50 Thoughts to “Just as a reminder…..”

  1. The speakers at the BOCS did a great job speaking to the board. They had compellings reasons to vote NO to amending the Comprehensive Plan.

    I particularly liked the gentleman who got all the ARC folks to stand. Apparently Elena isn’t just a one woman organization as a blogger and a candidate have suggested.

    The fiscal impact on us all was great.

    Several people pointed out that you can’t be for the RC one day and not protective of it the next day.

    We should expect Corey to vote no and we should expect Peter Candland to vote NO since he verbally stated he supported the Rural Crescent.

  2. Lafayette

    Interesting listening to Utz, not under Griffin’s direction, or lack thereof. They have actually said do NOT initiate a couple of items. The new graphics are pretty neat and seem to be citizen friendly for this phase of the process. Let’s hope the BoS continues do what planning reccommends and NOT initiate some of these.
    Can’t wait to see how this goes down.

    Where did Mom go?

  3. Mom

    And now Corey starts with the excuses and justifications. BOHICA PWC.

  4. Lafayette

    My thoughts exactly as her spoke of their flexibility.

  5. Lafayette

    Oh boy, this is rich!!

  6. Mom

    And Marty begins the end of the Rural Crescent.

  7. Lafayette

    We’ll revisit this.. hmm sounds like Avendale to me.

    1. Bring on the Grizzlies!!! Where is that charter bus to haul them all down to Complex 1?

  8. Mom

    No, the complete dismantling has begun.

  9. Lafayette

    Bring back this summer while folks aren’t paying attention and enjoying their summer vacations. We’ve heard all of this before. The just hit replay..

    1. @Lafayette

      Actually it worked real well. You are right. Hit replay.

  10. Mom

    Good lord its Peter the Parrot.

  11. Mom

    All right, I’ll admit it, I’m lost, just exactly what did they just vote in favor of? It couldn’t have been good since May voted against it.

  12. I am behind because I paused. Are they voting as one package deal or separately?

    What is wrong with reading the question before a vote? I never know what they are voting for. I believe that is the intention though.

  13. Lafayette

    Dominion Square.

  14. I am still in shock and awe that the Fairfax resident came to our board to ask for our money so his 2 kids could go riding.

    Have a fund raiser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. Lafayette

    Tell me about it! His daughter uses the facility and has seen great benefits. What’s wrong aren’t there any more horsies in FX? I believe Clifton and Frying Pan Park have them.

  16. Need to Know

    Nohe has begun the process of dismantling the Rural Crescent. Lots of people want that racetrack to go elsewhere, but they don’t want dense residential. Based on what was approved and what was defeated Nohe now holds the title of the County’s biggest job killer.

  17. Lafayette

    I can’t even think about the racetrack. It makes my head want to explode. They basically told the owner take your biz south to Stafford and have a nice day.
    (My grandfather was a “founding father”/owner of ODS) 🙁

  18. Elena

    Time for people to speak up about the future of the county.

  19. Midcounty was NOT initiated. I am in shock and awe once again. I thought that was a shoe in, especially with the neat video. I had even called Elena and told her they all just gotten trumped with the babbling brook. I am glad I was wrong.

    Radical change of subject, now how much does Rainbow Riding want? I keep going back to the Marshalls fighting so hard for the Senior Day Care Center western end and being slapped around over it. I keep thinking of Greg Reynolds and his band of activists appearing week after week to just get transportation for some of the county’s seniors.

    Then I start thinking that we are supposed to be supplying Fairfax County people with services. I give up.

  20. I think mid county did not get initiated. I am not sure of anything. geeez.

  21. Need to Know

    The big challenge will be Nohe’s “study” of the Rural Crescent. Not much of the RC is even in the Coles District so why does he care? Rhetorical question. Wally, Corey and John mostly stayed in their cages today while Nohe advanced the idea that is intended to be the first step in ending the RC. Susan Roltsch had been primed to back him up on that. Marty’s not fooling anyone.

  22. Elena

    NTK,
    Citizens have look at this as an opportunity and start to work. We will have to demonstrate with all the facts WHY the RC has worked and will continue to work as an urban boundary. We will have to do a massive campaign to reach out to the public , whom I believe, support the tenents of the RC.

    The idea that we have to have high density or nothing is a false choice. We do and can continue to have both. We know this is David and Goliath, but every once in a while citizens prevail, and I am sure as hell not ready to give in to self serving developers and politicians.

