Residents balk at Brooke, Widewater growth

Stafford County, Va. –– Residents had their say Monday night as to where 14,000 new planned homes should be built in Stafford.

Officials held their second in a series of two public meetings to discuss Stafford’s new state-mandated Urban Development Area plan – zones where new construction will take place between the next 10 and 20 years.

There are six identified UDAs, ranging from the area at the county’s courthouse, Eskimo Hill off U.S. 1, the Centreport Parkway area, the land between Ramoth Church and Courthouse roads that will be dubbed George Washington Village, near the Leeland Station Virginia Railway Express station, and Falmouth known in the plan as Southern Gateway.

All of the UDAs must support dense, walk-able, and in some places mass transit-oriented development. For single family homes, developers must build four per acre, town homes six per acre and apartment complexes must have 12 units per acre.

Of all the areas identified as zones ripe for growth, developing the Widewater and Brook areas along the Potomac River remained to the be the most contentious UDA at times debated Monday night.  Those areas are rural and have few roads, inadequate sewerage systems, and Brooke is home to the Crows Nest Wildlife Refuge.

“None of the county’s sewer infrastructure will support 14,000 new homes. All of the county’s water and sewer will need to be upgraded,” said Aquia Supervisor Paul Milde, who admits he doesn’t want to see those areas developed.

But the state requires Stafford to identify how they will grow because the county saw at least a 15 percent increase in population since the 2000 census. The idea is to keep development centralized, reducing the need for new roads, utility lines and suburban sprawl.

VRE’s Fredericksburg line traverses the Widewater area, and there has been talk about adding a station on the peninsula if the area is developed.

“People out there, they don’t want it. The Widewater area is a pristine environment and folks moved out there because of the scenery and the conditions they live in now,” said Widewater Supervisor Robert “Bob” Woodson.

After a presentation about UDAs, the nearly 60 residents at the meeting were then asked to break out into small groups and plan where the final two UDAs should go, making a total of eight for the county.

“It seems to me that given the projected growth rate for the county we have to start thinking about ways to make the design of the county more efficient and handle the problems we have now like traffic, environmental impact, and exploding population,” said Jim McMath of North Stafford.