Harbour holds town meeting
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By BEN BLANKENSHIP
For the Stafford County Sun
Published: May 1, 2008
AQUIA — A contentious, two-hour town hall meeting in Aquia Harbour drew more than 100 residents Sunday afternoon and produced no agreement on three financial topics of prime concern to this private 2,500-home community.
All three involve needed participation by Stafford County. Two stirred the most controversy: Financing for the necessary dredging of Aquia Creek in and downstream beyond Aquia Harbour and obtaining permission from the county to proceed with plans to develop an age-restricted housing complex on a 33-acre tract of vacant land in the community.
At the meeting, Stafford County Supervisor Paul Milde, R-Aquia, supported the community’s efforts, while Supervisor Bob Woodson, D-Griffis-Widewater, said that more information was needed before he would commit to anything.
Late in the session, responding to what they felt was negativity on Woodson’s part, several in the audience charged that the supervisor should be recalled from office. The comments were met with pleas for restraint from the meeting’s chair, Harbour director Renee Cruea.
On an earlier, happier note, State Speaker of the House William Howell and County Administrator Anthony Romanello also attended the session. Howell drew applause when he said the state will supply $250,000 in support for the dredging project, whose total cost may reach as much as $600,000. Aquia Harbour General Manager Chuck Halt indicated the dredging should be completed this summer.
Howell commended the fruitful efforts of Shawn Desmond, an Aquia Harbour director, in moving the project forward. Also, Supervisor Milde pledged to try to get the county to come up with at least the $80,000 it had contributed the last time similar dredging had to be done, some five years ago.
Supervisor Woodson, however, said he wanted the county to first address the prevention of runoff and siltation generally and not the cost of the dredging, which will let all county boaters continue using the waterways and gain access to the county’s new tourist attraction, Government Island.
Romanello cautioned that Stafford’s general government spending for the upcoming year is down about $5 million, so money is tight. Milde responded that the county’s transportation fund could be tapped for up to $200,000 for the project.
Woodson declined to act on the community’s efforts to develop further plans to create age-restricted housing. It will be necessary for the county to release the tract’s prior deed restriction, which allows the use of the land only for recreational purposes. He said he’d like to see a survey of the Aquia Harbour residents only in his district (north of Aquia Creek) on whether they support the concept of such housing.
But directors and most in the audience argued that the wishes of the community had already been expressed earlier in a vote overwhelmingly in favor of the development. Besides, it was pointed out, Woodson had expressed support too, before being elected as a supervisor. In any event, the directors promised another vote by the whole community before giving the project a final go-ahead, assuming eventual county removal of the deed restriction.
Aquia director Dave Humphrey had noted earlier that the property could raise $1 million or more for Aquia Harbour and give older residents the opportunity to stay there when their existing homes become unsuitable. Taxwise, Humphrey said the tract could also be a substantial benefit for the county, since there would be no children needing schooling.
The third issue at the meeting concerned how Aquia Harbour might be reimbursed for some of the costs of removing siltation from the creek due to the clearing of land for the new Hills at Aquia development that adjoins Aquia Harbour on its northeast side. Directors had visited the Augustine Homes development recently to see the measures being taken to control runoff. They reported that, since little cash can be expected as reimbursement for past damage to Aquia Creek immediately, considering the dire straits of the local housing market, they were talking with Augustine about other ways to achieve similar results.
The directors said one idea being discussed is to offer associate memberships in Aquia Harbour pools and the golf course to new Augustine residents, with the builder paying first-year fees. Sunday’s town hall meeting saw no consensus on the wisdom of opening up the community in such a manner.
Ben Blankenship is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at .
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( StaffordGal ) on May 14, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Stoneriverresident:
Your point 1. Agree, VDOT & County maintain the roads, but unlike all other sub-divisions, AH maintains 37 miles of residential streets without any taxpayer funds whatsoever. Also, recreational amenities, a police force, and lots of other stuff that Stafford County need not provide that AH residents foot the bill for. (Go down to the AH ball fields at any time they’re in use and see the number of non-Harbour County residents using and waiting to use them. Fact is Aquia Harbour is a CASH COW for Stafford County.) If you can’t get abandoned cars removed from your street, move somewhere else (ala your point #3) that will tow junk cars at taxpayer expense. Believe Mr. Milde and the Stafford BOS have more important business that getting junk cars towed.
Point 2. No argument. However, bear in mind that the County did not enforce its own weak rules for storm water runoff, especially after approving the “Dunes” of Aquia sub-division and even going back to Aquia Town Center and Doc Stone’s. All of these projects just stripped the land bare of all trees & vegetation during construction allowing thousands of tons of sediment to pour into Aquia Creek. The County, initially in denial, shares much of the blame. Also, try to get money out of these developers for the damage they cause to our creeks and waterways. I’m no treehugger, but have seen first hand the damage caused to Aquia Creek over the last few years.
