If you are feeling a sense of betrayal – We understand.
Betrayal from your elected leaders who were willing to sacrifice your sense of community for greed.
Please don’t feel despair. Because THERE ARE plenty of Prince William County residents, countywide, who also feel your frustration and sense of betrayal. We meet them when we collect recall signatures, in every district, all around the county. We met many of them Tuesday night when this Board passed, in the most undemocratic manner possible, a comp plan that is a developer buffet of handouts, for both residential sprawl and more data center proliferation. (See below for ways to fight against this.)
The citizens that spoke up on December 13 all knew that we would not succeed against this board in our efforts to protect the county from their razing of the land – but all those citizens refused to back down. Together, we faced a runaway train of destruction and corruption, as if we knew there was no way off the tracks but were determined to stand our ground and make them look us in the eye, witnessing their betrayal. We want to thank Supervisor Lawson for her advocacy, not only for her own district, but for the Gainesville district. We also thank Supervisor Vega for voting no on the Comp Plan.
Contrary to Chair Wheeler’s claim, this plan is NOT progressive. It is simply more of the same. It is taking us back a generation, when developer greed and over-development was rampant, with no protections for the Occoquan Reservoir, no smart growth tools.
“Coalition to Protect Prince William County Executive Director Elena Schlossberg took the mic numerous times to explain her support for the rural crescent. At one point, she played a 2019 recording of Supervisor Kenny Boddye, D-Occoquan, praising the rural crescent as a worthy strategy to avoid having to pay for new roads and schools necessitated by residential development. “Every dollar not spent in the rural area is a dollar we can spend in the development area,” Boddye said in the recording.”
“Afterward, Schlossberg delivered a Santa bag “full of coal” before the dais, saying the ongoing data center sprawl is too big to rely on anything other than “dirty coal.” Boddye did not comment on the recording.”
“Bill Wright, a Gainesville resident who became a land-use activist over his opposition to the Digital Gateway, wore a Santa hat during his public remarks and sang his version of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” enumerating the plan’s “gifts,” including “..eight shady contracts, seven bulldozed graveyards, six toxic rivers — five made-up minds — four party hacks, three done deals, two sham reports, and a backhoe uprooting a tree.”
Read the entire Prince William Times article: Supervisors’ land-use update eliminates ‘rural crescent’ development rules.
Do NOT give up. Citizen superpower is our voice, and our vote We have much to be thankful for: our friends, our family, and our love for our community.
Please know – the Coalition is as focused as ever to recall Ann Wheeler. We still have more signatures to collect (see below). Wheeler could not have succeeded in getting her Comp Plan passed without the blind support of her fellow supervisors who advocated for their own district residents but ignored the needs of the residents of the two districts that have absorbed most of the density for the past twenty years (Gainesville and Brentsville).
Here are links to the 2040 Comp Plan chapters. But please NOTE: Developers submitted items in the 11th hour before the BOCS vote, which are not yet published to the public. So everything which was discussed and approved on December 13 is NOT provided by the county in these links:
Pathway to 2040 Comprehensive Plan: Public Hearing documents:
12.A. RES – Comprehensive Plan Amendment #CPA2018-00007, Land Use Chapter
12.B. RES – Comprehensive Plan Amendment #CPA2018-00006, Mobility Chapter
12.C. RES – Comprehensive Plan Amendment #CPA2022-00001, Housing Chapter
12.D. RES – Comprehensive Plan Amendment #CPA2022-00002, Sanitary Sewer Chapter
12.E. RES – Comprehensive Plan Amendment #CPA2023-00001, Electrical Utility Service Plan
Shame. On. Them.
RECALL CHAIR WHEELER PETITION:
We need YOUR help gathering more signatures for the Wheeler recall. As we outlined at the press conference, but was not covered in the below article, CITIZENS STEPPED UP! We collected twice for the Candland recall and surpassed that required number both times. And – we WERE READY to submit that recall come January.
Now our focus is totally on validating all of the signatures submitted for the Wheeler recall, re-collecting many, and collecting even more new signatures countywide! We want to be sure that nothing in this recall is rejected on a technicality.
Access it here: Wheeler Recall Petition
| Effort to recall Prince William County board chair approaches signature threshold The organizers of a petition to recall Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler say they have gathered nearly 12,000 signatures, approaching the threshold needed to remove her www.insidenova.com |
We post locations for recall signature gathering every week on our website and on our Facebook page. Please add your signature to the recall petition now – it WILL make a difference!
DONATIONS:
We can’t maintain the good fight without your help through donations to cover the costs for legal representation, mailings, and supplies for completing the Wheeler recall. Please make a difference with a generous donation today through this easy link: Donate! – The Coalition to Protect Prince William County (protectpwc.org)
INFORM YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS:
No one who lives in this county, or this region, will be left unscathed by this kind of unrestrained development. We need your help to continue to get this message out. The 2023 election is coming soon. Spread the word!
SIGN UP – READ UP:
Stay up to date by signing up for Coalition alerts and monitoring all the latest posted on our website.
Here are some of the most recent in Headline News on the front page:
Data Center Knowledge: Data Center-Friendly North Va. Official Resigns After Selling Home to Compass
Data Center Knowledge: North Va. Residents Sue Data Center-Friendly County Supervisors
How Authorities Erased a Historic Black Cemetery in Virginia — ProPublica
Remember: PEOPLE OVER PROFITS!