Developers Host Meeting on Bealeton Plan

He likened it to an interactive open house for the proposed Mintbrook new town near Bealeton.

"We haven't planned to have a great deal of structure" at the March 17 community meeting at the Remington Lions Club on the 1,000-home, mixed-use plan, said Doug Darling, one of the developers. "We're trying to incite people to come, to ask questions about it."

And to suggest how the proposal might be improved, he said.

Darling and his Bealeton Gateway LLC partners and their design team will be available to discuss the project from 1 to 9 p.m. at the club on U.S. 29.

The meeting will be informal, including concept drawings of the planned community that show street layouts, location of uses, housing types and the like.

There also will be soft drinks and snacks for visitors. Darling said.

"I'm not expecting a lot of people" steeped in the art and science of "land planning and how you do a main street," he said.

Rather, Darling hopes the meeting will attract people who understand Bealeton's needs and care about how the area "develops over time," Darling said.

"Frankly, I don't know what to expect" from visitors, whom he hopes will make useful suggestions about the proposal that the developers and designers may have overlooked, he said. "The marketplace [of ideas] has to be more knowledgeable than any single person can be."

The developers need comprehensive plan and rezoning approval from the county board of supervisors to proceed with the 350-acre project.

Fauquier's planning commission, which advises the board on land-use issues, is reviewing Bealeton Gateway's comprehensive plan amendment request.

The amendment would add 125 acres of the proposed site to the Bealeton Service District, one of nine major designated growth areas in Fauquier.

The planners may make a recommendation on the amendment request during their March meeting.

For the full story, read the March 11 Fauquier-Times Democrat