Back in the Spring of 2012, Mark Granville Smith proposed a Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA), again, on land in the Rural Crescent. And although his CPA was going to fail, again, the result included an additional ending. This time, the proposal from Marty Nohe, Coles District Supervisor, was to study the efficacy of this very critical land use tool while denying the CPA.
Thus began the genesis of our current journey into the long term viability of the Rural Crescent.
As part of Prince William County’s rural preservation study, the planning office will host a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 1 in the Nokesville Elementary School gymnasium at 12625 Fitzwater Drive in Nokesville.
The public input session on the area of Prince William County known as the Rural Crescent is part of a study that began June 4. Since then, staff introduced a consultant team and noted that there would be several opportunities for public input. The purpose of the study is to review rural preservation policies, identify additional rural preservation tools and make recommendations regarding possible amendments to the county’s rural land use planning policies.
On its face, land use sounds SO incredibly boring, but folks, I am here to tell you, land use is where all the action happens. It is, at its very core, the driver of any community’s quality of life. Land use will predict how much tax payers invest in the infrastructure required to support its citizens. How many dollars will be spent on schools, teachers, intra-county connectivity,( whether it be roads, buses or trains), police officers, firefighters , social workers, libraries, parks (active and passive), hospitals, etc etc.
Land use is the driver, baby, don’t ever think otherwise.
The name of the game for developers has been, and remains, land investment. Think of Trading Places, buy low sell high! Land use is no different. Land is valued at its long-range planning designation. Buy cheap Rural Crescent land and hope that the long term use will change and you are makin’ millions right off the bat.
But who ends up short changed by poor planning? We do, my friends, we do. Who ends up paying for the all this new infrastructure when high density housing is approved in places where that critical infrastructure doesn’t exist? We do, the citizens. The houses in the Rural Crescent, unless grandfathered in at less than 10 acres, (and there are many communities on these smaller lots), must sustain themselves on a minimum 10 acre lot. They don’t have the luxury of standard roads, many are still considered “country roads”, much narrower than their high density community counter parts. They exist on their own well water and septic fields, drawing little to no resources. Their drain on schools is minimal because housing density is such low impact. The Rural Crescent is not just an urban boundary tool, it is a common sense fiscal tool.
The Rural Crescent served as the blaring red stop sign during the crazy housing development frenzy in early 2000. Had the Rural Crescent not existed, or had it crumbled under the pressure of developers,( and trust me, there was pressure, a lot of it), the bursting of the bubble in PWC would have been even worse. I know that is hard to imagine how much worse could it have been! My home value still hasn’t recovered from 2001 nor has anyone’s.
Finally, the real question every citizen needs to ask themselves is what does the vision of a Prince William County look like in 25 years? 50 years? Do we want to be another Fairfax, isn’t that role already filled………BY FAIRFAX!
I say we want to be unique, we want to be proud of our diversity, not only in our people, but in our communities, in our walkable communities and in our farm land and open space.
Why do this county’s leaders seem so eager to be someone else, when in reality, NO other place can EVER be Prince William County, from the shores of the Potomac River to the Mountains of Bull Run. We need to highlight our differences from surrounding counties, not succumb to the “stepford wife” mentality.
Not only should the Rural Crescent be preserved, it should be strengthened.
