Editorial

Editorial

Foolishness

Foolishness. That’s a strong word. But strong words are what Jackson District Supervisor Ellis Bingham used last week w hen he attacked Rappahannock County’s land use controls.

And foolishness is what we think Col. Bingham’s suggestions are.

They are only the latest in a series of proposals to gut the county’s restrictions on land use, but they come from someone who should know better. We don’t doubt Col. Bingham’s sincerity in representing those residents who he feels are oppressed by restrictive controls on land use.

But we question his judgment in advocating that all controls be swept aside and anyone be allowed to do whateves they want with their land — subject only to Health Department approval of septic systems and wells.

There is no doubt that restrictive zoning is unfair, in the sense that people of limited means are often left with fewer options — or no options — while those with more money and land are able to bring their dreams to fruition. That is often the case — and not just in zoning matters.

But that is no reason to ride roughshod across the county’s land use regulations — ordinances which were carefully crafted over several years, and were brought to public hearings in each of the county’s five magisterial districts. They were the subject of bitter divisions at the time, and obviously some residents are still dissatisfied.

But the ordinances do, in fact, protect all the county’s residents. Unrestrained development would bring requests for increased services.

What would be the effect on those residents of limited means if their tax bills suddenly included appropriations for paid fire and rescue personnel to protect large subdivisions plopped somewhere in the Castleton area — which is now protected by a volunteer department?

Amissville too, is a logical target for developers, convenient as it is to Warrenton and 1-66. Would the residents in a large subdivision there be content with taking their trash to the county landfill, or would they demand public garbage collection?

And what would happen if the several hundred tiny lots in Chester Gap’s Blue Ridge Estates could be developed? There’s not a prayer that private water and septic would be sufficient. How would the.county’s small.-landowners feel about paying for a water system and sewerage plant for that development?

And, there is no denying that all the county’s landowners — both large and small — have benefited from the 38 percent average increase in value of residential property in the past three years. According to Planning District 9, that is second only to Fauquier County in the five-county district.

That appreciation in values would not have happened without zoning protections. Look at rural counties to the west with lax, or no, ordinances. Properties there are not worth anything close to what similar parcels in Rappahannock bring.