  23. Elena

    Moon,
    You are correct, Marty did not initiate, his hope is to just dismantle it via new county policy, i.e. the “study”.

  24. Elena

    Moon,
    I was told by a little birdie that Rainbow Riding, in addition to their usual budgetary money from the county, is asking for an additional 200 grand.

  25. Need to Know

    @Elena

    I’ll grant Corey’s point that we don’t want another asphalt plant fiasco. Heavy industrial should not abut residential. I’m afraid, however, that their solution will be making everything residential. We must drive home the point that there are appropriate non-residential, job-creating alternatives that are fine next to existing residential such as corporate campus or Innovation-type uses. It’s complete BS to say that the only alternative to the racetrack is tax revenue negative, dense residential development.

  26. @Elena, why are the citizens of Prince William County allowing this to happen with their money. I hate this sense of entitlement by the people in this group.

    $200,000 is absolutely ridiculous. $10,000, maybe. @200,000 pound sand. Have lots of bake sales. Find lots of rich people who need a tax write off. Make friends with Bunny Melon, she is no longer contributing to John Edwards.

    I hope your little bird was dead wrong. We were polite the first go round. I guess we had better get ready to sling some horse manure during round 2.

  27. @Need to Know

    Apparently the older ladies who spoke had never heard of revenue negative. I was speechless listening to that one. They were extremely ill informed and had been put up to that remarkable display of ignorance.

  28. So who voted for what? I never saw a vote.

  29. Need to Know

    @Moon-howler

    A friend of mine who was there told me that the remarkably ignorant older ladies were sitting alongside Mr. Lubeley and were quite chummy with him.

    They referred to those who opposed their schemes as greedy and selfish. That’s real arrogance coming from people who can sell their land to develop by-right as estate lots for a few million but want rezoning to develop dense residential at the taxpayers’ expense to make mega-millions. Enough is enough from these greedy hypocrits.

  30. Lafayette

    @Need to Know
    They were ridiculous. You bet they want the Rural Crescent to go away so they can cash in. They didn’t fool this native.

  31. Cato the Elder

    Moonhowlings at it’s best. Classic, keep shining the light on these bastards.

  32. Please note that today Elena agreed with Corey about something and I am not being critical in posting his signature. It is just a reminder and I have no criticism of him today.

  33. NTK, it was obvious that someone has prepped them. They were both the Dowager Duchesses of Obvious.

    Maybe some jester took them both out to a nice dinner as a reward for sounding so publically stupid.

  34. I am going to give Marty a little credit where credit is due. This morning’s insidenova.com:

    “We need to look at this holistically,” Nohe said. “We need to look at what’s best for the whole county, not just for one property owner.”

    If the people of PWC want to keep a rural atmosphere, that is their right to do so and having the rural crescent is a good way to accomplish that goal. If they want to pave it over and look like route 1…well…not so good. From an economic point of view, having it cuts down on schools needs and attempts to control traffic on already overstressed roads.

    Did we just postpone the inevitable? I am not sure. Should we stay the course?

  35. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Can someone bring me up to speed? Do we like politicians signing little pledges? Or do we not like politicians signing pledges? I get confused as they go by.

  36. Need to Know

    I think we saw some very clever political chicanery on Marty’s part yesterday. He makes himself look good by not initiating Mid-County. However, at the same time he initiates a broad “study” of the Rural Crescent aimed at changing how we deal with the entre 80,000 or so acres. This study, as I understood the discussion, will be done over the next six months. Once completed, neither Mark Granville-Smith nor any other developer, nor Marty, nor any other supervisor, will be the direct target of citizens opposed to denser development in the Rural Crescent. They will have this new “policy” as a shield to get away with whatever they want.

    Staff had clearly been primed for this and backed up Marty on it. My guess is that they’ve already made significant progress on what they will unveil. Also, I have no doubt that the private conversations between Marty and Granville-Smith went along the lines of just be patient because if we can pull this off you will get what you want plus much, much more.

    Corey can’t do this because he is running for Lt. Governor. Wally won’t do it because he nearly lost his primary bid and would have lost if his opponent had not had to go out of town on a personal emergency just before the primary election and wasn’t able to campaign then. He will be opposed next time by someone. Marty faced weak candidates in the primary and general election, and outspent them by about $100,000 of his developer money against about $3,000 each that they were able to raise. Marty is the guy to take this on for developers who seek the demise of the Rural Crescent.

