Cross Creek is wrong kind of development

Ben Chrisinger

2008-05-20 17:21:17

As a college student who grew up in Fauquier County, I have to say it is more than disheartening to return to witness county administrators and planners playing to the whims of large-scale developers with such disregard for the local character of our county.

I was truly shocked to see the plans for Costco and the Cross Creek Shopping Center move so hastily through the hands of individuals charged with acting in the best interest of our county, despite the efforts of numerous concerned citizens and groups.

The sort of interplay between government and developer exhibited by the Costco project is strongly reminiscent of things we have seen in neighboring counties, like Prince William and Loudoun. Undoubtedly, both Prince William and Loudoun have experienced economic growth with their subdivisions and strip malls, though it is at a cost that many do not consider.

Enter any college course on urban planning today and you will hear warnings against the "big-box" stores, the strip malls, and the subdivisions that we see springing up all around us. This development mandates a dependence on car transportation (just look at any "big-box" parking lot), something we can all see becoming increasingly expensive, prohibitively expensive for some.

It completely excludes those without access to cars, who are arguable the ones with the greatest need for the cheap prices big boxes offer.

The development we will see at Cross Creek will also place an enormous burden on those local merchants and farmers that Fauquier County is so quick to use as poster children for our "rural lifestyle."

It is also true that many people will come from outside Fauquier to spend money at Cross Creek, though will this be enough to offset the costs of the increased traffic to our area on an already-strained highway?

I acknowledge growth is necessary in our region, yet by selecting these sorts of development schemes, we are doing ourselves a grand disservice.

County planners and administrators ought to start considering the consequences of their development-friendly actions beyond the scope of their own lifetimes.

Surely, the Cross Creek project will be an attractive shopping destination for many in upcoming years, yet it is decades beyond that I worry about.

Our current government is handing their children (and probably their grandchildren) an enormous burden with every subdivision and strip mall they allow, and with every "special exception" they grant to developers.

I have always felt that the ability to balance growth and an appreciation for local tradition have been hallmarks of Fauquier County, though these current events suggest otherwise.

It would be refreshing to have our county officials take a stand for the future of their county and to recognize that there are smarter ways to grow than the development seen at Cross Creek, and across much of Northern Virginia.

Ben Chrisinger

University of Virginia