Stafford Rethinking Where Development Will Go

STAFFORD, Va. — Planners in Stafford County don’t like to use the word “urban” in their comprehensive development plan, and instead want to replace it with “targeted.”

Planning officials have been asked to rethink seven Urban Development Areas — places that will define where new commercial, industrial, and residential development will go over the next 20 years. The areas could be renamed “targeted growth areas.”

The UDAs were set during a series of public meetings in 2010 and 2011, shortly after the state’s General Assembly made UDAs mandatory through legislation aimed at planning for and controlling growth. But legislators overturned that legislation a year later and made UDAs optional.

Planning officials said the locations of the UDAs  in Stafford County need to be reconsidered, but while no new UDA areas have been named, those on the original list approved in 2011 have been given a recommended priority on what areas should develop first:

Most-favored development areas

Courthouse area

-Close to Interstate 95 / new 95 Express Lanes

-Courthouse Road / I-95 interchange to be reconstructed

-Close to hospital

-Close to courthouse / county government center

Warrenton Road – “Southern Gateway” area

-Busy corridor linking I-95 with U.S. 29

Northern portion of George Washington Village UDA — Embrey Mill

-Planned neighborhood linking Courthouse Road with Va. 610 in North Stafford

-Existing public facilities

Other areas identified in the years-old UDA process remain on the list but have been given a lower priority, such as Boswell’s Corner along U.S. 1 at Quantico Corporate Center, the area along Centreport Parkway near Stafford Regional Airport, and infill development along the Va. 610 corridor in North Stafford.

Any change to the mandatory UDA plans would require an amendment to the county’s Comprehensive Plan — a document county officials worked tirelessly on in 2010 to chart the future growth of the county.

“This comprehensive plan was extremely painful to complete, and we don’t want to have to start all over again,” said Aquia District Supervisor Paul Milde.

If the UDA zoning were to go away, Stafford Director of Planning and Zoning Jeff Harvey said the land would default to it’s previous zoning designation prior to implementing UDAs.

“If we remove UDAs, we still need a strong guide on where to put growth in the county,” said Garrisonville District Supervisor Ty Schieber.