When people think all land is up for grabs, they oppose development everywhere.
-- Ed McMahon, The Conservation Fund

After more than two years and two deferrals by the Planning Commission, citizens have formed a Community Coalition of Citizen Groups and are working on a draft plan to present to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. On February 18, 2007, this group held a public meeting to provide all citizens with an opportunity to air their views.

Nearly 60 people attended the Community Coalition of Citizen Groups public meeting on February 18, 2007. Participants represented a broad range of community interests, including residents, organizations, local developers and businesses.

Many thanks to the Prince William County Park Authority Executive Director Jay Ellington and Park Authority Board members Brenda Gardziel, Stewart Christiano and Brant Wickham for welcoming everyone to the Park Authority Headquarters for this program.

Occoquan District Supervisor Mike May opened the program with a review of the planning process for the parks, trails and open space updates to the Comprehensive Plan. Supervisor May thanked eveyone for taking the time to share their views and talked about the importance of citizen participation in local decision making processes.

Charlie Grymes, Prince William Conservation Alliance Chairman, shared information about the Community Coalition of Citizen Groups, which formed last summer in response to the initial draft proposal rejected by the Planning Commission in September 2006. The Coalition grew as public involvement to develop second revision turned into a frustrating struggle, instead of an effective working relationship.

The Coalition recognizes we are at a fork in the road: have faith the staff can get it right the third time, or step forward and draft a better revision of Comprehensive Plan. Obviously we intend to "put up," not "shut up," and we're committed to a constructive process rather than whining about the past.

Everyone was invited to our September 18 public meeting to contribute ideas and comments, so we can build a consensus for a new draft through public involvement in the process (no surprises, no last-minute amendments).

Parks, trails and open space are fundamentally different. At the February 18 meeting, we broke up into three groups: Parks, Trails and Open Space. We will propose separate draft chapters for each that have high-level goals, implementation policies, and specific action steps so everyone can measure if we are falling behind or catching up.

We are projecting that our new citizen-produced version for the Comprehensive Plan chapter(s) that cover parks, trails and open space will be ready for review by the Planning Commission and the BOCS in April 2007.

We will need to meet often over next 60 days to capture ideas, consider comments, incorporate feedback, and complete redrafting process. If you have comments or want to volunteer to help, please contact us at openspace(at)pwconserve.org.

Our web site offers everyone a vehicle for staying involved with all three chapters, and for those who can't make it to a future meeting. To sign up for email updates, send a message with 'subscribe' in the message header to openspace(at)pwconserve.org.

Comments from the February 18 public meeting are posted online (click on topic to jump to information):

Parks ... Trails ... Open Space