Is there a vision for Bedford County's future?

Lynchburg News & Advance
Sunday, May 22, 2005

The good news for Bedford County residents is that an update of the county’s comprehensive plan continues to be a work in progress. The bad news is concerns on the part of some that the county has not devoted sufficient resources or thought toward making the plan a document to guide the county 20 years or so into the future. Other concerns relate to a less than total effort to protect the rural character of the county, which means protecting open space.

County planning officials began updating the plan, originally drawn in 1988, in January 2004. The Planning Commission hopes to have it completed in time to present to the Board of Supervisors for approval by the end of this year.

In the meantime, a number of surveys have been taken to gauge resident attitudes about everything ranging from the importance of open space in the county to the effectiveness of the variety of services offered by the county, including the schools. A third such survey is seeking responses from county residents with a deadline of May 31.

Leaders of the Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation, a nonprofit group with a mailing list of 900 persons, outlined five concerns recently with the update of the county’s comprehensive plan.

Steve Stevick, president of the group, and a member of the county Planning Commission, said one of those concerns is that the county is not providing sufficient resources to the county’s planning department. He said no one in the planning department has complained, but he said it seems that money for outside consultants to assist with the comprehensive plan would be money well spent.

Another of the group’s concerns with the plan update is that large building projects are being approved before the plan is updated.

Nancy Raine, a member of the land preservation’s board of directors and Stevick’s wife, suggested that until the planning process is completed, a moratorium should be placed “on any large, expensive development projects.”

That would make sense, especially considering the wishes of hundreds of folks who have indicated in the new planning surveys that the county should pay more attention to protecting farmland and open space. In one of those surveys, in fact, the protection of open space was the top priority for the nearly 500 residents who responded.

Results of that survey, made available last November, also showed that the county should spend 10 cents of every dollar toward protecting open space. It was reported at the time that the county spends nothing on protecting open space.

Lending credence to the proposed moratorium on large developments, Stevick said the comprehensive plan “should be a living document. It’s a document that’s continually used to measure immediate decisions (against) long-term vision.”

Lynchburg discovered that when a developer for a drugstore sought to rezone property across from E.C. Glass High School. The Planning Commission pointed out that such a rezoning flew in the face of the recently approved comprehensive plan. After much debate by City Council, the proposal is still on hold.

Raine and Stevick pointed to surveys showing that open space is a key priority. But, they said, a March draft of the vision and goals of the comprehensive plan don’t say much about land preservation.

“I want the vision and the goals to reflect the information that was gathered from the community,” Stevick said.

In a March draft of the future plan’s goals, the entries under “Natural Resources” and “Land Use” don’t even mention open space. Granted, it’s a draft, but the natural resources goal was put as, “Protection and enhancement of the environmental quality and natural resources of the county.” It doesn’t come much broader than that and is certainly not specific to Bedford County. That goal would hold up for any county in Virginia.

It doesn’t get any better under land use, where the goal is, “An orderly, efficient and compatible growth and land use pattern which is sensitive to the natural environment.” That would fit just as well in Wise County as it does for Bedford.

Raine also said she is concerned that drafts of the vision and goals are being written before all the information has been submitted from county residents. A final survey on the county’s Web site is still seeking comments. To respond to that survey on the Internet, residents may go to www.co.bedford.va.us or call the Planning Department at (540) 586-7616.

“The concern is that they allow enough time for full citizen participation,” Raine said.

For a county as large as Bedford, 747 square miles, and one that’s growing as fast as Bedford (estimated population in 2003 was 62,661, up from 43,213 when the first comprehensive plan was drawn in 1988), the comprehensive plan is a critical guide to the future. It deserves the best and most careful thought that county leaders can give it. That means more than a cookie-cutter approach handed out by the state as a general guide for comprehensive plans in other counties.

The comprehensive plan should be as specific as possible to Bedford. What other counties in Virginia, for example, have the magnificent view sheds offered by the Peaks of Otter from rolling hills and meadows? What other counties have a body of water as large and diverse as Smith Mountain Lake?

Planning has never been a strong suit for Bedford County. County leaders of the past had to be brought kicking and screaming into acknowledging that zoning is an important concept and that it makes for orderly, planned growth. Remember LUGS?

But that is changing. And there is room for continued change. The county’s revised comprehensive plan would be a great place to start afresh in planning the future of Bedford County. County residents have shown a significant interest in the process. The process deserves nothing less than the undivided attention of members of the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.