Water rules? Never mind

lewleadbeater.com

notes from the edge

Home

Email Me

				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Water rules? Never mind				July 28, 2010

You don’t know how refreshing it is to see that the same chuckleheaded partisan political bickering that plagues the national government has worked its way down here to the James City County board of supervisors.

I suppose this is what happens when you have a board with three Republicans and two Democrats, but do these blokes really have to constantly embarrass themselves to the point of being utterly ludicrous?

Much of this started eons ago when the new Comprehensive Plan was being discussed and rediscussed to the point of nausea. Finally something emerged that evidently pleased no one, but was passed in order to avoid further exhaustion on the part of supervisors, planners and the public alike.

As I’ve noted before, Comp Plans are not unlike those corny five-year plans that the old Communist leaders of the Soviet Union used to come up with. They never pan out as planned and, once approved, are either constantly revised or completely forgotten when something better or worse comes along. The wheat crop will always be better next year.

So it is with the Comp Plan. Despite its reams of justifying statistics, demographic studies and promises of rural conservation, its belly full of good intentions can always be given a case of intestinal flu when some new proposal comes along that might add a few shekels to the county lucre pot.

Thus Fresh Market, because it has been a “good friend” to the county, will get a new location on an already unbelievably congested section of Monticello Avenue.

And, despite Comp Plan PSA (Primary Service Area) restrictions, Colonial Heritage and the Lennar Corporation, may well be on their way to rezoning a 130 acre plot outside the PSA to mixed use. Rather than being restricted to lots of three acres with individual septic systems, the rezoning, if approved, would allow them four or more units per acre.

As a result of the Lennar proposal, which has been deferred until some time in August, the supes’ fur is flying, with accusations, barbs and jibes cannonading from each side.

Supervisor Jim Icenhour sent out to county residents a warmish letter replete with both facts and charges. As far as he’s concerned, the fix is in because the Republicans raked in big bucks from developers during the last election. Supervisor chairman Jim Kennedy seems to be his primary bete noire in all of this, though the other two Republican supervisors are evidently not immune from the coin collection virus.

At the meeting at which the Lennar proposal was to be discussed, but was deferred, Kennedy lashed out at Icenhour, claiming that his vote was not for sale and inviting Icenhour to provide some proof of wrongdoing on the part of the Republicans.

Then came the rather startling suggestion that, despite the length and intensity of debates about the PSA during the Comp Plan negotiations, the PSA may not be the ruler we want to measure development limits anyway. Maybe, after 40 years, we should revisit that whole issue. Hello?

If that’s the case, and if the PSA as a gauge is outdated now, why on Earth wasn’t that discussed before imbedding it in the heart of the Comp Plan and deciding rural land issues on its basis? Is it only now that some developer wants to rezone land outside the PSA that we’ve decided so shovel it off to the dinosaur pits?

I have no idea how any supervisor is going to vote on the Lennar proposal. And I realize that the PSA, like a line in the sand, is a flimsy hook upon which to hang the future of rural lands. But right now it’s all we’ve got, and whatever sanctity it implies in the Comp Plan should be upheld.

Let the squabbling end and reasoned debate ensue.