Part 1.
Bogus Road Plans, Public Deception, Hidden Agendas and a Secret Road Plan.
I've been waiting to report on the Joint Comprehensive Plan Public Hearings of the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors until after the election. The Inner Connector (Parallel Road) and Park Proposal at the Abandoned Cannon Ridge Golf Course have bipartisan support and I didn't want it to become a Partisan issue. There are many complicated issues involved and I can see why the Freelance Star didn't attempt to write a story.
The Planning Commission was instructed by the Supervisors to update the Comprehensive Plan and bring it back to the Board quickly so they could approve it before three of the Supervisors terms were over.
The Planning Commission did a great job at improving the Complicated Plan quickly, but they didn't have the time they needed or the resources they should have gotten. Particularly with the Transportation Element of the Plan. They were kept in the dark on a hidden Road Plan in FAMPO documents.
The Planning Commission decided to include the Inner Connector in the new Comp Plan to compete with the defective Mine Road Extension and the obsolete Outer Connector Plans that were still in the Plan. They also included in the Plan the Park designation of the Open Space parcel of the Abandoned Cannon Ridge Golf Course in the Plan.
The joint Public hearing began with instructions from Supervisor Vaunch (Chairwoman) for the Supervisors to remain quiet and turn off their microphones during the Planning Commission Public Hearing. While Staff was doing the presentation during the Planning Commission Public Hearing Supervisor Dudenhefer interrupted and started attacking the Inner Connector Plan. He was clearly out of order, but wasn't called out by the Chair. Supervisor Snellings assisted with Dudenhefer being out of order when he reached over to Dudenhefer's Microphone turning it on.
Dudenhefer sold his house in Stafford and closed on a house in Orlando on July 15th, but refused to do the honorable thing and resign.
The Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve the Comp Plan that included the Inner Connector Road and the Designation of the Cannon Ridge Golf Course as a future Park.
At the end of the Supervisors Public Hearing Supervisor Snellings motioned to Take the Inner Connector out of the Comp Plan and to designate the Golf Course as Suburban Residential (3 houses per acre) to support the future Residential Rezoning of the Golf Course for 849 houses.
The Comprehensive Plan Proposal on the right was unanimously approved by the Stafford Planning commission. The Green Area of the Plan designated the Open Space area of the Abandoned Cannon Ridge Golf Course as a future Park in the Comprehensive Plan.
Supervisor Snellings motioned seconded by Dudenhefer to designate the Golf Course as Suburban Residential (in yellow, 3 houses per acre) to support the future Residential Rezoning of the Golf Course for 849 houses.
The Supervisors Unanimously voted for the plan on the left. It designates land that is currently zoned for Business and Recreational use to be rezoned in the future for residential use. The overall combined Suburban Residential designation justifies the rezoning of the 600 acres of RBC zoned land for roughly 1,800 houses.
Under Stafford code the Cannon Ridge Golf Course satisfies the Open Space requirements of the Recreational Business Campus Ordinance (RBC). It can't be developed without the Supervisors changing the Law.
I will be reporting on other details of the Plan in future posts. Stay tuned!
I am not going away,
Joe Brito