LETTER: Public interest -- not developers' profits -- should direct land-use decisions

May 19, 2022

When I learned of the Prince William Digital Gateway proposal, I was shocked that elected officials had entertained such a brazen attempt by opportunistic landowners to corrupt prudent land use practices for a quick killing. 

 

Chair Wheeler has said on multiple occasions that not considering the proposal would constitute “irresponsible governing”.  What is truly irresponsible is government leaders having no ideas of their own and surrendering the initiative on County land use policy to developers whose sole motive is their own selfish interest.  The role of County government is to protect the welfare of its citizens, not to enhance the profit margin of wealthy landowners and corporations at public expense and peril.

 

Landowners claim they are merely exercising their property rights.  Every landowner has a right to sell their property if they are dissatisfied with it.  They do not have a right to have their property rezoned simply to sell it off at a higher price for an improper purpose. 

 

My eighth-grade teacher always said: “your rights end where the other fellow’s nose begins”.  An awful lot of noses are getting punched by this proposal, and the County should not be bound by the landowners’ misguided sense of entitlement.

 

If our elected officials choose to be developer patsies rather than civic leaders, they should trade in their gavels for hardhats and make way for others who want to represent the public interest.  If they can’t make the correct choice, the voters will gladly make it for them next November. 

Bill Wright

Gainesville

 

 

 

 

 

 

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