Are we too spread apart to even worry about planning?

I agree with your thoughts Martin. Ms. Griffith is doing there what is all too often done here. It's the locals versus the newcomers. Shallow and unsupported by any real analysis, such arguments polarize and add nothing to the debate.

I can tell you from first hand experience (Berkeley County) that we were once rural and largely unpopulated. As folks moved in, without any planning or thought as to where houses and development should go, people built anywhere they wanted. The chickens have come home to roost.

We are now subject to increasing environmental regulation due to efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay. Water and sewer must be upgraded and such utilities, where none existed before, must be built. So how do you run water and sewer lines all over the county to service these housing developments that went up without any thought? Well, you impose exhorbitant rates and fees on everyone. We have sewer tap in fees that run into the thousands of dollars and the monthly bills will be going up 25 to 40% over current rates. In essence, everyone pays for the infrastructure costs and the parties who profited the most and benefited from the development (developers and individual home owners in the newer developments) get away with avoiding payment of the true costs of the developing.

Unfortunately, the costs of planning are immediate and the victims scream the loudest. The benefits of planning are attenuated and delayed and they are thus difficult to argue for. But in the end, planning or no planning, someone does pay. We have argued here that it is far more fair for the planning to be in place and for the costs to be borne by those who stand to profit the most. "Those" would be the developers looking to build and buyers lured by cheap housing. The fact is that neither pay a true cost without planning.

I reply to the post which anologizes Berkley and Pocahontas county re planning: Berkley has better roads, has a closer proximity to large population centers, is smaller,does not have 50 percent of its,area owned by a national forest,does not have the high mountain topography that Pocahontas has(more high mountain ranges (-per square- mile )than any other county in the US or east of the Mississippi.( Which is it?) So the mindset about zoning or planning is more positive in Berkley where the need is more imminent. The anti zoning planning bias will not change in Pocahontas for the next 100 years:tPokey people , according to sociological abstracts, have traditionally been non-community minded . Thus they prefer remoteness ,individualism and do not see themselves as part of the larger entity, the county . With more "come heres " arriving, though, this attitude is thankfully waning."Come heres " is the term used to derrogate the non-native born.I applaud any candidate who urges us to think of ourselves as being county wide citizens.To this end, the County Commission shoud be composed of a member from each voting district and a representative,voting or non voting , of the Mon. National Forest. Now , to close, I would like to see the spokespersons voice for planning move from the participial stage to the action verb stage.( Too much talking in generalities too few specifics.) What do you plan? Do you want to attract more tourists ,or do you want the county to remain depopulated? Do you want the state to take over a town as happened in Cass? Perhaps Mon Forest would do the same for Durbin and make it a regional,state and national attraction for camping and vacationing. As an answer to high mountains and lack of roads, should we opt for roads tunneled under these mountains as other states have done? Do you plan for clean rivers where fishing and swimming are safe? I remember the fiasco where farmers were to be forced to keep their livestock out of the rivers and creeks.Planning or zoning lost there).The creeks and rivers,belonging to all of us remain contaminated with vociferous denial,of course... Do you plan to have an all county sewer and water utility ,or would it be better to have the membrane technology for local sewers? Do you plan to showcase the old Turnpike? the setting for the Ambrose Bierce stories? What are tourists supposed to see,to trek in for? Do you want factories built at Frank and no where else? Do you want more closely knit communities, houses so many feet apart? And all of them built where? How do you keep us safe without cell phones , no enforcement of dog laws, or enforced sanitation laws? Would you like a countywide festval of some kind to foster tourism and regional cooperation? I notice that Pokey has zoned out a sewer on the Sharp Farm, incredibly suggesting that the pipes go through the national forest with the end product to be deposited near MononGalia county. Do you think all farms in Pocahontas be protected by the County Commission in like manner?

In closing,(at last), Pocahontas county is unique and the thinking that brings about change in other counties or states is likely to fail here .Original thinking ,anyone? Changing a thought into an action ,anyone? By the way, who decides what, when/ Who has the authority to zone, to change, to keep things as they are ? one last thought---then adieu:I hear that jobs,jobs jobs are needed,an obvious fact . Yet only one candidate has suggested that, in the lack of roads,the highspeed internet ,if gotten out of the planning stage,would provide jobs, I supppose in printing, billing, etc. iknow that most magazines are written in one place, printed and mailed in another. Could we in Pocahontas get those type contracts? I do not know,but I hope the candidates look into it.To prove that I am interested in action along with planning,hmmm. Maybe generalities are easier.Goodday.

