Hopes dashed for a quick halt to new Rural Crescent policies

Residents filled the Prince William County Government Center on Tuesday night to oppose any new sewer lines in the Rural Crescent, an area of land between Quantico Marine Corps Base and Manassas National Battlefield.

Why it matters: The county’s planning department suggests running lines to the area where they banned today.

• This would allow for the creation of cluster subdivisions inside the rural area, where a large number of homes would be built together in an effort to preserve more land than a traditional subdivision.
• It’s one of several recommendations following a 2012 study of how to responsibly develop the rural area protected since 1998, the last large remaining large mass of rural land in the county.

Three Prince William County Supervisors on October 9 held a press conference at the government center to introduce a new ordinance aiming to halt any new development activity in the Rural Crescent.

• Last night, it failed in a 5-3 vote with only its supporters — Jeanine Lawson, Peter Candland, and Frank Principi — voting yes.
• “I believe our planning department staff is doing the right thing… but I don’t think they went far enough yet,” said Frank Principi, Woodbridge District Supervisor. “The Rural Crescent is the second-most important asset we have in Prince William County, next to Potomac and Occoquan rivers.”

Ongoing process: The Prince William County Planning Commission has yet to weigh in on the new Rural Crescent recommendations made by the Planning Department.

Leaders who voted against the new ordinance said the process has yet to play out.

• “My trust and integrity are at stake here,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson, who voted against the ordinance. “I told constituents I want this process to play out…we shouldn’t even be having this discussion tonight.”
• The Planning Commission — whose eight members are appointed by the members of the Board of County Supervisors — is set to take up the Rural Crescent topic at a work session at 6 p.m. on October 23, at the county government center.

Many of the residents who spoke for the ordinance left the government center in a huff prior to the final vote.

• I heard many of them murmuring to themselves, saying “this was a waste of time,” and “they don’t care about what we think, anyway.”