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	Coalition for Smarter Growth PRESS RELEASE May 16, 2005 Stewart Schwartz (202) 244-4408
STATEMENT ON BASE REALIGNMENT IN VIRGINIA DEFENSE JOB SHIFT WOULD INCREASE TRAFFIC, COST STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

“The proposed shift of nearly 23,000 Department of Defense jobs from leased office space in Northern Virginia could be a traffic disaster if jobs are moved to locations distant from transit. Even more jobs could potentially move outward as defense contractors shift to be close to the new DOD offices in places like Fort Belvoir or the Route 28 corridor. Additional traffic and inefficiencies would be created by increasing the distance between the Pentagon and numerous supporting offices and staffs.

Federal employees are the largest users of Metrorail and are significant users of Virginia Railway Express. This shift would take thousands of commuters off transit and put them onto already overburdened roadways.

The cost to state and local government in Virginia for new roads and other infrastructure could be significant. Since these are not new jobs, the job shift could mean a net economic loss to the state and its taxpayers.

The proposed shift in jobs comes shortly after the Texas Transportation Institute again ranked the Washington area as one of the most traffic plagued regions of the country. TTI also reported that our transit investments and usage have been critical to cutting the time we spend in traffic.

Proposals by Senator Warner and others to extend Metrorail to Fort Belvoir are appreciated, but this will cost too much, have too few stations, and not connect to compact job centers, leading to inadequate ridership. On most military bases, offices are too scattered, and the walking distances from a transit station (especially if outside the gates) will be too long to encourage transit ridership. The Fort Belvoir area also lacks a fine-grained local road infrastructure which will lead to gridlock on arterial roads.

For those Prince William and Loudoun officials who propose moving thousands of jobs to Loudoun and western Prince William, this will also cause huge traffic problems on an inadequate road network, and fuel sprawl in the counties beyond – as far out as West Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and Culpeper. The DOD offices will also be tax-exempt, so the cost to state and local taxpayers will be significant.

We also believe that workers who live in Prince George’s County and DC will suffer as well. They are already dealing with a steady effort by northern Virginia businesses to move jobs outward to locations far from homes in these two jurisdictions.

We urge the Department of Defense to find innovative design solutions to the security threats so that defense facilities can remain within walking distance of transit, and near to services. Conserving government resources and reducing fuel consumption are equally important components of our national security.”

Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director
Coalition for Smarter Growth

Chris Miller, President
Piedmont Environmental Council

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