"With the luck he’s having, maybe David Toscano, Charlottesville’s freshman delegate, should have bought a Powerball ticket. Last week two of his bills cleared House and Senate hurdles, now awaiting the signature of Governor Tim Kaine. One of those, an affordable housing measure, could open the door to significant changes in Charlottes-ville’s overheated housing market.

Toscano’s bill changes the City charter to allow the government to make grants and loans to low- and moderate-income people to help with home-buying. It also will let the City offer tax deferrals to folks in the same categories who are already homeowners. It’s modeled after similar legislation affecting Alexandria.

Toscano says good old-fashioned compromise helped get the measure through. “Some folks had a concern about powers of eminent domain,” he says. “We took out some of the language in the bill because we didn’t feel the City needed more powers of eminent domain.”

Councilor Kevin Lynch foresees that with more precise tax-relief in its toolbox, the City will be able to target “low- and moderate-income homeowners who have seen the most rapid appreciation in their properties,” rather than enacting blanket tax-rate relief as Council did in 2005 when the property tax rate was cut by 4 cents to $1.05.

Neil Williamson, who heads the business-friendly Free Enterprise Forum, frets that Toscano’s bill is more red tape by another name. “The Free Enterprise Forum is very much in favor of affordable housing,” he says. “However, we’re concerned the City might be building additional bureaucracy, whereas the private sector could adequately serve this function.”

Harumph, says Lynch: “The Free Enterprise Forum and the realtor group are always in favor of affordable housing and preventing any legislation that would block it until someone asks them to provide it. Then they’re nowhere to be seen.”" (Cathy Harding, C-Ville Weekly, February 28, 2006)