A last-minute compromise in Richmond has kept alive one of the Fairfax County government’s key transportation initiatives of 2025.
Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly approved language on Saturday (Feb. 22) allowing Fairfax and other Northern Virginia localities to host a pilot program focused on reducing vehicle-exhaust noise.
If House Bill 2550 makes it into law, it will go a long way to address an issue “causing problems in all of our communities,” according to Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
“A lot of folks are living with this chronic problem,” McKay said at the board’s meeting last Tuesday (Feb. 18).
The compromise — which was crafted by a conference committee of senators and delegates on the last day of the state legislature’s 2025 regular session — removed a requirement that data from the two-year pilot be submitted to and evaluated by the Virginia State Police.
The estimated cost to state police — $425,000 over two years — had led the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations to recommend the proposal be sent to the Virginia State Crime Commission for review. That would’ve prevented the measure from passing this year.
The committee’s recommendation got support from the full Senate but was rejected by the House of Delegates. The two bodies set up a seven-member conference committee to find a compromise.
Conferees opted to eliminate the provision sending data to the VSP, instead directing participating localities to post summaries on their websites.
With the conference committee’s recommendation, the amended bill passed the House of Delegates 53-45 and the Senate by a vote of 24-16. The measure now goes to the desk of Gov. Youngkin.
If he signs it, the bill would allow localities in Planning Districts 8 (Northern Virginia) and 16 (the Fredericksburg area) to participate in a pilot program to test automated exhaust-noise monitors.
Pilot participants could set up three systems that can be moved from place to place over time. They must place conspicuous signage alerting drivers within 1,000 feet, indicating the device is in use.
Owners of vehicles that record noise levels above 95 decibels would get a civil citation in the mail. The infractions wouldn’t, however, count against the vehicle owner’s driving record, and won’t be reported to insurance companies.
At last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said the estimate that it would cost the state police more than $200,000 a year to oversee the program “strains credulity.” McKay, speaking before the compromise was crafted, said the demand to require a study of costs prior to implementing the pilot program defied common sense.
“The state is sitting on a gigantic surplus, and they can’t find enough money to help support a local government that is trying to tackle a very real problem in our neighborhoods — to me, it’s crazy,” McKay said.
The objections from members of the Senate appropriations committee stemmed less from the dollar amount, which is modest by state budget standards, and more from the bill’s patron, Del. Rip Sullivan (D-6) not submitting a budget amendment earlier in the session to cover the estimated cost.
Sullivan told senators at the Feb. 17 committee hearing that he had anticipated the costs for oversight would be so minimal that no budget funding would be necessary.
