Looming questions cast doubt over Prince William parks, roads bond projects

WOODBRIDGE — There were many questions on Tuesday with few answers, as leaders debated spending up to $600 million on roads and parks projects.

• Is the list capital projects outlined on a $200 million proposed parks bond worth it?
• How much will it cost to staff a proposed $84 million indoor track and events center? And, who should do it? The county government or a private contractor?
• Why isn’t the much-talked-about $174 million to remove trailer classrooms from the county’s schools on the list?
• Is $400 million enough to pay for the proposed bond roads projects?
• How much might taxes need to be increased to pay for it all?

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is expected to vote on Tuesday whether to place on the November ballot two referenda that would permit to borrow the cash.

Supervisors must act now to have enough time to petition the Circuit Court to allow the questions on the ballot.

We’ve done extensive reporting on this issue, and you can find lists of the parks and roads projects on our website.

One of the most significant clouds looming over the entire debate: At least four of the sitting Supervisors won’t return next year. And the lists of proposed projects — projects Supervisors would have to spend the cash on, by law — may not be same priorities for the new members of the Board following the November election.

“There’s not a single project on this list that a Board member doesn’t want to do… when it comes to the parks bond, I think it would be wiser to scale down the list,” said Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe.

None was dubbed “the transportation Supervisor” for his dual role as Chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.

“I think then road bond is a very reasonable number, but it’s important to point out that the list is actually a $700 million list of projects, so the Board would need come up with $300 million more to fund them…I’d be very reluctant to say we’re going to build all of these roads only to discover, five years  down the road, now we can’t fund it,” added Nohe, who won’t return to the Board next year.

Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi is also serving his final six months as an elected leader. He’s pushing to fund efforts to remove about 120 of more than 200 trailers the county’ school division uses for classrooms.

He suggested breaking up the parks bond into two questions — one to authorize borrowing cash to build indoor facilities like the indoor track, and a new aquatics center, and another to construct outdoor amenities like new ball fields.

His third question would focus solely on the identified road projects, and a fourth would ask for up to $174 million to get rid of trailers.

In the end, however, the price tag of all this appears to be wearing on him.

“The concern is ‘how do we pay for that?’ This is coming from a fiscally conservative Democrat,” he said.

Before going all in on new funding for schools, Supervisor Jeanine Lawson suggested waiting for a decision from the School Board on new school boundaries that is expected to be made at the June 19 meeting.

There were also calls to wait until an audit of enrollment projects at the county’s school division is complete in September. However, delaying the vote that long would mean the referenda would not have time to be added to the November ballot, said Prince William County Attorney Michelle Robl.

An extension of Van Buren Road is the one project that has generated the most outcry of the 11 projects on the list, from homeowners at the gated Four Seasons community near Dumfries. Potomac District Supervisor Maureen Caddigan, who is also a resident of the neighborhood, said she supports the construction of the new four-lane road but wants a sound wall built to dampen traffic noise.

The road is needed to reduce cut-through traffic on busy Waterway Drive in the nearby Montclair neighborhood, where she lived for 40 years before moving to Four Seasons.

But even Caddigan is skeptical about the bonds.

“I don’t think we have a prayer of having this thing pass,” she said.

The Supervisors will meet again at 2 p.m. June 25 to vote. Afterward, they’ll go on summer hiatus.