RLEP organizes opposition to power line

With help from directly affected landowners in five local counties and Concerned Culpeper Citizens (CCC), RLEP has organized a grassroots coalition of landowners with the goal of defeating Dominion Resources' proposal to build a monstrous 500-kilovolt electric transmission line through Rappahannock and four other counties. Click here for more information on The Power-line Landowners Alliance and how you can help in the fight.

Inside RLEP

• Fall 2007. In his last Inside RLEP column as president, Paul Farmer reflects on RLEP progress in communicating with the membership and the public, expanding Biodiversity Task Force activities, the second Annual Piedmont Alternative Energy Expo, the new County sludge ordinance, and the power line fight.

• Winter-Spring 2007. President Paul Farmer addresses the current fight to prevent Dominion Power from constructing a new power line through Rappahannock County in this issue of Inside RLEP.

Sewage Sludge

RLEP's Rick Kohler has been a member of a five-person sludge committee authorized by Rappahannock County's Board of Supervisors to develop a sludge ordinance, which the BOS approved 2 July 2007. The ordinance includes requirements and procedures for permitting; testing and monitoring of sludge content, spreading, and containment; documentation in county land records; and transportation and storage of sludge in the county. All relate to the public health, safety, and welfare of county citizens and the environment. Under Virginia's Dillon Rule, localities can only regulate the application of sewage sludge (biosolids) as a fertilizer, not ban it. [More]

More cell-tower antennas are approved, but who benefits?

• Antennas may be added to two existing cell towers that service the eastern and northern sections of the county. Why? [Read more]

Clevenger's Corner: How will 9,000 new neighbors just over the county line affect Rappahannock?

• Clevenger’s Corner, at the intersection of Routes 229/211, as it looks today. Development will run south on 229 for two miles, as far as the eye can see. Photo by Paul Farmer.

  Status: Early in 2005, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors approved a Centex Homes application to rezone 1,754 acres at Clevenger's Corner for 774 homes and 398,000 square feet of commercial space. Clevenger’s Corner Village Center surrounds the intersection of Routes 211 and 229, where the Quarles Shell station is located. The Village Center will have a major municipal water and sewer treatment facility—something that has held up development of the area for decades—and is zoned to contain 1,648 homes at build-out (when all the houses approved have been built). The traffic impacts will be strongly negative on the surrounding area.
  [More]

Junk cars

• Update, Winter-Spring 2006. Removal of junk vehicles in the county is progressing. [Read more]

Page County's landfill again in operation

• February 2006 update. Currently, it is rare to see a trash truck on Rt. 211 heading for Page County's Battle Creek Landfill, which reopened last September under Page County control. This might change....
  [Read more]

Rappahannock County land use and planning

• Land-use fragmentation threatens rural economies. While the suburbs keep expanding outward, exurban communities are increasingly creating "leapfrog developments" far from other population centers. This pattern of development is often unplanned and can easily fragment forests and farms. [Read more]

• Local land values are rising—but by how much? What is the average price of an acre of vacant land in Rappahannock County? [Read more]

• Comprehensive Plan. Rappahannock County's Comprehensive Plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors in September 2004. What is the significance of this plan? [Read more]

• Your planning commission. The appointed members of this largely advisory panel are commissioned by our elected Board of Supervisors to plan the future land use of this county and to oversee the zoning and subdivision ordinances of the Rappahannock County Code. [Continued]

• Zoning. Will unclear zoning ordinances drive businesses into the wrong areas? [Read more]

Rappahannock's roads

• This is not a good sign. We can all agree that driving our county roads is an opportunity to enjoy its scenic beauty, but have you noticed the clutter that has crept into our roadside views? [Read more]

• "Improving" rural roads can attract development. Destinations have always triggered transportation and development. [Continued...]

• VDOT program keeps rural roads rustic. Every fall a Virginia Department of Transportation representative shows up at a Rappahannock County Board of Supervisor's meeting to ask what's happening with secondary roads in the county. VDOT wants to know who wants what done to their road so it can update its Secondary Six-Year Plan. [Read more]

• How much traffic do we have in Rappahannock County? One way to measure development in Rappahannock County is to monitor the amount of traffic on its roadways. [Read more]

Recycling

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that, "between 2000 and 2007, as many as 500 million personal computers will become obsolete and enter the municipal solid waste stream. Electronic waste is growing 2–3 times faster than any other solid waste." What is Rappahannock County doing?

Watershed issues

• Summer 2006. Efforts to protect county rivers are coming up dry...almost. Two grassroots organizations have made only slight progress in their attempts to protect and defend water quality in the Hazel and Rush Rivers.

Wastewater management

• Due in great part to development sprawl, the lowly septic system is going high tech with everything else:
  Wastewater treatment goes high tech

• The characteristics and challenges of wastewater treatment systems are explored in a series of four articles:
  Part 1: Wastewater treatment seeps into the news again
  Part 2: The dilemma of wastewater treatment management
  Part 3: "Why Me?"
  Part 4: Rappahannock County's current situation