Using taxpayer money to buy Rural Crescent land would be the last viable option

It’s called a Purchase of Development Rights Program (PDR) where the government buys a farmer’s land, then leaves it in the hands of the farmer who can continue to use it for agriculture, but can never build on it, or sell it to anyone else.

A newly proposed resolution from Prince William County School Board members Alyson Satterwhite and Willie Deutsch rules out four of six viable alternatives to developing the Rural Crescent, the last remaining, largely rural, crescent-shaped tract of land from Quantico Marine Corps Base to Manassas National Battlefield Park.

For the elected school board members, out are proposed county-alternatives (here they are in PDF) that would

• • Run sewer and water to existing homes in the Rural Crescent
  • Build cluster developments (high concentrations of homes and smaller portions of land, with water and sewer)
  • Proposals to let existing Rural Crescent property owners sell the development rights (TDR) for their properties to a private developer
  • About 10,000 homes would be built along the boundary of the Rural Crescent, dubbed the “transition ribbon” under this plan
  • Afterward, the PDR plan would remain the largest viable path forward for the future of the rural area
  • Taxpayers would be on the hook to buy the land, and, as of today, there’s no pot of county money set aside to use, so the county would rely heavily on state funding and grants

Most homes in the Rural Crescent use well and septic systems. Public utilities are frowned upon here as residents fear extending them would spur more development.

The school board members are expecting their proposal to be heard at the Sept. 18 Prince William County School Board meeting. They aim to prevent an estimated 31,000 new residents, and 6,780 new public school students from moving into new homes built on the transition ribbon, taking up space in already crowded schools.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors — which will ultimately decide on whether or not to develop the Rural Crescent — has taken notice, too. Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson in an email to constituents Thursday night called this a “war… for the Rural Cresent.”

She’ll be joined by fellow Supervisors Peter Candland and Frank Principi at a town hall meeting about the issue at 7 p.m. Monday, at Stonewall Jackson Senior High School just outside Manassas.