After reading a recent article on the proposed application for annexation of property on the west end of Purcellville (with the intention of being developed as an industrial park), I was struck by the developer’s comments which seemed to imply that developers can solve the very problems that development has created in Purcellville.
The model of residential expansion and annexation has essentially gone forward as a grand plan for economic redistribution – one in which developers front a relatively small initial cost and then leave the town footing the bill for extended sewer and water lines and road infrastructure.
Chuck Marohn, founder the urban planning nonprofit Strong Towns, calls this pattern of growth a Ponzi scheme. Though there is no denying that Purcellville could be in a stronger financial position, I applaud Mayor Fraser, and many others on the town council, for finding creative ways to arrive at a more economically sustainable town budget.
But let’s be very clear about the causes of this problem–the unsustainable residential development beginning in the early 2000s. And now, what does this developer propose? More annexation, more development. This is no way to dig ourselves out of a hole dug by careless annexation and development. Furthermore, we must consider the town’s aesthetic integrity. A town must end somewhere, there…
