COMMENTARY
‘By Right’ Development Means No Right to Say NO

By DONNA BOZZA

May 12, 2014

Usually we don’t pay much attention to the fields by our homes, or down the road, or alongside our town, though most of Northampton County is filled with these pretty vistas.

Now consider this all too real scenario: Gone are the fields. Instead, you see a wastewater treatment plant, a dredge spoil disposal site, or perhaps a prison. This project will have a direct impact on your property values. Did you and your neighbors have any say in its building? How about input in how adverse affects could be lessened to protect your town?

The answer is a startling NO if the Northampton County proposed zoning passes. These, and a long list of land uses including heavy industrial and high impact development, will now be “By Right.” To be blunt, if the developers want to build it, they will have the right to do so.

Citizens, on the other hand, will have no rights, no say, no recourse to shape development that affects what for most of us is our biggest investment — our homes.

Certainly economic development is needed; few dispute that. However, taxpayers who carry most of the burden of funding the county have a right to weigh in on what their community will be like now and in the future.

The proposed zoning virtually eliminates Special Use Permits for a large number of land uses. Most reputable developers respect these permits, considered a smart planning tool by countless locales. Currently if you have concerns about a proposed project — be it migrant labor camp, airfield, or biomass refinery — you can attend a public hearing and provide feedback. The developer can offer proffers to mitigate harm to the community by limiting the size, hours of operation, enact noise and odor controls, increase buffers, etc.

With the proposed zoning, there is no public hearing or public input. It’s a done deal. Even if the BOS believes the project will do more harm than good, if it’s in the zoning their hands are legally tied.

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The zoning also removes the Town Edge District, robbing incorporated towns from any say on what kind of development can occur right outside their borders.

Does this sound too bad to be true? Unfortunately, its not.

Living in Northampton since 1985, I’ve been around the zoning block a few times, including six years as an Eastern Shore News reporter and even a stint on the Planning Commission. This is the first time I have witnessed a zoning process and ordinance that so totally shuts out public participation.

Unlike the past where the county invited generous public input to help shape the zoning, this BOS allowed only one public hearing. In addition, there has never been an explanation of any significance regarding the zoning, and curiously absent is the written purpose and intent of the zoning.

The BOS even bypassed its own Planning Commission and then dumped the proposed zoning on the members with an impossible 100-day deadline. Wisely, the Commission asked for more time and expert advice to review the regulations, the most important tool in shaping what kind of Shore we leave our children and grandchildren. The BOS said no.

Recently after listening to angry citizens at his packed town hall meeting, Supervisor Granville Hogg asked to have the proposed zoning put on the agenda for discussion with his fellow board members. Not one supervisor seconded the motion to discuss it.

The BOS’s silence and rush to push the zoning through is suspect at best. If this is the zoning that will provide living wages to our citizens, then why aren’t they shouting its virtues from the rooftops? Do they think the citizenry will be justifiably alarmed that the Chesapeake Bay Act protections are being removed from our fragile seaside? Coupled with the dramatic increase in residential and waterfront density, how can we maintain water quality for aquaculture and tourism, two successful economic drivers? Not to mention protect our environment, quality of life, and our sole source aquifer.

If the proposed zoning indeed passes, we will pay ever-increasing taxes yet have no say in our community’s future. Now is the time to speak out.

• Email the county at i[email protected] and ask that your comments be made part of the record (Deadline Wednesday, May 14).
• Attend BOS meetings, second Tuesday of the month, next one this Tuesday, May 13. There is a public comment period, three minutes given.
• Send your email address to Citizens for Open Government to stay updated. [email protected], or call 757-442-7889.

Submissions to COMMENTARY are welcome on any subject relevant to Cape Charles. Opinions expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily of this publication.

 

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