On Tuesday afternoon, July 25, Albemarle County residents filtered into the second floor lobby of the County Office Building to get their first look at a proposal for an ordinance to regulate development of the County’s mountainous areas, also known as the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). Members of the Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission, and MOD Committee milled about tables covered with topographic maps. In an adjoining room, a brief slide presentation and distributed handouts gave a general overview of the proposal, and the reasons for an ordinance. Chief among them was the protection of water quality, the promotion of soil conservation, and the guarding of public safety “impacted by debris flows.”
Three years in the making, the MOD Committee’s recommendations follow the failure of a previous plan, which faltered as a result of over-restriction and property rights. These elements will no doubt be a central ingredient again, as development must once again be balanced against environmental concerns. In fact, this latest proposal seems to have made it out of committee as a result of compromise, albeit hard-fought. “We battled over every word,” said member Fred Scott of the Free Enterprise Forum, addressing a room full of onlookers and concerned citizens. Committee member Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council sought to assuage any general concerns: “We made a commitment that anything we came up with had to be environmentally defensible.”
Those that wished to turn the presentation into a debate were advised to filter back into the lobby, where they could feed their comments to public officials. Or, if they’re gluttons for punishment, they could always attend the next public hearing, on August 1, which will be held in the Burley Middle School auditorium.
Like any hotly contested measure, the process is likely to be painstaking (and protracted, if history is any guide). As Planning Director Wayne Cilimberg pragmatically warned, “the devil is going to be in the details.”