In earlier articles, we examined how residential development drives up the demand for community services and how the burden of paying for those services falls on farming and commercial/industrial interests in the County. Last week, we looked at the Dillon Rule and how it places limits on Bedford County, and all other counties in Virginia, as they try to solve their unique problems of growth. We saw that, under pressures to meet increasing costs of community services, Bedford is left with little choice but to raise property taxes. In essence, all the residents of Bedford are footing the bill for new residential growth. We also saw that owners of large tracts of land in Bedford, especially its farmers, are hit particularly hard. This week, we take a look at what other counties, facing the same problems and same limits on solutions, say about how to best deal with the challenges of growth in a way that will allow for reasonable growth and help hold the line on property taxes.

What can be done?

The pressures on the County to allow unchecked development are great. But, other counties in Virginia have shown that carefully calculated balanced growth, coupled with a variety of innovative initiatives, helps avoid the debt-laden option of over-growth. Carefully calculated balanced growth, developed with the input of its citizens, should be the end product of a county’s comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan is of such importance that the State of Virginia requires all of its counties to have one. In addition, the State requires that the plan be reviewed every five years. Bedford’s Comprehensive Plan was developed in 1988 and has not been formally reviewed since then. Philip Thompson, Bedford County’s Director of Planning describes the Bedford’s situation regarding its Comprehensive Plan by stating, “We are basically starting from scratch.”

Rather than examine the long-term implications of different options of growth, many county decisions makers ignore the greater good, which comes from careful planning, and instead succumb to pressures to develop immediately. Unfortunately, those decisions are made without full consideration of their long-term cost and the irreversible damage they cause. The difficult, less costly and wiser path is to consider alternatives that minimize the tax burden on Bedford citizens.

Those who have been through this elsewhere say that, in spite of the fact that the Dillon Rule does limit a county’s ability to solve its own problems, counties are finding ways out of this quagmire. This path requires bold immediate action and far-sighted planning. Bedford County should:

1. Citizen Education:

Report to the citizens of Bedford at the earliest possible time the financial impact of current trends and decisions, preparing reasonable options and the consequences of each to manage the county’s growth in a fiscally responsible, balanced and fair manner. This report should include an analysis of the cost of community services (i.e., who receives which services and who pays for those services), and an analysis of the economic impact of Bedford County’s agricultural industry.

2. Review and Update Its Comprehensive Plan:

After receiving and publicizing the reports noted above (re: #1), the County should determine at the earliest possible opportunity what the residents of Bedford want the county to look like now and in the future. Bedford’s Comprehensive Plan is and perhaps has been since its inception in 1988, out of date and/or inadequate. An updated Comprehensive Plan should be completed as soon as is practically possible with full citizen participation. In others words, the county should engage the whole community in reviewing and updating a comprehensive plan and, in turn, revise its zoning ordinances in accordance with the plan.

3. Suspend Projects that have Significant, Irreversible Consequences:

Many decisions currently made by the County have serious and irreversible consequences (e.g., the permanent loss of farmland to development) the County should assume that its highest priority is to protect the interests of its current residents, especially those supporting its agricultural industry. In so doing, the county should suspend, to the extent possible, all piecemeal growth and development programs which have significant, irreversible consequences (e.g., placement and installation of water and utility corridors) and/or which directly or indirectly create long term financial burdens on Bedford residents. It should also suspend all planning decisions that threaten Bedford’s agricultural industry until it is assured that such measures are consistent with the desires of the majority of its residents as expressed in the updated comprehensive plan.

4. Seek Partnership Arrangements:

Promote and assist the many private efforts, such as agricultural and conservation easements, as well as public efforts, such as purchase of development rights programs, to provide long term, if not permanent protection of Bedford’s agricultural industry and open space. And, join other counties in Virginia in calling for an end to the issuance of unfunded mandates by the State of Virginia.

Experts in the field of county governance, including senior county staff, stress the importance of a Comprehensive Plan as a tool of a county’s residents to properly control growth. Other County officials respond that there is neither time nor resources to produce such a plan, given the very urgent current needs of the county and a budget that is already stretched too thin. This only compounds the problem in the future. In effect, this position is like saying, “Running will get me out of the forest more quickly than checking my compass.” Obviously, the wise choice is to first stop, get your bearings and then proceed. For Bedford County, getting one’s bearings is to become engaged in the process of reviewing and updating its comprehensive plan.

If there was a true basis for Virginia to embrace Judge Dillon’s lack of trust in local governments to govern themselves wisely, it was and is perhaps because the citizens of those local governments failed to actively participate in public policies and the daily affairs of their localities. Local governments exist to serve its residents, and their success depends on active and knowledgeable citizen participation. For more information on how to do so, contact your local county official and/or Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation.