Town updates comp plan

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: July 14, 2008

A lot has changed in the town of Culpeper since 2002.

That’s the last time the town revamped its comprehensive plan, a 10-part document for growth management.

Six years and thousands of new residents later, the town is taking up that torch again with the recent appointment of a 15-member Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

Town and county residents, elected leaders, and business and transportation officials make up the volunteer committee. Cincinnati-based Clarion Associates, land-use planning consultants, will assist the town in developing the new comprehensive plan during the next two years for a fee of $98,720.

The steering committee met with the consultant last week to discuss the process. It will next meet Sept. 8 at 2 p.m., at which time interested citizens will have the opportunity to listen in on the effort. A series of public meetings at the Depot will follow, dates and times yet to be determined.

“The first one will be to explain the process and solicit and gather citizen input,” said Town Planner Bryan Hill.

Like the town vision plan from last year, the comp plan’s development “is citizen-driven,” meaning public
participation is key, Hill said.

Steering committee member Jack Rhoades, a downtown resident who serves on the town’s Parks and Recreation Commission, said his interest in the project is two-fold — a bigger lake and more miles of trails.

Mostly, he’s interested in developing more recreational opportunities in and around town.

First, he’d like the town to pursue the expansion of Lake Catalpa, also known as Bald Run Lake, a 46-acre body of water northwest of downtown.

“I have this vision of expanding that lake up to a couple hundred acres,” Rhoades said, mainly for recreational purposes.

The 60-year-old Culpeper native, who lived in Chicago for a few decades before moving back home recently, also wants more trails for biking, hiking, walking, etc.

The area east of downtown around the Daniel Technology Center needs a trail system, said Rhoades, to connect it to the town, high school and Mountain Run. He’d also like the comp plan process to include a discussion on new bike trails along McDevitt Drive in the Tech Center area.

Further, a proposal to grow the town beyond its 1968 borders will likely play a part in the plan’s development.

“If you’re going to make a five-to 20-year plan for the town, you need the full deck of cards of what you are playing with,” he said of the possibility for a boundary line adjustment, now under closed session negotiation between Town Council and the Board of Supervisors.

“I think it is good that issue was raised so there is dialogue about what do we need to do to come together to make some of those decisions.”

Steering committee member Laura Loveday, a Culpeper County planner, said involvement from the county in the process will lend “some cohesive thoughts” between the town’s comp plan and the county’s comp plan.

An Orange County resident employed by Culpeper County since 2005, Loveday said revising a locality’s comp plan is a valuable exercise “because you always want to keep an updated vision that is consistent with the changing demographics.”

The 2002 town of Culpeper comprehensive plan included 10 chapters: environmental resources, population and housing, transportation, water and sewer, economic development, land use, community facilities, parks and recreation, historic preservation and urban design, and community development.

That plan included a population projection in town by 2010 of 13,405. But the town’s most recent population figure is 15,600, compared to 9,664 in the 2000 census.

Several goals outlined in the 2002 comp plan have since been reached, including the development of a neighborhood park on Wine Street, the launching of a larger Town Hall on Main Street, the initiation of viable discussions about a boundary line adjustment, and the introduction of a public bus system.

State law requires a review of the comp plan at least once every five years. In-house, the town did a partial update three years ago.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or