Tag: land development

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Beware of Resisting for the Sake of Resistance!

What makes living in Fauquier County special?  Why here, rather than Prince William, Loudoun, Stafford, perhaps Warren, Clark or even Culpeper (all fine counties, in their own regard)?  It’s a special blend of rural Piedmont, combined with culture and proximity.  What our county offers, and what we desire or require as a society, is a fine balance of development vs. conservation.  

Way back in prehistory, around about the early 1980’s, a Local Hero by the name of Till Hazel owned a bit of land on which he wanted to exercise his rights to develop.  It’s what he did.  Some say it’s in his blood.  This land was in the bucolic backwater of Gainesville.  At the time, the only thing there was an old floundering iron foundry and a handful of gas stations.  His parcel was adjacent to property that backed up to the Manassas Battlefield.  The time was right, the stars aligned, awareness came along and BANG!  Protesting his audacity became Hip.  Chic!  One was in the “In” crowd if they hosted benefit balls and protest lines.  Editorials flew like moths on an August night.  Socialites rallied to the defense of the Proud Memory of the United States Civil War (ironic, now, innit?).  Enough bad press was created to motivate the United States Government to step in and perform the theretofore unprecedented (and, as exercised, completely unconstitutional) act of seizing his land through Imminent Domain.  I put it to YOU; How many of you have enjoyed the lovingly preserved piece of battlefield known as Stuart’s Hill?  How many of you even know where it is, or that it exists?  

Yeah!, Victory!  Today, the Eternal Protection of our Heritage is damn near palpable, as one drives through Atlas Walk, to the Target, the Best Buy, the Lowes Hardware, to any one of the thirty or more Fine Dining establishments, perhaps to the Multiplex.  Or, maybe one zooms past all the aforementioned Progress and Development, over the eight lanes of Flyover, en-rout to the OTHER Multiplex, and Duluth Trading, perhaps to dine at Pizzeria Uno and a Golden Corral (Yum!), at Parkland Center, a shopping center actually CARVED from the Real Battlefield.  Aren’t we all so glad we railed and fought and defended the Honor and Memory of our Heritage??  

Let’s revisit an incident a few years later.  Same area.  Same argument.  This time, Disney sniffs around the prospect of bringing grand, first-class commercial development.  Hundreds of construction jobs, hundreds of perpetual jobs.  Good, secure, retirement-fund sort of jobs.  And people went ballistic.  “How DARE Disney even Propose to build an amusement park (An AMUSEMENT Park!!??) near our Hallowed Grounds of the Battlefields!!  How DARE they even suggest such a thing?!  They must be STOPPED!!  We must protect our Battlefields!! Just last month, Fauquier County buried one of it’s Favorite Sons, a Philanthropist and Conservationist who’s crowning achievement was the promotion of the Piedmont Environmental Council.  He was instrumental in the protection and conservation of the precious Heritage lands Disney was coveting.  

Well, due to the relentless media black coverage and endless hyperbole, Disney concluded that shoving prosperity and security across the table at an unwelcoming community wasn’t worth the bad publicity worldwide.  So they pulled out.  Again, “Yay!!” Victory for the “Conservationists”!!  Let’s remember that victory, as we sit in yet more bumper to bumper traffic.  The entirety of Dominion Valley sits completely, perfectly in the exact same footprint that Disney WAS going to occupy.  Aren’t WE proud of our efforts of Battlefield Preservation?!  Aren’t WE grand, having kept the commercial specter of Disney at bay?  Aren’t we glad we’ve kept that “Sprawl” from the doorstep of our precious Battlefield?  I wonder what the Late, Great Mr. Prince thought, as he drove past Dominion Valley.  Did he golf there?  Was he a member of the Club?  Was Dominion Valley REALLY the goal of all that Preservation of our Precious Battlefield?

Our county has, contrary to occasional belief, remained comparatively unscathed from this relentless urban sprawl.  This county does not know true, real, unmitigated sprawl of quarter acre lots across the horizon, far as the eye can see.  We have no Dale Cities, no Bristows, no Leesburgs, no Purcellvilles, no Centrevilles or Manassas Parks. 