Thank you for your foresight,Joe. I am surprised to know that Berkley turned down planning because it seems to have more people with higher eduation, more civic mindednes etc. Randolph county, Pokey,s neighbor, with a college of some note, many professionals,medical and otherwise , turned down planning too, years ago. The anti- zoning drive was actually spearheaded by a local physician.However, the county,unlike Pocahontas , has a system of condemning and razing decrepit ,dangerous structures. I suppose you could call that mini-planning.Too, Cass gave up the outdated corporation mayor,council system of government to become a state park.That was a worthwhile change, exemplary,laudatory,and planning of a sort.Also, Randolph showed great leadership or planning in establishing regional wastewater treatment in contrast to Pokey. So, progress,creeps in slowly,but you do not dare call it planning.

Norman: The Sharp Farm fiasco was an eminent domain issue where the actual ownership of land is ceded to a governmental entity for the benefit of the greater good. The concept of eminent domain dates back to colonial times and derives from the notion that private property can be taken for "public use" so long as there is a fair market price paid for it. Sadly, our U.S. Supreme Court, with the guidance of the Bush nominees, extended eminent domain from "public use" to "public good" in the Connecticut eminent domain case.

Zoning is not the same as eminent domain. Property is not taken. It is merely zoned into compatible uses consistent with the land surrounding it. Farms remain farms and commercial property remains commercial. Use can even change through applications for "conditional uses" and variances from then existing zoning ordinances. Studies have shown that zoning, (ie. predictability of uses) actually enhances the value of property, especially private residential property. It's the old "there will be no pig farm next to my home" concern. Such assurances increases property values and permits the county, with elected and appointed community citizens, the opportunity to have a vision and plan regarding property uses. If there is an unfair zoning or an unfair withholding of a variance or conditional use, this can always be challenged. THERE IS RECOURSE. As it stands now, if property use is done to the detriment of the community (the junk yard in the middle of a housing development) there is no recourse for the neighbors. It is the price you pay for the "property rights" you covet while your property values are depressed

Joe thanks for trying to explain it to Norman. But as you must realize, Norman only sees things his way. He doesn't care about other peoples's property even though he professes he does. If he truly cared he'd be willing to sit down, keep his mouth shut & listen to the other side of the discussion.
If Pocahontas was zoned folks would know just what you can & can't build in different areas. Take Campbell town for instance. There are some lovely homes there but right in the midst of them is a terrible place, some would call it a junk yard & rightly so. To me it is a health hazzard with rats running out of it. Nothing can be done as the town does not have any zoning laws. Maybe Norman would like to live next door to it.

I have no problem with buyer/seller restrictive agreements. It is more the ex post facto rules that bother me. I don't use restrictions in my property sales but that is a personal choice.

Snowshoe is one place that could have used some control over development. It is quite an ugly development. It has an incredibly awkward skyline on the mountain. I really doubt that many folks up there would want to impose architectural controls over their property but that would be find with me. Like the Farmland Protection Program, they could create retroactive restrictions to development, tear down some of the ugliness, and start over. But somehow I doubt that they would do that because of the cost.

Of course, if we had had zoning back in the early 70's as was proposed and successfully fought by local citizens, we wouldn't have Snowshoe, period. That was "zoned" as open space. Zoning would have stifled what I believe personally to be a great development for our county, Snowshoe. I use Snowshoe has an example of how zoning wouldn't work in a community. We wouldn't have the jobs today if we had not let Snowshoe come into existence. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if we had had zoning.

I recently obtained a copy of the original "zoning" plan and hope to publish it soon.

http://www.civilwar.org/history-under-siege/2010-endangered/camp-allegheny.html

Here is an example of the laissez-faire consequence when separate land uses collide in purpose. The problem is easy to see; the solution escapes me....I do think the dialogue is very important. If nothing else it will awaken a sense of community and discussion of values and hopefully empower the County to take hold of its evolving future. Because like it or not, even remote Pocahontas County is changing and that change can be within our grasp or not as we may choose.

snowshoe is the most planned area in pocahontas co. and look at the mess that is up there.the sewer system has been in violation of state laws for years and nothing was done to them so what makes you think a co planning comm. would be any different..

It seems that it is impossible for any discussion on any subject to get anywhere before it is about zoning. Is anyone else getting tired of it besides me?

Bill Minion

Joe, you are exactly right. Variances are the holes in the system that let the big bugs get through. The little people have to play by the rules!

Norman,
I never said anything about taking his house. I said that if Marlinton had zoning, they could make him put the garbage where it belongs---in the garbage, not just pitch it out the front door.
I'm not against poor people. I've been poor in my life time also.

i think there the best thing that come in to West Virginia an thay will be the best thing going up an help all of us out a lot just let them be an pray about an put it in Gods hands an if it to be it will be i been up to them an got a coz that work on them an make 22.50 a hour doing it think about the money that you or some can be making by working on them a thay will not hurt the wild life i seen deer up around them looking them over an checking them out just like we are to so let it be an lit evey one do there JOB'S man no one no how to let any thing go at all that way this world is like it is now every one trying tostop some thing that going to help us out an do good for us im just me an one's not like what i say about it i am sorry an sorry about there luck