Dilemma to air in Congress

Last week’s introduction of the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act in Congress takes the statemate over the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre to a new level.

The act specifies that the lack of a committed end-user company shall not be a reason to deny a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit that meets all other legal requirements.

It would address situations such as the one here, where the corps, acting on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, has refused to issue a grading permit for the business park because no company has committed to locating there. The problem is that no prospect will commit to an ungraded site.

The bill attempts to put some common sense into an issue that, so far, has had none.

Area officials have been working on this dilemma for at least a year, and federal legislators have been a part of that effort for some time. By introducing this bill, they are putting the issue before both houses of Congress and their committees for a full airing and exposure. If this can happen here, it can happen anywhere, and legislators from throughout the country need to consider the impact. If there are two sides to this issue, they finally will come out. We look forward to that discussion.

We also commend the lawmakers — Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Congressmen Morgan Griffith and Robert Hurt — for continuing to work on resolving this problem.

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