There are things that we want for our county.  We want Libraries.  We want County-wide High Speed Internet.  We want spotless cell coverage.  Top-notch fire, rescue and police protection.  But we are rabidly protective of our rural nature.  How to achieve both?  How to receive revenue, but avoid the trappings of sprawling development? 

Revenue is a tricky thing.  It takes money to make money.  Consider this:  Let’s say we want to encourage industry.  We hear that Delphi Corporation wants to build and operate an automotive electronics plant in the Piedmont region.  Hypothetically, they are seeking a location for a one billion dollar factory.  They’ll employ 1700 people, and the county will realize a revenue stream of up to two hundred million dollars.  Sounds great!  Lots of employment, lots of revenue.  Alas, lots of families, lots of housing, lots of commuters, new schools, a new hospital, a fire house, shopping centers, and playgrounds and fast food and Starbucks and El Taco Bells.  Before you know it, the entire region becomes indistinguishable from Dulles Town Center (!).  Before you blink, that $200,000,000.00 is consumed and swallowed up in infrastructural support.  

A medium to large Data Center can easily represent a Billion Dollar investment.  The county Can realize construction jobs, real estate taxes, income taxes, and improvements to the surrounding infrastructure.  A Two Hundred Million dollar revenue steam is an easy realization from a billion dollar Data Center installation.  The Center will also improve local roads, power infrastructure, cooling water systems.  High Speed Internet naturally goes where Data Centers are.  Cellular communications infrastructure are automatically improved.  No, Data Centers do NOT employ many people in their continuing operation.  But that’s actually the point.  We receive the billion dollar installation, and two hundred million dollars in revenue, without having to provide the infrastructure that supports one thousand seven hundred families moving into an otherwise virgin area.  We may THEN take that revenue, improve our County Wide infrastructures, and we can THEN entertain Certain growth, Certain Select developments.  Imagine being able to exercise discretion and discrimination, being able to Elect and Chose which developments we Allow into our proximity! 

Yes, they are huge monolithic structures.  Some may object to them based entirely on their aesthetics.  Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, if the LOOKS of a structure are Truly That much of a deal killer, the buildings could be mandated to look like Dairy Barns.  How the building is shaped, what color it is, is really irrelevant to the “ones and zeros” flowing into and out of the structure.    

But I beseech you all.  Please, PLEASE learn from Recent history.  For some reason, it seems our immediate reaction to any Development, Progress, Construction, or Innovation is Knee Jerk resistance.  Consider the public’s skepticism towards the innovative approaches to traffic control being proposed along Routs 15, 29, Broadview Avenue, and the Lord Fairfax interchange.  If it’s unfamiliar or new, we recoil in horror and doubt.  Believe me, if we summarily dismiss the prospect of “Clean” prosperity offered by Data Centers, we WILL suffer the eventual sprawl and congestion and housing and housing and housing and Burger Kings and Traffic and before you can BLINK, Fauquier County will become indistinguishable from Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford.  

And that’s not a Piedmont Horse Hunt Country I want to live in.  I’m a Realtor.  I could make a fortune peddling McMansions all across our county.  But at what cost, to what makes life here desirable in the first place?

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THE CONUNDRUM of BALANCING PROGRESS with HERITAGE

Since time began, there has been a continuous and delicate balance between Development and Conservation.  The desire and need for expansion and accommodation drives humankind to discover, settle, grow, build, and prosper. 

Throughout the evolution of humans, the Adventurous Ones have ventured into the unknown, claiming new territory, fighting off threats, and staking claim to spaces to be Civilized and Developed.  Simultaneously, we have had Settlers, who have made the Known Areas bigger, more comfortable, with added amenities and safeguards, and developed societies and social norms. 

It has long been that precious area, between the Frontier and the City, that area that has been “Settled”, in the minds of those who came before any newcomers, that is often embroiled in Conservation vs. Development controversy.  What the Settlers of generations back call “Invasion”, and “Sprawl”, the newcomer often calls “Quaint”, or “Remote”.  And they are both referring to the SAME area! 

Perspective has a Very intoxicating and pervasive affect.  That same Settler may venture further afield someday, on an adventure or a vacation.  They “discover” a New place, and ascribe the same adjectives to that New area that the Newcomer uses to describe the hometown they ventured from! 

