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AREA PLANS NEW WAYS TO GROW Legislator explains why Urban Development Areas are being mandated in high-growth localities such as Stafford and Spotsylvania counties Date published: 9/5/2010
By DAN TELVOCK AND JONAS BEALS
To comply with a Virginia General Assembly mandate, high-growth counties around the Fredericksburg area must have plans by next July for dense developments where people can live, work, shop and play. These Urban Development Areas could look like small cities with a mix of different types of housing, stores and businesses. UDAs must accommodate at least 10 years and as many as 20 years of projected population growth. Economic conditions will impact how many UDA proposals localities get. UDAs are envisioned as pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly communities that limit the need to maintain additional secondary roads and subdivision streets. A UDA could have narrower, more interconnected streets. These developments are supposed to be planned near existing infrastructure, such as commuter rail, highways, and public water and sewer. The hope is the UDAs would preserve open space elsewhere because development in them is more compact. The land-use policy changes originated from former Gov. Timothy Kaine's smart-growth platform. He wanted to tie land-use and transportation decisions together, in light of the financial strains that sprawling development puts on the Virginia Department of Transportation's budget. Del. Clay Athey, a Republican from Front Royal, introduced the UDA legislation in 2007. He has been working on clarifying it ever since. "It's probably the largest change in land-use planning since zoning itself," he said. "There will be gnashing of teeth over this." The process has been complicated for local governments. VDOT has hired consultants to assist county and city planners with the process. In Spotsylvania, Board of Supervisors members were confused last month after a state-funded consultant told them that land in a UDA would have to be rezoned so that the development would be allowed by right. County Planning Director Wanda Parrish sent a memo to supervisors on Aug. 26 correcting the misunderstanding. A UDA would be part of the county's Comprehensive Plan, indicating that it's a preferred type of growth there, but existing zoning still stands. For Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, one or more UDAs would be in the comprehensive plan. In Spotsylvania, the UDA would accommodate at least 26,000 people--more than the population of Fredericksburg--over a 10-year span.
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 9/5/2010
come build the roads that are needed as a result of
development. They never were - it was a ruse perpetrated
by local developers cahoots with BOS. The name of the
game has ALWAYS been to PRETEND that someone else
will pay for the roads. It used to be VDOT but no more. 46
other states make the localities responsible for the
transportation consequences of development. We need to
do that in Va. If you want to propose a development then
man up to the infrastructure needs that it causes.
time to do this.
and you parenthetically said the KEY words....(considering the
size of the town). There is no comparison to this area and Front
Royal from a transportation and development viewpoint.
Front Royal is a very busy area (considering the size of the town). Have you ever been there @ 5:30?
Also, Richmond can use this principle. Everything's so far apart!
Most significant difference between ways each locality is
handling UDAs is Spots asked their citizen what they
wanted and where in public meeting called to discuss
UDAs. Stafford has not had one such public meeting and
Stafford refuses to let the consultant finish her work . . .
before a vote is taken on UDAs this fall.
A step in the right direction, the county can no longer approve subdivisions mindlessly without thinking of the consequences. It's time we stop asking for state for more money when we are the ones causing the transportation problem. We need to act. How? By managing the space we already have in a better way:
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/082010/08222010/568851
See? We'll be broke anyway from emergency services and road problems if we don't do anything anyway. Also, this gives more value to people.
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