Albemarle County says:
The mission of Community Development is to create a vision for the future of Albemarle County through a proactive community planning effort that involves all stakeholders in a consensus building process and ensures that all new development reflects the community’s vision. Armed with this vision and the Board of Supervisor’s Strategic Plan, the Community Development Department strives to achieve a future community of quality development, protected natural resources, vital business activity, and livable, walkable neighborhoods. With proactive, collaborative planning, we can effectively shape the County’s future and your quality of life. Community Development is comprised of the following Divisions: Administration/Central Operations, Planning, Zoning and Current Development and Inspections.
SOURCE
Development is a good thing…to a point. As of right now, the developers can come in, build thousands of homes and then leave. Then the issue of building access roads, schools, buisnesses, etc, is completly left up to the state officials. I believe that, especially during times of extreme development, the developers must be required to pay a PROFFER.
If the developers were required to pay a proffer, and not a very small and insignificant fee, but a resonable sum which would allow them to make a heafty profit as well as the local area, one of three things could happen:
1. The developers will choose to develope a given area and pay the proffer. This would allow the area to grow as the statement at the top of this post says, or
2. The developers decide to develop a little bit reducing the number of homes/ buildings they erect and still pay a proffer. Due to the lowered number of building built, they would not have to pay as much money at once for their proffer (but in reality, they are technically spending the same amount as if they were to build the originally planned homes), or
3. They dont develop an area at all. This would at first seem to be a negative effect but the county would save money that it would inevitably end up spending on what the proffers would not cover (proffers are enabled in areas to help with the cost, not cover it completely). That money could be spent on fixing minor problems in the roads, giving teachers more of a pay increase, or whatever aspect of Albemarle County that could use a little tweaking.
I believe that if we allow the developers to just develop as they please, then we, the tax payers of Albemarle Co. will be the onse who suffer. As of now, our schools are beginning to show the signs of overcrowding (please consider that this is happening before the several thousand homes are built).
I find it interesting how development can be associated with a divorce. The developers would take the role as the husband with a steady job, and the state would take the role of the stay-at-home mother. If they got a divorce, the state would require the man to pay some kind of a child-support. It isn’y supposed to be very much but enough to help with whatever costs will arise. Proffers are pretty much the same thing. The developers come in and rack up all these bills (roads, plumbing, schools, etc.) and then leave the costs to the local and state governments. It just doesn’t seem right to me.
I hope you will see the importance of establishing proffers for the developers. Development is not a bad thing, its the aftermath that will come back to get us.
-Richard Stogoski
