The county has finally put their Rural Crescent development cards on the table! It is far worse than we could have imagined.
The Planning Office, returning to the 1981 Comprehensive Plan, is proposing to immediately remove over 4000 acres from the rural area in a “ribbon” running the entire length of the Rural Crescent – all the way from Manassas, up to Haymarket, and down to Quantico. These formerly rural acres will be a new development area with subdivisions of homes on lots that could be as small as slightly less than 1/2 acre (.4 acre). In addition, the remaining available land within the re-defined rural area boundaries would eventually be developed out (a death by a thousand cuts), with new homes on lots as small as 2 acres. All of this could introduce as many as 15,300+ new homes into the rural area. (Existing policy would generate ~2700 more homes.) Currently prohibited public sewer would be provided to all of this new development. Their projections from this increased density would add at least 150,000 more cars to rural roads which are not prepared to handle such traffic, and more than 10,000 additional students to already overcrowded schools.
They are trying to sell this plan as “smart growth” and “preservation” of “open space.” Don’t be fooled. This is not a credible plan for true conservation, and their strategy is only spreading confusion and half-truths.
What problem are they trying to solve? They are only looking to deliver on developers’ and speculators’ desires to build everywhere. This plan is intent on developing out the entire county.
This plan will rob from the citizens and residents of both the Rural Area and the Development Area. We will lose our rural area, and we will lose improvements in our development area. If this plan is approved, money will have to be spent on supporting the build-out in the “rural area,” the development area will go lacking, everyone’s taxes will go up, and the entire county will be sprawl, looking like another Centreville or Springfield.
The Rural Crescent is our most effective urban growth boundary. Private homes in 10 acre lot communities serve to protect open space without trading high density for LESS private preserved land. Counties all around us, and throughout the rest of the country, successfully advocate for agro-tourism in their rural areas, while Prince William County only advocates for housing density.
The Planning Office wants all feedback from citizens by Friday, August 16. Click HERE to send your email NOW to the County Board of Supervisors and Planning Office representatives.
Tell them they do NOT save open space by developing the Rural Crescent. We are not fooled by their shell game. They do not get 21st century opportunities by proposing tired old land use zoning from almost a half a century ago. Tell them you want to “Keep your Green” Rural Crescent as an urban growth boundary for the health and well-being of the entire county, and that you want to “Keep your Green” in your pockets through valid smart growth initiatives.
This is not a rural preservation plan, it is a development and sprawl plan.
Go here to access full details on all the Alternatives presented by the Planning Office at their July 30, 2019 meeting.