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“gone wild” and per-acre prices have risen steadily. Even in Rappahannock recent sales have been pushing aside all previous price expectations. In Washington, Virginia, land is being offered for $40-60,000 per building lot. These lots would have brought only a fraction of that price just a few years ago.
We must recognize the effect of this distortion on the cherished diversity of this community. Services for the costly new homes or the multifamily units which may evolve can only boost service costs here as elsewhere and cause the fabric of the county to be compromised. On the one hand, we may be luxury suburbanized (Fairfaxized); on the other we may be infused by low-cost (to the developer) clustered townhouses tagged with prices still beyond the reach of many.
All these scenarios bring the spectre of congestion, sanitation, water and waste problems and franchised commercial services to meet demands of increasing numbers.
Some advocates maintain that such residential growth contributes to fiscal health by “expanding the tax base.” They fail to recognize that growth ushers in expanded services costs as well. Open land demands minimal public services.
All evidence is that taxes increase when populations increase.
How much growth can we afford: fiscally or environmentally? How much change do we wish to see? Do we want a different way of life?
If not, we should support our ordinances and the county officials who are responsible for having developed them and are responsible for their implementation. There must be a common effort to confine the development onslaught and survive the inevitable growth in the most responsible manner possible.
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