Well, tonight the Frederick Country Virginia Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 in favor of changing the Master Development Plan for our community of Sovereign Village. The change comes after we already have more than half the community built out. The plan creates a new community. A community not of the single family detached urban homes that we each bought into, but a community of single family detached urban homes with an extra special chewy middle of "multiplex" and "zero lot line" homes.
But WAIT say the developers (Manning & Ross) we've put those "zero lot line" homes in there so you don't get all of that multiplex goodness right up against your single family detached urban homes, isn't that just awesome of us?!? No it is not awesome of you, the word you are looking for is dishonest... or deceptive at best.
How do the elected officials represent their constituents interests in this matter? They vote to go ahead and allow the developer to make the changes of course! Now some of the ones that voted to make the changes are up for re-election; they have just gotten their opponents lots of campaign contributions. Great job guys! You mis-represented the wishes of the over 100 people who showed up tonight to speak against the change. Wait, aren't you supposed to be our elected representatives not our elected mis-representatives?
This decision has personally cost us financially. As you can see from the public tax records and new home listings the same model house on the same amount of land is selling for $460k in another part of the development; we paid $520k in May of 2005. Of course this is from the housing slump in general, our bad, we accept that. I accept my dumb mistake of buying a house in early 2005. Oh well, at least it shouldn't get any worse... right?
However, with multiplexes moving into the middle of the neighborhood there is no telling how much more this will effect our net worth. Already being down $60k in assets was pretty bad. Who knows how much more this will cost me. Now I have decided it is worth it to me to throw disposable income away now in fighting this tooth and nail.
And throw I will. I will throw thousands to whatever legal fund we need as an HOA, and I will be generous to the tune of thousands of dollars to the viable candidates running against the Board Members who voted YES for Developers, and NO for Homeowners in Frederick Country. Thousands in a county election should be very helpful to shine a light on our currently elected mis-representatives.
If you have a moment and could drop the Board of Supervisors a line I would appreciate it. Let them know what you think of their decision. My specific elected officials are the Chairman At-Large and the Red Bud Run District who both voted for the developer and against their constituents.
Frederick County Board of Supervisors:
Richard C. Shickle - Chairman At-Large (We can vote for him this year)
292 Green Spring Road, Winchester, VA 22603
(540) 667-2264, fax (540) 678-4484, office (540) 545-7312, email rshickel@shentel.net
Philip A. Lemieux - Redbud Magisterial District (Our rep, we can vote for him in a couple of years)
106 Dell Court, Winchester, VA 22602
(540) 722-3673, fax (540) 678-8253, office (540) 665-4938, email plemieux@visuallink.com
Gene E. Fisher - Shawnee Magisterial District
246 Bush Drive, Winchester, VA 22602
(540) 662-5238, fax (540) 662-5238, office (540) 665-4938, email gfisher@visuallink.com
Bill M. Ewing - Opequon Magisterial District
PO Box 27, Stephens City, VA 22655
(540) 869-5058, fax (540) 868-0072, email supervisorewing@yahoo.com
Barbara E. Van Osten - Back Creek Magisterial District (voted against, yay!; not seeking re-election, boo!)
103 Coopers Lane, Winchester, VA 22602
(540) 667-7673, fax (540) 722-0417, email bosvanosten@comcast.net
Gary W. Dove - Gainesboro Magisterial District
821 Apple Pie Ridge Road, Winchester, VA 22603
(540) 662-2734, fax (540) 662-5468, email garydove4@adelphia.net
Charles S. Dehaven, Jr. - Stonewall Magisterial District
2075 Martinsburg Pike, Winchester, VA 22603
(540) 662-7421, fax (540) 678-8828, email cdehaven@crosslink.net