It’s at least a three-generation phenomenon for Christine Johnson.
As a little girl growing up in Minnesota, she loved the outdoors. And now that she’s a 49-year-old grandmother, she takes her 4½-year-old grandson, who was raised by his mother to appreciate nature, to Aquia Landing Park.
It’s good for children to get out from behind their screens for a while, she said Wednesday night. If they don’t, they risk just becoming another couch potato.
That’s why she doesn’t understand the backlash against the proposed Crow’s Nest Outdoor Adventure campground.
“I’m not a good speaker, and I didn’t write down all kinds of notes, but it breaks my heart that Stafford County residents would fight against such a beautiful family thing, fishing, kayaking,” Johnson told the county’s Planning Commission.
She was one of 17 speakers who testified at a public hearing that became a de facto debate about Crow’s Nest Outdoor Adventure, which is planned for a 75-acre parcel off Belle Plains Road in southern Stafford.
Technically, the hearing was about changing county regulations for campgrounds in general, as Commission Chairman Steven Apicella reminded audience members Wednesday — not about the Crow’s Nest project specifically.
Following the hearing, commissioners voted 6-0 — with Griffis-Widewater District representative Carlos Bratton absent — to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve the changes, which include requiring a conditional-use permit for campgrounds on agriculturally zoned land. Campgrounds are currently a “by-right” use, which means they can be developed without specific permission from the supervisors.
Because the Crow’s Nest campground is already in the works, it’s possible that it would be considered a grandfathered use and not subject to the new rules. But a decision on that issue rests with the supervisors, who will take up the matter at a subsequent meeting.
Crow’s Nest developers Mark and Vivian McLeod certainly feel the regulations are aimed at them, though, and they’ve also sued Stafford and the Board of Supervisors because they think the county has something against them. A hearing in their case will be held Monday in Stafford Circuit Court.
Their project has been panned for several months by opponents, many of whom live near the site of the proposed campground. The naysayers point to concerns over safety, traffic and potential environmental impacts.
A host of them spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, and the ire of some in the crowd went so far as to make fun of Vivian McLeod, who seemed to tear up when she testified.
Many in the audience also applauded after Julie Dodd took her turn at the lectern.
She said she grew up in the area near the site of the proposed campground and now lives next door to it.
Anxiety over what it would mean to southern Stafford has caused her sleepless nights, she said, agonizing over the thought of having to install security measures to protect against a “rotating cast of hundreds of people” camping “just mere feet from our home.
“And for 18 months we’ve watched the deer, the foxes, the waterbirds and all the other wildlife and wondered how they’re going to react and where they’ll go when the construction equipment rolls in to take down trees, to clear the campsites, build the bathhouses, camp office, sports courts and all the other proposed amenities,” she said.
Wednesday, however, also marked the first time that Crow’s Nest supporters really spoke out, Mark McLeod said after the meeting.
In addition to Johnson, they included Kerri Mills, who lives in the county’s Rock Hill District.
She said Crow’s Nest Outdoor Adventure could promote education about the natural world as well as bring economic opportunities if visitors to the campground spend money at local restaurants, shops and attractions.
In addition, she said, “Importantly, I think it creates an equitable access to nature for lower-income families and children who may not otherwise have the means to travel or stay at expensive resorts but can come and enjoy a place like this.”
Mills also said changing the rules for campgrounds while the Belle Plains project is underway “can give the appearance of targeted obstruction.”
“It sends a message that decisions are based on who you are or who you know, not the law or the public interest,” she said.
Mark McLeod told the Planning Commission that Stafford’s Planning Department has told him that his campground can be for “tents only,” and not allow recreational vehicles, as he would like to do.
But McLeod said he can’t find any county regulation that backs that up, and he’s offering $100,000 to anyone who can identify that type of language in county documents.
“This isn’t just about my campground,” he said. “It’s about property rights, due process and the rule of law. If the Planning Department can overreach to block something that they personally don’t want, despite legal approval, then every landowner in this county should be alarmed. What happens when they don’t like your by-right use? Will your project be next?”
No one from the commission or Planning Department responded to McLeod’s allegations, though. Apparently, that will have to wait for court on Monday.
