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John Toler
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The importance of preserving a community’s “sense of place” and the ways to accomplish this worthy goal were the central themes of Edward T. McMahon’s presentation at the Rice Theater at Highland School’s Center for the Arts on May 11.
“If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are,” said McMahon, referring to the increasing homogenization of American townscapes and residential subdivisions.
“There is a connection between the people and the land ... a sense of place is what makes us different, and what makes our surroundings worth caring about.”
McMahon, a resident of Takoma Park, Md., and Senior Fellow at the Urban Land Institute, spoke on the “Dollars and Sense of Preserving Character” to a receptive and appreciative audience.
Development is not “an either-or thing,” McMahon said. He believes that progress “growth” does not’demand our surroundings be degraded. However, this requires a jurisdiction to have a long-range conservation plan, and also requires that development takes place in areas where it makes sense.
Realizing that growth will occur, but that the impacts will be predictable, is an important element in getting people to work together, McMahon went on.
“If people think that all the land is up for grabs, they will oppose everything that comes along,” he said.
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