The Donato Document DRAFT

The following document is presented to citizens for comment, editing, and augmenting IN ADVANCE of it being presented before any commission or Board for action. This document was prepared by Planning Commissioner Dot Donato. Essentially, Ms. Donato is asking for citizen comment, as an apology for her ill-considered "vote rescinsion" that would have revived the Flood Plain Ordinance. She says she did not mean to do that, she just wanted citizen participation and involvement, and didn't want to lose the opportunity now that everyone was paying attention and getting involved. This document is what she meant to do instead. Please read it and comment, by hitting the Comments button. Now is our chance to be involved before things get out of hand and become "too late." This document has NOT been submitted to the Board. Please comment now, and your comments have an excellent chance of making a difference.

The Donato Document - DRAFT

Dear Board:

Following numerous discussions with citizens on the Scenic 340 group and the cabin and landowners in Land of Luray, I am finding consensus on the following proposal. Please read the attached and consider a motion to establish a committee to discuss and prepare a Strategic Plan detailing issues specific to Destination Tourism.

The Comprehensive Plan currently under review includes a set of Objectives. It sets a broad vision for those elements of valley life that should be primary in our planning. Separately we provide goals to promote and protect the rural and natural environments, economic balance, citizen services levels, property rights and the general term, tourism. To base planning criteria on the Plan with these objectives is certain to leave room for confusion and inconsistency. I suggest we augment the Comp. Plan with a supplemental Addendum with specific guidelines for tourism industry group factors. For instance, clearly define the building and zoning criteria, which may need variance or special use tactics to enable the building of mountain and river cabins, lodges, recreational facilities, ingress and egress, and other considerations. Encouraging public visitation to many areas of the County may require different allowances that are not in compliance with our standard zoning ordinances. It may be preferable to establish land use particulars for overlay districts for those areas we define as “destinations”.

The suggestion here is to discuss, define, and write a document, which will review as many scenarios as possible by a diverse group of professionals and present the document to the BOS for acceptance into the Comprehensive Plan. Use of the Economic Development Strategic Plan as the guiding document is also suggested.

Thank you for your time in reviewing and discussion this. A description and supportive documentation is provided.

Regards,

Dot Donato, Planning Commissioner D5

Move to Appoint:

Please consider a motion to establish:

A nucleus of visionaries who are diverse in talent and who are, by intellect, experience or position, aware of the challenges facing the Board of Supervisors. One objective in the Comprehensive Plan (rewrite draft 2007) defines Tourism as an economic engine. This citizen committee will work in concert with the Planning Commission in an attempt to provide more detail specific to the growing Tourism industry. The accepted Economic Development Strategic Plan will guide the process. The purpose of the document will be to integrate the objectives found in the ED Plan, the EDC, the Tourism Council/Chamber goals, the incorporated towns and the local/regional hospitality groups. The committee will address policy, ordinances and objectives desired and required by destination owners. This guiding document should support the Board of Supervisors in the future by providing an assessment of a variety of special use facilities (destinations) and the resulting revenue projections for each. This will serve as a resource for determining service levels for our CIPs and models.

The citizens of Page will have many opportunities to suggest input to the overall vision for the county. This group will lead forums for comment and discussion that will be very open and inclusive. Considerable effort will be taken to include the planners, the Board, the industry, property owners and citizens who may be affected by design or policy changes. Public reaction will be documented and included in a final draft.

Expected results will include a structured plan for review, inclusion and implementation. Statements of vision for a tourist friendly community will give us the words to be shared universally. Descriptions of the valley’s unique environments with emphasis on attracting tourism industry prospects will be drafted. The document will provide criteria and provisions for use in the Zoning rewrite process and the Land Use planning process specific to tourism destinations.

Prologue:

We are an island (a unique and separate travel destination). Beyond the Caverns and the National Parks, the recognition of Page County as a destination lies in the vision we project. Potential visitors read the local paper, study the area on the Internet, or more than likely ask someone they know about the county. Our byways separate us from the mainstream destinations along major routes so visitors have to choose to come here. A negative result of limited access is the limited job market. Small business owners also need to have incentive before investing in a site for their retail or service shop. If we can take advantage of preparing the economic climate for business success we will benefit from a growing employment base, a very desirable result for this county.

