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nice place’
LOCAL government, a number of speakers brought out at a national “growth control” conference in Reston last week, is the best place to exert meaningful control. It’s the level of government where there is the greatest opportunity for citizen participation, where there is the greatest knowledge of local desires and needs. The conference was valuable in many ways, and we wish more local government officials and citizens, too—could find the time to attend such gatherings. One of the valuable things about Northern Virginia is that so many such gatherings of talent and experience assemble nearby, from all over the nation; you’d think local officials would be eager to tap such reservoirs. It is certainly cheaper than hiring consultants (who, incidentally, do attend the meetings).
If local officials from Clarke County had attended the meeting, for instance, they might have heard one of the nation’s top zoning attorneys address their county: “Land,” said Robert H. Freilich, who devised the now-famous Ramapo, N.Y., plan for phasing growth, “is not a commodity; it is a public resource of limited amount and concept. therefore it must be protected by the public. It is our duty to our children to protect it.” Hearing such a statement might make it easier for Clarke’s supervisors to vote for a proposed 10-acre minimum zoning acreage, something which is at the heart of their professed desire to keep Clarke a largely rural county.
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