Albemarle County has six districts represented on the Board of Supervisors, and the seat from the Samuel Miller District has been dominated since 1994 by Sally Thomas, who won a write-in campaign that opposed a Route 29 “Western Bypass” through the county. Her decision to retire at the end of this term opens the race for her replacement. Whether her slow-growth legacy will be continued, however, remains to be seen.
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Sally Thomas, who has represented the Samuel Miller District for 15 years, announced her retirement. In 1994, Thomas won a write-in campaign opposing a Route 29 Western Bypass that would have gone through the county. |
The Samuel Miller District begins at the southwestern edge of the county and runs between the Mechum River and Route 20 until meeting Old Garth Road and Charlottesville. It thus encompasses about 10,500 registered voters in Covesville, Batesville, North Garden, and Ivy, who increasingly vote Democratic with the occasional Independent, such as Thomas herself.
In the 1980s, the county reduced the number of homes that could be built per acre but struggles to remain rural. In the time Thomas has been a county supervisor, Albemarle’s population grew at a rate 50 percent faster than the state as a whole, rising from about 74,000 people to 94,000. In an e-mail, Thomas notes, “Since 30,000 more homes could be built in the county’s rural area with existing zoning, the residents of the Samuel Miller district watch the disappearance of farms and wonder about the future of what they enjoy in the rural nature of the district.”
That rural character, plus nature itself, has faced various threats in the Samuel Miller District. When the Ivy Landfill closed in 2001, leaks contaminated the groundwater and led the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to intervene. Petroleum spills from the Trading Post on Route 29 contaminated neighbors’ well water from 1988 into the early 2000s. That contamination led to an ordinance that wells be tested before new homes were built. Silt has accumulated in the South Fork Reservoir and contributed to ongoing water supply brouhahas, including proposals to dredge the reservoir or to run a pipe from it to Ragged Mountain Reservoir.
Thomas, often with fellow Supervisor Dennis Rooker, attempted to preserve the county’s rural character despite mounting populations. In 2002, the pair supported VDOT’s plan finally to abandon the Route 29 bypass; VDOT dropped plans to widen Route 250 after Samuel Miller residents resisted. In 2007, Rooker and Thomas futilely opposed a “jobs development fund” that would entice companies into the county. But when the board voted to support affordable housing in the county, both Rooker and Thomas agreed.
Technological growth, meanwhile, drove an ordinance in 2004 to limit the scourge of cell phone towers. The ordinance requires a balloon be used to indicate where a proposed tower would stand so that residents can assess the nuisance. Finished towers, the first of which was in the Samuel Miller District, must remain within 7′ of treetop height. The county’s ordinance has become a model for other municipalities.
The school system, too, has expanded. The Samuel Miller District’s schools fed into well-regarded Western Albemarle High School until the opening of Monticello High School in 1998, which diverted some students and worried their parents. Thomas anticipates further fights as population growth near Crozet means elementary schools elsewhere will no longer be able to send their students to Western Albemarle. She also anticipates a literal dogfight as subdivisions pop up in rural areas: “Rural residents often look on dogs quite differently from how suburban residents do—stay tuned on that issue.”
Will Thomas’s legacy continue? Democrat Madison Cummings and Republican contenders Phillip Melita and Duane Snow could not be reached for comment, but Independent John Lowry, also looking to replace Thomas, said she “worked smartly and hard to have our community become a highly admired place to live.” He would work to increase jobs and wealth.