Fairfax City Residents Overwhelmingly Support 

Tax Increase to Preserve Open Space

Fairfax, VA – The Fairfax Coalition for Smarter Growth’s efforts led to overwhelming citizen’s support for preservation of remaining open space and parkland in the City of Fairfax.  Following an intensive 4-week effort by the Fairfax Coalition to inform City residents about the advisory referendum issue on the ballot, voters in the City of Fairfax yesterday favored the referendum by 64%.  The measure, while non-binding on the City Council, endorses the City Council’s efforts to “purchase available land for the purpose of maintaining the land as open space or park lands” with taxes derived from an increase in the real estate property tax rate of up to 5 cents for a period of not more than 5 years.  Support across the City’s six precincts ranged from 61-69%!! 

 

According to Paul S. Hughes, President, Fairfax Coalition for Smarter Growth, this vote sends an unmistakable message to the Mayor and City Council  that “citizens are willing to accept a limited increase in real estate taxes as long as these taxes are placed in a dedicated fund to be used exclusively for acquisition of open space and park lands.” 

 

In the City Council resolution passed in July authorizing that this measure be placed before the voters to gauge their support for such an increase, the Council stipulated that (1) no City government funds could be spent in promoting the passage of the resolution, (2) City officials were to remain neutral on the referendum, and (3) the only official notice of the referendum were to be a brief factual statement of the resolution’s wording published in the City’s “Cityscene” newsletter and shown on the City’s cable channel. 

 

The effect of the City’s “hands off” approach was that citizens had minimal information upon which to base their decision on whether to vote “for” or “against” the measure.  Given peoples’ inclination to reject something that is not fully explained, the Fairfax Coalition feared a negative vote on the referendum would doom any future open space and parkland preservation efforts in the City.  With the City’s historical aversion to tax increases and a large number of is residents retired or living on fixed incomes, these fears were well-founded.

 

Having identified this informational gap just 4 weeks before Election Day, the Fairfax Coalition quickly convened members of its Open Space Preservation Committee to put together a campaign to inform City residents on the issue.  Going door-to-door in neighborhoods in the evenings and on weekends, its volunteers were able to blanket five of the City’s six precincts with over 8,000 fliers explaining the dedicated uses for the proposed tax funds and what it would cost each property owner (e.g., for a property assessed at $175,000, a nickel increase would amount to $87.50, or the cost of a ½ gallon of milk a week -- $1.68).

 

Sensing growing support for the referendum as they canvassed the City’s neighborhoods (and enlisting additional volunteers in the process), the Fairfax Coalition members decided to print additional fliers, make Election Day signs, and staff each of the six voting precinct locations on Election Day.  Kicking off its efforts at the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival, these volunteers rearranged their lives for 4 weeks to ensure that City of Fairfax voters received information upon which to make an informed choice.  The voters responded beyond the Fairfax Coalition’s wildest dreams!!

 

The Fairfax Coalition draws at least four lessons from this experience:

 

·         First, if citizens are assured that a modest increase in their taxes will go into a dedicated fund to be used only for open space preservation and parkland acquisition, they will respond positively.

·         Second, it is now incumbent upon the City’s elected leadership to heed the results of the advisory referendum and begin to identify critical land parcels, estimate their cost, project how much of a tax rate increase is needed within the limits of the advisory referendum, implement a processes of citizen involvement for a program to implement the City’s open space and parkland acquisition priorities, and enact the necessary enabling ordinances.

·         Third, the surrounding County of Fairfax has been faced with requests by its own citizens to be afforded the right to vote to tax themselves in order to preserve as open space the Evans Farm Inn in McLean as well as land in the Oakton community residents in the Oakton.  The actions of the City of Fairfax in affording its citizens the opportunity to vote on this matter and the overwhelming response in an otherwise traditionally fiscally conservative community provides a clear precedent to the County that a similar opportunity should be afforded its citizens in the future and that such an opportunity will be received positively by its citizens.  If Fairfax County does not currently have the authority from the state legislature to conduct such advisory referenda, then we urge that the Board of Supervisors make securing such authority one of the top items on its legislative agenda when the General Assembly convenes in Richmond in January.  If it already possesses such authority, the Fairfax Coalition strongly urges the County to employ it when opportunities arise to preserve open space in the future.

·         Finally, this successful effort confirms the ability of concerned citizens working together, sometimes in a very short period of time, to impact the outcome of important public policy decisions.  For citizens who might feel overwhelmed by the “system” and think that their interests and votes do not matter, the efforts of the Fairfax Coalition and voters of the City of Fairfax provide a vivid example of what can be accomplished.

 

November 7^th was a great victory for the citizens of the City of Fairfax in working together to preserve their quality of life.  As we all watch our cherished open spaces being quickly lost forever and sprawl continuing almost unabated, this citizen victory in the City making use of the advisory referendum model can become a beacon for other jurisdictions to gauge the depth of public sentiment to save their communities and retain the qualities that caused them to choose to live here in the first place.  We hope elected leaders throughout Northern Virginia begin to avail themselves of the same advisory referendum mechanism that so successfully allowed City of Fairfax residents to express their wishes.