Community leaders urge supervisors to not make decisions on land use during virtual meetings
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| A virtual Board of Supervisors meeting in April. |
The May 7 letter objects to the ordinance passed by the BoS in April allowing official county meetings to be conducted virtually during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is our assessment that the guidelines the BoS has adopted are extremely broad and vague,” the letter states and “may exceed the limited authority granted to local governments under Virginia law to use special procedures during times of declared emergencies.”
Under Virginia law, the letter states, “use of the streamlined public hearing process should be limited to emergency matters only.”
While the BOS ordinance says the public would not be present physically during meetings, there would be arrangements for electronic public access, via audio, telephone, or video.
“However,” the letter states, “to say that citizens are adequately represented because they can access an alternative means of communication to voice their concerns at a BoS hearing, is to ignore the negative impact of the current lockdown on citizens’ ability to coalesce over board matters that normally would be of shared concern.”
“Giving one’s opinion at a BoS public hearing, whether in person, in writing, or through an electronic means of communication, is often the final step in civil engagement in the legislative process,” the community association leaders say. “Civic engagement also involves the ability for affected communities, such as those we represent as civic association and HOA leaders, to bring citizens together over common purpose in advance of a hearing.”
Related story: Supervisors approve electronic meetings with limited public participation
Citizens distracted by immediate concerns during the pandemic, such as losing employment and income and aiding family members, are ill-equipped to go up against “well-financed land development applicants, whose lawyers and engineers have spent months, or sometimes years, meeting with county staff and board members advocating for their proposals.”
During the pandemic, the BoS should narrow its focus “to consider only those decisions related to the emergency and/or the most straightforward and routine issues of governance,” the letter states. “All non-emergency matters which require sufficient public input, especially land use issues and zoning issues, should wait until public meetings are allowed again.”
Virginia laws allows electronic meetings when necessary to preserve continuity in government during a disaster.
The BoS ordinance interprets that provision to allow electronic meetings about “measures that help sustain the county’s economy.” The letter calls that provision “a black hole into which almost any type of application can fit.”
Donna Jacobson, president of the Lafayette Village Community Association in Annandale said Mason Supervisor Penny Gross already expressed interest in discussing this issue at the BoS meeting on May 12.
Other community leaders that signed the letter represent these organizations:
- Broyhill Park Civic Association
- Friends of Accotink Creek
- Friends of Holmes Run
- Great Falls Citizens Association,
- Holmes Run Valley Citizens Association
- Hunter Mill Defense League
- Hunters Valley Association
- Mason District Council
- Pine Ridge Civic Association
- Pleasant Valley Neighborhood Connection
- Providence District Council
- Raintree Homeowners Association
- Raymondale Civic Association
- Reston 20/20 Committee
- Reston Citizens Association
- West Fairfax County Citizens Association