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By JAMES P. GANNON
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
Something rather remarkable happened last Friday night at the Amissville Fire Hall, and it will be some time, perhaps years, even, before it is clear whether it was one of those comers that history takes when it turns on a new course.
A very large crowd of people, the best estimate is about 150, jammed into the fire hall to begin a dialog on the future of Rappahannock County. Now in some places, 150 people isn’t a lot, but in this county of 7,500 souls, it is fully two percent of the total population. Someone calculated that a proportional turnout in Fairfax County would produce a meeting of about 16,000 people, larger than any available meeting place.
The topic under discussion was the threat that urban sprawl soon would be spilling into our uncongested, scenic county. Judging by the level of concern displayed by the turnout, you might think that the barbarians are at the very gates of the county now, and in a sense, they are. The galloping horde from Northern Virginia that is laying waste to Loudoun, Prince William, Fauquier and other nearby counties like a veritable band of Visigoths is certainly sniffing around the edges of Rappahannock County, and may soon be smelling money and profits in development here. Some of our own citizens seem to be catching the scent, too.
Friday night’s meeting was no more than an opening of a community conversation that needs to be sustained over the weeks and months ahead. Meeting the challenge posed by the economic and cultural forces of rapid development is a dauntingly complex task. As land use consultant Ed Risse, one of the speakers, noted, it is not rocket science, it is much more complicated than rocket science. None of our neighbor counties has done especially well in dealing with this challenge, so who are we to think that we could deal with it any more effectively?
The optimistic answer to that question is that Rappahannock County has a lot of things going for it that suggest we have a chance to shape a better future than many of our neighbors have.
One thing we have is a newly activated sense of concern, if not downright alarm. That’s a start. Many people here perceive the threat of sprawl as real, and, judging by the tenor of last Friday’s meeting, most of them vigorously oppose large scale development and growth in this county. Another thing we have going for us is that it is not too late to act, as it is in so many neighboring counties; we have not let the development crowd take over here yet. A third favorable factor is our history, including the far sighted leadership of those who shaped zoning regulations a generation ago that have kept the county relatively unspoiled so far.
But the meeting made clear that the smart moves of the past, including 25 acre minimum zoning in agricultural districts, will not be enough to withstand the economic forces on the horizon now. It’s clear that we have to rethink the future, and shape a county plan
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