Uncontrolled growth can cause taxes to skyrocket, but with good planning and the use of proffers and other tools, communities can accommodate growth without a budget crisis.
Strong Communities
PEC believes that the work of protecting natural resources and the work of building better communities are integral to each other.
Better Comprehensive Planning
Every locality in Virginia must express its goals in a Comprehensive Plan, a twenty-year vision which must be reviewed and/or revised every five years. These documents are of foundational importance for communities that wish to shape their own future.
Developer Still Considering 275 Homes in Clevenger’s Corner
Update: At its April public hearing, the Culpeper County Planning Commission made a recommendation to deny the rezoning by a vote of 9-0. With the resignation of Supervisor Tom Underwood and his replacement with former Supervisor John Coates, the Board of Supervisors have agreed to delay the public hearing on the rezoning until its July meeting.
Water Quality and Land Use
Streams and rivers are likely to be healthy when at least 91% of the ground in their watershed remains permeable, allowing soil and plants to filter precipitation.
“Poisoned Waters” Documentary on FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith takes an in-depth look at Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay, and examines the growing number of hazards to human health and our nation’s waterways.
Both PEC and partner group, the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), were interviewed for the piece. We stressed that poor land use decisions and sprawling development pose the primary threat to the Bay’s water quality.
Unison Historic District Offers a Window to the Civil War
The village of Unison in western Loudoun, as if charmed in some way to keep from changing, is a quiet hamlet of well-kept old buildings, with many farmhouses, barns and churches that measure their age in centuries. They are settled into a landscape of farm fields and stone walls, where the curving hills and stands of trees give way, in their own rhythm, to views of the calm blue line of mountains on the western horizon.
It’s the roads in Unison that historians get most excited about, says Mitch Diamond of the Unison Preservation Society, which is leading efforts to list this area as a historic district on the state and national registers of historic places.
Big Growth in Greene
When Brian Higgins joined PEC’s staff as our first full-time field officer for Culpeper and Greene, this summer, he had to hit the ground running in Greene County. For one thing, the county is considering a rezoning for a development of nearly 1,200 units—a single project that could increase the county’s population by 20%.