Question: Stafford/Spotsylvania/King George/Caroline-Rural? (Richmond, Fairfax: vacation home, school, income)

[Thruway]

I'm curious about the extent of DC sprawl into REAL VA.
I wanted to know if in
Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline, and even Culpepper Counties

1) Are they rural, suburban, or exubran (rural but rapidly developing)?

2) Are they undergoing a lot of sprawl?

3) How far and deep is the sprawl, is it moderated, is the county's rural character still preserved, or is whitewhasing the entire place into another Prince William?

4) In the future what do you forsee, a ugly sprawled out place like Fairfax or a place still rural but with some developement?

5) How are the laws, towards preservation or all out sprawl?

As far as I can tell and assume, I see it that Stafford was once rural but is now largely suburban, although with some rural spots.
I see Spotsylvania as rapidly developing but still rural, and Caroline, King George, and Culpepper I see as too far out with maybe a little development, like Culpepper, but overall nothing to be afaird.

[EricD]

Well, first, Culpeper is it's own city... so I wouldn't call it rural. Some parts of every county are rural, even Prince William. Stafford is mostly sub-urban, with lots of developments along it's old country roads. The western part of the county is still rural, but that is because it is kinda far from I-95. Spotsy is just like stafford in the northern half of the county, with most of the development being along Rt. 3, Rt. 1, and Rt. 208. Spotsy is bigger, and the southern half is still rural in my opinion. Mostly vacation homes near Lake Anna, and some old farm houses and such. King George and Caroline are in the same boat in my opinion, exept that Caroline is right off of I-95. King George is useing it's large land-fill to gain money to pay for road improvements, a new school, police station, fire station. The money will stop coming in, in about 4 years when the landfill fills up, but for now, the income they are receiving from taking NYC's trash is helping them a lot. Caroline is relying a lot on profers... land and money donated by developers in exchange for land re-zoning, and development approvals. Caroline and King George were both in the top three as far as population growth in VA for last year. Both are still rural in my opinion, but you can already see sub-urban patches developing.

As far as ugly sprawl and good sprawl... I'd consider northern spotsy and stafford to be ugly sprawl, and what is going on in Caroline to be good sprawl. In my opinion DC sprawl ends at exit 110 (Ladysmith) as far as how far south it goes... at that point more people go south to Richmond. Sometimes it's hard to believe that DC sprawl is hitting Richmond sprawl...

[tarp]

AFAIK, Culpeper is a town, not it's own city. The town of Culpeper is located within the County of Culpeper. The town falls under the auspices of the county but has its own taxes and government as well.

Also, Fairfax's sprawl isn't ugly. It's full of well landscaped and very nice areas. The only illogical thing about it is the fact that it should be more densely developed.

[EricD]

Either way, I still wouldn't call it a rural area

[danagetty]

Originally Posted by EricD

Either way, I still wouldn't call it a rural area

I agree. I live in Fredericksburg and the only area that I would consider rural out of that list would be King George and parts of Caroline.

What are you looking for exactly?