Comprehensive plan hearing draws big crowd

The Nelson County Planning Commission hearing started with a working group conducting its presentation of the draft. Catherine Redfern of the Berkeley Group, a consulting firm, went through updates and the objectives county officials are striving for with the plan.

“The document itself took shape over the last 20 months and relied heavily on input from the community, as well as hands-on workshops with county staff and officials. The update process first starts with three phases, the first of which was gathering data and input in the community at large, second was drafting of the plan, and then reviewing or avoiding and adopting. Your plan of course only works if you can use it as your plan for your community,” Redfern said during her presentation.

Redfern explained to the group that when asking the community which words were associated most with Nelson County, the two most common were “beautiful” and “engagement,” which The Berkeley Group wants to incorporate in the plan.

The reviews of the comprehensive plan update were mixed with some happy with where the process is, while others wanted more revisions and updates.

Jane Hoffman, who lives in Montebello, voiced concerns on the term “by right” and its use in the document.

“A concern for us and the future of Montebello is the use of by right. It is not defined within either the plan document or zoning regulations in Nelson County, although it’s noted throughout,” Hoffman said. “The loose understanding of the term is that landowners can do almost anything they want.

“While we believe wholeheartedly in the landowners’ right to choose what they wish to implement on your property, we also believe in the responsibility for respecting the rural attributes geography, infrastructure constraints and the potential for impact on precious resources.”

County resident Jane Rowlings expressed concern about the topic of solar power.

“I along with many other Nelson County residents don’t oppose solar power per se, but want to advocate for proper assigning of utility scale solar wind systems on industrialized land, as well as marginal or contaminated land along highways and on all commercial and residential rooftops. Utility scale solar does not belong on agricultural land,” Rowlings said.

Concerns on housing and bringing more people to Nelson County also were raised.

“To me, what was a pervasive theme was housing. We want to bring more housing. Go talk to someone 18 to 30 living with their parents because they can’t afford a house,” county resident Heather Goodwin said. “Now say some of those 18- to 30-year-olds can now leave their parents, they’re going to Charlottesville, Waynesboro, Lynchburg for a job with a livable wage. We need to focus on getting businesses here. How do we get jobs here? If we don’t have jobs, people will not be able to live here.”

County resident Anjana Gigi Radhakrishnan told the commission she is 29 years old and represents the target audience the county should be working to attract.

“While housing and workforce development are major components, I think incorporating community building networks specifically for youth and young adults would be useful. If you want to keep people in the area and attract more people, you need to have a community that seems inviting. You want to provide services like childcare, plan fun activities, and have a place for people to gather that’s not a winery or a brewery,” Radhakrishnan said.

Jessica Ligon, South District representative on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors, also came forward with her concerns.

“If land was easy to develop on in Lovingston and Colleen, it would have been done already. I have extreme concerns about the cost of developing land that is on bedrock,” Ligon said. “I hope that there will be some chatter about that and alternative places for economic development because I agree that needs to happen but at what price point are we expecting the county to spend on it?”

There was also some praise of the work on the document so far.

“I want to commend the Berkeley Group. In the previous version, I noticed some typos, mistakes and errors so I submitted comments and every single one was corrected. I focus on conservation and environment and I was very pleased to see that the wildlife and habitat corridors prevention section was enhanced,” county resident Susan Ducan said.

The next public hearing will be on March 20 at 7 p.m. at Nelson County High School before the county board of supervisors. For more information on the plan update visit https://www.nelson2042.com/.