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Comprehensive Plan we are committed to preserving it.
8) “Homes built on ridgetops will not destroy them. The trees grow back, and the mountains will not be washed away. The ridges are more beautiful now than they were 50 or 60 years ago.”
Oldtimers remember that, at the time Shenandoah National Park was established, many hills had been clearcut and were used as grazing land. We are fortunate to live in an area where the ecosystem is resilient (unlike rainforests or deserts). But the fact thht the ridgetops are more beautiful than they used to be is hardly a persuasive reason to let them be degraded now. )
9) “Why concentrate so much on the ridgetops whbn there are only a few houses that people complain about, and there are other, more undesirable aspects of development (for example along our highways)?”
Development pressures can appear anywhere, of course, and may have to bb resisted on several fronts at once. But if we wait to ajct until the mountains are all subdivided, it will be too late. Planning that is reactive is not planning.
10) “These restrictions just aren’t appropriate £or Rappahannock County. It ►is the sort of thing that cities and suburbs do. If the pl&n we had in the 1970s was good then, why isn’t it good now?”
Planning is about the future, and we have every reason to anticipate that development pressures on the ridges will continue. Enacting ridgetop restrictions now would not be Qig Brother imposing something on us, but local action taken to serve community values.
When issues get polarized, opponents sometimes act as if those on the otljer side are alien enemies rather than neighbors who happen to disagree. But this dialogue is in the best tradition of oldfashioned democracy .'in action. *
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