by Douglas R. Johnson
February 23, 2009
Fluvanna grew because of the 4,601 unit development of Lake Monticello. That has been completed and county growth has stopped. This is hard to accept but by every way you measure, indisputable.
But the mentality of looking at past growth to predict future growth is about to take the county off of a cliff. This is being done by “government planning”. This where you take a pipe dream, put it in a document called a “comprehensive plan”, and then make the plan law by changing the zoning.
But then you add the real teeth by building infrastructure to “make the plan work”. The pipe dream says we want more population in a specific area. So we “plan” high density housing in that area. We then change the zoning to allow it. But high density housing requires water and sewers. So, in anticipation of the pipe dream, we start building infrastructure.
So what has Fluvanna done so far? We started with a one hundred million dollar school construction project to house enough students for the pipe dream. But to fill the school we need more population. That is, we need high rise apartment buildings and row houses. That means we need a 50 million dollar water project to bring water in. That means we need another multi million dollar project to take sewerage out; then more police; then more fire houses; then paid firemen; then more county government workers.
But who are we going to put in the high density housing? Certainly not workers for Fluvanna industry. We will bring in the welfare recipients from the big cities. We will advertise: “Come to Fluvanna and live free”.
Of course we will also advertise for business with such clever ads as: “Come to Fluvanna to pay taxes” or “Come provide jobs so we can put our welfare recipients to work”.
But this is not denied by the proponents of the growth pipe dream. They are of the firm conviction that: “If you build it, they will come.” They think the Hollywood movie, “Field of Dreams” was a documentary based and actual event probably in Missouri.
I relate this more to the old movies where the mine gave out and bustling metropolises became ghost towns. Does it take an advanced college degree that growth is driven by industry and not the other way around?
The industry that drove Fluvanna’s growth is the “retirement” industry. The biggest and most well known is The Villages in Florida. Retirees from all over the country settle there with unlimited golf and fantastic community activities. Lake Monticello catered to that industry and flourished.
But county government is not industry. Industry is industry. If you want industry, you need to target a specific industry. But that happens first. You don’t build infrastructure for industry that is not here yet. That is called “speculation”. Government has no authority to speculate with taxpayer money.
Our great planning department and various planning committees have yet to come up with any proposals to any businesses to come to Fluvanna. Perhaps we could build a headquarters and warehouse for Circuit City. But surprise surprise, they are shutting down. Maybe we could rescue them with one of Fluvanna’s “stimulus bond sale”.
When will the people of Fluvanna rise up and stop the madness?
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Even during the toughest of times, people still drink water and go to the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteThat is the logic underpinning the Fluvanna Board's affinity for municipal bonds secured by revenues from essential services like water and sewer systems and related treatment facilities.
Bondholders love these bonds because they provide dependable cash flow even in a recession. The services are not interrupted even during economic downturns.
Typically, if you own a house or building of any kind, you have to be connected to the water or sewer. It is not elective.
These kinds of bonds are issued to build and/or improve a public utility within a certain Fluvanna district. That means Fluvanna will be divided into water districts. Clearly there will be water districts for Cunningham, Palmyra and Rivanna. The fate of the remaining districts is unknown. Ultimately all of these citizens in affected districts will be required to hook up to the water system and pay for hook-up and monthly fees.
Fluvanna is revenue hungry. Projected revenues for the county are down. Property values are tumbling. So the caution light is on for general obligation bonds issued by counties. That leaves revenue bonds. Revenue bonds are issued by a public authority to support this type of spending/building.
Like any kind of company, some water utilities are well-run and others are not. There is no description of who and how Fluvanna-Louisa public utility will function.
An important metric to make such an assessment is debt-service coverage: how comfortably a public water utility like Fluvanna's can repay its debt using income generated from its services. And what happens if they are NOT successful.
And that is a very important threat to the viability of the Fluvanna-Louisa pipeline. Much of its viability is based on a need to have an undefined public authority condem properties along the pipeline route to get water from the lake up to the prison and across the street to the Louisa water line.
We have no information, because there is no information on this public authority, and yet it will probably pass on March 18th.
It is the Fluvanna Board majority that has spearheaded this project. Read through the Louisa Board meeting minutes/discussion if you have any doubts. The Louisa Board is equally clueless about what the details and exact costs will be.
The only player that knows all the answers is Fluvanna's consultant, Timmons & Co., and they aren't sharing. There is virtually an information blackout about any serious information about the project.
Jerome "Jerry" Patchen
It's Governance By Consultants And They Do Not Even Live Here!
ReplyDeleteEven during the toughest of times, people still drink water and go to the bathroom.
That is the logic underpinning the Fluvanna-Louisa Board's affinity for municipal bonds secured by revenues from essential services like water and sewer systems and related treatment facilities. That is how the counties will capitalize the water pipeline project.
Bondholders love these bonds because they provide dependable cash flow even in a recession. The services are not interrupted even during economic downturns.
Typically, if you own a house or building of any kind, you have to be connected to the water or sewer. It is not elective.
These kinds of bonds are issued to build and/or improve a public utility within a certain Fluvanna-Louisa district. That means Fluvanna will be divided into water districts. Clearly there will be water districts for Cunningham, Palmyra and Rivanna because that is the pipeline route. The fate of the remaining parts of Fluvanna is unknown. Ultimately all of these citizens in affected districts will be required to hook up to the water system and pay for hook-up and monthly fees.
Fluvanna County government is revenue hungry. Projected revenues for the county are down. Property values are tumbling from thier highs. So the caution light is on for real property taxes or general obligation bonds issued by counties. That leaves revenue bonds. Revenue bonds are issued by a public authority to support this type of spending/building.
How will the Fluvanna-Louisa Water Authority work? Like any kind of company, some water utilities are well-run and others are not. There is no description of who and how Fluvanna-Louisa public utility will function.
An important metric to make such an assessment is debt-service coverage: how comfortably a public water utility like Fluvanna-Louisa's can repay its debt using income generated from its services. And what happens if they are NOT successful.
And that is a very important threat to the viability of the Fluvanna-Louisa pipeline. Much of its viability is based on a need to have an undefined public authority condem properties along the pipeline route to get water from the lake up to the prison and across the street to the Louisa water line.
We have no information, because there is no information on this public authority, and yet it will probably pass on March 18th.
It is the Fluvanna Board majority that has spearheaded this project. Read through the Louisa Board meeting minutes/discussion if you have any doubts. The Louisa Board is equally clueless about what the details of the Authority are and what the exact capital and operating costs will be.
No one has this information including supervisors. They will not be true to their oath of office if they vote for this undefined proposition. The only player that knows some of the answers is Fluvanna's consultant, Timmons & Co., and they aren't sharing. There is virtually an information blackout about any serious information about the project.
So how does it feel to have government by consultant?
Jerome "Jerry" Patchen
They have already decided against Revenue onds because they know there will not be enough revenue to cover just the interest.
ReplyDelete