Each tourist has huge potential to become part of our expansion. Tourists are much more that spectators. Tourists are you and I coming here for the first time. I seek out music in the park and invitations to sing. Does the conference or the river attract you? Tourists see what we offer them, they go where we suggest they go, but they come here to experience themselves. I am here to participate and you certainly are involved in the community. The secret key to travelers becoming our valuable asset is in the level of their participation. The business traveler becomes the landowner who builds rental cabins who provides tours who sends guests to the restaurants in town who, in the end, pays taxes. The annual guest to the caverns decides to purchase a farm and then retires here. He may be a great musician or a philanthropist giving back invaluable gifts to our citizens. Preparing for tourism is not simply distributing a brochure full of enchanting photos, it requires patience and planning. We can discourage a new landowner by rejecting their applications or making it impossible to live out a dream. The opportunity is now to define our future recreation and destinations and invite the dreamers who protect our environment and history. We welcome the right industry by paving the way for those businesses that are appropriate. Generic ordinances are, in the long run, shortsighted. Our landscape varies widely and the right rules need to be assigned (using overlay districts) to accommodate bus tours and individuals.

Impact and direction

A Plan is the work that is done in advance of the outcome. In the case of tourism it is the preparation that we will do in advance of each visit. The Comp. Plan recognizes the need to promote and encourage Tourism. We need to study closely the cause and effect of our current policies and recommend changes. Many of the rental cabin owners and the riverside property owners want to participate in this work. Additionally, our community consists of a very diverse body of people, all of whom desire to be heard. Everyone has an interest in directing the future of the valley. Some have a vested interest some have a legacy to protect. Everyone should have a say and this work group will provide forums and open air gatherings where ideas will be shared.

Items for discussion will include: building specifications and codes; zoning ordinances, VDOT regulations and exceptions, alternative energy applications; passive solar, wind, subterranean building, non-electric septic solutions and lighting exceptions, green building materials etc. Recreation issues both water and mountains. A discussion of finding areas conducive to extreme sports and cycling may influence a new industry here. There are numerous critical issues to share and we hope to initiate the conversation and the groundwork to enable us to grow our destination offerings and our revenue base.

Vision for the future.

This valley has the potential for being recognized as a global leader. How you ask?
Consider our valley as an incubator and study area for new technology and innovative global initiatives. The federal government is looking for a site for a multi billion dollar electric plant, which will provide enough energy for half of the east coast. This is a project by the energy department that is the first complete life cycle (no emissions) plant. Think of the tourist who would be invited to see this “global warming solution”. Consider the evolving research for alternative bio-products. For fuel, for food and for self-sustaining communities around the world, the universities are looking for places to grow plants. Expand the Land Use program to encourage young people to live and work here.

A recent story has been published about a Columbia University group who sent low cost fertilizer to a few African villages who continually suffered food shortages. They sent a derivative of chicken litter. The renewable fertilizer was a huge success. We have chickens (sustainable) and the bi-product already in production in Page. Federal grants are available for environmental, clean water and global warming solutions we just need to attract those tourist/scientist/decision makers for a visit. Of course Dr. Cardman can show them where their innovation can take root. We’ll set the course and the great people will come. This attraction to cutting edge businesses will provide a unique tourism industry base and will provide much needed high-end jobs. Our citizen base increases and our knowledge base grows.

There is much concern in the County that growth will ruin our culture and destroy our lifestyle. We all share this concern because we have many examples in surrounding localities. We see the results of uncontrolled development. This trepidation temps us to interpret that concern as a need to restrict the “best and highest use” provided us in property ownership by drafting zoning regulations that generalize use and forbid any building. I interpret the growth as forces of the changing market, a force that will infiltrate the valley simply by supply and demand for homesites (the American Dream). To fight the forces of nature by universally projecting a policy of “no growth” will result in downward trends in our economy. Herein lies the challenge, the challenge of adopting a publicity piece, the Comprehensive Plan. Land owners, citizens, taxpayers have every right to opinion and position in any thoughtful land use planning. It is the current populace who connects the past with future. Change is inevitable and we need consensus in defining our vision.

Conclusion:
There is community support for a determined effort to communicate openly. A milestone report could be delivered to the Board that at the very least provides various prospectives. There are support groups, conscious groups, industry leaders and many others who deserve the opportunity to be heard. The public forum provided by the Planning Commission meetings and the BOS meetings is failing to satisfy the involved public. This proposal will expound on the subjects heard before and allow for opinion and options based on vision of the whole. It will also generate a Strategic Plan for Destination Tourism for the Board to review and accept as an appendix to the Comp. Plan and an addendum to the Economic Development Strategic Plan.

This is the time to have these discussions. We are not the silicon valley, we are not Napa Valley….we are unique so lets find the words to describe Page.


Respectfully submitted for consideration by,

Dot Donato, Page County Planning Commissioner D5
Director, Loudoun County Convention and Visitors Bureau (1992-1997)
Executive Director, Harpers Ferry Merchants Assoc. HF, WV (1987-1991)