How Bad Is Eastern Fauquier Been Developed? (Arlington, Alexandria: condos, house)

[bluecountry]

I am a person who gets saddened to the bone when I see beautiful green space devoured by greedy developers leaving behind droppings in the form of McMansions and Shopping Centers.

I have been going over google earth and doing drives to Fauquier, and it still by grace of god looked rural.
However, today I was out in the Gainesville area, which is already been lost to concrete.
I decided I'd take a little drive just over the border.
It was fascinating, I thought of how one minute you are in Gainesville suburbia, the next you see the welcome to fauquier sign with a big green farm.
I thought I was rural.

Then I see a sign next to the farm advertising Ryan Homes on Riley Road.
So I drive down Riley Road...maybe two miles and see nothing.
I exhale.
Then I spot McMansion after McMansion...and traffic on the back roads.
How sad...I can picture the older homes there...and how those people had a nice neighborhood and since have lost their quality of life to traffic/yuppies/eyesoars who pay no homage to the aethistic and rich history of rural Fauquier.

I go on google earth and see street grids laid out.
Here is my question.
I know Fauquier overall is rural.
I want to know

1) Fauquier between 28 to the south, 28 to the north, warrenton to the west, and the Prince William line to the east, this diamond...is it still rural?
Was Riley Road an anoamly or is it symbolic of the area...that it is suburban?

2) How did this happen in this area? I can not believe how on rt 29 you see farms...but two miles on a country road you see homes...I mean...how did they build these there? Wouldn't it make sense to do building near the highway...not in the woods...was this old farmland/abanadoned land/woods?

3) How threatened is this area? Is PEC and other citizens fighting to keep it rural...or is it pretty much lost...or has the economy helped slow it down?

Thanks.

[VRE332]

hey this is a repost from a few months ago. You represent the pure Faq County negative attitude right here. Why don't you just move out if you don't like the development? Moderator Cut: Personal attack was irrelevant and unnecessary. There's miles of "nothing" due west of warrenton which should suit you just fine. Not to mention lots of people from your County are riding public transportation in PWC which does not exist in FC because your attitude against it. The VRE cannot even put train stops in other areas down the line because of your county residents will not allow our trains to pass thru there. I can tell you how this happened in this area, it's called Uncontrolled Government spending and the lack of jobs anyplace else. That's why lots of us came down here, to look for work because your GOP people are too greedy.

[bluecountry]

FAQ represents a rich hertiage of beautiful rural landscape.
It is ashamed to see the vast farms, forests, and mountains, becoming like PW and Fairfax.
Growing FAQ was known to be the nice countryside...and it is so sad to see McMansions and subdivisions being next to a big farm.
If you ask me...all growth should be halted in FAQ county.
The people of New Baltimore/Catlett should not suffer the fate of PW and Fairfax....they should not be paved over!

Those areas have a rich farming heritage and overlook the start of the mountains and peidmont...they must be preserved.

[djb132]

bluecountry,

I'm not familiar with Faquier county but your message brings my experience in NJ to mind.

The town I grew up in (Piscataway, NJ) took the build up like mad men route. It's disgusting what happened to the town. When I graduated high school in 1980 there were still 4 farms in the town. Now, there's nothing - every square inch they could find they jammed a house or a strip mall into.

The last place I lived in NJ (Lebanon township, Hunterdon county in NW NJ) took the other path, the people and the local government aggressively held onto the rural character of the town. There are still several farms and thousands of acres have been preserved as either open space or farm land. Not sure how things work here in VA but in NJ a farmer could sell his develpment rights - the program is called farmland preservation.

I'm looking for a similar atmosphere here in the Fredericksburg area - currently southeast Culpeper county seems like it has that feel.

David

[lchoro]

The next big thing will be the development that'll take out the green space along Prince William County Parkway from Woodbridge to Route 66. One of the reasons why we have such a transportation mess in Northern Virginia is the slowness to build up the density in the job centers such as Tysons Corner, Reston/Herndon, Falls Church, and Arlington. The green buffers between the cities get developed before there's any rail to connect the urban centers. They're repeating the same mistakes in PWC and the outer counties. They'll have commuter rail and BRT but they'll be serving a sprawl of bedroom communities that feed traffic into Manassas, Gainesville, and Chantilly and choke the traffic there.

