Powhatan Today, May 5, 2021
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JROTC hard at work on Amnesty Day
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
The Powhatan AntiAnti ti Litter Council held a free Amnesty Day recycling event on April 24 at the o Powhatan County P FFairgrounds. Local rresidents dropped off 1,200 tires and o 250 appliances for 2 ffree to be recycled. Powhatan High P School JROTC cadets S volunteered to do v much of the tough m lifting work to make li tthe day happen.
PLAN Continued from pg. 1
After the presentation, most of the initial questions about those adjustments came from Bill Cox, who represents District 4. In particular, Cox, who has made it clear on many occasions that he values keeping the county as rural as possible, took issue with several of the land designations renamed or created by the planning commission in its draft allowing higher residential density. Cox was leading a back-andforth dialogue mostly with Hurt and Pompei about the planning commission’s choices and the reasons behind them when chairwoman Karin Carmack, District 5, and David Williams, District 1, essentially called a halt. They said the planning commission was invited to the meeting to introduce the document and for the board to listen to their explanation of the commissioners’ work. They said the board’s work would now begin with individual meetings with their respective planning commissioners and board workshops in the coming months. Several of the board members thanked the planning commission for its work on the document and stressed to county staff that they want to move expeditiously on their own work on the comprehensive plan to get it adopted. Once that document is approved, they have already made clear their intention to make revisions to the zoning and subdivision ordinances.
Changes Pompei outlined the most significant changes to the plan made by the planning commission members, who focused much of their attention on the chapters dealing with Transportation and Land Use and Community Character, with particular emphasis on the Countywide Future Land Use Map. In the Transportation chapter, the planning commission re-organized the county’s Major Thoroughfare Plan. In total, the county has $1.13 billion worth of projects on the plan, and the commissioners wanted to organize them in such a way that their general purposes and their priority levels are clearer to the public. The new way of organizing the list shows which projects the county is likely to pursue in the short term versus ones that are several years out or would be better categorized as visionary. In the Land Use and Community Character section, the plan-
ning commission gave names and descriptions to land use designations that clearly describe the types of desired uses and development possibilities within those areas. They eliminated the Rural Enterprise Zone, combined Rural Preservation and Rural Residential into a single Rural Areas designation, and created two new mixed-use designations to use in the Courthouse Village area. They also spent a good deal of time looking at the county’s three growth areas and identified commercial nodes, which are areas surrounding major signalized intersections with existing commercial development in the Route 60 Corridor East Special Area Plan, Pompei said. “The overall concept of the plan remains the same from 2010 and 2019 – direct development to three growth areas. The growth areas themselves make up less than 5% of the county, 80% is rural areas, and the difference between 95 and 80 is our natural conservation areas. Rural preservation plus natural conservation make up more than 95% of the county,” Pompei said. Pompei and Hurt both pointed out that the planning commission worked collaboratively on their recommended updates. They did not all agree on every recommendation, but they tried to come together to create compromises that represent best practices regarding land use in Powhatan. Hurt also stressed in her remarks and in her responses to Cox’s questions that they treated the comprehensive plan as a “visionary document that shows the community what properties would look like over a long-range time period.” She said the planning commission considered different sources to determine what Powhatan citizens want, including a 2018 citizen survey and public comments. “Our overall goals were we wanted residents to be able to work, live, play, shop, and learn without leaving the county. That would be really ideal. We wanted a good balance between growth and preservation of the wonderful natural resources of our beautiful county. We wanted to keep the dominant rural character but realized it had to be supplemented by some sort of mixed residential and business uses for economic and revenue reasons,” she said.
Board comments Most of the questions brought by board members were surrounding the issue of allowed
residential densities in the different land use designations. For instance, in Economic Opportunity, the maximum allowed density is nine units per acre, but in a project area, only 30% of the land can be used for residential. Cox gave a specific land example where the project would be more than the maximum size project allowed by the county. Hurt pointed out any project would still have to be approved by the supervisors using their current ordinances and access management standards. Pompei said the planning commission wasn’t only focused on density numbers, saying “they really tried to look at the overall package of a potential project within each of these designations.” For example, in the Neighborhood Residential designation, which allows a maximum of four units per acre, the commissioners increased the amount of the recommended open space to 30%, he said. Hurt said the planning commission made keeping Powhatan rural a big focus of their deliberations, but they also tried to listen to the people who have said they want alternative housing choices. “I sat back and reflected, and I know other members of the planning commission did as well. There are 30,000 people that live in this county, and I think it is very important to listen to everyone and not just the most vocal handful of people,” she said. Cox pointed out that there have been four high density projects on Route 60 East in recent years, three of which were voted down and one that was pulled by the applicant. He asked repeatedly about the planning commission’s process and why they thought the supervisors would support the plan with the recommended designations. Hurt pointed out that Powhatan does have mixed use designations and it does struggle with how to bring more business into the county to help relieve the tax burden on residents. The back and forth continued for a few more minutes before the discussion was halted and the board instructed staff members to start coordinating with them to set up opportunities for them to begin working on the comprehensive plan again in earnest. The county is expected to have workshops in the coming months to continue work on the plan. Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.
Keep friendships to remain healthy By Barbara Brown
Special to the Powhatan Today
F
riends give us more than companionship. Having friends and keeping them are key to our mental health. Social isolation increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and susceptibility to infection as well as feeling “down.” Being chronically lonely is as bad for you as drinking or smoking – by some estimates equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day – and worse than inactivity or obesity. Social isolation as a result of pandemic restrictions has taken its toll, but there are options for moving beyond isolation and tuning up friendships. Friendships in the best of times are fragile. Unlike family bonds, they depend on investing enough time and effort to keep the relationship well-oiled and functional. If you see someone less by force of circumstance (pandemic), the relationship weakens. In fact, few friendships stand the test of time and absence: usually no more than three or four, and they tend to be people to whom we were particularly close in early adult life. This occurs, in spite of social media, the internet, and cell phones. Children need at least one friend, a confidant, for their mental wellbeing. According to research, friendships thrive when six rules are followed. The key with the six rules is they all need to be followed, not just one or two. The rules are: Stand up for friends in their absence. Share important news. Provide emotional support when it is needed. Trust and confide in
METRO CREATIVE
one another. Volunteer to help when a friend needs you. Try to make your friends happy. If isolation has led you to feel distant from others, try restarting connections using the six rules. Children may need to be coached about how to feel closer to schoolmates and neighbors after this year of being isolated. If you or your children are experiencing emotional or psychiatric distress that goes beyond restarting friendships, the Free Clinic has resources to help. The clinic’s counselor is seeing students at both Powhatan Middle and Powhatan High Schools. School counselors can provide an immediate referral. Adults can obtain counseling at the clinic. Financial eligibility has been expanded so more students and adults can obtain counseling and psychiatric services at no charge. Patients are eligible at 300% of the poverty level - this means a family of three making $65,160.00 is eligible. Call 804-598-5637 for information on qualification guidelines and to make an appointment. Strengthening or restarting friendships is a good first step for emerging from quarantine. Barbara Brown is on the board of directors of the Free Clinic of Powhatan. She has a master’s degree in nursing and a Ph.D. in health administration.
Are you or someone you know a victim of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE? Contact Powhatan Domestic Violence Services at 598-5630 ext. 2420
