After many years, a lot of input, and many hours of work, the Rockingham County Comprehensive Plan is up for its final public hearing Wednesday, July 10 at a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
Two documents are up for public comment and you can weigh in by attending the public hearing or sending an email to your supervisor and planning commissioner and planning staff.
In short: The overall plan is good and incorporates our input to preserve rural working landscapes and natural resources and focus development in and around existing infrastructure.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Attend the Public Hearing
Wednesday, July 10
6:00 PM
Rockingham County Administration Building
20 East Gay St,
Harrisonburg
(directions)
What you can do: Tell your supervisor and planning commissioner to please adopt the comprehensive plan update.
Background: The comprehensive plan is the plan that will guide growth and development decisions made by staff and elected representatives over the next 20 years. The plan looks at all aspects of the county from housing to transportation to open space and economics. In the plan update process, the county asked for public input through meetings, surveys and stakeholder groups. In our review we found the suggestions we made to ensure conserved rural landscapes and natural resources and focused development in and around existing infrastructure were included. Kudos to the county for its diligence in getting public input and for listening!
In short: The UDA boundaries are expanded in the updated plan. The original boundaries should be maintained to prevent sprawl into agricultural land east of Cross Keys Road and north towards Keezletown.
What you can do: Tell your supervisor and planning commissioner to keep the UDA constrained by Cross Keys Road and Route 33 and continue to focus on mixed use, walkable and bikeable development within its original boundaries.
Background: The Stone Spring Urban Development Area Plan is a subset of the comprehensive plan that, as updated, has one area of concern. The county created the UDA to target new mixed commercial and residential growth to a single area with traditional neighborhood design principles to enable more bikeable, walkable, and livable communities. When the plan was updated in 2020, the Alliance successfully advocated that the UDA be constrained by Route 33 and Cross Keys Road to preserve the working agricultural land and historic battlefields that border those roads.
In the newest UDA plan update, the county is proposing an expansion of the UDA boundaries in the Crossroads Neighborhood Concept that will allow development to bleed east over Cross Keys Road and north of Route 33 towards Keezletown. This is at odds with what residents of Keezletown have said they want for their future and at odds with citizen input captured in part by the comp plan vision statement to “protect our agriculture and rich historic and natural resources…” Additionally, all of the ‘Big Ideas’ in the Crossroads Neighborhood Concept can be achieved without expanding the boundary. The UDA boundary should remain constrained by Cross Keys Road and Route 33 and thoughtful development be focused within it.