Oh Shenandoah Please Enact A Good Rural Plan

Shenandoah County will benefit from good rural planning. Promoting rural prosperity will happen when we keep new housing near our towns; invest in land conservation; and strengthen our zoning ordinances.

New innovations can be explored once we see these as beginning economic development tools for our county. How we allow our land to be developed can be a win/win situation if we exercise wise best management practices. Otherwise irresponsible development will be passed on to us tax payers. One great example is who is going to be taking care of all the abandoned junk yards in our county? Who is going to clean these up? Citizen’s freedom to do things must be balanced by their responsibility to take care of those things they have.

The more we keep growth near our towns with joint comprehensive plans the cheaper it will be for us to provide public services and improved land use patterns. Already we our towns have invested in hundreds of millions in water and waste water and expansion into rural areas must be properly managed. Just look at our failing septic systems and other failed utilities to see that they do impact our county’s natural resources.

It is not question of “if” but “when” we will need agricultural land since food shortages will shortly be very evident. We need to develop a economic development program for our farms and fund the purchase of development rights (PDR).

Visit West Virginia if you wish to see what happens when you do not have zoning ordinances. Look at what is happening around Winchester. Updating our rural zoning by creating low density measures allowing in A-1 one lot per ten acres this county will benefit if it becomes law. Also one lot per 15 acres in C-1 zoning district will protect us from rapid sprawl. Also rewarding cluster development with “bonus” lots can reward our landowners so using the cluster option is imperative to keep our county rural.

Without integrated comprehensive planning increased Shenandoah County economic development comes into question. You can insure best management opportunities to promote future prosperity for Shenandoah County:

I urge you look at this county’s future from a big picture perspective. Just add together income gained from fisheries, agriculture, industry, and recreation and tourism this county currently enjoys. Supporting rural area plans are investment since document income from recreation and tourism and increased property values. However the most important investment is our county’s quality of life. If this get’s destroyed future generations will not get the same opportunities we have enjoyed. Ben Franklin was correct when he said, “I am not so concern on the return on my investment rather the return of my investment”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Page County Landfill Story

Despair in Repair

Renewed Light