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Haymarket council outlines opposition to county Comp Plan
Welcome to the latest installment of the Town of Haymarket versus Prince William County regarding land-use matters.As usual, the county government wants to change something and the town government is against it. This week’s subject: proposed changes to the county’s Comprehensive Plan, particularly regarding community and commerce centers situated in and around the town’s borders.
While the county government has “steamrolled” the Haymarket Town Council before on land-use issues, this time around, council members think they can actually win.
The “steamrolled” comment came from councilman Bob Weir after the Board of County Supervisors voted in January on identical 7-1 votes to approve up to 210 potential new houses at the Haymarket Landing and University of Virginia Foundation properties just south of the town borders. The board's approval came despite objections from the town.
Unlike then, the town council now has the support of others in its opposition to a draft version of the Comprehensive Plan written by the Prince William Land Use Advisory Committee.
According to council members, a large crowd was expected to voice objections to the draft version of the Comprehensive Plan at a public hearing Wednesday.
Haymarket vice mayor John Cole explained Monday that his main concerns center around a community and commerce center proposal that would be centered at Piedmont Station.
Because those areas would be regulated under mixed-used zoning, residential and business units could be built near each other.
Currently, the Haymarket Town Center is zoned differently than the residential areas north of it that are still in the town’s borders.
“What they’re saying is that they want these community centers to be places where you live and work,” said Cole.
In other words, the area could be designed to look more like the Reston Town Center, according to Cole, which would violate the development restrictions in the county’s Rural Crescent.
The problems expressed most explicitly by Cole and Weir is the north-central part of the Town of Haymarket, which includes the Haymarket Town Center, Longstreet Commons, and the portion of town north of the Old Carolina Road bridge, would all be included under the community center’s arc of coverage.
To the councilmen, that is a violation of the town’s sovereignty.
“I personally want the county to understand that we’re a town and we need to determine our own destiny,” said Cole. “We worked very hard on our own comprehensive plan and we want it to dovetail with theirs and this doesn’t dovetail.”
“They can’t designate zoning within the town,” added Weir, mentioning that the current residential zoning in north central Haymarket is for 10,000-square-foot lots occupied by detached single-family dwellings. Higher-density models like the one put forward in the draft version of the Comprehensive Plan would include multi-family units like townhouses and condos.
One of the most frequent issues Weir has complained about regarding the county government is that decisions are made without regard to existing infrastructure capacity. For example, the soon-to-be-built Antioch Fire Station has been cited repeatedly by those favoring development around Gainesville as a place that will be able to provide an essential service.
But it does not exist yet.
In this case, the concept of a community center at Piedmont Station is reliant on a non-existent mass-transit system operating in the area.
“You’re putting the cart before the horse,” said Weir, noting that by the time the Comprehensive Plan has to be updated again in five years, the county will have a better grasp on what future infrastructure could be afforded and developed. “Why are you even bothering to do it? Why are you putting it in your long-range use now?”
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