Chamber Insider Blog

Good data makes good policy

Public policy should always be rooted in sound data and good analysis.  This is public policy 101.

But what if a policy, like the Loudoun Board of Supervisors’ policy of opposing rezoning applications that might increase residential housing, for example, is not rooted in the best data? 

That’s the question being posed by a new study recently released by the real estate research firm Robert Charles Lesser Company (RCLCO).  If that name sounds familiar, it’s because RCLCO also conducted the economic development study that was the basis for the Board of Supervisors’ majority vote in support of bringing the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project to Loudoun. 

Using the economic models developed for that Metrorail study, RCLCO reran the property burden analysis conducted by the Loudoun County Economic Development Commission’s Policy and Implementation Committee (“PIC”) back in 2011.  The 2011 study calculated how much money different property types – residential, commercial and rural – cost the County compared to how much those property types generated in taxes.   The results are interesting.