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Editorial
Growth issues
Around the state this month the General Assembly’s highpowered Commission on Population Growth and Development plans meetings, including one at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at the 4-H Center in Front Royal.
The commission’s work has been bolstered by the release of the 1990 Census, which reveals some pretty awesome figures about the rate of population growth in the Old Dominion, particularly in Northern Virginia and the Northern Piedmont.
The number of people living in Virginia increased 16 percent between 1980 and 1990—the fifth fastest rate of growth among the nation’s 50 states.
The growth commission estimates more than 2 million people will be calling Virginia home by the year 2020—a 41 percent increase from 6.1 million today to 8.7 million.
The most recent Census counted 6,622 persons in little Rappahannock County, but at the present rate of growth the commission projects we could see a population figure of 8,209 in 30 years, which would be a 24 percent jump.
There’s good reason to think that figure might be low. Fauquier, under the same projections, would increase from its 48,741 population last year by adding 38,556 by 2020. With a 'four-lane liighway leading west into Rappahannock, we are concerned that spillover growth may hit the county’s eastern edge, putting the burden on our already stretched county budget.
The growth commission’s job has implications for every resident of the state. Just look how the last decade’s 15.7 percent population jump pushed the numbers in a variety of areas: household formation increased 23 percent, the number of registered vehicles jumped 35 percent, average daily auto trips went up 60 percent. According to a growth commission publication, “If current trends continue, land consumption will increase at twice the rate of population growth over the next decade.” Land consumption is already a problem here.
The local meetings, including the one at the 4-H Center, are supposed to, among other things, “generate suggestions and directions on how growth strategies can be developed for the state that will provide for economic prosperity and a sustainable quality of life.”
We wish the commission well: after more than two decades of grappling with the very same issues in this region we sometimes feel we’re not much closer to any comprehensive solution. We hope they will have more luck.
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