LCCSS BOS Questionnaire 2007
Jim Burton
Rural Loudoun comprises approximately 200,000 acres of land in
agriculture, forestry and open space. In addition to generating income for the
county, this land benefits all Loudouners through enhancement of view shed,
considerable improvement of air and water quality, provision of healthy, local
agricultural products and activities, recreation, and reduction of
infrastructure-intensive residential development.
In 2007, the General Assembly provided
funding for the first time to the Office of Farmland Preservation to assist
local jurisdictions preserve working farms and forest land through the purchase
of conservation easements.
Will you support reinstating the Loudoun
PDR program? YES NO
Yes. I was one of the original supporters of the PDR
program and would not hesitate to reinstate the program. I would dedicate a
portion of the Tourist Opportunity Tax (TOT) revenue as a fund source so that
local taxpayers� funds would not have to be used.
The rural economy needs and deserves the
incentives and protections enjoyed by other businesses in the county. At the
same time, agricultural practices must be sensitive to the preservation of the
natural resources they affect, especially water quality. Sustainable
agriculture acknowledges and maintains the natural balance of the land while
providing nourishment and entertainment for residents all over the county.
Do you support measures for preserving and encouraging a
sustainable rural economy in Western Loudoun?
YES NO
Yes. I strongly support any reasonable measures that
encourage a sustainable rural economy. I was one of the leaders in the recent
Board effort to change the zoning in the rural area to limit the number of
houses that could be built and to increase the by-right uses of the rural land
to promote a rural economy.
When transportation and land use initiatives are proposed that
conflict with rural economic initiatives, how will you protect the viability of
rural enterprises?
Each initiative must be analyzed for its own merit. I am a
strong believer in protecting the rural character of Western Loudoun. My record
as a Supervisor clearly demonstrates that commitment.
Rural Economy
Comments:
2.
Carbon Emissions and Environmental Standards
Record
profits for big oil companies, high gas prices and home energy bills, stronger
hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires, and national security threats around the
world are some of the increasing concerns that Loudoun residents share with
other Americans. These are also all early symptoms of the twin looming
environmental disasters of resource (fossil fuels, water) depletion and global
climate change.
A consensus of scientists warn that the United States
must begin to cut global warming pollution during the next ten years and reduce
it by 60 � 80% by 2050 in order to mitigate the most severe impacts of global
warming. Some of these cuts can be achieved by replacing our energy sources
with renewable technologies, but most experts agree with Congressman Roscoe
Bartlett�s suggestion that 65% of new energy come from decreasing our energy
requirements through conservation.
Would you support a comprehensive energy conservation
plan for Loudoun County? YES/NO
�Yes, I can support a comprehensive energy conservation plan for Loudoun.
In the absence of national leadership in conservation
and renewable energy initiatives, US cities and counties are insuring their own
future by instituting comprehensive sustainability plans. A number of counties
across the country, including Fairfax and Arlington, have announced the
creation of the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration, a major new
initiative to control carbon emissions and combat global warming at the local
level. Participating counties pledge to reduce global warming emissions 80
percent by 2050, an achievable average annual reduction of 2 percent.
Fairfax County, working in conjunction with the Sierra
Club, has produced a road map that shows the kinds of concrete actions that
counties can take in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, greening
vehicle fleets, land use, transportation, water conservation, and educational
outreach.
Would you support adoption of the Cool Counties
Initiative for Loudoun County? YES/NO
Yes, I can support such a resolution.
Landfills
are the single largest human generated source of methane, which is more than 20
times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Loudoun relies on landfills almost exclusively for our consumer and commercial
waste disposal. Forward-thinking communities around the US, recognizing the
unsustainability of legacy waste removal practices, are reducing their reliance
on landfills by creating incentives for reuse and recycling while also imposing
disincentives for throwing material resources away.
Carbon Emissions Comments:
Would you support a policy that reduces our reliance
on County Landfills? YES/NO
I can support policy statements
that encourage a reduction on our reliance on the County landfill. However, we
must recognize the fact that while recycling sounds good in theory, it has not
worked as well as advertised in the real world. Loudoun�s landfill does not
release methane into the atmosphere. Instead, we burn the minimal amount we
create in special burners under the supervision of DEQ.