    I’ll give Marty credit where credit is due also. Credit for a very clever political move that will endear him even more in the hearts of his developer supporters (if that’s possible), and create a myth that he’s on the side of Prince William County citizens.

    1. There sure is lots of speculation there, NTK. I think I will stick to my version in my own head. I like thinking that people sometimes just do the right thing.

      I am not really sure what we are studying but I am not surprised that this issue is surfacing. The RC has been in place what? 14 years? Who knows, maybe with finances the way they are, the RC might even be strengthened.

  37. Mom

    I don’t know that I wouldn’t give Wally credit for an equally clever, albeit more subtle, move. Wally initiation of the study area surrounding Stone Haven suggest he wants staff to craft the arguement that will allow Brentswood to come back without all those pesky policy problems.

  38. Mom

    @Moon-howler
    I don’t think we’re reading enough into it. Peacor’s comment was most telling, the Rural Crescent creates problems for staff.

    1. @MoM,

      You could be right. I missed that part about the RC creating problems for staff. What kind of problems could it becausing the staff?

  39. Need to Know

    @Mom

    Mom, I think you are right about Wally but still believe that Marty will take point on this effort.

    Think about Marty’s psychology. You take a little dishwasher salesman from eastern Prince William County and make him the titular head of various organizations such as the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. You let him hob-nob at upscale functions downtown among COG and other leaders. You set him up to receive huge amounts of campaign money from developers. That’s got to be going to his head.

    All he has to do to keep this gravy-train going is to do what he’s told to do by those who make it all possible. At this point, that includes the demise of the Rural Crescent.

  40. Mom

    Mom :@Moon-howler I don’t think we’re reading enough into it. Peacor’s comment was most telling, the Rural Crescent creates problems for staff.

    Trying to provide a rational explanation of the “benefits” of those rezoning applications filed by those who have made substantial campaign contributions or are represented by the County’s favorite land use law firm.

  41. Need to Know

    @Moon-howler

    “Maybe some jester took them both out to a nice dinner as a reward for sounding so publically stupid.”

    Next time, the jester will likely be more careful about being seen as so cozy with his fools in public.

  42. Goodbye RC

    I think my moniker says it all. Will they involve citizens in this “study”? Sadly No.

    The “study” will be written by the developers oops I mean”stake holders” oops I really mean “campaign donors”.

    In every way the CPAs that they turned down morphed into things that could be far worse. Turn down 337 acre Stone Haven and turn it into 900 acre disaster. Turn down Mark Smith’s 100 homes and turn it into development, oops I meant “study” the entire Rural Crescent.

    We’ll end up with higher taxes, overcrowded roads, overcrowded poorly located schools and no parks (except those limited to youth football leagues).

  43. Need to Know

    @Goodbye RC

    There are certain “independent” citizens around who are available for such assignments to provide their reliable services to supervisors.

    I bet I could draw up a pretty good list of who will be on that task force and who won’t.

    Moon – I know what you are thinking and you are absolutely right.

  44. On a slightly different but related note…the N & M has an article about the good news…assessments are higher so the rate gets to be lower. Why is this GOOD news? Its math.

    Why not keep the rate a little higher and take care of some of the problems like some folks going a long time without a raise. Unfortunately, its rarely the county employes who get compensated or schools who get help. SJHS marching band will probably have to go door to door begging for crumbs next Sept. when it is 90 degrees out, just like it does every year.

    I expect any extra would go to someone who had …pay to go …was that the expression (?) relationship with someone influential. Meanwhile, someone like dear, kind, Greg Reynolds and his wife have to come out week after week after week to help the elderly get rides to their center or to their doctor or dentist.

    GRRRRRRR that’s how it looks to me. that Fairfax guy pushed me right over the edge. Talk about giving me a bad ‘TUDE!!!

  45. Mom

    Lessons for future supplicants to the PWC throne.

    1. Never identify yourself as a Fairfax resident asking for PWC funds.
    2. When asking for several hundred K, never note that it only benefits a few score of people, many of whom are from outside the county.
    3. Never beg for funding at a session filled with angry activist PWC residents.

    1. @Mom

      I bet you didn’t learn those lessons in kindergarten.

      Perhaps someone will send a copy of those life-lessons to those who need to review.

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