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Successful
planning
is the key
By Mary Beth Martin
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Ed McMahon, author, attorney, land use planner and director of The Conservation Fund’s American Greenways Program, presented a sobering look at suburban sprawl, and offered a blueprint for managing Rappahannock’s future growth — how we may keeps it cultural identity, farming and scenic beauty intact — at the Sperryville Gateway Committee meeting held at the Sperryville fire hall Thursday.
He spoke to a diverse group of approximately 50 community residents and emphasized that the community can plan for change and manage it, or they can choose not to plan and hate the result.
“If we went up in an airplane and were dropped down in almost any American city we wouldn’t have the slightest idea where we were," he said. The character of the American cities, small towns and countryside is disappearing and Americans are losing their connection with the land, he said. Rappahannock, he added, is one of the few places left in Virginia with a sense of place — defined by him as that which makes our physical surroundings worth caring about.
McMahon said that for 300 years Americans built towns that were good places to live because they were planned for pedestrians, allowed for a mix of business and homes and had architectural unity. Unfortunately, since World War II a new model appeared called “sprawl” that is ugly and
See GATEWAY, Page A8
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