Woodbridge, Va. –– Babur Lateef says he’s focused on redeveloping brownsfields.
Vying to become Prince William County’s next At large Board Chairman, he says Woodbridge, especially along U.S. 1 near the Occoquan River, has plenty brownsfields (once developed areas that have lost their luster) that are ripe for redevelopment.
The Democrat says a new type of business and the introduction of Metro would reverse years of blight.
“When you go up and down Route 1, where they’re talking about this new [U.S. 1 widening/improvement project] look at that, it’s terrible. So I have a couple ideas: We don’t have enough party halls in this county, for people who want to throw a graduation party or a prom. Where do our schools take their prom business to? Fairfax,” exclaimed Lateef.
Lateef, a doctor of Ophthalmology, moved from Ohio to Woodbridge 10-years ago to start his own practice. This is his foray in politics, running against the often outspoken Republican and current Prince William Board Chair Corey Stewart, and Independent candidate John Gray.
Lateef so far has more campaign money than Gray, raising $150,000 versus Gray’s $10,000.
By redeveloping blighted areas, Lateef says it will attract new small businesses, and professionals in the medical field, who as of late have chosen Stafford County.
“When you look at physicians, a lot of them when they want to open a second office, they’re coming down from Fairfax (County), they’re skipping us and they’re going to Stafford. Prince William has a reputation of not being a great place to work,” said Lateef. The opening of the Stafford Hospital Center drew many physicians away from doctors offices in Prince William, as well as drew doctors from Northern Virginia, he added.
So what will bring the jobs and qualified candidates to Prince William? Extending Metro to Woodbridge, he said.
“When I drive up to Gaithersburg (Maryland), they have Metro going all the out to Shady Grove (Maryland), and look at all those towns and they way they’re built. They’ve got a lot of homes right around the Metro, a lot of high-rise buildings and a lot of folks who can live there and work in D.C. and we don’t have that here. With [the Base Realignment and Closure] coming to Quantico and Belvoir, and we don’t have Metro, that doesn’t make any sense,” said Lafeef.
He did not say how he would fund a Metro extension, but the extension is a popular idea among area Democrats.
A recent report from GreaterGreaterWashington.org likened an extension of Metro to Prince William County to “transit sprawl.”
Voters will go to the polls November 8.
