Theo Theologis (48), founder and President of Slones Real Estate, announced today that he is running for the Stonewall Magisterial District seat on the Frederick County Board of Supervisors.
Theologis has received the 125 signatures required to have his name appear on the ballot in the November 2nd election. He will be running as an Independent candidate.
Theo is running for the Board of Supervisors because he wants to ensure that Frederick County maintains its culture and sense of community and does not become a victim of its own growth.
“From the moment I first visited Frederick County two decades ago, I fell in love with it. I want to protect the quality of life and natural beauty of the County while keeping our taxes and cost of living as low as possible,” said Theo.
According to research from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center, Frederick County is growing faster than 90% of all localities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This trend is expected to continue for the next 20 years.
“Change is inevitable. The County’s population is expected to exceed 120,000 people by 2040. Looking forward, we have two choices; we can choose to ignore it and allow our transportation infrastructure, public schools, and public safety to fall further and further behind, or we can roll up our sleeves and work harder than ever so we’re prepared. With such explosive growth, you must always plan two steps ahead,” said Theo.
As a real estate broker, Theo is witnessing this growth first-hand. He has helped numerous clients purchase homes throughout the County and in the Stonewall District.
“I talk to dozens of people who want to move to the County every year. People coming from other states, people from Northern Virginia, people that are single, married, retirees or first-time homebuyers. We discuss the reasons they are moving here, what attracts them to this area, what they expect,” said Theo. “Our quality of life, low property taxes, and great public schools are major attractions to folks moving to the area.”
Theo believes there are a number of important issues that the County has to tackle in order to effectively manage the growth it is experiencing:
1. Transportation: An increase in population necessitates improvement and expansion of the County’s transportation infrastructure. Such infrastructure takes years to build, and the County is already behind. Despite its tremendous growth, the County receives one of the lowest grant allocations in the state from VDOT. Collaboratively with our State delegation, we must demand more transportation funding from Richmond, while also consider ways to fund much-needed transportation improvements ourselves.
2. Business Growth: Attracting a wide range of businesses, from small entrepreneurial startups to Fortune 500 companies, is very important for a few reasons; 1) Tax revenue generated by businesses will provide more funding for the County’s backlog of needs which can, in turn, deliver improved services to the County’s residents. 2.) Business tax revenue will lessen the residential and personal property tax burden on our residents. 3) As the population grows there is a need for a wider range of services and service providers (i.e. more choices).
3. Taxation: Population growth generates housing demand which, in turn, increases property values and tax assessments. This cycle has an undesirable effect; ever-increasing tax bills which push people on fixed incomes out of their homes. It doesn’t have to be that way. Increasing residential property tax bills is not the answer to the County’s funding needs. Revenue diversification is.
4. Education and Public Safety: Population growth naturally increases the demand on our schools and first responders. The County will potentially add as many as 2,000 new residents every year for the next twenty years. If we fail to keep pace with our funding for these essential services, the quality of our schools will go down while the level of crime will go up. Planning, budgeting, and preparing for this looming growth should be a collaborative, not combative effort between our Board and the schools and public safety administrations.
Theo Theologis is a pragmatist and believes that practical solutions today combined with long-term strategic planning will result in a superior quality of life for the County’s residents.
Theo is a resident of the Snowden Bridge neighborhood. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Webster University, a Master’s degree from Georgetown University, and a law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.
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