In February 1996, I wrote a story for the Richmond Times-Dispatch that began with a quote from Thomas Dale High School teacher Heather Sloan: “This is government in spite of the people. It will become part of my local government class.”
She was referring to the county’s less-than-two-month process to successfully rezone the 1,600-acre Meadowville site in southeastern Chesterfield County to industrial use. Back then, there was a regional race to snare the next semiconductor plant that came to Virginia. That never materialized. If Sloan were still teaching, she now would have another lesson to share, a seemingly astounding one — government of the people.
And here's the coincidence: Gib Sloan, the current chairman of the Chesterfield County Planning Commission and Heather Sloan’s son, was instrumental in putting the brakes on the newest fast-track rezoning, which aimed to reclassify the 1,750-acre Matoaca mega site to allow heavy industrial use.
“The Economic Development Authority has been entrusted with taxpayer dollars to improve the economic base of this county, not at the expense of the citizens,” Sloan said at an April 17 Planning Commission meeting. “So I say this to every department out there: Demand more.”
Residents had found out about the proposal in August, and a group had mobilized in opposition. Less than a month after Sloan spoke, the EDA withdrew its request to rezone the site, and now everyone awaits the next step.
Reporter Sarah King brings you the behind-the-scenes story of these residents in her piece, “Faces of the Resistance.”
The story shows how dogged residents must become to get answers when the ones they are being provided aren’t enough. It also is a civics lesson on budgeting and forecasting where revenue will come from in a county that has the second-highest property tax in the metro area — 95 cents per $100, second only to Richmond’s $1.20. Since Henrico County has a much larger commercial tax base, it doesn’t rely as much on residential property-tax revenues to fund its government.
Yes, demand more of county officials when it comes to communication, following comprehensive plans, and the premises on which their reports are based.
However, more is demanded of residents, too, in determining where needed revenue will come from — for such things as transportation, identified as the priority by 6,000 residents through the Blueprint Chesterfield survey.