Author: tom-olivier

The proposed Albemarle economic development action plan has been drawing much attention. The initial version was developed by members of the local business community in meetings with supervisor Ken Boyd and staff. The meetings took place without the knowledge of supervisors Dennis Rooker and Ann Mallek, chair of the Board of Supervisors. To the surprise of supervisors Rooker and Mallek, the action plan appeared on the agenda for discussion in a work session in May. 

Time overruns of previous agenda items resulted in a short work session in May. A longer work session in June included public comments, sharp exchanges between supervisors and proposals for revisions. A public hearing on the plan now is scheduled for July 14. Support from supervisors Boyd, Lindsay Dorrier, Duane Snow and Rodney Thomas is driving this fast-track handling of the plan. 

At the June work session, environmentalists raised many concerns about language in the initial draft. A revision of the action plan is available now at the Albemarle County website.

This revised draft is improved in many ways. However, the Sierra Club believes the revised draft contains serious flaws.

The draft states that the primary goal of the action plan is to “Increase the County’s economic vitality and future revenues through economic development by expanding the commercial tax base.” This is too narrow. The Sierra Club believes, for example, that better jobs for the working poor and affordable housing should be included among primary goals of an economic action plan. 

We know that overpopulation undermines environmental protection and the accomplishment of sustainability. Given this, the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club believes that an economic development action plan should reject strategies that require or promote population growth. The draft plan proposes attracting targeted types of business. We are concerned that jobs in businesses that move here will be filled not by current residents but largely by new residents who move here specifically to fill the transplanted jobs.

The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club believes promotion of local food production and local direct marketing are key to the survival of local agriculture. We have been dismayed by the unwillingness of the supervisors to fund the rural economic development position called for in our comprehensive plan. The discussion in the draft action plan lumps agribusiness with tourism, downplaying the fundamental role of agriculture in feeding our population.

Recently, some members of the Board of Supervisors succeeded in cutting financial support for vital areas of the County government (e.g. planning, education). Now, we see the same board members proposing an economic development plan that places new burdens on existing staff and launches a major intrusion by local government into the workings of the local economy. We believe no new burdens should be placed on staff until currently frozen planning positions, especially rural planning positions, are filled. Also, we are concerned that as the general ability of the Albemarle County government to serve the general public good is being reduced, it is acquiring a new and problematic role as an instrument of some local business interests.

The Sierra Club encourages all concerned residents to read the revised draft economic development plan and communicate your thoughts about it to decision-makers. Staff in the Albemarle Department of Community Development will hold a roundtable for public comment on July 1. You can e-mail your thoughts to all Albemarle supervisors at bos@albemarle.org. Your opinion will matter if you share it with decision makers!

Tom Olivier holds degrees in biology and biological anthropology. He is conservation chairman of the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club. He lives in southern Albemarle County where he builds computer models of animal populations and raises sheep with his wife, Wren.

On May 9 the Albemarle Board of Supervisors voted to include funding in their new budget for a rural areas support position in the county planning department. Support for this position was a significant win in the campaign to keep Albemarle’s open spaces open.

Albemarle’s agriculture sector has declined steadily in recent decades, even though it is cherished by many and promoted in Albemarle’s land use policies. Most of the decline has been due simply to the difficulty of making a profit with traditional agriculture. Typically, local farmers raise livestock and sell them at auctions, essentially as raw materials of food products. Prices paid for live animals often do not meet the costs of production. Others earn profits possibly in food processing, distribution and retail marketing.

The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club (on whose behalf I speak) believes that if agriculture is to survive and prosper, Albemarle County’s agricultural sector needs to be transformed, with a new focus on locally grown foods marketed to area residents. Why? First, many consumers want to eat foods they know are produced locally and by practices compatible with natural resource conservation. Second, local marketing allows farmers to add value by processing, distributing and retailing their products. Third, more local marketing can help protect the environment. Profitable farms are more likely to remain in open space. Local marketing lowers food distribution energy costs. Environmental stewardship by farmers can be a marketing plus.

So, why isn’t local marketing pervasive? Consumers must recognize added value in local, sustainably produced foods. Some products cannot be produced locally or may be available only seasonally. Farmers must learn many new skills and accept new financial risks. Still, food producing agriculture is essential to civilization, and we see local marketing as the best, if challenging, path to economic viability
of farms.

Recognizing the possibilities, the rural areas chapter of the Albemarle comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, calls for creation of an “Agricultural/Forestal Support Program position” that among other things will educate farmers and help develop marketing strategies. This position wasn’t funded in the last budget. Funding for the rural areas support position was recommended in the 2007/2008 budget developed by the county executive. However, supervisors Boyd, Wyant and Dorrier sought a major reduction in the Albemarle property tax rate, jeopardizing funding for many recommended programs, including the direct marketing position. Eventually a compromise reduced tax rate was adopted but this new rate left the marketing position probably unfunded again.

At that point, the Sierra Club wrote to the supervisors proposing that the position be funded out of the Economic Development Opportunity Fund created earlier this year. We were able to enlist assistance in an e-mail campaign from members of EAT Local, an organization concerned with local production and consumption of healthful food. At their budget work session on May 9, supervisors Thomas, Rooker, Slutzky and Dorrier expressed a desire to fund this item, and by the end of the session, funding was provided from reserve funds.

Appointment of a county staff in this position should provide a concentrated effort aimed at developing local agricultural marketing. This person should also help assure that agriculture is promoted in a manner consistent with Albemarle’s commitments to protecting vital natural resources.

Albemarle County’s agricultural sector may be poised now to enter a more prosperous period based on a new focus on local marketing. This transition is hardly certain and won’t happen easily. We are certain, though, that in the path to creation of this position, voices of consumers and environmentalists were heard clearly as a local government reached an important decision regarding an agriculture program. We want more of this.

Tom Olivier is the conservation chair of The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club. He is a biologist and raises sheep with his wife, Wren, on their farm in southern Albemarle County.