Hall to Challenge Incumbent Smyth in Fairfax Providence District
March 27, 2007

Charlie Hall, a citizen activist who helped lead the fight to scale back the MetroWest high-rise project, said Monday he will seek to unseat Fairfax County Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence) in the June 12 Democratic primary.

Hall said the Fairfax board has failed to protect basic community needs, including roads, schools and parks, as it has approved a series of urban high-rise projects. He stated that Smyth and other county supervisors have brushed off widely held citizen concerns about such projects.

“As many of us learned at MetroWest, this board is out of touch with the community, and it is out of touch with reality,” Hall said. “We already have horrendous traffic, as well as crowded schools and parks. Many of these projects, which were approved almost unanimously by the current board, will push our public infrastructure to the breaking point.”

Hall, who has led several citizen town halls on development and transportation issues, said he would make it easier for citizens to have their voices heard.

“We need leaders who will listen, and who will strike appropriate balances to protect their communities,” Hall said. “There is deep worry that the Board of Supervisors is triggering a massive increase in traffic and a reduction in our quality of life. People are extremely frustrated that their supervisors don’t seem to care what they think.”

Hall, 52, is a former reporter who currently works in media relations for the American Bar Association. In 2004, as the MetroWest controversy was heating up, he co-founded Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth (FairGrowth) and is currently the chair of the Providence District Council, an umbrella group for civic associations in Providence.

He also has worked on a community task force, in cooperation with Smyth and athletic group leaders, to make better use of overcrowded playing fields, and helped initiate a citizen-county process to define and guide development near rail stations.

In October, he led a town hall meeting on the “Citizens’ Agenda for Responsible Growth,” a plan to accommodate development and new population, while protecting basic services for existing neighborhoods.

Hall said much of his perspective on Fairfax’s current situation was formed while covering Arlington County in the early 1990s as a reporter for The Washington Post Metro staff.

“In Arlington, there was a strong emphasis on community involvement and neighborhood preservation. The urban development there has generally been well planned as a result,” Hall said. “In Fairfax, the board has been much too deferential to big-money developers. They’re approving huge increases in density, even when the roads and schools aren’t there to accommodate it.”

Key Positions

Transportation

Charlie Hall strongly opposes an elevated train through Tysons Corner. If a suggested tunnel train can’t be funded, other, less destructive alternatives should be considered.

Hall also would like to see Fairfax County do an objective study to find the most cost-effective rapid-transit strategy for suburban areas. “This county desperately needs a comprehensive transit system. The addition of a single rail line, while providing some additional capacity, does not provide the broad transit network that this county so urgently needs. There are modern, less costly, more promising strategies, including Bus Rapid Transit, and we need to look at them now.”

Schools

As included in the “Citizens’ Agenda,” Hall hopes to address two quality-of-life issues in the public schools: minimizing the use of stand-alone trailers, and ensuring that youngsters are served lunch at a healthy and appropriate time. At present, lunch begins as early as 9:45 a.m. in some schools because of crowded cafeteria space.

“Trailers are usually a substandard learning environment,” Hall said. “Trailers should be a temporary measure in adjusting to fluctuating student populations. In Fairfax, they’ve become a permanent feature of too many students’ lives.”

Finances

Hall would like to see a report, accessible to average citizens, outlining where costs have risen most in the past 10 years. “Fairfax clearly has many needs that it didn’t have in the past,” Hall said, “but there’s a legitimate mystery in many people’s minds about how one of the nation’s wealthiest jurisdictions, which has received an enormous residential tax windfall in the past five years, can have so little money for basic needs. We need to see if our money is being spent as wisely as possible.”

Open, Citizen-First Government

The traditional citizen association model has come under strain in the era of two-career families, leading to a growing estrangement between the county government and the public. Hall said he would seek to improve community outreach in key county departments and hold regular town hall meetings, both to help citizens on critical long-term issues and to hear their concerns.

“We have one of the most highly educated and diverse communities in the country,” Hall stated. “We would all benefit from working together on important issues. An informed and involved public is an empowered public, and it makes for a better county,” he said.