Republicans Vote For Rail Development And Congestion Relief

You'd never see that kind of "reason prevailed" or "suburbs embrace transit" headline in a southeastern Wisconsin newspaper - - take a bow, Waukesha County - - but in a fast-growing Virginia portion of the Metro DC area, with an all-Republican county board, it's the reality:

By opting in, Loudoun, whose explosive growth over the last decade has transformed the western fringe of the metropolitan area, in effect decided to tighten its bonds with the region.

In the process it will also juice economic development in the part of the county near the [Dulles] airport and contribute to ongoing efforts to ease some of Northern Virginia’s worst traffic congestion.

The board’s decision should have been a no-brainer, yet it was anything but. Polls, e-mails, public testimony and the virtually unanimous weight of the county’s business leaders all favored Loudoun’s participation.

But a vocal and impassioned minority mounted an aggressive campaign to stop the project, vilifying Metro — sometimes in veiled racist terms — as a force for evil.

Some critics also had reasonable concerns, such as that Dulles rail would impose an unfair tax burden on Loudoun residents, including many who wouldn’t benefit by the project.

In the end, the board sensibly addressed that by establishing special tax districts to ensure that most of the county’s share of the construction cost will be borne by landowners and developers — but very few homeowners — in the immediate vicinity of the new rail stations.

In the end, reason prevailed, with a crucial assist from Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), who mounted a concerted lobbying effort toward the all-Republican county board.