In other news, the consultant who is going to help us write the Comprehensive Plan has arrived. This is the one I complained about hiring, but now I think I was wrong. Focus groups started on Tuesday. The county and the consultant held all day meetings getting input about how to prepare the Land Use Map, which is required by the state to be part of the Comprehensive Plan. This is what is used to guide zoning. Without it, zoning decisions have nothing to point to as a basis. The idea is that the Land Use Map is developed by consensus with a large group of citizens, and that's what the consultant is planning to do.
They have set up a website. It is
ourplanningworks.com/pagecounty
You can sign up there to get notifications of meetings, and they will post information about the process.
It looks like a good idea, to at least have a vehicle for citizen input. There have been some things done lately that are starting to look for citizen input. Mark Belton's County Line, and the actions of our new planner, Kevin Henry, have been in line with getting involvement and providing information, and that's a good thing.
Alice
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
i believe we are 20+ years too late to begin the process of developing a comprehensive plan for land use. another example of
a great idea, but too late.
additionally, i think we missed the bus, and unfortunately will have to live with, and pay for decades of isolationist, "no change" leadership.
build what you want, where you want.
economic development, who needs it?
no growth needed.
no outsiders wanted here.
schools are good enough. (the now famous three choice referendum)
no tax increases needed.
keep 340 a dangerous two lane highway to keep us isolated.
let the buildings fall down around us.
etc, etc, etc....
my point is that we are now going to have to pay for decades of neglect RIGHT NOW, and i for one, don't see how the average, page county, middle class citizen (unlanded, if you will) can stand the tax burden that is here, and will come in the very near future.
i have to question the logic of two new schools, two rennovated middle schools, the purchase of land for the construction of a new county govt complex, all RIGHT NOW. how are we going to do this?
i don't know.
i certainly don't believe the smoke and mirror demographic info that projects significant population growth. young people are leaving the county. a few retirees will move in. the population will stay rather level, at best. the tax burden will be the burden of the unlanded. i wish i had a more positive outlook, but i don't. might have to leave.
You can check out, but you can never leave. (Old Eagles tune for those of you who don't recognize it.)
Have a look at real estate data and the condition of the national economy. Since our local paper does not cover these things except for the infrequent op-ed piece regarding the price of milk, check your gas and grocery bills and where they've gone since about January of last year. That alone should be enough to indicate where things are going both locally and nationally.
Makes you wonder about Carol's assertion that 'it will cost more if we do it later.' Meaning, that real estate is in a downward spiral rather like toilet water being flushed, and national home builders are declaring bankruptcy right and left...should be easy to do things on the cheap with so many out of work builders, and no one to buy any property out there...but I guess not in the booming Page County, to those who know - where down is up, and up, down.
I saw as a high school student back in 1983 that Page County offered very little besides manufacturing jobs, unless you were willing to compute to N. VA.. Fortunately, I went to college, got a degree, and landed a high tech job in N. VA.. But almost 25 years later, it saddens me to see that Page County is still the same. Oh, sure there has been changes, but for the better? Manufacturing jobs are being replaced with lower paying retail jobs and most people still have to compute outside the county for better paying jobs. No one wants to go the "East end" shopping center anymore, "West End" is the happening place now. Just Sad. In addition, Property taxes continue to raise due to poor planning and poor decisions.
I wish I could be optimistic, but having watched from afar what has been going on with the BOS the last few years - landfill, schools, regional jail, and now a new office building - doesn't give me much to be optimistic about.
Cletus T Judd It surprises me to see Alice admit she was wrong. If she looked over alot of her stuff she could use the statement I am wrong alot more.
Post a Comment