Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 16 · column 2 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
“On the surface this seems encouraging,” Col. Bingham’s letter continues, “and this is the very reason I made an issue of the outdated statistics. What has happened over the past five years? Without current data we can only conclude that agriculture in the County, although still significant, is now in third place behind real estate and retail sales.”
He noted that a 1975 USD A report placed real estate at the top of the list of business activity in the county, and pointed to a recent Washington Post article which quoted University of Virginia researchers as calling finance, insurance and real estate the largest single economic sector in the Commonwealth.
Quoting the language of the Comprehensive Plan, Col. Bingham said, “the plan is a tool by which County citizens, in conjunction with the local governing body ask, ‘Where do we go from here, what do we become?’
“How can we tell our citizens, ‘What, When, Where, How and Why,’ when We do not know where we are ourselves?” he asked. “The only thing that I can glean from our present comprehensive plan are more restrictions placed on our citizens without any data to warrant those restrictions. 1 consider this an abusive use of our police powers."
“Historically," Col. Bingham maintained, farmers have used their land as “Social Security for his golden years or when his farm is no longer a viable business.” Because they love the land, he said, farmers would prefer to sell off small parcels over time, “to sustain their quality of life, independence and self-respect over the years.”
The restrictions placed on subdivision by the county’s ordinances. Col. Bingham charged, “unrealistically den(ies) landowners their rights under the ‘Bundle of Rights' associated with ownership of their land. The unrealistic use of our police powers in this case simply forces the farmer to sell all his land at one time thus denying him top value over the years.”
Col. Bingham said that he, like most who live here, would like to see
85.9%