Special to the Mirror. This was sent as an advertisement, however the Mirror does not charge for information, so we opted to just run this as an Op-Ed.
Anyone who has been following local news over the last several years has to be familiar with the epic zoning fight waged in Northampton County from 2013-2016. Citizens fighting for the sustainable future of our unique quality of life, thanks to new Board of Supervisors members and legal challenges, staved off a horrific assault from a small handful Of industrialists, poultry advocates, and real estate interests who wanted to develop this county into an Ocean City or Virginia Beach model with a twist of the poultry expansion being waged in Accomack County.
The 2015 Board Of Supervisors election settled the debate over who was the “vocal minority” or “the silent majority” and those pushing the exit from the stated will Of the people as embodied in our ZQQ2 were rejected in a landslide victory for those wishing to save this county from the same mistakes being made in many other localities throughout Virginia and the nation.
But now, that small handful is at it again. …and are attempting to rewrite our protective 2009.
Comprehensive plan to accomplish the same goals Of their 2014 zoning which would have left us With incinerators, poultry houses, industrial uses “by right” (no notice to neighbors) and a full scale commercial development of the Route 13 corridor (the only permeable soils that recharge our drinking water).
This new attempt to regurgitate and then gnaw at the core of a very rotten zoning apple is being orchestrated by the “Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee” and you can read who they are and what they plan by reading the “CPAC FINAL REPORT” on the county’s Planning Department’s website. It is also being choreographed by Jacque Chatmon’s Planning Commission (PC).
Last week, a small handful of players hand-picked by the PC met in a private work session to finalize a draft 2017 Comprehensive Plan to replace the one we all helped write, also available in Part I and Part Il on the Planning Department website.
Over a dozen citizens, finding out at the last minute about this closed meeting, attended and asked to be a part Of shaping their own land use future. They were denied. had to watch and keep quiet. We were given no worksheets, could not partake in the discussion, and were basically relegated to fishbowl status.
What we learned was that Bill Parr’s (CPAC chairman) and Bill Payne’s (co-chair) vision for US is exactly the same disaster they were promoting in 2012-13. To try to garner support for this attempt, they have embarked on one of the most disgusting and vile dissertations regarding the current state of this county that one could imagine. Read it in both the CPAC Report and the draft Comp Plan.
It is imperative that we rise up again, demand that this unilateral attack on our future be stopped, and the process of manipulating our 2009 Comprehensive Plan without our knowledge or approval be halted until we all have our say. After all, we did not hear the majority demand that it be rewritten.
We are encouraging you to get involved and call for this folly to be halted now.
Email: jwilliams@co.northampton.va.us and ask that your comments be shared with the Planning Commission the County Administrator, the BOS, and be included in the record Of this ill-fated proceeding that, frankly, should never have been started.
For a more balanced approach to sustainable growth see the Competitiveness Assessment Study available on Northampton County’s website. For more information: easternshorecog@gmail.com
Leave a Reply