The Scorecard

Here's the Scorecard for the Comprehensive Plan Informational meetings to be held July 9 - 13 and the meeting tonight, July 3.

Tonight's meeting is a Board of Supervisors Work Session at the Luray Courthouse at 7 p.m. This is the culmination of the famous Retreat. The Retreat came about because at the May 15 public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan, where more than 70 citizens came to object to the line "Develop ordinances that prohibit buildings and businesses in the 100 year flood plain", the Supervisors determined that they were "up to the task" of making the necessary changes to the plan themselves. They scheduled a Retreat at Skyland in order to do that.

When they got to the Retreat, they only spent an hour talking about the Comprehensive Plan. They concluded during that hour that all they had to do was change the word "prohibit" to "regulate". They also said that if there were any further changes the Supervisors would like to individually propose, they could do so privately, after the few citizens who were in the audience were no longer there.

At this July 3 meeting, we will find out what changes were actually to be made to the plan.

After this meeting, five district meetings will be held to explain the plan to the citizens. The meetings will be held at the following locations:
July 9 - Shenandoah Elementary School
July 10 - Page County High School
July 11 - Stanley Fire Hall
July 12 - Luray Elementary School
July 13 - Springfield Elementary School

The district meetings all start at 7 p.m.

Go to at least one of these meetings if you can. The questions to ask are:
1. According to Virginia code, a Comprehensive Plan contains a Land Use Map to guide zoning. Where can I see that Land Use Map? (The answer is: one wasn't developed yet)

2. The county is in the process of hiring a consultant to help with a rewrite of the zoning ordinance. Why is the zoning ordinance being rewritten? (The answer is: the Supervisors want to keep our county from becoming too crowded so they want to change the zoning so that people can't build outside of the towns areas, unless they can buy a lot of land)

3. I'm aware that our existing flood plain ordinance is in compliance with state and federal requirements. What is the intention of the Supervisors in refusing to vote changes down and put attempts to throw the people off their land to bed once and for all?

4. Will zoning changes impact me and my family?

And the big one . . .

5. Will these zoning changes increse or decrease our chances for a bigger real estate tax increase in the next two or three years?

Answers to these questions are important to the citizens of this county. Shouldn't you know what the Board of Supervisors intends to do and why?

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Alice Richmond