Friday, July 27, 2007
Ree Hart for Supervisor
A couple of months ago a Republican primary was held, featuring Jack Wilson, who apparently favors the developers and was hand-picked by Dickie King, departing the board, and Dorothy Jaeckle, sparking a grass-roots movement to do something about the degradation of life caused here by developers in Chesterfield County (see my previous blog). Ms. Jaeckle won easily, practically guaranteeing the election of an outspoken anti-development Supervisor for Bermuda District this November.
Completely unheard of in all this was Ree Hart, the only Democratic candidate for this seat. The election this November will feature Ree Hart, the Democrat, vs Dorothy Jaeckle, the Republican. In addition, there are two independents, Roy Wallace and Jack McHale III. After a week vacation, I got an ad for one of these, namely Roy Wallace. So I decided to send an email to three of these candidates and see what happens, specifically addressing Branner Station. This is a proposed new development over several square miles with 5000 houses, an enormous development which could overload the resources of the county, and runs counter to the trend we must develop in having things smaller and walkable due to impending peak oil.
Roy Wallace responded right away. He told me that he was going to do something about these developers. He has no web site, but I found some reports on the Chesterfield web site showing some concern about roads and schools when these developments are built. So far I have heard nothing from Dorothy Jaeckle. Ree Hart responded that she wanted to talk in person or on the phone. I wound up talking to her on the phone.
She went at length to tell me that she showed concern about this development but she had not seen too much of it yet. She had seen some plans, which show a new road being built in the new development, a retail destrict, two new schools, and widening of area roads. She thinks that these developers are using the principles of smart growth. This reminded me of the Partnership for Smarter Growth in the Chesterfield area, and she has heard of this group, making me think that Chesterfield may indeed have smarter, or even slower, growth with Ree Hart as the Supervisor.
With either Dorothy Jaeckle or Ree Hart, we can expect to see reining in of developers' attempts to pave over the county. The difference is that I think Ree will have better relations with individual citizens of the county, as evidenced by Ree talking at length with me about the problem and Dorothy not answering at all. And more is needed than a quick email pledge to do something about it, as with Roy Wallace.
So right now I favor Ree Hart for Supervisor.
Completely unheard of in all this was Ree Hart, the only Democratic candidate for this seat. The election this November will feature Ree Hart, the Democrat, vs Dorothy Jaeckle, the Republican. In addition, there are two independents, Roy Wallace and Jack McHale III. After a week vacation, I got an ad for one of these, namely Roy Wallace. So I decided to send an email to three of these candidates and see what happens, specifically addressing Branner Station. This is a proposed new development over several square miles with 5000 houses, an enormous development which could overload the resources of the county, and runs counter to the trend we must develop in having things smaller and walkable due to impending peak oil.
Roy Wallace responded right away. He told me that he was going to do something about these developers. He has no web site, but I found some reports on the Chesterfield web site showing some concern about roads and schools when these developments are built. So far I have heard nothing from Dorothy Jaeckle. Ree Hart responded that she wanted to talk in person or on the phone. I wound up talking to her on the phone.
She went at length to tell me that she showed concern about this development but she had not seen too much of it yet. She had seen some plans, which show a new road being built in the new development, a retail destrict, two new schools, and widening of area roads. She thinks that these developers are using the principles of smart growth. This reminded me of the Partnership for Smarter Growth in the Chesterfield area, and she has heard of this group, making me think that Chesterfield may indeed have smarter, or even slower, growth with Ree Hart as the Supervisor.
With either Dorothy Jaeckle or Ree Hart, we can expect to see reining in of developers' attempts to pave over the county. The difference is that I think Ree will have better relations with individual citizens of the county, as evidenced by Ree talking at length with me about the problem and Dorothy not answering at all. And more is needed than a quick email pledge to do something about it, as with Roy Wallace.
So right now I favor Ree Hart for Supervisor.
