COMMUNITY VICTORIES
Sometimes, people just don't see the point in getting involved. It's too much trouble and rarely yields results, so why bother?
Allow me to tell you this is NOT TRUE!
This is the page where BTW will list all of the battles, big and small, that we the community have fought together to create change in our communities and WON! We all share in these victories, many people including School Board members, Supervisors, bloggers, Facebook posters and individual citizens who speak at meetings and send emails, come together to bring them to fruition. These victories are ours, people, let's be proud and enjoy them!
Winding Creek Proffer Change
Aquia Towne Center Deal with Mosaic
While public pressure did not stop the 97 home rezoning from happening at the Winding Creek development, one very important change was made. $500,000 was taken from school proffers to be placed in the PDR (Purchase of Development Rights) Program. Aquia Supervisor Milde said he would not vote for the rezoning unless funds were given to PDR. Since there is no one I can think of who believes the schools are simply overrun with funds, this went over like a lead balloon with those in the know. The outcry from elected officials and the public was tremendous. This public pressure insured that money went back to schools, where it belongs.
UPDATE: The ATC deal is dead! Mosaic pulled their request from the BOS, no doubt in part due to the public pressure applied to the BOS regarding the deal terms.
As of this writing, the ATC deal is still in negotiations so how can it be called a victory? The fact that there are even negotiations happening is a HUGE victory for all Stafford citizens. The original deal happened behind closed doors, with no public discourse or awareness, never having been on an agenda and only being discussed in closed session. Some of the forces that be wanted to conduct this new deal in the same way. Fortunately, the deal was exposed and Stafford citizens responded in droves. We don't know what the new deal will be but we already know that the request by Mosaic has been lowered by almost $2 million!! Any improvements to this deal are directly attributed to the involvement of the community!
