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By MICHAEL MARTZ
Arundel Newspapers Staff Writer
RICHMOND — Loudoun County’s proposed transferable development rights program came before a joint legislative committee meeting for public hearing on Tuesday, amid confusion over the need for state authority to adopt the program.
The House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns and the Senate Committee on Local Government held public hearing on bills introduced in each house to reaffirm Loudoun’s authority to enact the program, a farmland preservation and growth management concept under preparation in Loudoun for almost four years.
The Senate committee, under the temporary chairmanship of Sen. Charles L. Waddell (D-Loudoun/Fairfax), referred the issue to a subcommittee while it awaits an opinion from the attorney general’s office on the constitutionality of TDR and the need for state enabling legislation to use it.
Del. Robert T. Andrews (RFairfax/Loudoun), who cosponsored the legislation last year but not this year, requested the opinion on Jan. 22.
The subcommittee — comprised of Sens. Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William), Wiley F. Mitchell Jr. (RAlexandria) and Madison E. Marye (D-Montgomery) — will report to the full committee on Tuesday.
The House bill, meanwhile, is already before a subcommittee chaired by Del. C. Richard Cranwell (D-Vinton). The full committee meets again on Friday.
All of this might not have been necessary, because both legislators and Loudoun officials acknowledge the county’s proposed program may not even need state approval.
But when the legislature gave Loudoun enabling authority for the program last year, it required the county to return with an ordinance that shows how the program would work.
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