One’s perspective on a place is indelibly influenced and molded by the point at which they are introduced.  I spent almost two decades in Very remote parts of the world—places that are considerably different than they were when I arrived.  When I return for visits, I sit at a beach bar, and lament how things have Changed, how Built Up the place has become.  “They’ve RUINED it!!”, I lament to the guy sitting next to me.  Meanwhile, He’s thinking the place is just the Bees Knees!  So Remote!  So Primitive!  So Exclusive!  “Yeah, but, you should have seen it WHEN!!”, I say… 

The halted interchange at I 66 and Rt. 55 between the Plaines and Thoroughfare Gap, Way back when I 66 was installed, the proposed Buckland Bypass(s), The Old Town Warrenton Bypass-Bypass, Van Metre in Marshall, Leckner Fords Expansion, the list goes on ad infinitum.  Urban, and suburban sprawl, building, development, and “Progress” are the inevitable consequences of time, population, influx, discovery, and prosperity.  So often, and so easily, we fall prey to the hypocrisy of, “I’m Here now!!  We must STOP this insane Development!!”.   

Researching the recent developments on the proposals being bantered about regarding the traffic problems on the Rt. 29 corridor between Warrenton and Gainesville, I came across an article in the Washington Post about this.  Dateline, November 26, 2006. 

As I read online commentary regarding the recent (non)development about the proposals, I was reminded of an article from the News Optomist.  How do we avoid the seduction of adopting the all-around counterproductive N.I.M.B.Y., or “Not in My Backyard!”, not to be outdone are the B.A.N.A.N.A. folks—“Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone!”, who’s usual followers are C.A.V.E.’s—“Citizens Against Virtually Everything!” attitude? 

How do we accept, influence, control, and determine our own destiny?  How do we manage the inevitability of progress, yet avoid catching “The Tiger by the Tail” (can you Hear me, Gainesville?  Can you Hear me, Centreville?  Bristow?  Woodbridge?), being consumed by Crisis Response to a population and development explosion, one we have not Prepared and Accommodated for?  Equally important, how do we protect, promote, maintain and safeguard our Heritage Legacy, without becoming stiflingly restrictive (Hello, Middleburg!)? 

Our Heritage is a double-edged sword.  One that makes this area so attractive to newcomers, yet is at the heart of what we wish to preserve. 

I fully subscribe to a philosophy of Awareness, that Sunlight makes the Best Disinfectant.  I believe that we all, anyone that has a vested interest or concern for the beauty of our homeland, have an obligation to be as informed and aware as we possibly can.  Attend citizens meetings, attend zoning board hearings, petition your LOCAL government representatives.  Know what the issues are, be Informed about plans, proposals, and problems in the works.  We may not feel like we have much influence or impact, but if we neglect our God given and American Rights to Know about our public hearings, we acquiesce what real power we DO have.  It may not feel like much, but it’s even More valuable and important, as our impact may be minor.  What little we Can do must be fiercely guarded and exercised. 

I am reminded of my staunch position regarding two Major multibillion dollar global industries (that shall remain nameless) that I boycott.  On more than one occasion, they behaved in a manner that federal courts found criminal.  Their actions directly resulted in several deaths.  Their response and decades-long litigation has led me to refuse to ever purchase their goods.  My effect is admittedly infinitesimal.  Completely insignificant, in the grand scheme of things.  But it is ALL I can do, legally.  I Chose to exercise my rights to the Fullest extent of the law.  And because my influence and impact is so tiny, it is ever more important to ME that I exercise it. 

Daylight is the Best Disinfectant.  Be aware.  Be informed.  Be Concerned. 

Debbie and I, Chris Cloud, want to motivate the citizens of Fauquier County to attend Community Meetings, to know, be aware, and be informed of proposed changes to the slice of paradise we call home.  Whether you are for or against any proposal, the important thing is to be Informed!  We recognize the positive position we are in; one of being concerned with Limiting growth, rather than contending (as so many communities are) with contracting demographics and budget shortfalls.  We are blessed with opportunity.  With Prosperity.  

The CLOUD Difference is Debbie’s and my desire to facilitate decisions, either pro growth, development and expansion, or pro conservation, regulation, and throttling.  Our desire is to promote Educated citizens.  

We are available for collaboration and to discuss ideas!