[bluecountry]

Originally Posted by djb132

bluecountry,

I'm not familiar with Faquier county but your message brings my experience in NJ to mind.

The town I grew up in (Piscataway, NJ) took the build up like mad men route. It's disgusting what happened to the town. When I graduated high school in 1980 there were still 4 farms in the town. Now, there's nothing - every square inch they could find they jammed a house or a strip mall into.

The last place I lived in NJ (Lebanon township, Hunterdon county in NW NJ) took the other path, the people and the local government aggressively held onto the rural character of the town. There are still several farms and thousands of acres have been preserved as either open space or farm land. Not sure how things work here in VA but in NJ a farmer could sell his develpment rights - the program is called farmland preservation.

I'm looking for a similar atmosphere here in the Fredericksburg area - currently southeast Culpeper county seems like it has that feel.

David

I can understand Piscateway being developed...because that is very close to the outer boroughs of New York city.
That would be like Fairfax County...which while rural would be nice...it is so close to the city it seems almost right for it to be suburban.

I have a big problem with outlying, far away counties that have a true rich rural heritage that Fairfax NEVER had being eyed by greedy developers and short sighted politicans for sprawl.

Hunterdon County is WAAY out in western NJ by PA...it is not proximite to NYC for commuting purposes.
The same can be said of Fauquier/Culpepper/West Loudon.
All of those areas have a rich rural heritage.
It is one thing for a nearby, souless area like Fairfax to have condos, strip malls, and neon lights.

Quite another for a place with the vistas, farms like Fauquier and Culpepper to be home to McMansions.

Let's hope VA politicans can stop being so dumb and money bribbed for a change...if they want affordable housing...DO IT IN already lost areas with infrastructure...DO NOT do it in rural areas where one community will change the whole complexion.

I get a kick out of these politicans, developers, and yuppies who plead poverty for affordable housing that ruins a farming community...yet they just want some 5+ bedroom McMansion.
They can't settle for 4 bedrooms...it has to be 4000 square feet.

Glad to see we think alike David.

[bluecountry]

Originally Posted by lchoro

The next big thing will be the development that'll take out the green space along Prince William County Parkway from Woodbridge to Route 66. One of the reasons why we have such a transportation mess in Northern Virginia is the slowness to build up the density in the job centers such as Tysons Corner, Reston/Herndon, Falls Church, and Arlington. The green buffers between the cities get developed before there's any rail to connect the urban centers. They're repeating the same mistakes in PWC and the outer counties. They'll have commuter rail and BRT but they'll be serving a sprawl of bedroom communities that feed traffic into Manassas, Gainesville, and Chantilly and choke the traffic there.

Exactly.
It really is frustrating to here how stubburb, ignorant, and untruthful our politicans and population are.
Do they not know better, do they not understand YOU CAN develope smartly?

The amount of ignorance and greed, and pure laziness is obscene.

You want office space and housing which is affordable?
Why not place it where there ALREADY is infrastructure...instead of destroying new green space?

These developers, yuppie consumers are like the spoiled children who open a present and want another one before using/enjoying what they already have got.

[Tone509]

bluecountry, as I've shared with you in other posts, I'm kinda with you on this. I'm not so enamored with rural vistas as I'm a city/close-in suburb kinda guy... but I do think that sprawl can make for a long, stultifying commute into Fairfax and DC for a lot of people. And I suppose it's also nice to preserve those rural areas for longtime residents - human and "fuzzy" - as well as visitors.

I think your idea to build more affordable housing in close-in areas like Fairfax County, Alexandria and Arlington is a good one... but that would likely require massive subsidies to builders from local and state governments... and/or the embrace by new residents of a 400 sq. ft. home a la Manhattan and Tokyo. I wish I could say that I saw either of those scenarios happening anytime soon.

[bluecountry]

Hey...Annandale...inner Fairfax County if people invested would have space for a 2000 sqft house.
Affordable, siziable housing, not McManshions, are possible, the government has to show leadership.

Fauquier County is not Fairfax County, which had no strong rural heritage and was destined for urbanization.
Fauquier County is a rural county and it belongs that way...not some yuppie's home and mall.