The following report and opinion is from citizen Ken Dufty of Wardtown
This week’s Northampton Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting revealed a distressing disregard for the integrity of the County’s Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan). This is a continuation of a troubling pattern that began on March 19 when three Planning Commissioners reduced the Comp Plan to a malleable document, claiming it is “not regulatory,” “open to our interpretation,” and “only general in nature.” On tape, Commissioner Anders even went so far as to say, “it is not important.” These statements were made to justify the approval of the Hionis deal, which sought to establish a new hamlet where none previously existed, under the guise of needing workforce housing.
Commissioner Sturgis, advocating for the Hionis proposal, emphasized the urgency for workforce housing. Yet, the “cottages” intended to meet this need are projected to be priced around $300,000—far from affordable for the average worker. When the BOS approved this dubious plan, John Coker dismissed concerns by paraphrasing, “it is their land, we have no control over it. They can build whatever they want there.” This statement highlights the county’s inability to enforce genuine affordable housing, despite earlier promises.
Last night, Jon Dempster, a member of the Economic Development Authority (EDA), echoed the workforce housing rhetoric. He suggested that Virginia Builders could construct affordable duplexes and townhomes near Cheriton on rural lands without the necessary sewer or water infrastructure mandated by the Comp Plan. Dempster advocated for altering the Comp Plan’s density rules, proposing shared septic solutions to justify these developments.
The proposed duplexes, supposedly affordable at $185,000 to $220,000, are beyond the reach of most local workers. The Zillow Affordability Calculator starkly illustrates this reality. For instance, a worker earning $35,000 annually could afford a home priced at $65,897, with a monthly mortgage payment of $450. Even at $75,000 a year, a worker could only afford a $205,677 home. This disconnect underscores the misleading promises of so-called workforce housing.
During the meeting, I presented these figures, demonstrating the financial impracticality for the intended demographic. Furthermore, I emphasized that any change in density would necessitate amending the Comp Plan. Despite this, Jon had a pre-prepared resolution to explore density changes for cluster developments in rural areas, under the pretext of needing workforce housing. This move, approved unanimously, seems to pave the way for unchecked development, sidelining the Comp Plan’s regulations.
It is alarming to witness the Comp Plan, once sacrosanct, being relegated to irrelevance. The BOS and certain Planning Commissioners, notably not Commissioners Wiggins, Morgan, or Webber, appear to be in lockstep with development interests, risking the very rural quality of life that defines the Eastern Shore.
We are witnessing gentrification on steroids. The mantra seems to be: “The Comp Plan is not important, open to discretion and interpretation, and is not regulatory.” This betrayal by the gatekeepers threatens the community’s integrity and sustainability. If we do not stand firm in protecting the Comp Plan, we risk losing the unique character that attracts people to the shore in the first place. Enjoy our rural charm while it lasts—because it may not be here for much longer.
Dempster advocated for altering the Comp Plan’s density rules, proposing shared septic solutions to justify these developments?
Is the man an idiot?
Is that what qualified him to be a member of this board – a lack of wits?
Mr. Dempster seems to be suggesting Virginia Builders strives to build “affordable housing” but cannot do so due to infrastructure costs. Is this not the same Virginia Builders who is selling 1900 sqft homes that would otherwise be ideal for locals at $550K each on lots they purchased for less than $40K with roads already in place in Tower Hill? This does not sound like a company that is on a crusade to provide affordable housing. I can’t imagine those small homes cost more than $350K to build. If Virginia Builders wants to create affordable housing opportunities they already have the means to do so. Let us not be fooled. This is not about affordable housing it’s about higher density for the sake of bringing more second and vacation homeowners here.
When the BOS approved this dubious plan, John Coker dismissed concerns by paraphrasing, “it is their land, we have no control over it. They can build whatever they want there.”
The last time I heard those words, “it’s their land, they can do what they want,” they were spouting from out of the mouth of a fancy, high-grade political lawyer representing a mining application for land not zoned for mining, and when I stood up to cut him off with an objection, this being in a hearing where such objections were allowed, based on the fact that the land was zoned and thus his client COULD NOT do what he wanted, I got the lawyer so upset he started gesticulating wildly and in the process of doing so, ripped the sleeve off his expensive suit coat, a source of mirth to those of us who witnessed the event to this day.
The time before that, the words were spewing forth from the mouth of a crooked public health director who was allowing swamp land to be approved for residential development where people now walk the neighborhood and smell sewage if they are not walking in it, because the swamp land was the developer’s and they could do anything they wanted with it, including screwing the people stupid enough to buy a lot there.
