The Prince William County Rural Crescent News and Views

The Preserve at Long Branch

A letter to Supervisors by Mike Davidson; January 25 2021
Needless to say, the concept of a Rural Crescent in Prince William has been widely-accepted and certainly recognized as a very important part of the environment by all residents of the county. Rules and custom have governed this area since it was established 22+ years ago. As residents, we accepted this and all proceeded to respect the established procedures and rules concerning its use. Thus, when small majority of our Supervisors approves a development for 99 homes, without providing land to replace what they have removed from the Rural Crescent, offering a rationale which is not in the least convincing – "must equalize development in the west" ??? What line has been drawn between east and west??? The east, unfortunately, is required - on a day-to-day basis - to live with the mistakes which were made by previous Boards in approving too much, with too little planning.

Even more disturbing is that our own Prince William county agencies (county planning commission, county planning staff), after study, did not recommend approving this development. It makes no sense to disregard their recommendations on the grounds, as stated by Chairperson Wheele, that this was "outdated (what happened to the study authorized in 2014?)." If it was "outdated", and therefore allegedly needed to be updated, why not do it in a comprehensive form, not by approving this or that development? Why overrule the recommendations of the Planning Commission?

Given the importance of the Rural Crescent, and the role its preservation has played, why not let the county residents decide? As you may recall, a plebiscite was considered when the previous Board considered utilizing county funds to build a minor league baseball park. Given the views of the majority of the Board re the Rural Crescent, why did you not include this as part of your campaign when you ran – "I support building 99 homes in the Rural Crescent."? The answer, we believe, is obvious.