped the rate and the FTA approved the project, it would take a year to reset the rate,” said Jim McGettrick, representing the county attorney's office.
Along with the commercial landowners, some citizens groups have also begun to ask for the tax district to be dissolved. Chris Walker, an anti-rail activist, has begun circulating a petition to dissolve the tax district. According to county staff, the majority of the district's landowners would need to sign a petition to dissolve the district.
For their part, representatives of West*Group and Macerich, two of the largest landowners in the tax district, said they remained confident in the rail project.
“We support continuing the tax district and we believe in supporting the project,” said Mark Lowham of West*Group.
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