Summary of June 19 meeting on Greater South Market

Kim Hosen from the Prince William Conservation Alliance gave an overview of what the overall environmental concerns relating to Greater South Market. She also has been the lead in the negotiations with KSI and was reporting on what progress or lack there of had been made to date. In reference to the negotiations, KSI has made no effort to make the offer of putting the golf course and surrounding acres into a protected easement. In fact, during a community meeting last week with Thoroughfare Road residents, NO MENTION of any easement was made to those residents; the original plan had been presented. I think the promise by the President of KSI on June 11th was at best ingenuous, at worst, a bold faced lie to the citizens.

In regards to the serious environmental impact Greater South Market will have on the county is severe. In the present proposal, KSI has not identified all the non tidal wetlands and waterways do not follow the guidelines recently adopted by Prince William County that are in compliance with the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department. In addition, there has been no storm water management plan submitted as part of the rezoning process. In simple terns, KSI will have a dramatic impact on the ability of water to reach the Occoquan reservoir affecting public water. This development poses just another threat to our precious water supply in addition to its proposed golf course wells. Our homes will be worth very little without water! Do not forget the drought of last year!!! There are many concerns related to Greater South Market. We must not forget a major reason for the protection of the Rural Crescent was to avoid EXACLTY the negative impact that Greater South Market will have on Prince William County's natural
resources.

The transportation issue facing Gainesville and Haymarket is reaching Defcon 4! We have not even begun to see the build out of homes approved in this area and there IS NO hope coming for exits past the 234 bypass. There is no plan to relieve traffic on routes 15 or 66.

The group assembled Thursday evening discussed many different approaches, we settled on putting a fund together for 100 signs that will be posted all over Prince William County. The Rural Crescent must not be violated with such ease. We will target all Supervisors running for re-election. We must get out hundreds of people to e-mail prior to the public hearing and also attend July1. We put together a fund to hire an attorney to address the stale zoning issue and other inconsistencies within the application. We have been playing a cat and mouse game and it time we turned into the cat for a change.

Strategy:

A) Thousands of flyers must go out in the Gainesville, Haymarket, and Brenstville areas. We have volunteers to do some of the neighborhoods, but we will need more people to distribute flyers. It is an easy task to do and will have tremendous impact on getting people involved in this issue.
B) Signs will be posted all over PWC so that people can visit the rural crescent website and find out how to get involved. We will need volunteers to put signs together and post them. Jake Frank and Dave Christiansen assembled and put in the ground over 30 signs by themselves! We only need a few more volunteers to help with 100 signs this time.
C) Prior to meeting: e-mail all the supervisors and let them know it would be a complete breech of the public trust Greater South Market, especially since it has such far reaching negative consequences. You can read more talking points on the www.ruralcrescent.org site (I will have them posted within the next three days). The supervisors e-mail addresses are listed on the website. It only takes a few minutes to write an e-mail and I guarantee you they work! It certainly scared everyone enough to defer last minute for the original hearing date!

The only option now is to go all out for a full denial of Greater South Market. We can win, the Supervisors are getting nervous, the election is becoming contentious. Mary Hill, 2 term incumbent Coles District Supervisor, was defeated by a new comer, Mary Nohe, who ran on a smart growth platform. If ever we had a real chance of defeating such an outrageous project and protecting the integrity of the Rural Crescent, THAT TIME IS HERE AND WE CAN WIN!

Please contact me if you can find the time in life's busy schedule to help with getting flyers or signs out! This is an effort worth the investment of time, this is about saving your land, your children's land, and your grandchildren's land.

Sincerely,
Elena Schlossberg-Kunkel
elenalouise@hotmail.com