Fluvanna Growth and Use of Public Funds

by Douglas R. Johnson
February 23, 2009

Fluvanna grew because of the 4,601 unit development of Lake Monticello. That has been completed and county growth has stopped. This is hard to accept but by every way you measure, indisputable.

But the mentality of looking at past growth to predict future growth is about to take the county off of a cliff. This is being done by “government planning”. This where you take a pipe dream, put it in a document called a “comprehensive plan”, and then make the plan law by changing the zoning.

But then you add the real teeth by building infrastructure to “make the plan work”. The pipe dream says we want more population in a specific area. So we “plan” high density housing in that area. We then change the zoning to allow it. But high density housing requires water and sewers. So, in anticipation of the pipe dream, we start building infrastructure.

So what has Fluvanna done so far? We started with a one hundred million dollar school construction project to house enough students for the pipe dream. But to fill the school we need more population. That is, we need high rise apartment buildings and row houses. That means we need a 50 million dollar water project to bring water in. That means we need another multi million dollar project to take sewerage out; then more police; then more fire houses; then paid firemen; then more county government workers.

But who are we going to put in the high density housing? Certainly not workers for Fluvanna industry. We will bring in the welfare recipients from the big cities. We will advertise: “Come to Fluvanna and live free”.

Of course we will also advertise for business with such clever ads as: “Come to Fluvanna to pay taxes” or “Come provide jobs so we can put our welfare recipients to work”.

But this is not denied by the proponents of the growth pipe dream. They are of the firm conviction that: “If you build it, they will come.” They think the Hollywood movie, “Field of Dreams” was a documentary based and actual event probably in Missouri.

I relate this more to the old movies where the mine gave out and bustling metropolises became ghost towns. Does it take an advanced college degree that growth is driven by industry and not the other way around?

The industry that drove Fluvanna’s growth is the “retirement” industry. The biggest and most well known is The Villages in Florida. Retirees from all over the country settle there with unlimited golf and fantastic community activities. Lake Monticello catered to that industry and flourished.

But county government is not industry. Industry is industry. If you want industry, you need to target a specific industry. But that happens first. You don’t build infrastructure for industry that is not here yet. That is called “speculation”. Government has no authority to speculate with taxpayer money.

Our great planning department and various planning committees have yet to come up with any proposals to any businesses to come to Fluvanna. Perhaps we could build a headquarters and warehouse for Circuit City. But surprise surprise, they are shutting down. Maybe we could rescue them with one of Fluvanna’s “stimulus bond sale”.

When will the people of Fluvanna rise up and stop the madness?

Referendum Petition for Fluvanna County Water Pipe Line for Louisa County

The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors is creating a Joint Water Authority with Louisa County with a potential debt of about Fifty Million Dollars on top of the One Hundred Million Dollars of debt they allowed without a referendum for the Domino Plan School Construction Project. But the citizens of Fluvanna County can have a referendum by simply circulating the Official Petition on the simple question: "Shall Fluvanna County join Louisa County in the formation of a joint Water Authority?"

Time is of the essence here because the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors is holding the hearing on this issue on March 18, 2009 and will make the final decision then and there. That means the petitions must be turned in to the Board of Supervisors that day at the start of the hearing.

This petition will go then to the board of elections to verify each signature against the official list of registered voters. I expect we will need approximately 2,000 signatures to get our referendum.

Official Petition

Some very important instructions:

• The petition MUST be printed front and back on legal size paper.
• You must be a voter in Fluvanna County to circulate the Petition.
• You, as the one who circulates the petition, must witness every signature.
• Only Fluvanna County Registered voters can sign the Petition.
• You must sign the back in front of a notary public who must notarize the completed form. Every bank will do this at no charge.
• You may not sign the petition you circulate. You must sign one circulated by someone else.

Water Authority Petition - Supporting Document

Comment from the Fluvanna Taxpayers Association:

The Fluvanna Taxpayers Association voted at its February 19 membership meeting to support a petition drive for a referendum on a proposed joint water authority involving Fluvanna and Louisa counties. This petition drive is not designed to stop the pipeline or to oppose a public water system in Fluvanna. The reason for the petition drive is strictly to ensure adequate time for citizen education on the important factors bearing on this issue. Creation of the authority has significant implications for taxpayers. Numerous citizens feel they have not received sufficient information to know whether the joint authority is a good idea or not and to be able to comment knowledgeably on it at the March 18 public hearing. A petition drive/referendum is a tool of democracy that we have chosen to use in this instance to assure that citizens are fully informed about the pros and cons of the joint authority and its impact on Fluvanna taxpayers. We invite you to join us in circulating this petition -- please read rules above -- and in supporting these goals.

There are currently no comments from the two political parties on this petition.