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By MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspapers Richmond Bureau
RICHMOND — A House bill that extends the Northern Virginia proffer system to highgrowth areas throughout the state passed a Senate committee Tuesday by a vote of 9-5.
The bill approved by the Senate Committee on Local Government would permit conditional zoning in areas that experience a 10 percent or more growth rate during a 10-year period.
Rappahannock County is included in the area covered by the proposal since it abuts three counties specifically mentioned in the bill: Culpeper, Fauquier and Warren. And, Rappahannock County Administrator John McCarthy said, if the bill passes the Town of Washington would also gain the authorities granted by the legislation, since it is a part of a county included in the measure.
Mr. McCarthy called the committee’s decision, “about the most important thing that could have happened.” He said he felt that the committee may have been swayed by the strong support offered for the bill by local governments. Members of county planning departments, boards of supervisors and county administrators from “upwards of 30 jurisdictions” attended the hearing, Mr. McCarthy estimated. I
The decision came after Del. Richard Cranwell, D-14th District, the bill’s sponsor, convinced the Senate committee to remove an amendment that would limit local governments’ conditional zoning power. ; Cranwell spent the past week lobbying senators on the Senate committee to remove an amendment that was pasted onto his bill by the House — an amendment that he said would change the intent of the bill.
Del. Linda Rollins, R-32nd District, introduced a similar bill that would add only Fauquier to the list of those counties in Northern Virginia entitled to use conditional zoning. Both bills were slapped with identical amendments in the House.
The Rollins bill did not get out of committee — apparently because it duplicates the Cranwell hill.
By permitting proffers from the developer in rezoning cases, conditional zoning gives counties the power to extract payment for costs caused by the development.
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