Don't Short Pump Varina: Call or Email Today and Come Tuesday to the Henrico Comp Plan Public Hearing

From the Heart, a Henrico Citizen Speaks

Property Rights and Wrong

by Nicole Anderson Ellis

Like most Americans, I'm descended from farmers. We all are, if we dig back far enough. My grandparents on both sides grew and put up much of their own food. They were people who understood the value of a fertile acre. And they knew when to stand up in its defense.

I've been thinking a lot about my ancestors lately. When I get tired of public hearings, letters to the editor, and neighborhood strategy meetings, I think of my grandparents and their parents and what they'd say about Henrico government's ideas for the county's last farmland. Then I think of my daughter, and I get back to work.

Every generation that's lived on this stretch of the James has shaped our nation and impacted generations to come. Some laws are so wise, they seem ageless. America's democracy was born here. Right here.

In these first weeks of August, residents across the region are watching as Henrico County's Board of Supervisors considers passage of a new and improved draft of the 2026 Land Use Plan.

Following the last public hearing and citizens' potent criticism, the planning staff announced a handful of changes. New to the plan are four sentences that "support" and "encourage" agriculture in Henrico, and a required minimum of open space in high density subdivisions.

These hard-won shifts in the right direction show a belated though welcome recognition of what tax-payers want. Unfortunately, these changes don't fix the plan.

The preserved space is too small to balance the proposed density, and the good language is contradicted by concrete changes that expose thousand of acres to development. In short, the plan still speeds the loss of our remaining fertile land beginning with the destruction of Varina Farm.

About a dozen miles south of Richmond, on the northern bank of the James sit 2000 acres for which the county's easternmost district - Varina - was named. According to the county's proposal, this Prime Agricultural land, which includes fields once farmed by John Rolfe and his young wife, Pocahontas, should be converted to Suburban Mixed Use development. This is a mistake, and at every opportunity the people of Henrico have said so.

At the Board of Supervisor's last work session, Supervisor Dick Glover asked to hear one telling statistic from the county's public survey.
"82% of the respondents support further restricting or managing new development in rural areas not served by county sewer."

Varina Farm is in a rural area not served by county sewer.

The survey further reveals that a startling 98% of respondents support at least one acre as the minimum lot size in rural areas.

Suburban Mixed Use would mean four times that density. And this in the face of the county's survey showing "items that do not appear to be of concern [include] the availability of housing." Instead Henrico citizens have "worries about too much growth and the unraveling of the social fabric."

We keep telling our public servants. We told them on the survey. We've said it at every opportunity since. They've heard it from farmers and foresters, entrepreneurs and executives, veterans and teachers, doctors and retirees. They've heard it from republicans and democrats, recent arrivals and life-long residents. They've heard it from grandparents, god-parents and exhausted parents. Across the county's five districts, across economic and racial lines, Henrico's tax payers agree on this: injecting high density development deep in our last remaining rural district is exactly what we do not want.

Yet no one has removed this deviation from the plan. So, whose opinion is overriding our 82%?

I've heard two official explanations. The first: It's a property rights issue. The land owner wants a labeling change, so the county must comply. That would seem reasonable, if county government were forbidden to place limits on private property. Of course, the opposite is true. If I want to dig a well, I have to ask permission. I face fines if my exterior paint peels, or I let my grass grow shin-high. There are countless restrictions on private property use, all designed to protect neighboring landowners.

We each have the right to use our land as zoned at the time of purchase. And we have the right to petition for a change in our land's zoning or in its designation on the Land Use Map (which greases the wheels for later zoning requests). But the county has the right to say no; under its authority to protect the public health and welfare it has the duty to say no. Especially when a request is likely to increase traffic, increase pollution, degrade health, increase pressure on police and fire, schools and roads, fracture peace and community character, and threatens surrounding landowners property rights.

This point was well made at the public hearing. In rebuttal, the planning department offered a new argument. It claims rewriting the Land Use Plan to allow high density development on this piece of land will protect surrounding areas from sprawl.

Huh. Oddly, most land use experts outside this county report different findings. Studies of the once-rural counties surrounding Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, etc. demonstrate a remarkably predictable trend: allowing high density developments in rural settings is exactly what causes sprawl. This "leapfrog" project will increase taxes on nearby properties, forcing additional conversions of farmland to development.

The people of Henrico do not want our last farms devoured by parking lots and strip malls. We see value in having both urban centers AND fertile land. We think high density developments belong near the urban core, where existing utilities, public transportation, and amenities make them a smart fit.

Today, the decision on these 2000 acres - and the surrounding landscape - rests in the hands of five elected supervisors. They have a choice. They can simply cut this un-necessary proposal from an otherwise tolerable 2026 Land Use Plan. They can leave Varina Farm as it is and always has been - prime agricultural land.

In doing so, they cast a vote for this generation and the next.

Nicole Anderson Ellis teaches critical thinking and writing at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a monthly columnist for Virginia Business magazine, and the 2009 recipient of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Reed Journalism Award. A member of Envision Henrico, she andher husband live on a tree farm in eastern Henrico. Contact her at nicoleandersonellis@gmail.com.