Prince William Resident
Robert B. Weir
2010-01-15 12:09:14
Einstein concluded that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I can think of no better exemplar than the Land and Transportation Planning processes in Prince William County.If last Tuesday’s Avendale proceedings didn’t adequately evidence the disconnect between Long Range Planning and current reality, I’m sure this Tuesday’s hearings on the Land Use and Transportation Chapters of the Comprehensive Plan will.
The county is seemingly caught in a unending cycle of continuously approving poorly considered land use applications to make up for the impacts of previous applications, seemingly without regard to the new subset of issues created by the latest applications. Avendale serves as a prime example of perpetually mortgaging the future for some measure of instant gratification.
In theory, the Comprehensive Plan should provide a strategy for responsible and fiscally sound growth in the County. Unfortunately, the BOCS, Planning Office, Transportation Office and their partisan supporters have bastardized the process to that extent that responsible and fiscally sound growth is likely unattainable.
The Comprehensive Plan and amendments thereto are governed by the Code of Virginia, Title 15.2 Chapter 22. Statute requires that the Planning Commission certify a plan and forward it to the BOCS for consideration. The BOCS is then required to hold public hearings and "proceed to a consideration of the plan or part thereof and shall approve and adopt, amend and adopt, or disapprove the plan".
Based upon a review of the Staff Report and Supervisor Nohe’s proposed amendments it is quite evident that Prince William hasn’t learned from the past mistakes of our neighbor immediately to the North. Rather than providing the final Planning Commission draft as required by statute, the Planning Office has instead forwarded three versions, one each by the Planning Commission, LUAC and the Planning Office, each replete with such a quantity of deletions, underscores and changes as to make them practically incomprehensible to all but the most conversant with the process. Similarly, Supervisor Nohe’s comments and draft amendments indicate that at least a portion of the BOCS has already decided to consider the Planning Office version rather than the Planning Commission version mandated by statute.
If the Planning Office had limited itself to suggestions and minor changes perhaps this might not be an issue but given the content of the Planning Office amendments and the fact that they are several pages longer than the Planning Commission’s draft in total, they don’t constitute amendments but rather wholesale change based largely on the draft provided by a "citizens" advisory committee whose membership and interests have been the subject of much public debate.
Although both chapters are rife with examples, a superlative insight on the impact of the Planning Office amendments can be easily gleaned from an examination of the Planning Office’s proposed text amendments to the Appendix of the Transportation Plan. The Planning Commission realized that existing planning practices are largely responsible for the deterioration of the transportation network and proposed a higher standard in LOS maintenance requirements for new development. The Planning Office’s response is to continue using the current standards, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, insanity.
As long as the current planning dynamic, BOCS membership and Planning Office staff remain the same residents of Prince William are likely subject to continued insanity. If the current BOCS members didn’t get the message last Tuesday, the taxpaying residents (not the Avendale "supporters" carefully orchestrated by the applicant’s attorney in the McCoart Center’s atrium) have had enough, change the process or they will likely change you.
Robert B. Weir
Haymarket, VA
The views expressed are those of the author and are not intended to reflect the position or policy of the Town of Haymarket.