Bedford Bulletin
November 27, 2002
Spending Is Planning
A plan is a way of describing where you are now, where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Coming up with a plan is never easy. On a small scale, a gardener planning a vegetable garden needs a vision – the anticipated pleasure of eating fresh corn, tomatoes or watermelons come summer. The gardener has to decide what to plant and where to plant it, and needs to know the current conditions in the garden plot – what is the nature of the soil, how will the plants be staked, watered, and composted.
On a large scale, this is what the Bedford County Planning Commission, an advisory body appointed by the Board of Supervisors, is currently doing for the whole of Bedford County as it develops the county’s new comprehensive plan. This plan is comparable to an industry’s management plan. It will specify what actions the community expects to take in order to achieve its vision of the future.
While this plan is being developed, planning is taking place in Bedford County. Spending money is planning, although we often don’t think of it this way. Decisions to pave a road, extend a water line, or authorize repairs to a school are a kind of planning because the impact of capital improvement expenditures (water lines, schools, roads, bridges and fire stations) carries far into the future. Without a clear vision of where Bedford County wants to go, it is difficult to determine whether or not decisions made now will give us the future we really want. This is one reason why states and communities put a high priority on developing a good comprehensive plan.
A good comprehensive plan outlines a course of action that is compatible with the community’s traditions and values. It considers the economic activities and needs of the community and respects the community’s cultural, nature and scenic resources. It strikes a balance between desired residential, commercial and industrial growth and protection of existing natural resources and the way they have traditionally been used.
Mr. Philip Thompson, Director of Planning, expressed this idea in a meeting sponsored by Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation (BCLP) in October 2001. “The comprehensive plan should,” Mr. Thompson explained, “reflect community goals and be an articulate statement about a community’s preferred land use pattern. It should be comprehensive in design and long-range in orientation and should be a product of civic input. Its focus is physical development and it should define development policies. It needs to driven by a shared vision for the future.”
Until the comprehensive plan is completed, Bedford County is basically “planning by spending.” The current comprehensive plan was developed by the regional planning authority, the Central Virginia Planning District Commission, and adopted by the Bedford County Board of Supervisors in 1988. It has not been substantively updated since then. It does not contain important elements that a good plan for Bedford County should have and it did not have the benefit of the type of broad community input that will be a significant element in the new plan. “The plan needs to be a citizens’ plan and the county is committed to providing as many different ways as possible for the public to participate,” Mr. Thompson told residents at a BCLP meeting in December 2001.
Unfortunately, the 1988 comprehensive plan did not include a Future Land Use Map, which is a key component of a good comprehensive plan. The Future Land Use Map identifies the general locations for various types of development based on the availability and capacity of public facilities and taking into consideration any changes in population demographics, employment, or other aspects of the community.
Ideally, this map should have been done before the zoning map was adopted in 1998. Why? Because zoning is the way land use goals stated in the comprehensive plan are implemented. Although a comprehensive plan is required by Virginia Code, it is non-binding. Zoning, on the other hand, is local ordinance or law. The goals and objectives in a locality’s comprehensive plan are not. It is through zoning, capital improvement expenditures and subdivision ordinances that the comprehensive plan’s goals and objectives are implemented.
Bedford County is not alone in adopting a zoning map without the benefit of a current comprehensive plan that includes a Future Land Use Map. Many rural communities throughout Virginia are not able to do planning in the ideal way. This is especially true for communities that are experiencing rapid growth from nearby cities. Because Virginia cities are independent from the counties in which they are located, Virginia counties face growth pressures as people move out of cities into outlying rural areas. These areas become “bedroom communities” for the nearby cities. People still work and spend in the city, but they often pay lower taxes than city-dwellers. The counties, however, must provide the services and capital improvements required by these new residential areas.
Zoning maps can be adjusted to more accurately reflect the general locations for various types of development as specified in the comprehensive plan’s Future Land Use Map. Overlays can be adopted by localities. These are additional sets of regulations that are “laid on top of” underlying zoning. For example, an historic overlay can be laid on top of an area zoned agricultural in a case where the comprehensive plan contains a goal to protect and preserve historic sites.
Stay tuned to “Grassroots” to learn more about zoning in Bedford County.
