County Seat # 23, 4th and 1, under two minutes
Or, how our stewards for planning in Wythe can execute for the win — report from the Planning Commission public hearing on the draft zoning ordinance
My comments tonight, edited to reflect some other observations: Thank you for getting us to this point, the first public hearing on adopting the draft zoning ordinance for Wythe County. Tonight has been a long time coming.
By my count, roughly 15 speakers expressed opinions tonight, which fell into two camps:
For: 15 in favor of zoning;
Against: 1 against zoning, and he is a neighbor to the Rogg property who said he’d turned down offers to sell his land to the data developers.
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Many familiar faces spoke tonight, while there were a half dozen or so first-time speakers. I didn’t get an accurate head count of all in attendance, but it felt like more than 50.
Sure, I get it. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need zoning, nor would we be confronted with objectionable and incompatible land use proposals. We don’t live in an ideal world though, but pretty close to one here in Wythe.
We the members of Preserve Wythe, want to urge you not to settle for just this hearing with a lukewarm recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. You folks are the stewards for planning in Wythe County. You are members of the Planning Commission, not the De-planning, or Un-planning Commission. Your own Comprehensive plan, which you took many months pulling together, adopted three years ago, can not say it any better:
Wythe County has not adopted zoning provisions enabled by the Commonwealth of Virginia to help manage land development and uses. With the projected growth of the County and the desired development patterns, it is essential that additional land management tools be pursued (specifically those enabled through zoning) to protect significant agricultural land, efficiently plan for important public services (utilities, emergency services, transportation safety, etc.), and effectively manage land uses and development.
As a reminder, a voluntary survey of over 400 county residents shows statistically strong and county-wide support for adoption. Some 88% of the respondents are in favor of zoning. Over 200 comments were lodged. On behalf of Preserve Wythe, we urge you to beseech the Board of Supervisors to adopt this ordinance, with an effective date of January 1, 2027. Timing will never be perfect, but more time without a zoning ordinance in place just means more undesirable projects will rear their ugly heads.
Because it is pigskin season, maybe you will relate to this analogy: it’s kind of like the other night in Death Valley. Fourth quarter, the home team up by three, and the Hokies are driving down the field. They get some breaks, but still there’s less than two minutes left and it’s 4th and 1. Tech breaks a 20 year curse, and tosses a touchdown pass to go ahead, with a minute and a half left. They had to hold on through another series until Clemson ran out of downs, and time outs.
We’re at 4th and 1 here in Wythe, with under two minutes, in our battle against the development of the Rogg farm for the TAC data center. You guys are on offense, driving the ball, and the supervisors are the field refs. We need you, our stewards, to aggressively convince out of town oligarch developers, and the field refs, that Wythe wins when a sound and solid game plan is executed.
Thank you!
