Grow Green - Save Trees & Taxes
PWC Comprehensive Plan Environment Chapter 2010 Update Click here for the draft plan and herefor an overview of proposed changes.
Planning Commission Special Worksession
From Gray to Green - Balancing the Scales
When: Wednesday, July 14, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Where: Development Services Building, Conference Room 202 A & B
Speakers: Karen Firehock, Director of the Green Infrastructure Center and Laura Grape, Sr. Environmental Planner, NoVA Regional Commission
We know making good use of gray infrastructure - roads, schools, stormwater pipes, etc - is smart, but what about the green? Connecting natural areas makes a lot of sense too but it will only happen in places where people plan ahead.
PWC is updating the Comprehensive Plan Environment Chapter and, at the same time, the Northern VA Regional Commission (NVRC) is working on a Conservation Corridor Plan for the region.
The plan will map natural resource features across the region to identify a network of open and forested green space. The project also includes model text and GIS layers that could be incorporated into local comprehensive plans and other local planning tools.
Speaker Karen Firehock is the Director of the Green Infrastructure Center and teaches environmental planning at the University of Virginia. She recently published a Green Infrastructure Study for the Richmond region and is working with NVRC on the Conservation Corridor Plan for Northern Virginia.
At the July 14 worksession, Ms. Firehock will share the ABCs of green infrastructure and ideas on how localities can start taking advantage of the benefits, including attractive and sustainable communities. Laura Grape will talk about the NVRCs developing Conservation Corridor Plan for Northern Virginia.
Following questions from Planning Commissioners, participants will have an opportunity to comment as time allows.
Mark your calendar now for this interesting and timely presentation on why a connected network of green, open space is important and ideas on how to make it happen.
Background
With a diverse landscape that includes both a tidal shoreline and a mountain, Prince William County's remarkably rich natural resources create a sense of place that is unique within Northern Virginia.
However, instead of capitalizing on these assets, the County is paving them over to create a generic suburban landscape that appears to be modeled on Centerville.
Protecting the environment has never been a priority in Prince William. For years, the County has stuck to a piece-meal approach with no end game strategy, relying on random taxpayer-funded fixes only to find that the problem simply moves elsewhere and must be fixed again... kind of like playing the wack-a-mole game at the fair.
But the times are changing. With new EPA-mandated Chesapeake Bay requirements and stiff penalties for noncompliance looming on the horizon, the book could be closing on the County's fiddle-dee-dee approach to environmental sustainability.
As you can see in the slide show, a degraded environment is not just aesthetically unattractive, it requires taxpayer funds to fix. Prince William residents who are concerned about future tax increases should be alarmed.
As the saying goes, the first thing to do when you’re in a hole is to stop digging. The current update of the County’s Environment Chapter is a timely opportunity to address past problems and start moving in the right direction. The Environment Chapter sets the County’s policies for new development, capital improvement investments and taxpayer-funded fixes. It covers a range of environmental issues, including stormwater, clearcutting, wetlands, streams, unstable slopes and more.
Developers know the Environment Chapter is important, they are hard at work lobbying Supervisors and staff for more “flexibility.” Claiming to represent the business community, developers say protecting the environment and attracting commercial development are mutually exclusive… we can’t have both.
The non-developer business community has a different view. Small business owners rank open space and parkland as their highest priority in choosing a new location for their company.1 Corporate CEOs say that quality of life is the third most important factor they consider in locating a business.2 Communities with a healthy network of natural open space are more livable and desirable.
Is an attractive, sustainable community important to you? For homeowners, hikers, wildlife enthusiasts and taxpayers who are tired of paying for quick fixes after the fact, the Environment Chapter is action central.
There’s no reason to settle for the overused government refrain our-hands-are-tied-there’s-nothing-we-can-do. Citizens can absolutely make a difference. It’s certainly fair to say that citizen outcry is the only reason Prince William still has a Rural Crescent (Avendale is just the most recent example).
Share your views with elected officials, early and often. After years of ignoring environmental needs, it’s clear that the voices of many people are needed to prioritize environmental sustainability in Prince William County.
Who knows? Maybe it is going to take the EPA to get the County’s attention after all. In the meantime, we need to remember that this is our community… it’s our home, our quality of life and our property values that are at stake.
1 John L. Crompton, Lisa L. Love, and Thomas A. More, "An Empirical Study of the Role of Recreation, Parks and Open Space in Companies' (Re) Location Decisions," Journal of Park and Recreation Administration (1997), 37-58.
2 “Economic Impacts of Protecting Rivers, Trails, and Greenway Corridors,” 4th ed., Washington, DC: National Park Service (1995).
With a diverse landscape that includes both a tidal shoreline and a mountain, Prince William County's remarkably rich natural resources create a sense of place that is unique within Northern Virginia.