Point 3. Prior to the last few years, few homes along Aquia Creek were in much danger of being flooded (at least not since Hurricane Agnes in 1972). What changes the equation now is the heavy siltation caused by runoff from development upstream. The creek used to be 9 to 15 feet deep in most places up until the mid-90s, but now is less than 2 feet in many locations and looding during heavy rainfall is a real problem. I personally would not have bought or built a home a home in the floodplain, but would you tell all the residents of California to move out of their homes in the earthquake fault zones?
Point 4. I don’t believe Mr. Milde is currying favor with AH and ignoring the rest of his constituents. A large portion of his constituency lives in AH. I believe he would gladly meet with anyone to discuss their interests. Just call or email him. (Just for the record, he is not my supervisor, but I have found him much more competent, responsive, and concerned with his constituents than the rest of the BOS.) The County was initially nearly unresponsive to this issue (actually in denial) and siding with their developer buddies until Milde stepped in and educated himself on the facts. He may not be successful, but at least give him credit for trying to solve this problem. One of my valid points is that Aquia Creek is not the property of AH, but a recreational and natural treasure belonging to all County residents. AH boaters make up a small % of the users. Another fact is that boaters contribute about $850,000 annually in personal property taxes to County coffers and receive NOTHING in return of benefit for the boats they pay this confiscatory tax on. How would you like to pay gas tax and have to drive your car to work on a dirt road? Same deal that boaters in Stafford now have.
Point 5. The County has claimed poverty every year for the nearly 3 decades I’ve lived here. Most sensible families live within their means, but when the County comes up a little short, all they have to do is cut school & senior citizen funding (or threaten to) and all the parents, school teachers, & seniors come out of the woodwork and the doom & gloom uproar starts. 2400 vacant school seats with the opening of the new middle school next year at a cost of $1.5M may wake a few people up. . Must everyone suffer for this bad planning? If you believe the schools are being shortchanged and forced to operate in poverty, take a tour of the schools and especially the parking lots filled with student cars, the TV & photo studios, etc that schools now provide. (Heaven forbid that the poor kids have to ride as bus!! They have to get to work after school to pay their car expenses!!!). Teacher’s salaries are an issue, but not salaries alone. It’s an issue that could be debated forever.
Last point. Have a nice day.
Posted by ( stoneriverresident ) on May 13, 2008 at 11:48 am
StaffordGal:
1.Most of the roads in Stafford Cty are maintained by VDOT (not the county). We know this because we cannot get abandoned cars towed from the roads in our subdivision because of this. We have asked the supervisors to petition the state for authority (like PW and Fairfax Ctys did), but Mr. Milde and the other supervisors don’t think there’s a problem.
2. If private developments upstream are causing Aquia Creek to fill, then those private developers should be the ones that pony up the funds to fix the problem (or Aquia Harbor should be sueing them for the funds).
3.If you are in danger of losing your home to the creek, then maybe you should have not built your home on a
flood plain (or done proper due diligence before buying a home on a flood plain).
4.I get tired of Mr. Milde’s constant attempts to curry favor with Aquia Harbor and ignore the rest of his district (when was the last time Mr. Milde personally met with members of any other homeowners Association in his district for a town meeting?).
5.As for educating anyone, my main point (which you didn’t address) is that the county is currently claiming poverty and severely shortchanged the public schools this year. If we don’t have enough money for schools, then we don’t have money for this project.
Posted by ( StaffordGal ) on May 12, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Stoneriverresident - So the property owners in Aquia Harbour who contribute to COUNTY taxes aren’t entitled to any sort of return? That’s ludicrous! Aquia Harbour maintains it’s own infrastructure as far as roads go and takes ZERO from the county. Asking for $200,000 for dredging the Aquia Creek is NOT alot to ask for. Nor does it benefit solely the “private boat owners” but MANY residents of the Aquia Harbour (and STAFFORD COUNTY) who are in danger of losing their homes to Aquia Creek (and let’s not even get into WHY that’s happening but I’ll give you a hint “DUNES..er, um HILLS OF AQUIA”.
Runoff that affects Aquia Creek comes from OUTSIDE sources - ever hear of Austin Run?? Not to mention, that Aquia Creek is not the PROPERTY of Aquia Harbour.
Educate yourself before making blanket statements such as the one above.
Posted by ( stoneriverresident ) on May 06, 2008 at 11:10 am
So Mr. Milde wants to give Aquia Harbor 200K of the county’s money to fix their private problem. Thanks Paul! Milde needs to remember that he supposedly represents more of the county than just Aquia Harbor. If the county is down on cash and cannot give the schools what they need then we should not even be entertaining giving money to a project that benefits only the private boat-owner who live in Aquia Harbor.