On Tuesday, December 13th, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors will hold a public hearing and vote on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan and vision for the future of our county.
Recent experience tells us that public hearings are an annoying formality to a Board which has absolutely no interest in citizen input. Surreptitious deals cooked up long ago behind closed doors will be rubber stamped while disadvantaged county residents are left to spit into a wind of political indifference. The Comp Plan steps being taken by our board conveniently and deliberately circumvent the formal CPA process, which requires the county to provide public notice. By bundling changes within the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, citizens have little to no notification about the changes in their neighborhoods. The residents of Prince William County are tired of being uninformed and misinformed by a county government wholly beholden to developer interests. Our county is being vandalized before our eyes by acquiescence or outright collusion from those we entrusted to represent us. We have no expectation of dissuading this Board from its blind allegiance to their moneyed benefactors. We are moving to the ballot box of 2023, while making our concerns very public. Our government has left its citizens at a distinct disadvantage through its aversion to transparency, public education, and inclusion. The comprehensive plan is an exhaustive document, and the average citizen does not have the time and expertise to notice or interpret many subtle changes which may have significant impacts. The citizenry has not been supported in understanding all the changes being proposed through effective and timely town halls being held in communities across the county before this vote. This is no inadvertent oversight by our county government. This process is deliberately designed for railroading. Here are just a few examples: • The proposed John Marshall Commons Technology Park CPA, which has twice had its public hearing deferred, will be snuck through via a barely noticeable change to a designation on the land use map. This contentious data center project directly abuts the Pace West special needs school. • The proposed Devlin Technology Park CPA, which also had its public hearing deferred, will be snuck through in the same manner. This contentious data center project represents egregiously incompatible land use by its proximity to residential areas and the Chris Yung Elementary School. • The Nokesville Road parcel, directly along the Broad Run waterway, being converted to industrial use -- opening this land up for the currently proposed 110\' Amazon data centers. • The Delaney Tract in the Occoquan district to allow for over 1,300 homes -- directly impacting the Occoquan watershed. • Converting 1,798 acres in rural Nokesville to industrial use -- opening this rural land up instead for industrial uses and data centers. • Converting Nokesville into a ‘Village’ allowing for nearly 900 homes and commercial development, in what is currently a rural community with only 133 homes. • Adding an additional 3,400+ homes into a less-than-4-mile radius area of rural Nokesville - all of which is now currently rural farmland. • The widenings of neighborhood roads into a grid of 4 and 6 lane interstate-grade thoroughfares (ie: Purcell Rd., Sudley Rd., PW County Parkway, Rte. 15, Dumfries Rd., Van Buren Rd., Rte 29-Lee Highway, Devlin Rd., Pageland Lane, Vint Hill Rd., Heathcote Blvd., and more), combined with a grid of new high-voltage transmissions lines to support industrial data centers in any remaining green space, leaves this county fit only for the rapid transit of trucks and electric power. Our Supervisors should not be permitted to “pull a fast one” on issues of such critical importance. The county should more thoroughly explain its vision, which should be debated during the 2023 election cycle. I say no to county Supervisors who have violated the public trust by selling out my interests. I say no to other useless elected officials who are complicit in the sellout by idly “monitoring the situation.” I say no to developer gold mines and citizen land mines. I say no to surrendering my sovereignty to unsympathetic business interests. I assert my democratic power by uniting against unresponsive government.
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