Here's what happened:
At the July 3 Work Session, the Board of Supervisors reviewed their changes to the Comprehensive Plan, made at the Retreat.
Their changes were: change the word "prohibit" to "regulate".
Supervisor Gerald Cubbage, District 4, proposed that the newly added goal, 3 C, be removed entirely. The goal says:
"Develop ordinances that REGULATE (instead of Prohibit) buildings and businesses in the 100 year flood plain"
Supervisor John Rust objected to removing it. County Administrator Mark Belton suggested that removing that line might jeopardize our compliance with FEMA. Charlie Hoke recommended that we ask if it would do so. Tommy LaFrance said he didn't see why we couldn't just leave it there.
Chairman LaFrance complimented Natalie Zuckerman on her work to prepare this Comprehensive Plan for the County.
Mark Belton then explained that there would be public meetings held by District, beginning Monday and continuing for five nights. There was a small notice in the July 3 Page News and Courier, in the Classified section, that said these meetings would be held.
At the break, I went up to Tommy LaFrance and said, "what happened to your statement that the flood plain ordinance was dead. If you leave that in there, it's the same as directing the planning commission to revive it" and he said, "okay, he didn't care if it was taken out" and I asked him if he would tell Kevin Henry to take it out, and he said yes, he would do that.
After the break, he moved on to the next agenda item and didn't do it. If one were to assume that he was sincere in what he said to me, one would expect that meant he was planning to do it after the meeting at some point. I will continue to call him and Kevin Henry and let you know if it's taken out.
Here's what's next:
It is entirely unlikely that anyone will show up at these five district meetings. Their importance and the significance of the Comprehensive Plan has not been publicized by the county in any manner, and the notice in the Classified section would not mean anything to many people. There has been no explanation in the Page News about the significance of these meetings. In fact, Virginia Code says a Comprehensive Plan is supposed to contain a Land Use Map to guide zoning. Ours doesn't. Ours guides zoning by saying, "corral all the people into the towns, keep them from building anything outside of the towns, don't let anybody build on any more than a 16% slope, and keep them away from all bodies of water" It's a no-growth plan, which leaves the county areas with fewer and fewer houses over which to spread the exploding tax burden. The landfill continues to be a cash guzzler, and the purchase of a new County Office Building and Regional Jail will require additional tax hikes for years to come.
After the five meetings occur with no citizen pushback, the Comprehensive Plan will be approved on July 17, and the Planning Commission will be free to begin the process of rewriting the Zoning Ordinances. Any complaints about how the zoning ordinances are rewritten will be met with the refrain, "but it was in the Comprehensive Plan, and we tried to take it to the citizens, but the citizens didn't show up at the meetings."
If you would like to attend one of the public meetings, the places and dates are listed in the Blog previous to this one. If you go, please post your experiences here on the Blog, or email me and let me know what happened at the meeting you attended.
Email Research@PageCountyWatch.org
Thank you,
Alice
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
PCW
I thought the regional jail issue was dead. Was the statement about purchasing a regional jail a boo boo?
Anon, I'm anticipating. The Regional Jail issue is dead, but that leaves the problem for which the Regional Jail was the solution still alive. So shortly, the question will arise . . . we still need a new LOCAL jail. I should have mentioned that but I was speaking in shorthand. Look for a new local jail to be a capital item in the near, rather than the far, future.
Alice
The Board of Supervisors is poised to approve a little understood document called a comprehensive plan at its 17 July regular meeting. They are only now pretending to be interested in what their constituents have to say about future land use in the county. In an attempt to legitimize their predetermined action there will be informational meetings for each district all next week, as announced in the 3 July PN&C. If you want to have a tea party and make sure no one comes, don’t invite anyone until the last minute.
The advertised purpose of these meetings is to explain and obtain citizen input on the county’s comprehensive plan, never mind that the meetings should have occurred seven or eight months ago. Having them at this late date in an attempt to retrofit the appearance of citizen involvement is yet another farce. Further,having these meetings a couple of working days before they are about to adopt it is a reflection of how sincere they are receiving public comments at those meetings. Putting a little lipstick on the pig doesn’t make it a comprehensive plan so now maybe they are thinking a little rouge might help.
It is unlikely many will show up at these meetings. Since this mysterious revised document is not widely available, those who do will have no idea what it says and, more importantly, what it should be. The meetings will be held, and, on 17 July the Board will pop a few funny mushrooms, vote and proclaim “Hallelujah, we have a vision.” The reality is, like Oscar Meyer, our Board of Supervisors has a way with “B-O-L-O-G-N-A.”
Post a Comment