Questions for candidates running for Stafford County Board of Supervisors
The following letter was provided to candidates for Stafford County Board of Supervisors in September. The deadline for candidates to respond is October 7, 2005. Shortly after that, we will make these responses available to our members, on our website and to the media.
Dear ______,
Save Crow’s Nest is a non-partisan, grassroots
organization of 700+ members working to permanently protect the entire Crow’s
Nest peninsula from development.
We believe that the best and highest use for this
particular area of land is as a natural use area with public access for
low-impact recreational and educational activities. Since you are a candidate
for the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, our members are eager to better
understand your actions, plans and commitments to preserving all of Crow’s
Nest.
Although Save Crow’s Nest is not in the business
of endorsing political candidates, we strongly feel that good communication and
access to information will help
A copy of our questionnaire is enclosed. We request
that you return the completed questionnaire no later than Friday, October 7,
2005. Shortly thereafter, we will release the collected questionnaires to the
local press, alert our membership to the results, and post your responses online
at www.savecrowsnest.org.
Thank you for your time to help Stafford citizens
understand your goals for Crow’s Nest and your commitment to a better
CANDIDATE NAME:
DISTRICT:
INCUMBENT:
PARTY AFFIILIATION:
WEBSITE:
Word limit: 150 words per question
Due date: Friday, October 7, 2005
Submit by mail: Save Crow’s Nest,
Submit electronically: savecrowsnest@savecrowsnest.org
1. It has been nearly two years since negotiations
between the State and the owners of Crow’s Nest fell through. During that
time, there has not been any apparent progress in the effort to permanently
protect the entire peninsula from development.
During
the past two years, what actions have you taken to help save Crow’s Nest? For
incumbents, specifically what official Board actions have you taken?
2. In the long run, it will cost County taxpayers
less to purchase and preserve Crow’s Nest than it will to pay for the new
school, road improvements, and county services that would result from the
current plans to build nearly1000 houses there.
Instead of creating more traffic congestion, water pollution and crowded
classrooms, investing in preserving Crow’s Nest will leave the region with a
4,000-acre park that can be enjoyed by outdoor enthusiasts, anglers and hunters,
families, and students learning about the environment.
What
official Board actions will you take to permanently protect all of Crow’s Nest
from development?
3. The
State of
Do you
support
4. As legislators, Supervisors have at their
disposal a number of tools that could be used to ensure the best use of the
Crow’s Nest property. These tools include 1) the zoning ordinance; 2) the
planning process; 3) a gate keeping role in recommending roads for inclusion as
VDOT state roads; and 4) comprehensive planning.
Will
you use these tools to ensure that the best use of the Crow’s Nest property
occurs? Specifically, what will you
do?
5. Steep slopes and highly erodible soils are
dominant on Crow’s Nest. These landscape conditions necessitate the use of
cut-and-fill development practices and have significant negative impacts on
water quality, protected stream buffers and other natural resources. Although
prevention is considerably more economical than mitigation,
What tools
and/or strategies would you use to protect these environmentally sensitive areas
on Crow’s Nest?
6. Crow’s Nest provides an extraordinary habitat
for a variety of animals and plants, in part due to the contiguous nature of the
property. There have been some suggestions that a cluster development, which
would increase the building density on one part of the property and leave a
portion of the property in open space, is one solution to Crow’s Nest. This
would fragment the property and destroy wildlife habitat.
Do you
support a cluster development on Crow’s Nest that would leave a portion of the
property in open space?
7. The current Crow’s Nest property owners—
Stafford Lakes LP (a.k.a. K&M Properties) made up of out-of-town developers
Kamel Tabbara, Walid Kattan, John O’Connell and Warren Montouri—seem to be
trying to extort windfall profits from taxpayers.
The County’s “fair market value” tax assessment of the property is
$14 million. Last year,
Do
you support, as a last resort, the County’s use of eminent domain to purchase
Crow’s Nest?