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Our View
Preserving
space
Protecting what we love is a privilege and it
takes many forms.
For some private landowners in Rappahannock County their passion for their land and desire to see it saved for it’s scenic beauty has led them to put it into easement. Currently, 15 percent of privately owned land is earmarked for protection totaling a little over 20,000 acres.
Local Castleton resident, Russell Carrier, shared his thoughts on the benefits of easement with the Rappahannock News. For him, and others of like mind, it is a route that not only provides future financial rewards but, perhaps more importantly, makes a strong statement and commitment to keeping the land out of harm’s way.
Many longtime residents of neighboring Fauquier County, while perhaps sharing those sentiments, did not take so active a stand. Right now, without any rezoning efforts by developers, there are roughly 20,000 single-family homes approved and waiting to be built by right.
While not at a level with Loudoun and Prince William Counties, Fauquier’s student enrollment edges closer to the 11,000 mark. For the first time in Fauquier’s history, the number of people now outnumber the number of cows in the county coming in at close to 65,000. There are roughly 60,000 cows at last counting.
And then there’s traffic, the number one challenge for many of Virginia’s lawmakers as they enter this year’s General Assembly. Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area now rival Los Angeles, California for being the one of the most congested areas in the county.
The exodus west out of Washington heightened particularly after 9/11 and the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors is grappling with maintaining an infrastructure of roads, schools and services that can’t keep up with the growth in population. Growth, that for many, they thought they would never see.
96.1%