Triangle Leaders Consider Planning Together for Future Growth

By Sam Thrift Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Board of Supervisors for James City County and for York County along with the Williamsburg City Council held a joint meeting yesterday to discuss how the three groups will work together to create a unified long-range vision for the region before creating individual comprehensive plans.

Members of the three governing bodies bounced around ideas during the meeting at New Town's Legacy Hall and asked questions about how to best work together and gather input from their constituents to create a coordinated comprehensive plan. The group also discussed the Vision Project, a report developed by the Historic Triangle Collaborative, to help analyze the values and strategies of local businesses and organizations.

Coordinating the timing of their next five-year comprehensive plans, the leaders intend to have joint discussions on land use, transportation, and other issues that cross the “sometimes arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries” that run through the Historic Triangle.

They will have joint public forums for each locality so citizens and Planning Commission members from all three localities can talk about issues of mutual interest. Those who attend the forums will discuss the Historic Triangle as a whole, but will mostly focus on their particular jurisdictions.

The localities agreed to undertake their comprehensive planning simultaneously, but the officials wanted to make sure their constituents understood that the cooperation among the localities did not mean they have one unified plan. Rather, the group will discuss a collective long-term “implied” vision, a reflection of the public forums and the discussion among leaders, for the Historic Triangle.

“We are synchronizing the plans, but we are not creating a regional plan,” James City County Berkeley District Supervisor Mary Jones said. “The timing of this discussion will make it so that all of our comprehensive plans will have one or two pages that are identical, talking about the hot topics that have been identified.”

The Vision Project involved an interview process with 56 organizations located in the Triangle, with the goal of revealing what they envision for the area's future and a starting point for community-wide discussions. Click here to read the entire report.

Elected officials yesterday used ideas collected by the Collaborative to spur discussion. James City County Administrator Robert Middaugh began the conversation by impressing upon the group that their expectations for the process needed to be realistic and simple.

“I don’t think we’ll come out of this meeting solving regionalism or a big problem; that’s just not going to happen,” Middaugh said. “We can achieve a big amount of success just by being here and start to develop a better understanding of where our [governmental] bodies are coming from."

Middaugh, York County Assistant Administrator Mark Carter and Williamsburg City Manager Jack Tuttle led the group discussion, asking the leaders of the three localities to consider key points from the Vision Project findings. The conversation focused on ensuring all constituents in the Triangle have an equal chance to be involved in future discussions and “smart growth” while preserving the area's uniqueness and considering future transportation needs.

Planning Commission members from James City and York Counties, as well as Williamsburg, will hold public forums in February to give residents an opportunity to weigh in on the process. The leaders decided to add an extra meeting for York County because they agreed that only District 1 of the county, which is closest in proximity to James City County and Williamsburg, would have been represented with one forum in the area. (See sidebar for the time and place of each meeting.)

After discussing the ambiguous definition of “smart growth,” the group agreed that the goal is best explained as the process of attracting people to move to and stay in the Triangle while still preserving the character of the community.

“How can the community expand but keep the same infrastructure for the quality of life they expect,” York County District 3 Supervisor Sheila Noll asked. “Do you do that by zoning? There are a lot of questions involved when we consider an increasing number of people in our area.”

Some of the government officials mentioned speaking to those who don't live here to find out what facilities, infrastructure and community people might be searching for and what investments need to be made to become that place.

Williamsburg Mayor Clyde Haulman told the group there was an underlining issue with the fact that there is not a definitive answer to what makes the Triangle unique. He said until the group “has a real sense of what the people feel is unique,” they have no foundation to build upon.

“It certainly bothers me when we drive by a chain restaurant and it’s filled, when local businesses aren’t,” James City County Stonehouse District Supervisor Jim Kennedy said. “I think we can get our uniqueness back, but what I keep hearing is that we need a Wegmans. Either we work together to protect our uniqueness or we will be very empty.”

Some leaders reminded the group that they also had to prepare for the expected increase in the area's elderly population. York County District 1 Supervisor Walt Zaremba reminded the leaders to remember that “they should not try to be something they are not” when considering any changes.

“An influx of the seniors are coming here because it’s a damn good place to live,” Zaremba said. “Why should we be in a panic because young people [from the College of William and Mary] want to leave? Isn’t that the nature of the people to adventure and see the world? They have time to come back later.”

Local leaders seemed optimistic about a planning collaboration, but still aware of the amount of work that is to come.

“I think this is just one step in a process,” Williamsburg City Council member Paul Freiling said. “Once it’s completed and we have determined what we think the Triangle needs, we will have to ask if we are willing to go farther or if this is as far as we are willing to go. What are we willing to give up and willing to gain in this process?”

To find out more information about the coordinated comprehensive plan review, click here.