Rural Crescent Community Meeting Will Not Have Comment Time

As a follow up to two previous meetings, the Prince William County Planning Office will hold a third community meeting on the implementation of the Rural Preservation Study. The meeting will be from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, which is located at 10960 George Mason Circle in Manassas. This is an information-only meeting. Although citizens are invited to officially share their comments in writing, they will not be invited to speak in the style of a townhall or citizen's time. According to Prince William staff, the initial meeting, in June, focused on adopting a vision for rural preservation. During the second meeting in July, the Planning staff gathered input from those attending "regarding a variety of alternatives for rural preservation, which included a "no-action" alternative." "We asked participants to fill out a comment card that had participants rank how well each alternative achieved a variety of criteria... That information is being compiled, so we can analyze the results," said Planning Director Rebecca Horner. Horner said the upcoming meeting will recap the discussions laid out in the other meetings and present the staff recommendation since staff has not yet given their recommendation." Staff recommendations are based upon Rural Preservation Study recommendations, input from citizens and research into preservation tools, she said. "This will be an opportunity for the Planning Commission and the public to receive staff's recommendation, more than a month in advance of the second Planning Commission work session, scheduled for Oct. 23 in the Board Chambers," Horner said. Public hearings will be scheduled later in the year. Not everyone is happy with the format of the meeting. That includes The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, which published this comment on its page along with the announcement of the meeting:

Planning Office notices about this meeting previously described it as a “Public Meeting for stakeholders and citizens to share their perspectives,” with “your input and voice greatly valued,” where they “look forward to your participation and engagement.” The current description of the meeting, posted September 17 on the Planning Office website, is now very different.

The Planning Office will continue to accept comments until the final public hearing. Citizens can continue using the Planning Office comment form available on the department's website at pwcgov.org/planning, or by calling 703-792-7615, Horner said. "We always welcome comments. We recommend comments are submitted in a written format. This will allow us to better track the comments we receive. " There is also a rolling "question and answer" page on the Comprehensive Plan Update webpage, which allows citizens to post questions and staff will reply to each. All questions and answers are displayed for the public to review. The page is for the Comprehensive Plan Update and all Rural Area Study Implementation questions are welcomed in that format and location. The page is found here: Question & Answer Page. For more information, visit the Planning Office's website at pwcgov.org/planning and view the Rural Area Preservation Study Implementation web page.