Incoming board agrees
on county zoning needs

By Melissa Caron

A changeover in the Board of Supervisors in January is expected to bring a shift in how the county deals with land development, one of the most pressing issues the county is facing today.

Residents voted in the Nov. 6 election to replace three incumbents with new supervisors, all of whom embrace a slow-growth, pro-preservation approach to land use. The two incumbents who were re-elected, Mack Smith, Buffalo District, and Carroll Comstock, South River District, have expressed a similar preference for limiting growth.

Comstock and Smith, for example, were the only two members to support a rezoning ordinance in August that would have limited the ability of landowners to sell off large tracts for subdivisions.

The ordinance was not passed after supervisor Maynard Reynolds, Natural Bridge District, abstained from voting because, he said, he did not have enough information. The other two members had opposed the ordinance.

“I think that’s why some members of the board got beat this time,” Smith said.

Incoming supervisors will be responsible for putting in place zoning ordinances to support the county’s 2003 land-use plan, which looks to preserve agricultural land and open spaces.

Hunt Riegel, who will serve on the board from the Natural Bridge District, says the changeover in supervisors is a reflection of how residents don’t want the county to deal with development.

“I think that some of the people who will be leaving the board have given up on the notion of managing growth at all,” Riegel said.

He says that the supervisors who opposed the proposed rezoning ordinance believed simply that more residents would automatically mean more tax revenue for the county. In many areas of the county, Riegal says, that may not result in a net gain because the county will have to extend utilities, fire and rescue services and even school systems to accommodate more residents in less populated areas.

That will be costly to the county, he said.

All incoming supervisors agree that they would like to limit growth to areas of the county where there already is infrastructure in place.

“I would like to see subdivisions where they belong, where we have already spent huge amounts of funds for infrastructures – where the roads are, where the schools are available, and where the sewer and water are available, not in our rural farm community,” said A.W. “Buster” Lewis, who will serve on the board from the Walkers Creek District.

Both Smith and Riegel say they have concerns over how subdivisions will affect water supplies, especially in parts of the county where residents depend on wells. The construction of multiple wells in subdivisions will have a tremendous effect on the water table for everyone, Smith said.

Riegel says the incoming board has been somewhat frustrated by the influx of residents petitioning the current board for rezoning and special exemptions. He says many people are acting now in order to avoid the new board’s approach to development.

Rusty Ford, incoming supervisor from the Kerrs Creek District, says four of the five members worked well together on the county Planning Commission for many years and that the fifth member, Riegel, will bring equal knowledge to the Board of Supervisors.

“I think we all have demonstrated that we can all work together and that we all have a vision that is pretty close,” he said. “And since we all got elected by speaking to that vision, I think we can move forward to put the county in a better position to meet the challenges of the future.”

The issue will be addressed again in early spring by the incoming supervisors.

“I suspect by end of the first quarter we’ll have something in place,” Comstock said.

County supervisors share views on development

The incoming board is expected to take a pro-preservation, slow-growth stance on land use.

A.W. "Buster" Lewis, Walkers Creek

“I would like to see subdivisions in where they belong, where we have already spent huge amounts of funds for infrastructures -- where the roads are, where the schools are available, and where the sewer and water are available, not in our rural farm community.” -- A.W. "Buster" Lewis, Walkers Creek