Mark Bredesen, owner of the Autoscandia car repair shop, told the Herndon Town Council that he had just learned the day before that his business was to be included in a new special tax district that would place an additional levy on commercial properties in order to help fund Phase II of Rail to Dulles. "I’m proud to be part of this tax district and I’d like to see this project move forward," he said.

It was a comment that at least one council member said made him more comfortable with endorsing the special tax district, which the council did unanimously following a well attended public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 10. All but three speakers supported the measure.

Early last month, an effort spearheaded largely by business and property owners within the proposed tax district succeeded in gathering signatures from the ownership of more than half the assessed value of the district, a requirement for imposing the tax. In the absence of the tax district, which is how Fairfax County has planned to pay for the rest of its 16.1 percent share of the rail funding, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority had said it would build the rail without the three planned stops between Wiehle Avenue and Dulles International Airport.

As of the public hearing, Lerner Corporation had just signed on, bringing the property ownership that had agreed to tax itself close to 60 percent.

THE DISTRICT is to run from Wiehle Avenue to the county line along the Dulles Toll Road, where the rail will run, and it is to include properties in the Town of Herndon. Its total assessed value is $8.6 billion.

"This project enjoys an unprecedented level of support," said Peter Johnston, president of the Western Alliance for Rail to Dulles (WARD), senior vice president of Ballston Properties, which owns property in the Phase II district, and a Herndon resident. He called the consensus for self-taxation "an extraordinary step." With studies predicting that as many as 2 million people would move into to the region in the next 20 years, he said, it was important to have transportation infrastructure in place.

According to a staff report, the money to be raised by the tax district is capped at $330 million, and the district can be left in place no longer than 50 years after its creation or 40 years after the first levy of its ultimate tax rate, whichever comes first. The rate is to be 5 cents per $100 of assessed value in 2010, climbing by 5 cents per year until 2013, when it will plateau at 20 cents.

"Transportation projects are not easy undertakings and are the culmination of years of effort," said Fairfax County Board Chairman Sharon Bulova (D-At-large) to the council, noting that the coming rail line had been in the works for 40 years. Bulova said the Dulles corridor was the fastest growing part of the county and that rail service would be "a major economic boon" to the area while providing a needed transportation option.

Patty Nicoson, president of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, said businesses wanted to move to the sort of high-density, mixed-use developments that the coming rail would allow for, and she said those businesses would increase the town’s tax base, providing relief for residents.

"We feel the pros outweigh the cons. It’s time for us to support it," said Don Owens, vice president of the Herndon Chamber of Commerce. "You get these things sometimes once in a generation, once in a lifetime."

Former Town Council member John De Noyer remembered fighting the tax district in 2003, when no evidence existed that rail would extend past Wiehle Avenue. "Now, there is a plan. Now, there’s a way to do it," he said. "The time is now to say yes."

THE PROPOSAL was not without its detractors. Chris Walker, who started the Dulles Toll Road Users Group to oppose the funding strategy for the rail, said he wanted some transparency in the collection and expenditure of funds and some public involvement in the process. With more than half of the rail’s total funding coming from tolls, he said, western Fairfax residents were paying more than 70 percent of the project’s costs and reaping little of the benefit. Taking debt financing into account, he said the funding plan amounted to a tax increase of $22 billion over 40 years. Walker predicted that tolls would eventually rise to $11 to cover the cost, while they could be done away with if they weren’t being used to fund rail. "If it weren’t for rail, we could dump the tolls forever," he said.

Resident Tom Kellner said he doubted that rail would take cars off the road, but it would require roads and buses connecting the proposed Herndon/Monroe station to the town. He said Metro and not the county should fund buses. Also, he said, with hundreds of millions of dollars being sunk into the project, none of the money was accounted for online. "Who the hell is in charge of this thing?" he asked.

Resident Jeffrey Quisenberry said he understood concerns about transparency, but he pointed out that the county did already help fund Metro buses. "It’s not an incremental thing. It’s transformational," he said of the rail. "As far as cars taken off the road, mine’s taken off the road."

Moving to endorse the tax district, council member Dennis Husch pointed out that the decision would have no impact on tolls, which the airports authority would collect either way to fund the rail line. As concrete rises around the Metro stations, he said, "We’ll know where these dollars are going." Husch also noted the favorable response among businesses in the tax district. "That constituency weighs in pretty heavily on the decision," he said.

Charlie Waddell hailed "the return of the train," saying Herndon likely owed its existence to the rail that served its area for two decades before the town was incorporated 130 years ago. He said he thought the decision to ensure the town’s access to the new rail was close to being the most important choice in the town’s history, second only to the decision to incorporate. One of the intangible benefits, Waddell said, would be the recognition that would come with having a stop on the Metro system, and he said he hoped the proposed Route 28 station would also be named for Herndon.

"From everything I can tell, this is not the way to finance a regional transportation project," Richard Downer said, but added that it was "the only way we’ve been able to come up with."

David Kirby said he had harbored concerns about the fact that, although the property owners signing the petition to enact the tax district represented a majority of the property ownership, they only constituted about 16 percent of the actual number of landowners. But he noted that none of them had come to the hearing to voice dissent. "So, obviously, they’re not too upset."

Bill Tirrell said he hadn’t delved into the rail’s financing, but he said he wanted the two members that the town would appoint to the projects advisory board to make sure that all the money was accounted for. He also said he didn’t know whether rail would decrease congestion but added, "What I do know is it offers another brand of transportation." And he said the ensuing transit-oriented development represented "a wonderful opportunity."

MAYOR Steve DeBenedittis said he, too, wanted to see transparency in the rail’s finances. But he said he could already see how transportation hubs, such as Dulles Airport, drew businesses to the town. He hoped what is now known as the Herndon/Monroe station would officially be named simply the Herndon station.

When the toll road was built in 1984, "The Herndon Town Council had to go to bat to get an exit off that access road for Herndon," Connie Hutchison said. "I see this as basically the same type of position, that if Metro goes by and we don’t get some kind of access to it, then we’re missing the boat."