If the people down here haven’t already done so, they should get these meetings live-streamed to Youtube so there is an official record of exactly what transpired and who said what to whom.
This particular meeting sounds like it would be a real doozy to watch, and I am sure that it would attract attention from all over the nation as to what you don’t want to allow in your own community, which is morons like these being in charge of local government.
CCM: It is alarming to witness the Comp Plan, once sacrosanct, being relegated to irrelevance.
ME: If you think about it, what really is being relegated to irrelevance is this BOS itself.
IF all the laws, all the rules, all the regulations, all the plans mean nothing at all, then there clearly is no need for a BOS to administer them, which makes the BOS an extravagant waste of time and taxpayer money!
Is there any chance that Mr. Dumpster is in the Pocket of the Developers? Just a thought…
Most likely.
More rumor mongering from a blowhard….
.without a scintilla of evidence.
Whether or not Mr. Dempster is in or out of the pockets of developers, it appears from his statements at p.27 of the Eastern Shore Post in the story story “Some wary of zoning change for housing” by Stefanie Jackson on May 24, 2024 that Mr. Dempster has either taken leave of his senses, or he was never in touch with his wits in the first place, which condition certainly does not serve as a bar to being a member of the Northampton Economic Development Authority, to wit:
An idea for workforce housing near Cheriton proposed to Northampton County supervisors last week was met with caution and skepticism.
“I’m … sticking my neck out here, because I don’t know that I’m going to get a second,” said Supervisor John Coker when he made a motion for the Northampton Planning Commission to research the matter.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Jon Dempster, a member of the Northampton Economic Development Authority, requested increasing housing density in some parts of the county to allow developers to build homes that middle-income employees, such as teachers and health care workers, can afford.
He specifically requested to double housing density in certain rural village residential zoning districts from one to two units per 20,000 square feet — an area a little less than a half acre.
More homes could be built on less land and require less infrastructure, allowing for cost savings that would be passed on to homebuyers.
For example, Virginia Builders, a Chesapeake contractor, is permitted to build a 27-house subdivision off Cheriton Cross Road.
With double housing density, the contractor could build 27 duplexes — larger traditional houses, each split into two separate units — resulting in 54 housing units that would be easier for middle-income families to afford.
end quotes
That is in addition to how he is quoted in the article above, to wit:
Last night, Jon Dempster, a member of the Economic Development Authority (EDA), echoed the workforce housing rhetoric.
He suggested that Virginia Builders could construct affordable duplexes and townhomes near Cheriton on rural lands without the necessary sewer or water infrastructure mandated by the Comp Plan.
Dempster advocated for altering the Comp Plan’s density rules, proposing shared septic solutions to justify these developments.
end quotes
“Shared” septic solutions on 20,000 sq. ft with a duplex on it and presumably, a well?
Speaking as a qualified public health engineer, I’m very curious as to how Mr. Dempster proposes to “share” the sewage disposal issues of not one, but two families on a mere 20,000 sq. feet, given that Virginia’s Sewage Handling and Disposal Regulations, administered by the Virginia Department of Health require that a reserve drainfield area be set aside for soils with slower percolation rates, which reserve area must be at least half the size of the original drainfield.
And who exactly is it that own the shared septic system?
If it fails, who is responsible for fixing it?
And what about the Eastern Shore of Virginia Groundwater Resource Protection and Preservation Plan by the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission and the Eastern Shore of Virginia Groundwater Committee in December 2013, wherein was stated at p. 1.1-3 that while the quality of the Columbia and Yorktown-Eastover aquifer’s ground water is considered to be good, it is highly vulnerable to contamination due to its geological characteristics and possible land-use activities, with the designated area being a multiaquifer system with a surficial aquifer (Columbia
aquifer) consisting of shallow sand and gravel deposits and a deeper confined aquifer (Yorktown-Eastover aquifer) which is recharged by water from the surficial aquifer.
The shallow nature of the surficial aquifer allows contaminants to be rapidly introduced into the ground water with minimal assimilation so that it is this high vulnerability to contamination, especially on the central “spine” of the
peninsula, coupled with the aquifer’s value as the principal source of drinking water for the residents served, that could pose a significant public health hazard.
end quotes
According to the map in the Eastern Shore of Virginia Groundwater Committe publication “Groundwater Recharge on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,” Cheriton is in the recharge area to the surficial aquifer.
So how would allowing these duplexes of Mr. Dempster to have common septic system for two separate residences on 20,000 sq. feet in Cheriton serve to protect the drinking water of the shore?
Or like so much else down here in this era of deregulation on the shore, doesn’t protecting the drinking water matter anymore?