Bulova to form ‘community council’ on land use
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| Bulovaco |
Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova announced plans to convene a “community council” to identify ways to “enhance and improve community engagement” during the land use planning and development process throughout Fairfax County.
The council will begin work in February and will meet at the Fairfax County Government Center at 7:30 p.m. approximately four or five times.
Members of the public interested in being a part of this group should contact Bulova’s office, 703-324-2321, [email protected].
Meetings of the council will begin with a look back at planning and zoning as it evolved from the early years to the present, Bulova states in the January edition of her monthly newsletter. The council will adopt “a slate of recommendations for how we can best involve interested and/or affected residents of the county when change to land use is being considered.”
What about getting some professionals to start guiding these land use planning task forces instead of the county hacks and the uninformed politicians that generally foul this whole process up? These would include architects, economic revitalization development planners, urban planners and mass transit planners? This would help the process, so we don't have another fumble like the Avalon Bay abandonment, flying homeless centers landing wherever there is green-space, DMVs wrecking shopping centers, social services palaces dropping on schools……….really this is got to be dumbest wealthiest county in the US. Hopefully this is move in the right directions or more chaos of the misinformed inexperienced people screaming at each other and getting nothing done as usual.
I would like to be optimistic, but thus far the county has proven to always take the wrong road and provide nothing but tasks for to nowhere. Point in fact: Baileys keeps getting worse, Seven Corners remains a cluster of junk and transitways still don't exist and the county cannot get people from the inner suburbs into DC in less than an hour. Annandale continues to decline while our neighbors in adjacent jurisdictions flourish in a boom.
Folks we got to do better, because if county officials cant lead us out of the county's ongoing economic decline then they should move on and let others lead that know how, have the smarts, the skillets and the leadership to get consensus and actions in place.
Are you going to join the council?
It may be time for me to get involved, the county is desperate for leadership in this arena.
The professionals recommend the same old tired things. Well, some are good things, but what they essentially come down to is tear everything down and start all over, which just isn’t feasible. Even adding short stretches of sidewalk to improve walkability can be wildly expensive.
This was done just last year. We get nothing, nada, zilch out of committees and panels, whether they are citizens, or experts.
http://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2016/08/urban-design-experts-recommend-short.html
Approximately 40 Mason District residents testified before the BOS regarding 7 Corners Revitalization. When the testimonies finished our very own Supervisor Gross said she saw no reason to delay or defer or change any of her recommendations. A shocked group of supervisors forced Penny to make changes. She refused to defer to the next meeting to give them time to consider changes and wordsmithed her plan amendment on the spot. Very little changed and she basically prevailed against the desires of her constituents.
Will this behavior be changed by Bulova's Land Use Council? I sincerely doubt it.
Bulova needs to unload Gross and put her in the back office to do paperwork. This 71 year old is a smart lady but has lost her abilities, if she ever had these abilities to lead, germinate ideas and motivate a conflicting constituency to a vision.
She lacks the ability to see this flaw in herself and she continues to dig herself deeper into a failing legacy. A savvy politician would be able to recognize one's limitations, find the appropriate advisers and implement work arounds to pursue important agendas.
Its unfortunate, at one time I thought she had great promise but she has squandered that good will on her own personal inability to see beyond her own survival as a bureaucrat. As a result her short comings have spiraled Mason into a decline that may not be reversible.
This is a perfect example of political obfuscation. All major land use decisions have been made, including the future of the former Exxon Mobil property.
Bulova's attempt at citizen engagement in the land use process is many years too little and too late. In fact,rather than questioning any of the contentious issues that came before the BOS, the Chairman invariably supported her fellow Board members, especially Penny, and ignored her constituents.
Fairfax County, with few exceptions like Clifton and
Great Falls, is no longer the attractive golden area it once was. We now have overwhelming traffic, declining schools, increasing crime, loss of green space and major budgetary crises.
It would also be refreshing if knowledgeable affected residents, rather than those who profit from the proposed projects, had been and would be, appointed to land use committees.
Any resident of Mason District can become more involved in the development process by attending meetings closer to home. Residents can participate in and track the agenda of the Mason District Land Use Advisory Committee which generally meets on the 4th Tuesday (evening) of each month at the Mason District Govt Center on Columbia Pike.
Mason District has the Bailey's Crossroads Seven Corners Revitalization Committee that meets regularly and is membership based. The county should give them a weighted say in land use in our area. Our appointed land use committee is a headed by a syncophant who marches in lockstep with Penny and even testifies against the decisions of his own group. Mason District really needs to clean house, starting with Penny, our Planning Commissioner and the MD land use committee chairman.
And where has all of these tasks force and committees gotten us………nowheresville? We still have the vacant safari murder restaurant and blight and developers that don't want to touch the area with a ten foot pole. Years of meeting, double talk, misguided planning, and political/leadership impotency. If this doesn't spell failure, then you must share the koolaid that you are all on.
The Mason District Land Use Committee, appointed by Penny, should not be confused with the Mason District Council of Community Associations, once chaired by, and now despised by Penny. The Mason District Council, often referred to as the MDC, is truly a community association: MasonDistrict.org ,Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfQdG0suOlqMxHTVJsd-sfQ . It does matter if enough of us think it matters.
It does not matter what the public wants Sharon Bulova is going to do what Sharon Bulova wants to do. Why should any one waster their time on this farce?