Secondly, Loudoun can only meet
the state mandate to recycle 25 percent of its waste by taking credit for yard
waste turned into mulch. The free market has unfortunately not produced
sufficient demand for other recycled materials.
Green building is a loosely defined collection of
land-use, building design, and construction strategies that reduce the
environmental impacts that buildings have on their surroundings. Traditional
building practices often overlook the interrelationships among a building, its
components, its surroundings, and its occupants. �Typical� buildings consume
more of our resources than necessary and generate large amounts of waste.
In the
late 1990�s, neighboring Arlington County made a decision to pursue improved
energy and environmental performance in their public and private
infrastructure. In 2003, Arlington County delivered its first public building
designed according to the principles in the US Green Building Council's
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED�) Green Building Rating
System.
The
LEED� rating system allots points within seven specific categories for
environmentally beneficial building materials and design, in categories such as
site location, water efficiency, energy and the atmosphere, materials and
resources, and indoor environmental quality. LEED � is one of the most popular
standards systems used by professional organizations to master green building
standards and practices. Information about Arlington County's Green Building
programs is available.
Green buildings have many benefits, such as economical
use of building resources, significant operational savings, and increased
workplace productivity. Building green sends the right message about a company
or organization -it�s well run, responsible, and committed to the future.
Would
you support a county initiative to draft green building standards legislation
to create incentives for public and private investment in green buildings? YES/NO
Yes. I can support such
standards; however, we must strike a balance between green technology and
affordability. Our long-term debt, driven primarily by the need to build 37 new
schools over the past 15 years, has skyrocketed to $1.2 billion.� We still anticipate needing to build another
17 schools over the next 5-6 years, yet we do not have the debt capacity to
continue to build at current or projected prices. The Board of Supervisors was
forced to direct the School Board to arbitrarily
reduce the price of each new
school planned for the next five years by 10 percent to stay within our
available debt capacity. Funding a balance between green technology and short
term (20 years) costs will be difficult under these
circumstances.
Green Building Standards
Comments:
Loudoun
County Public Schools maintains 68 school facilities including 10 High Schools.
Rapid residential growth results in several new schools each year. LCPS offers
an opportunity to demonstrate leadership within the county industries towards
green building and sustainable practices.
Our
public and private schools provide fertile ground for both preparing the new
generation to successfully manage and even reverse current energy trends as
well as practicing what we preach as we plan our school buildings and develop
curriculum.
The white paper, Greening America�s Schools: Costs and
Benefits summarizes the work on health benefits, teacher retention, test score
increases, etc., as well as savings from reduced energy usage and reduced water
consumption.
LCPS currently maintains an Energy Education Program
whose mission has been �to reduce the use of energy throughout the school
system�. LCPS could expand the mission and personnel of this office to develop
resources that will embed sustainable development principles in school
buildings, the curriculum and the community.
Would you support the development of a school
system-wide Sustainable Schools initiative? YES NO
�I am willing to examine the possibility of such an initiative, but
my comments to question 3 above apply.
Siting of new schools, especially in the Western end
of the County, has been problematic recently due to past failures in planning.
While financial and market considerations will always have a significant impact
on school site selection, policies could give greater consideration to
community input, to life cycle costs, and to natural resource impacts than it
has in the past. Greater flexibility in school building & campus layout as
well as school size could provide the accommodations that are needed to creatively
place new schools in the communities they serve.
Will you support changes in the school
siting policies to give greater weight to placing appropriately sized schools
near the communities they serve? YES NO
Yes. I am Chairman of the Western
Schools Task Force, which is examining various issues surrounding future
Western Loudoun schools. Building smaller schools that better fit into the
rural setting is one of the topics we are examining closely. I prefer smaller
schools; however, we must remember that if we reduce the size of the schools,
we will have to build more schools than presently planned, thereby magnifying
the controversial siting problem, plus increase the overall costs of the school
building program at a time when our ability to take on new debt is extremely
limited.
I prefer locating the future
schools near existing communities where infrastructure is more readily
available.
Will you support changes to the school building
standards to accommodate green building principles, which would provide a
healthier environment for our children, use resources sustainably and generate
life-cycle cost savings for the taxpayers? YES NO
Yes. However, see my answer to Question 3 above.� Our school system is currently moving toward
adopting those principles.
Education Comments: