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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
ARCOMrtaff writer
Local governments searching for the means and the money to preserve open space have overlooked a provision in the Virginia Code which may confer upon boards of supervisors the authority to levy taxes for just that purpose.
“It’s the most under-utilized piece of legislation ever passed,” said Tyson Van Auken, speaking at the work session last month in Annandale of the Virginia General Assembly’s Outdoor Recreation Assessment Joint Committee.
The Code’s Open-Space Land Act recognizes that “rapid growth and the spread of urban development are creating critical problems of service and finance for the State and local governments.” It finds the preservation of permanent open space necessary in helping to “curb urban sprawl, to prevent the spread of urban blight and deterioration” and to provide or preserve park, recreational, historic and scenic areas and “to conserve land and other natural resources.”
Accordingly, the act allows public bodies to hold title or conservation easements on open space land if its preservation as open space conforms with the locality’s comprehensive plan.
It also grants cities, towns and counties the explicit power to “levy taxes and assessments” as well as issue general obligation bonds “for the preservation of open space,” said Mr. Van Auken, who is the execIlf 11TA /llWl/lf AM A f f L A Ultxvinin t
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